Sovereign Housing Association Recensioni 148

Sovereign are the worst landlord’s I have ever come across. All the reviews says it all.

The initial buying process went smoothly, couldn't be more attentive and helpful.... Thats as good as it gets....

I informed Sovereign of my desire to sell my shared ownership home back in February 25. They advised I had to list it with them initially, so we went through the process.
In 8 weeks - not one single viewing. I decided to find another agent, and within 3 days I had 5 viewings booked in.
Then we were going through the sale and the process was taking ages. Constantly having to chase and then the buyer pulled out as it was taking too long and they ran out of faith.
I then relisted with the other estate agent and again had plenty of views.
Found a buyer, and began the process. After notifying Sovereign we would be selling it again they told me they couldnt find the property in my details, which was quite alarming.
Throughout the sale process my solicitor was getting no response to emails sent and this was delaying the sale. We were expecting to be completed around Christmas - neither the buyer or I had a chain to worry about, and there was no reason for any further delays.

Fast forward to March and we still didnt have a date. We were again waiting on some answers from Sovereign that were taking ages. The whole sales process took in excess of 26 weeks, costing me a fortune in rent/mortgage/bills that I should have been clear from months prior.

To top it all off - I lodged a complaint at the very beginning of March. Was told it would take 10 days for someone to come back to me..... 9 days later I get an email explaining that they need another 10 days to get back to me.
We are 6 weeks on and still I have no response to my complaint.
I would advise anyone looking at this type of property to find one through a different association.
Caused me a lot of mental illness and financial difficulty.

Gilmartin's repair company is a fraud! Does it even have a website? Do not trust these people - we have had 7 so-called engineers "visit the site", and every time they showed up, they were unable to do the job. You basically receive a text message that they have arrived or on the way, but they never do the job! Instead, they call your number and assure you they are going to do their job. Next day you find out another appointment booked and the next engineer shows up again without any knowledge what to do. Then the third, etc. Stay away, the SNG is either being taken for idiots or they are in this scam together. Who is being played? The TENANTS. The previous repairs company that teamed up with SNG was the same - FRAUD.

I am in absolute shock listening in to how Ian Patterson spoke to my friend. When you eventually get to speak to a Manager after a long battle to even be heard, they send insecure little men like Ian to bully vulnerable women living alone.

For the last 2 years, SNG have raised the service charge from £77 pm, to £118, and now to £136 pm. They claim it's down to communal area electric bills. I've refuted this several times and got copy and paste replies. They are absolutely useless and don't give a toss about their residents.

No I think sovereign is great overall but I got a real frustrating issue so nothing gas prices have dropped by around 11% so why have sovereign INCREASED our personal gas service price by 38% I believe this is nearly 3x the gas prices increase we have not got individual meters so have to pay a mandatory price which has risen from £9.31 to £12.85 a week seems a bit of a jump

No Stars! Diabolical money hungry charlatans!
They treat their tenants like low life paupers. They ignore repairs until they are threatened, they use the cheapest and most incompetent sub contracted contractors who are far from conscientious and do the works as cheaply as possible using the lowest budget crap they can get away with. The kitchen fitters will happily trash your house and blame you for any breakages or accidents just because its your stuff and it shouldn't have been in their way!
They do half a job and never return to finish it unless they are threatened (normally at that stage by a solicitor or ombudsman)!
They know nothing about health & safety as they break all of those rules. Basically they really don't care about tenants safety or well being unless forced to do so.
Maintenance Manager agreed to fit me a new bathroom as my floor is extremely slippery and dangerous with a cracked sink from the previous tenant, Backtracked in January saying as Mutual Exchange i can't have one until 2033! No offer of making it safe just left to basically lump it! They don't even know the housing laws and if they do they completely ignore them. A solicitor told me they are the biggest social housing group that get cases against them, that's no surprise. Maybe if the thousands of unhappy customers stuck together and not paid their rent on grounds of their breach of tenancy towards us then things may change!!

The gas engineer this year said I didnt need to sign to say he d done the gas safety check. When my gas safety certificate arrived it had a fake name and a fake signature. One year the gas engineer didnt do a safety check at all and a young chap I recognised from a criminal gang causing trouble in the neighbourhood -pushed a fake gas safety certificate through my door !

I moved in November and my deposit hasn’t been protected, therefore against the signed contract and the tenancy law. They just don’t reply or explain, nor the formal complaint team nor the team in the building, same for all the repairs that needs to be done, still not even contracted me. , this includes no shower at least you wish to shower with boiling water, no washing machine, windows cannot open, lights in front of my window from the building that are in and off all day and just cannot sleep as it is in front of my bed.
This company and its staff have no moral or responsability, they just don’t care and should being allow to being in the business.

Moonhill Rise Exeter Sovereign owned every friday and saturday night the whole street smells like weed and at 2am onwards dealings go on the estate is full of chavs that all know each other and people are asking other neighbours if there houses are falling apart all you hear is slamming and drilling or you enter someone's house and there stairs has pulled away people have deep cracked landing that wobbles people's doors dont shut slamming front doors in the houses bricks falling apart in people back garden nothing is getting fixed because Sovereign said its not essential or an emergency so everyone is dealing with this .

I received my brand-new Sovereign flat in 2016 when I was 19 and had no issues for the first three years. In 2019, when I was 21, the neighbouring Sovereign tenant moved in and my life has been hell ever since.

For years I have been subjected to harassment, intimidation, stalking-type behaviour and repeated false complaints from this neighbour, including:
• Waiting for me to park my car so she can run to her door flicking lights on and off
• Repeated banging on her ceiling (my floor) throughout the flat 6 m
• Moving my wheelie bin every two weeks for over five years
• Planting cigarette ends in communal areas and accusing me, despite me not smoking in communal areas for nearly 10 years
• Verbal abuse, including being called a “black b*tch”
• Screaming “f***ing come on then” when I walk past her door
• Involving family members who are not tenants, including her father knocking on my door from age 21

I have had soiled children’s underwear thrown into my bush despite no children living with me (only her niece visits).

I have been physically assaulted, including:
• Being barged
• Having a wheelie bin run over my foot
CCTV only captured the bin moving up and down and not the full incident, so no court action could be taken. I have since been diagnosed with arthritis, and it took three years just to get an X-ray.

When I had constant banging throughout every room, Sovereign dismissed it and pushed me to Environmental Health. Environmental Health warned her for music, but not the banging, even though banging is antisocial behaviour. I know this from working at Swindon Borough Council. Sovereign repeatedly passed responsibility instead of addressing the issue.

My neighbour has received:
• Three warnings from Sovereign
• One warning from Environmental Health
• A police warning two years ago stating she would be charged with harassment if it continued

She stops briefly, then starts again every six months, avoiding consequences.

I have completed mediation three times. Eventually, even the mediation service refused to continue due to her family dynamics and rowdy behaviour. Despite this, Sovereign attempted to pressure and blackmail me into a fourth mediation, even offering to pay a new service, despite the previous service refusing to deal with their tenant. I only agreed to mediation previously to prove I was cooperating.

Bin issues were another example of poor handling. For two years, Housing Officer Janice confirmed I was allowed to keep my bin on my drive and that it was a property issue. A new housing officer later rang me and said, “How would you like it if she put her bin near your window?” After being called a black b*tch and I had been told for two years it was allowed. While driving, upset and on loudspeaker through my stereo, I reacted and told her to “f off” and hung up. I called back and apologised. Despite this, Sovereign removed my right to use my drive — which I had for three years before this neighbour moved in — and then gave it to the neighbour. She now does exactly the same things she complained about.

False complaints are against our tenancy agreement, yet Sov has consistently protected her. I believe this is because she is deaf and they “tread carefully,” allowing her to get away with behaviour that would not be tolerated from anyone else.

I am mixed race, born in Swindon, and I have been racially targeted and falsely accused for years. I have diagnosed BPD and emotional regulation disorder due to childhood neglect, and Sov is aware of this. Now I’ve apparently been miss diagnosed and have autism and ADHD. Despite this, I have received no safeguarding or meaningful support. Instead, I have felt harassed by Sovereign themselves due to repeated false complaints, to the point I had to remove my phone number from my housing account.

This situation has ruined my entire twenties. From age 21 to 29 I have lived under constant stress, intimidation and fear. On the day of my granddad’s funeral, this neighbour came outside screaming at my 5- and 7-year-old cousins and then ran away when challenged. I had to beg my family not to escalate it because I didn’t want further trouble. She is around eight years older than me, has never worked or driven, stays at her parents’ house (on the next street) daily, and returns to the property only to sleep, while families who genuinely need housing are waiting.

To be fair, Sovereign’s repairs and basic customer service are good.
However, senior staff within housing management and antisocial behaviour teams need urgent review. I have not been supported, protected, or helped despite years of evidence, warnings, police involvement, and mediation failure.I would avoid a Sov property due to the toleration of anti social behaviour and continuous false complaints allowed. Name and shame
Jessica Ogb

Tried to report the fact that the upstairs flat had a leak which had damaged my ceiling. Refused to do anything because i couldn't answer a security question. Eventually answered it only to be told I needed to contact the management agent. This took 5 months. WHY did I need to answer a security question for this?

Mutually exchanged to a property owned by sovereign. There inspection prior failed to notice the previous tenant blocked the air bricks. Last winter was complete torture with mould and damp. I have Asthma and a suppressed immune system. They did nothing all my stuff got ruined. In the end I sorted it myself they don't care about the impact there carelessness has on people.

Terrible service
I’ve had intermittent loss of hot water and heating for nearly 11 months now. The system has had no end of problems since the poor-quality installation, and the issues are still ongoing despite 17 visits so far. Really frustrating experience.

It's incredibly frustrating. I've been in a back-and-forth situation with a manager regarding a repair that they've been unwilling to address, despite my consistent rent payments. Since July, I've been dealing with a door that doesn't close properly. I initially decided to wait it out, thinking it would fix itself, but the issue has worsened—now there's a crack in the landing beneath the door, and it’s become misshapen. I reported this during the autumn, and they suggested the cause was simply the changing weather, even though I had mentioned that this problem began in the summer. Despite providing multiple videos and images as evidence, they still deem it unnecessary to send someone for repairs. As a result, the door fails to shut properly, compromising privacy in that room. It’s quite disappointing.

I am not a tenant of Sovereign, however they are responsible for the street lighting in my road.
We live in a cul-de-sac with many older residents and the street lighting has been broken for two weeks now.
I have called them twice and my neighbour has also called them, to no avail.
It is rural where we live and there is no lighting apart from the street lights and it is totally pitch black outside of my property .

I was told when calling yesterday that this job has been given to a contractor and it would need to be chased, but they didn’t have the contractors phone number!
They looked this up and then told me that there was no answer and the mail box was full so they couldn’t leave a message.
I was on the phone for 23 minutes and got nowhere.
The women on the other end of the phone did not appear to know what she was doing and despite telling her where I lived on two separate occasions she got the wrong area and tried to tell me they were not responsible - I KNOW THEY ARE.

What a joke

Nothing but intrusion and harassment from older neighbour. Barely anything has been done to remedy the situation. Any attempt to contact said neighbour causes them to escalate things with more and more petit nonsense. I have been fobbed off more times than I can remember. Offered mediation while the antagonist continues to get away with it all. The place is falling apart and they tell me it's normal! Absolute nightmare since moving in here.

Moonhill Rise Exeter West clyst, I wouldn't recommend moving here. The houses are in disrepair; the exterior bricks near the front door are detaching, allowing water to seep into the gaps. There's a space under the door where spiders can get in, so I've had to seal it myself. The walls have numerous cracks, and the overall structure is deteriorating, but Sovereign won't take action until it becomes a bigger problem. My radiators aren't functioning properly either. My wife and I have new neighbors across the street, and every Friday and Saturday night, there's a constant stream of disruptive individuals doing some dealings from midnight to 2 a.m. or later. Additionally, people gather at the bottom of our garden, as we live on a hill, and it's common to see parties happening behind our shed. There are also rats, the gardens are sinking, and we have a large number of stray cats that leave waste in our yard. It's a very questionable neighborhood. Sovereign dont come out to anyone even though your paying rent and mortgage you'd have better response from a landlord as a private tenant, Dave

Honestly worst landlords in history.
First moved into another property that was mouldy but well hidden ater 6 months living there came though bad took them ages to come to fix repair then came back over space of 4 years many many times lost count even though specialists told them the wall needed rendering got to point I was coughing blood up went doctor told inhave cronic astma went in itv news and they moved me next day jumping to gun sort of saying because of the news then after being in hotels for 6 months they mov3d to to new property the first week moved in was threatened by neighbours and been having abuse and assault ever since 3 years of it been puched strangled chased nearly run over doors kicked cooking oil left out side door poles smashed of banisters hearing pitfalls everyday doors slamming poilce wrote them a letter back in March to say to move me mps and citizens advise all have said to sovereign to move me im suffering bad and they ignored police letter and said they dont feel im at any risk next im punched to face 2 months down the line this is totally negative of duty of care they came round my house and saod they are looking to evict me over music when I asked what about the abusing neighbours they daid they aren't going to do anything and smirked at me I think maybe because im taking them to court for leaving me with cronic astma I dont know but how in there right mind can they leave me here like in a prison scared to leave my home incase im attcked but yet say there taking me court for music the music is the only thing thats keeping me happy im living In hell here and they know it and smriking about it honesty cant express how upset and let down I am from a company in all my life left in extremely bad property with mould for years paited it over 20 times then moved to being left being attacked by violent crack heads for years and they say about my music

Moved into a Sovereign House in May 2025. Was advised that some polystyrene ceiling tiles would be removed prior to my moving in - they were not.

Some plastering needed doing so booked a plasterer in for June, upon further inspection he advised the room would need fully rerendering. Booked a surveyor to survey full property. Was advised whole property needed replastering…

No replastering booked til Council got back with regards to what plaster could be used due to building being listed….

No further works til asbestos check (although its all on the register)

No replastering til polystyrene tiles removed (which should have been done before May)

Polystyrene tiles being removed tomorrow 3rd Oct (after chasing since May)

Called to ask when plastering us being done but constantly advised 3 different people are dealing with it, first Terry, then Steve, then a Jackie…. Firstly Terry was away on holiday (sept) Steve was dealing with it but Terry back 22nd… w/C 22nd Terry back but Jackie dealing with it, no contact….. call again; Steve awaiting tile removal (booked fir 3rd) but no plastering booked in…. Steve away on holiday, needs him to sign it off, not back ril 14th Oct……

My daughter continues to sleep on a mattress on the floor as her room will need a cabin bed due to the size of the room so cant get that til plastering done & carpets laid….

Moved in in May its now Oct & we’re no closer to living in a habitable condition!

I slept more comfortably in the Afghan desert in thr Summer than i have here in a Sovereign House!!

Steer clear if at all possible!!

Sovereign are not fit for purpose!!