[SHARED OWNERSHIP] DO NOT USE SOVEREIGN
Huge profit off the service charges and rent for no/bad services;
I am a shared ownership “customer” of Sovereign. They make ENORMOUS profit off this scheme and do absolutely nothing to help you when you are in the house. Check the published figures for their financials. They charge astronomical service fees for terribly managed communal areas. The communal lawn got so overgrown with weeds I actually sent them a photograph of me standing in them and them towering above my head. I received zero response. Zero. They did not give a rats arse.
Bad handling of tenant issues:
I raised a query with them about a neighbour parking their huge branded work van (in their allocated space) which blocked sunlight to my kitchen and took up the entire view. I asked them if they could consider asking them to park it elsewhere given there is a lot off off road parking near the houses and it breaches clauses in the lease for being so big, and it was having a real impact on the enjoyment of their neighbours property. They called the neighbour, the neighbour posted an aggressive post on Facebook about it, saying I was trying to “stop her husband earning a living”….then sovereign emailed me back saying they “couldn’t stop them earning a living”…are you for real?! The response was ridiculous, they just said they wouldn’t enforce the clause. When I responded asking if any of the other clauses were allowed to be breached I didn’t get a response…TERRIBLE handling of a query which was genuine.
Unfair rent increases:
Rent has gone up by over 30% in the past 3 years. There is NO CAP on what they will increase it by, and the services have not changed. They OVERCHARGE on services and then keep the money in their account all year, then are forced to refund it later on…could have been accruing interest in my bank account but ok.
Mis-selling:
The sales process was full of lies and mistruths. They pretended not to know about things happening in the local area, told me that the factories nearby would not interrupt my life and I wouldn’t notice them - it’s knocked huge value off the house and I can’t have my windows open at night for the 24/7 noise, which the council are not dealing with effectively. Sovereign told me that no more factories were allowed to be built that close to the house - two more have gone up within the same vicinity.
OH and part way through the sales process I realised that the floor plans didn’t match the garden space, and sovereign had signed off this new build from the developers with an entire bin collection point MISSING. When I pointed it out they had to get the developers to fix it and it delayed my sale completion by 2 weeks. It reduced the size of my garden by about 4-2ft (which is a lot considering how small the garden is)- they would not review the valuation based on that. So I did not get to buy what I had been shown, and I was too late I to the process to back out.
I feel trapped in this house because I have fixed my mortgage, but the real issue is that whilst I am here the rent rates increase year on year on year with NO improvement to the shoddy services. Can’t even manage issues between their tenants effectively. Customer service has been shocking.
Then the resell procedure is full of hidden costs and trap doors…cannot wait to be rid of this awful company.
DO NOT USE THEM. THEY ARE TERRIBLE AT SERVICE AND DO NOT OPERATE FAIRLY.