Review Time
We chose this firm because of a competitive quote and lots of promises. Now we have a building that is not compliant for fire regulations, broken lifts that takes weeks or months to fix and staff that do what they want.
We now pay double for management compared to other blocks.
CEO - Alan Gregory gives terrible advice and has no qualifications in property management.
Absolutely hopeless. Avoid at all costs.
We chose this firm because of a competitive quote and lots of promises. Now we have a building that is not compliant for fire regulations, broken lifts that takes weeks or months to fix and staff that do what they want. We now pay double for management compared to other blocks. CEO - Alan Gregory gives terrible advice and has no qualifications in property management. Absolutely hopeless. Avoid at all costs.
Asked for a valuation and listing and firstly did not return my call after leaving a message with someone who said they would call back same afternoon. Then eventually said they were too busy to take my sale. Typical Winchester arrogance!! I suspect greedy and only interested in £1m+ properties. Avoid.
We have been living in the apartment from Oct 2019, however any time with the issues with services on maintainance always had trouble getting the fix done quickly , it was always long waiting process to get the contractors assigned and then get the work completed.We had many complaints on leckage of outer and inner walls but permanant solution never provided. overall service maintainance of the building as not provided as per the charges to lease holders. They were suppose to maintain lift, camera servilance at doors , inside property floors etc , door security, monthly or annual cleaning etc which was not done as to maintain property as neat and maintained by property management company and they have failed to do so.
I purchased my flat with excitement, only to be met with a shockingly high service charge. Comparing with friends who also live in flats, I found a wide range of charges, suggesting mismanagement. After switching away from Belgarum, our service charges dropped significantly. This, coupled with the discovery of building defects that likely inflated costs, strongly suggests that Belgarum prioritised profit over resident needs.Their lack of empathy and focus on maximising revenue is evident. They consistently underdelivered on essential maintenance while costs spiraled out of control. I strongly advise against working with Belgarum. You'll likely experience subpar service, hidden costs, and a frustrating lack of accountability.
Belgarum property management took money from our service charge, they kept increasing prices and not doing the jobs that are legal required and the necessary ones that we paid for.Finally last year our building managed to get the right to manage and we are saving a lot of money, we could save more but we are now paying for things that BPM should have done and didn't. Avoid at all costs and do your best to get a right to manage to be able to get what you pay for.
Absolutely avoid this company! They are notorious for inflating service charges while neglecting essential maintenance. We faced endless issues, from unexplained high costs to incomplete or shoddy work. After switching to a new management system, we uncovered severe negligence—fire safety violations, untested systems, and overpriced services from their "trusted contractors." They prioritize profit over resident needs and lack accountability. Save yourself the stress and expense; consider getting the Right to Manage and working with a transparent, reliable company instead.
Very good at one thing...taking your money. That's where their interests start and finish sadly.This company are built on nothing but lies and false promises from start to finish. They don't serve the people who pay them, but instead use their position to line their own pockets. This isn't exactly a 'new concept' for businesses of this type, which is why they're being clamped down upon.... However, these absolute cowboys are probably the best example of the worst out there.They ignored all Fire Safety issues, charged for everything you can think of, knowing that they weren't being done. They took 'kick backs' and payments wherever they could, whilst staunchly denying they ever did so. Once we started asking for accounts, they became more rude and aggressive. They broke the law several times over, by refusing to comply with legal requirements to make invoices and receipts for payments available upon request, in a timely manner. They even tried to stop leaseholders communicating because they didn't like the group of leaseholders going for RTM who were complaining - all this did was further highlight the need for change. They tried to get it all shut down via aggressive behaviour and lies to other leaseholders, making it personal for those leading the charge for change. This tells you everything.Our building eventually got RTM - Right to Manage. They tried every trick in the book to delay the process, and obviously hoped to stop it. Thankfully it didn't work, and when we eventually got our RTM we found out even more strange activity in accounts, made up invoices etc. We had also critically been paying for things the Freeholder should have. They are called a Property 'management' company, which also includes the maintenance of the property. Neither of these words fit their description. What they 'managed' was their own profit - making up 'works' to charge us for and take their cut. And the only 'maintenance' they did was either non existent entirely (with many known defects not being passed through to the Freeholder, but instead charging leaseholders repeatedly for short term fixes') - or carried out to a poor standard, usually requiring many further patch ups. Our building had a known roofing build defect which they tried to hide, as they knew it had no valid warranty. Instead of taking this to the freeholder, they just ignored everything and hoped the 'problem' would go away - low quality management from the off right there. Their Director, Mr Alan Gregory is quite possibly the rudest, most self entitled, condescending and dishonest person you'll ever have to deal with. Such high self regard, in spite of the fact his grasp of basic grammar and punctuation being virtually nil. He even had the audacity to tell blatant and provable lies at meetings (recorded) and on many emails (in writing) - so many that he couldn't keep up with them, and constantly tripped himself up in ongoing comms. Property 'Manager' - Mr Robert Barker was no better. Accusing leaseholders of lying about things, presumably just for fun.... who would have that time (or inclination?). To make it even worse, when being challenged about the lack of action on Fire Safety concerns discovered after fire surveys, Mr Gregory even had the temerity to praise himself for his self perceived level of competency (in similar fashion to the website) - and even quoted the Grenfell tragedy, as if he was some kind of fire bashing hero. He is in fact the opposite. The words for for this man's moral depth are unprintable, suffice to say he is void of any.All of this is documented in years worth of emails and recorded phone calls by our RTM, yet I'm sure he'll find the time to try and outright deny all of this, yet not finding the time to reply to actual concerns from other existing leaseholders, who probably have all the same issues we did.. A lot of time has passed, so things will have no doubt been 'cleaned up' somewhat by BPM, but if you're managed by them, I strongly advise you to go for RTM and ASAP serve them with a Section 22 notice. They'll try to tell you you need a Residents' Association to do this. You don't. Any single leaseholder can do this. Any resistance will only confirm you need to keep your finger on the pulse and dig deeper. When they don't comply, report this. These frauds have left our building (managed by them from build c.2004) - in a state of poor maintenance and also a real state of danger in terms of fire risk, even though we've paid for it. They are an outright dismissive, dishonest and despicable company. I promise you, you can't do any worse.Other reviews (negative) - on various other platforms available
Belgarum Property Management, Winchester This company is very good at taking their management fee, that is where it ends.I would encourage any leaseholders that are using them to ensure they obtain a copy of the invoices and bank statements each year that relate to your building (word it correctly and they must legally provide this). They like to use "their trusted contractors". You will soon discover that means you will be paying substantially more for every service you have. Thankfully we have now obtained the Right To Manage our building. As soon as we began performing checks several major issues were discovered, which were corrected immediately. A riser pipe, facing the wrong way, meaning it could not be used if needed during a fire. An Automatic Opening Vent, which was completely stuck shut, and had clearly been that way for many years. Lightning conductors, not tested for years, which are meant to be tested every 11 months. Signs for evacuation routes and floor numbers, never fitted, despite being advised by the fire service to do so. The list of issues was endless, the Right To Manage Directors have worked hard to correct the problems they were presented with. Many of the issues above are meant to have been checked/tested yearly, at least we paid for them to be! Your building insurance and electricity will be through BPM's broker, that broker will likely be giving a "thank you" to them for using their services, it equates to approximately 15% of the total, for us that ran into thousands. They will tell you that all management companies do this, that is not true. If you manage yourself, that 15% would come off of the total cost of your insurance, it is worth getting an R.T.M just for that reason alone. There are also management companies out there that do not take any payments from their brokers. Site visits, we rarely had one, and very few leaseholders in the building would know or recognise who was our property manager. If you make a complaint, you will be told that you are the only one. My advice, talk to your neighbours, you will soon find that is not true. If work is not completed as you expected, photograph it, ensure it is time-dated. BPM will tell you they are a member of A.R.M.A, and that they follow all of their rules. They do not, and there is no way of making a complaint to A.R.M.A regarding one of their members, all of which pay a membership fee depending on how many properties they have. We have a management company assisting the R.T.M, they are a refreshing change and very helpful. We get bank statements monthly, invoices are not paid unless work is complete and it is verified as completed by the R.T.M. As a group of leaseholders we have saved thousands of pounds between us. Also, bare in mind, not everything is the responsibility of the leaseholder to pay for. Look at your invoices, and ensure that you are not paying for what your Freeholder is obligated to. Free advice is available from Leasehold Advisory Service...., available on the website as well as phone or email.
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