"Utility bill scam and faulty electrical system"

I have been living at Quintain for the past 3 years. During the last year, we have moved to one of their new building. Since then our electrical consumption has been going through the roof for no reason. On average they claim we consume about 350 to 400 kWH per month which is an absurd amount considering we live in a small apartment.

I have tried numerous times to talk to the concierge team about the meters and they have claimed that we do not have access to them since they are using a centralized system for the entire building. Last month it appears that this was untrue because I have managed to find them in the cupboard outside of my apartment, tucked away in an area that would be very hard to notice if you didn't know what to look for. It feels like most of the time the amount that we consume per month is random because at times we have been away for almost 2 weeks and the values for that month were somehow higher than the ones of the previous month. I am one of the tens of residents who have had similar problems with this, leading me to believe that the numbers might be manufactured.

Another problem we have run into since moving to this apartment is that our electrical distribution board is faulty, one of the breakers keeps tripping on a constant basis, sometimes even 3-4 times a day which not only is annoying but it can destroy our electronics. They have not done anything about it and instead blamed it on one of our appliances. I don't even have access to the cupboard where the breaker is, every time it happens I have to ask somebody to open it up so I can switch it back on.

I would highly recommend not to move here if you value your money.

"Amazing living experience in Landsby…"

Amazing living experience in Landsby West, Thank you all for support to Karolina, Ivana, Faysal, Milton
Top service and excellent customer service.

"Utilities Scam"

Quintain Living will charge whatever they like for utilities. It will have zero connection to your actual usage show by having broken heating / heating never on. It's a massive scam.

They get away with this, by hiding your energy usage behind a broken app, and an accounts department who will not respond to any emails for weeks. When challenged they will drag it out for as long as possible in the hopes that you will give up.

I’ve also had issues with rent charges - I had missed a direct debit payment and asked for a payment link 3 minutes after being notified of the missed payment. I then sent weekly - daily emails requesting the link. Was ignored for a month so that I was now behind and was unfairly charged that month + the new month + late fee. I challenged but was ultimately backed into a corner and forced to pay.

"Utilities Scam"

They give residents no access to the meters, charge an absurd metering charge around 70 pounds, if you turn off everything and go travel for the whole month you will still be surprised to see how they charge you for electricity you didn't use. In a regular month, I'm a one person I'm a small 1 bed apartment not using much stuff at home and still their meters say I'm consuming more than double of the UK average for consumption for 2 people on a one bed. And still this is supposed to be an efficient green building. All the prices for utilities are also high, they have pretty bad deals with the companies. And there are so many residents also complaining about excessive high utilities bills that it really seems they either have a massive problem in the building they choose to ignore, or they are simply scamming us by overcharging utilities. And yes, it is easy to think this about this company when you can early see their go is to extract all money they can from you in every situation and that they don't care about residents, ir you are unhappy and move they will just rent it to someone else and keep the cycle.

"Utilities Scam - Quintain will take whatever money you have. They are crooks."

"No Hidden Fees" - it's written on all of Quintain's posters, and it's a MASSIVE lie.

Quintain Living will charge whatever the hell they like for utilities. It will have zero connection to your actual usage. You can expect utilities of £300 a month, even in months where the apartment has been unoccupied with all devices turned off / heating never on. It's a massive scam.

They get away with this, by hiding your energy usage behind a broken app, and an accounts department who will not respond to any emails for weeks. They drag it out for as long as possible in the hopes that you will give up.

Again, your true energy usage has ZERO connection to what they charge. When you eventually get the statements after pushing and pushing and pushing and pushing, the discrepancies become blatantly obvious.

***In response to Quintain Living's reply to my review,***

This has absolutely nothing to do with reconciliations.
Quintain Living are lying, deflecting, obfuscating the facts.

Residents such as myself are being charged an obscene amount on utilities,
Quintain make it as difficult as they possibly can to access meter readings,
They ignore our emails, they ignore our calls, they don't give us physical access to the meters, they don't give us the energy company details, they don't give all tenants the information they need to scrutinise bills.

They are replying to my review and I can see them replying to other reviews on here, telling us to email them. What about all the times I emailed and was ignored? Why has it taken a bad review for you to do anything?

When after much pushing and fighting, we eventually get readings, they are shown to be completely false,
Quintain are trigger happy to charge us extra in months where we supposedly somehow use more than average despite the apartment being unoccupied,
Will NEVER give credit back for below expected usage.
Just to reiterate, I am not talking about reconciliation charges. I am talking about the reported energy usage - it is wrong, and Quintain needs to be investigated for it ASAP.

They make nefarious claims on their website that residents can expect to save an average 56% on energy bills, allegedly thanks to their provider Amber Energy,
and yet for 2023 and beginning half of 2024 our p/kWh was 44.43p - the average in London in 2023 was 28.43p! Since then our p/kWh has gone down, while you've increased our standing charge,
and it makes little difference when our meter readers do not work.

(In a previous version of this review, I mistakenly said £400 utilities rather than £300. This was based around £2,362.50 base rent plus £40 storage, roughly £300 utilities (still a huge con) then 2% card fee, all amounting to just under £400 on top of our rent.

FYI, I asked over, and over, and over, and over again, to the accounts team and specific people in accounts, for the above to be itemised.

I emailed asking on Wed 14 Feb
Then again on 15 Feb,
Then again on 21 Feb,
Then again on 22 Feb,
Then again on 23 Feb,

They also would not answer calls.

As of 13 April, it has never been itemised for us.
We withheld rent, and still, it was not itemised for us.

However, Quintain did find the time to send us legal threats. Pathetic.)

"Quintain support is horrible"

We've completed our our two-year tenancy agreement in Ferrum and vacated the premises on March 13th. However, we were charged by Quintain Living for the full month's rent on March 1st despite not occupying the flat for the entire month. It has now been over a month since we did the payment, and we are still awaiting a refund of more than £1500. This situation is completely unacceptable. The only point of contact available to us is email, and the responses we receive are either delayed or dismissive with generic replies. Even though the flat is nice, the stress induced by the lack of transparency regarding utility bills and payments is not worth it.

"Giving 5 stars is an understatement"

Giving 5 stars is an understatement. All thanks to Yusuf’s quick rescue in his shining armour, I was able to stop a horrible flood from my faulty washing machine and have an engineer come in to fix the issue in only a few days. When I was struggling with the leaking machine, Yusuf was efficient in resolving the problem and showed up with a mop and bucket at my door in minutes, was kind enough to clean up for me and allowed me to relax. We need more Yusufs in Canada Gardens. Thank you again!

"Deposit not returned following completion of paperwork"

Having moved out last August we have still not received our deposit back. In January we managed to get in contact with a representative who confirmed that we would be getting our deposit back and we signed the necessary paperwork. We were assured that the money would be back with us as it was now being processed by the finance department. It is now two months later and we have yet to receive our money.

"unfair billing"

Quintain Living is charging us full fees, and even the payment link they provided contains completely erroneous figures. Such incompetence leads me to question the fairness of other charges imposed on us. Following an email exchange, they updated the new rent amount, but this also proved to be problematic. The issue of water and electricity bills looms large. The billing appears to be arbitrary. During several months when I was completely away from home, they continued to bill me as if I had been using the apartment regularly throughout the entire month. They often attempt to shift the blame for these overcharges by citing "quarterly reconciliations" of our usage, yet these excess charges have no correlation with reconciliation efforts. I have requested detailed breakdowns of my daily usage to verify that during my travels, with all devices in my apartment turned off (except for the refrigerator), such excessive consumption is unjustified. Furthermore, we've requested itemized bills for water and electricity, but the apartment management has failed to respond to our inquiries. They have falsely claimed via email that they were unable to reach us by either email or phone. This behavior is outrageous. We simply want to understand the breakdown of our monthly utility bills. I fail to comprehend why this seemingly straightforward request poses such a challenge for this company. Additionally, they have resorted to sending threatening emails, which only adds to our distress.

"Safety is a big Concern; not take seriously by management team"

Safety issues not taken seriously. More spends on advertising and zero action to improve safety issues. Ground team is not sensitive to respond to safety concerns raised by tenants. On top reported issues being closed shamelessly without any input, interaction, feedback or action. Further this has been justified as beyond our control. Reference: Issue # 00142070 in Quintain App.

Reported issue:
The incident:
On 19th January 2024 between 9:15 pm to 9:45 pm, this incident has taken
place.

I was with my 11 year old daughter and her friend, 5 year old son and his
friend, were at Lismer entrance placing our bikes. Suddenly, few adults
started misbehaving with me and my friend in front of my kids. These
individuals used f*** word without any provocation from our end.

Later when we go to Emily’s playhouse, these individuals appeared sitting
on the bench. They were smoking weed and drinking. Later they try to get
physical with my daughter and her friend and abusing saying Love you babes
trying to touch her and her friend.

I called the receptionist who came and intervened. However no strict
actions were taken.

Current state of our mind:
We as a family especially My kids are extremely scared to go alone even in
playing area.

I tried to report this incident immediately using app. However after two
attempts of recording, it does not show up in my reported issue list. Later
I visited the front desk and ask them to register. However I have not heard
anything yet. One can validate everything I mentioned through CCTV images
as well as inquiring with front desk team.

We moved to London from Malaysia in October 2023. I chose to pay huge rent
here in Quintain Living for only one reasons, SAFETY. However looks like it
has not been taken seriously at all. We are hugely disappointed.

Only placing CCTV camera and access control cannot help. There are n number
of times I have seen people simply follow others to enter. In my suggestion
we need security guards with body cams. Back in Malaysia security was taken
with absolute seriousness and zero tolerance especially with younger ones.
It appears to me that Quintain is only using money in advertising well but
no ground actions being taken. We lost our peace of mind and extremely
stressed to continue live at Quintain.

I am expecting at least an appropriate response to this email.

Hoping to hear a concrete action plan and not just a lip service from
management team.