Hannah Page

The worst rental services company I have ever encountered.

HCGB and the employed staff members are rude, uncaring, unprofessional and simply inept at doing their job. Politely put they do the absolute bare minimum.

I have lived at one of their properties (Maud Street) for 2 years. During that time we have faced frequent frustrations:

- Maintenance issues taking months and sometimes years (!) to fix
- Non communicative property agents. The property agents frequently change without warning. Our current property agent, Mina Fitri has not responded to us for over two weeks despite multiple emails and phone calls to the head office asking for my call to be returned. It is like talking to a brick wall, I am not sure if she even exists.
- Credit control will send you random bills for energy use without any indication of consumption or date ranges. As per our contract, these are supposed to be supplied quarterly but this does not happen. When we have reasonably asked for a clearer breakdown of bills, they have threatened us with not renewing our tenancy.
- There was a police incident in our building to which the outdoor area and hallway was cordoned off. HCGB provided no details about this incident and it left us feeling incredibly unsafe.
- They have frequently left the building in disarray. I once walked into the bin room and the lack of cleaning meant I was able to see 5 rats at one time.
- They have insisted that we pay for maintenance issues, which is absolutely absurd. The windows frequently break which is a well known issue throughout the building. Marlene Bester insisted that if they attended and were able to fix the window from a long list of instructions they provided me, I would have to pay. This is outrageous. I am not a mechanic.
- There is a huge package theft issue in the building, yet HCGB leave the main gates broken for weeks at a time. Again, this feels unsafe.
- Since moving out it has been over 10 working days and we have still not received our deposit, nor been asked for our banking details. I have called every day and seem to be hitting a blank wall with their call centre. Nobody is replying or seem to care about the delay. I have chased Lisa-Mari Thaysen who originally provided some limited details, but again received complete silence and no indication of when the deposit will be returned.

Our overall experience has been appalling and exhausting. I shouldn't be having to call and email everyday to resolve simple issues when we are spending thousands of pounds on rent every month. The worst company and group of agents I have ever come across. Do yourself a favour and do not rent from HCGB.