"Impressive service"

Today – 11.02.2020, the main electrics in 74, Queen Mary House, SW15 5DU, without notice went dead. I telephoned the Mainstay Office and within 15 minutes, Fleur the Estate Manager came and after some difficulties replace a fuse – solving the matter. I was impressed by her skill and ability to turn her hand to something I would be unable to do. It would be good if higher authorities were aware of the service I received.
Jeremiah A Cronin.

"Five stars"

I have been a leaseholder on a Mainstay managed development for the last 6 years.

During that time I have found the organisation to be professionally managed, and well staffed. Fleur and Maria in the management office are friendly and efficient. I am in contact with them on a regular basis, for one reason or another, and can’t remember an occasion on which I had to wait more than one working day for a response.

The development is maintained to a high standard, and issues that occur are normally dealt with promptly.

Many of the staff who perform maintenance work are familiar faces, having been in place for many months or years. Like the management team, they are friendly and hard working. I interpret the low staff turnover amongst the maintenance staff as an indication that working conditions within the organisation are good.

"Taking legal advice charged £60 for…"

Taking legal advice charged £60 for being 4 days late on a payment. Zero service from them in two years. They take she’d loads of money from our estate just to mow the lawn. Managers can’t be bothered to visit. Keep getting childish excuses.

"Shame on you mainstay"

Shame on you mainstay! Completely poor customer service.

'Follow the complaints procedure'!

I always pay the service charge on time - as I have set my own reminder!

This month I recieved a condescending letter in the post and an automatic fine for non payment.

I have repeatedly raised that the email address on the account for notifications is incorrect. Today I was told that set up the account and supplied the email address in 2016 - I didn't set up that email address! I would know.

Finally the email address and postal address on the account was changed in December. You say say you a sent reminder in January...I am still waiting for you to confirm which email address and postal address it was sent to as I had not recieved the reminder! I have no further comments on the statement 'No bounce back from the email address or post has been returned undelivered so I must advise these are deemed as served'!

I await your response.

I must advise if the account is unpaid after the due date it will enter the arrears process and letters will be issued to the address on the account. This process is agreed with the Freeholder. A reminder was issued on 22 January 2020 and a follow up on 6 February 2020 incurring a fee of £x.00.

No bounce back from the email address or post has been returned undelivered so I must advise these are deemed as served.

"I have owned three flats with various…"

I have owned three flats with various "large" managing agents (Countrywide/Firstport & Trinity). Over the weekend we had an issue with the communal door being broken. The out-of-hours team and the Property Manager Elliot kept me updated throughout the process and managed to get a repair completed on Sunday morning!!!!. So far so good with Mainstay.

"THIS COMPANY HAS NO MORALS"

THIS COMPANY HAS NO MORALS, OR OBLIGATIONS TO THE CUSTOMERS THEY ARE DEALING WITH. MESSAGE TO AVIVA DIRECT PLEASE CEASE ANY PARTNERSHIP/AGREEMENTS YOU HAVE AS THEY ARE TARNISHING YOUR BRAND.

I had the pleasure of dealing with this company over the last week or two. They collect ground rent for Aviva Direct who own the freehold on the land my property is built on. Ground rent is paid annually on but this year after suffering with depression following the death of a direct family member. I had a number of charges applied due to non payment. Howeverafter leaving voicemails to discuss the situation and wh payment hasnt been made were ignored or "not found on system" I was told that

"DEATH OR DEPRESSION DOES NOT PERMIT A CHARGE TO BE REMOVED FROM THE ACCOUNT. THE ONLY WAY A CHARGE CAN BE REMOVED IS DUE TO ANY OPERATIONAL ISSUES CAUSED BY MAINSTAY."

Totally disgusted at this point as I think the fact my calls and voicemails haven't been returned means they purposely do this to allow further charges to be made to increase how much money they take.

PLEASE AVOID IF YOU ARE A THINKING ABOUT ON BOARDING THESE PEOPLE TO WORK WITH ON YOUR BEHALF.

"Self-serving, incompetent and lazy management"

A contractor broke our front door so badly that it couldn’t be fixed. They didn’t inform us - just left it by the side for us to see when we came back home. Phoned mainstay who said there are no parts available to fix if. Asked for security they said they couldn’t arrange that without the managers approval. Credit to the call centre staff - they Apparently tried his personal number and the regional manager’s and even the MD’s but they couldn’t get through to any of them after hours of trying. This was the weekend of Storm Ciara and they also weren’t able to offer and cover or protection to stop the cold wind and rain coming in. Nothing was done. Absolutely pathetic, heartless and useless management.

Callum, you already have my number and email. Your team said you were going to contact me, I told them I didn’t believe them because they had lied about this before. And they still haven’t contacted me over 48 hrs after promising they would.

"Metal shed"

I contacted miss Barker as there was a problem with a metal shed and it was dangerous I contacted her then she contacted her office which they dealt with swiftly and professionally the next day the contractor's turned up and dismantled the shed which was done to a high standard thank you to all involved

Kind regards
Mr Tony Weston

"Bad experience"

I rent a flat in a development manager by Mainstay- where do I begin!
Lifts breakdown too regularly and the connection from inside the apartment to give guest access to lift doesn't work.
We have no hot water pretty much every two to three weeks for a day.
Over Christmas the entire developments security system crashed- and took almost 2 weeks to fully recover - in the interim our fob entry system was down, along with lift access and stairwell access; creating a major security compromise. There seemed to be no rush nor communication as to the urgency or severity of the issue, and definitely no apology.
I would not recommend them.

I would however add that the concierges and security staff are friendly and helpful

"Friendly concierge staff, but negative attitude when being questioned about a bill..."

Pros:
-Helpful/Friendly concierge front-line staff

Cons:
-In late 2019, Mainstay has uplifted the previous 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 service charges by 30% and 15-20% respectively in Elephant Park
-Poor communication between on-site staff and off-site staff
-Poor language used when Mainstay issues a questionable bill to residents (i.e. the uplift)
-Late payment fee was applied whilst waiting response from Mainstay for the previous service charge uplift
-Slow response when disputed bill was questioned - the response from Mainstay was always "your response has been forwarded to the property manager" without actually getting an answer in the end...
-Lifts broke down in December 2019 even though "Lift repairs and maintenance" were overspent in 2018...
-No hot water for every 2 weekends as reported by a resident on 7th floor