I wish I had read the Trustpilot reviews of Origin Housing before my husband and I chose to buy at Culvert West House in Harrow. We would not have purchased in this development. Since we moved in, the lifts have alternatively not been working at all (not responding to the fob), sometimes working, and working too well (being able to access any floor without needing a fob). The magnetic locks on the doors to each floor from the stairwell are not working - any floor can be accessed from the stairwell. Now, due to there being possible issues with how the cladding has been applied to the building, we have scaffolding outside the building that provides both a handy ladder and floorboards for any stranger from the street to be able to climb up onto our first floor balcony. The car park has also been broken into more than once and I don’t believe the gate has been repaired, as residents are now using a chain and padlock to lock the gate. There is also mould growing in the basement and the ‘roof terrace’ has not been available since we moved in in July 2024.Despite all of these issues, Origin has just increased our services charges by 80% less than a year after moving in. Rent has also been increased. The service charge was also increased to a standard amount across all the flats, despite it being in the contract that services charges are proportionate to the size of the flat. So, living in a one bedroom flat, we are paying the same service charge as those in two and three bedroom flats. When this was brought to Origin’s attention, the response was ‘oops - we’ll look into it’. We have now overpaid service charges for two months, with no timeline of when this is going to be resolved and no indication of when we will be reimbursed. We have also just been asked for more money for developmental upkeep. Although the tendering process for the company to do this work was not conducted in a transparent or unbiased manner, they expect the leaseholders to just agree to this. In addition to this, when we moved in and created one of our utility accounts, the provider told us that there was an outstanding charge of over £200 connected to our flat. We were being contacted by debt collectors. We bought the showroom flat and were the first people to live in it, so we forwarded their correspondence to Origin. We were eventually able to separate our account from the previous one connected to the flat, but it took weeks to resolve. Stay away from any developments managed by Origin Housing. They are inept.
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We are a registered social landlord, managing over 7,000 homes in London and Hertfordshire. We provide affordable housing in our communities as well as related care and support services to the people who live in them.