Aster Group Recenzje 

Aster, who manage our private sewer treatment works for the last 3 years have driven the residents of 9 houses to despair. Over the last 3 years the annual charges have been £450 to £1600 and then to top it all at £3500 per household. Again, no justification and no breakdown of these costs were provided when asked for. I have spent the last 3 months trying to sell my house, but due to the ongoing charges and lack of communication by Aster, no lender or solicitor can complete the sale with a buyer. Aster are playing with peoples livelihoods and futures, with no care what so ever and yet they are allowed to continue to trade like this without consequence. How and when can this company be held accountable for their unfair treatment to customers????

We privately own our home within a small cul de sac of 8 houses, Aster manage the sewage treatment works for the properties.
The management cost of this for 2022/23 was £572, however they have now increased this to £1054 for 23/24 with no reason or justification as to why this as nearly doubled.
We have then received a further letter informing us that actually there is an adjustment to the 22/23 charge and we now owe nearly £1800, again no justification.
I have emailed 5 times FAO of the ‘relevant’ people who have issued these letters requesting documentation, information regarding this but no one has been in contact.
We have since received a first reminder for the total of nearly £3k, again I have emailed directly and will expect a response.

I have been in contact with a specialist and our solicitor about this.
We are a new family with a young baby in our first home and the way we have been treated is disgusting.

We will be raising a significant complaint against this incompetent company.

Extremely professional service, high quality finish on my bathroom refit. The team delivering the refit were considerate, professional, knowledgeable, tidy and efficient. They explained everything they needed to do and set expectations for each day which they kept to. A quality service which is what I have come to expect from Aster Housing Association.

Good morning, I would just like to show my appreciation and say thank you so much to Scott Hoyle and his repair team at Aster. For being very efficient, kept me updated on the progress and most of all resolved the flooding issue that was happening at the front of my property. Well done team and many thanks Catherine Jones

Called emergency line I got water coming down to my downstairs toilet they have no one to come out tell me not to bath I have not for the last few days it’s a Joke will be taking this to trading standers expect you to live it poor conditions the amount of rent they charge you is a joke

Awful company. Avoid at all costs. Trying to charge us £18,000 for windows replacements we do not want. Despite written promises the cost would not be borne by leaseholders, Aster are forcing it ahead with totally unaffordable and unjustified charges. Our case is now going through a Tribunal. Their finance department is not fit for purpose, with numerous, totally unacceptable errors and anomalies with service charges over the past few years. Investigations revealed they did not bother about insuring the block when taking over from another company. Senior Management refuse to meet with the leaseholders. Aster advertise their service charges are “reasonable” - they are not. Many discrepancies evident where Aster claim something, but the facts are different. Leases are drawn up incorrectly and Aster are too pig-headed to change them. I wouldn’t even rate them “one star”, zero stars is deserved. Do not trust them.

Firstly, if you manage to get to the end of this long post, I applaud you.

Where do I start?
Found a house that suited our needs via a mutual exchange.
The tenant was known to Aster due to a lot of issues within this house, they knew it was in disrepair but we were desperate as we had outgrown our small property we swapped with.

We were advised by the previous tenant that Aster had said they would replaster all the walls within the house due to its age, put in a new kitchen amongst other things.

Basically, as soon as we signed the mutual exchange documents, it seems Aster took no responsibility for the damage the previous tenant had done to the house.

According to the surveyor, this house has nothing wrong with it. Funnily enough by the second time he came around, he suddenly noticed things wrong he missed before.

When we decided to strip the wallpaper off of the walls, we unveiled really bad cracks in the walls and walls actually crumbling away, black mould that had been painted over, layers and layers of paint built up over wallpaper, wallpaper bubbling due to damp.

We had the concrete rain window shelter fall off the window and land in the garden. It’s a good job know one was outside when it happened as it could have been extremely dangerous.

The front door was kicked in by the police to the previous tenant, was never fixed or replaced despite Aster knowing about the issues here.

I was burnt by a plug socked which wasn’t checked by a professional electrician before we moved in.

We had a kitchen cupboard fall off the wall when opened and one on the ground which wasn’t attached to the legs so fell over. This was when we were told that we have until 2031 until a new kitchen will be installed. I questioned this and put in a complaint to which Aster’s excuse was the size of our fridge freezer! What that has to do with anything is anyone’s guess.

We had a leak in the toilet, so had an engineer come out who made it worse. We then had to call an emergency engineer out who suggested leaving us without a toilet at all. Luckily he didn’t.

We then had a leak in the bathroom. Engineer came out and broke our bathtub. In a way this was a blessing because the previous bathtub was absolutely vile despite the amount of cleaning we had given it. But this was when we actually realised that the bath was actually put in the wrong way around.

When we decided to remove a poorly applied wooden cladding from the hall/landing and stairs, it was attached so badly it ripped the plaster board off in places despite the delicate way in which we tried to remove it.

On the landing, we have a wall crumbling away exposing cables. We’ve mentioned this time and time again but nothing gets done.

We had numerous people out to look at our outhouse, which is practically balancing on a lintel about 2cm wide.

Two weeks ago, our kitchen sink came away from the waste pipe and was pouring with water. Due to my health, I have to rely on that sink to wash and clean. We contacted Aster to be told it wasn’t urgent and they wouldn’t help until the Monday as it was now the weekend and to wash and prepare food in the bathroom 🤮
My husband spoke to a manager who, when my husband explained my health and disabilities, laughed.

Today my 18 month old found crumbled brick on the floor in our front room, he very nearly put it in his mouth. He then kept finding more and more pieces. I am petrified he's going to end up extremely ill or choking on bits.

We can’t decorate because the whole house needs so much work.
We can not make it feel homely.
I am worried sick about my children’s health. Especially as our 18 month old is finding bits of brick he could choke on.
My middle son has ASD and really bad OCD since we moved here due to how bad it was and in parts, still is (cleanliness wise, despite the level of cleaning we have done).

Aster have refused responsibility because it was a mutual exchange, but had it been left empty, the work would have been done by Aster and passed on to the council to house someone.
We are a very low income family and can’t afford the thousands of pounds worth of work needed when we didn’t do this damage to the property.
I’m not sleeping, I’m depressed. This has had a huge negative impact on my health and mental health. I’ve been ill since we moved in with a chronic cough which no doubt is down to the dust from crumbling bricks and mould.

Poor experience with this company. My husband is in the armed forces and I am unable to work due to having just had a baby and we were told basically we have no hope for shared ownership. Disappointed in Aster clearly only interested in tenets with money. Wouldn't recommend this company

Posting this on behalf of my partner who has a shared ownership flat with Aster. Aster seem to be interested in nothing more than fleecing their tenants. My partner's service charge was increased fourfold this year, from £90 per month to £370 per month. Aster have claimed that this is to carry out maintenance works, which seems hard to believe seeing as the charge has been increased for 5 months now and there has been no sign of any work carried out. Even the cleaning of communal areas has gone from twice a month to once every two months.

The increase caused significant financial issues for my partner and it is now stopping her from selling the flat. Prospective buyers have been put off by the service charge. Aster claim that the higher charge is only temporary, but will give no reassurances as to when it will return to normal levels. Their responses to my partner's concerns have been glib and come across like they are trying to fob her off.

Aster comes across very much as a company that puts profit over people. The dismissal of my partner's concerns has been shocking and has caused her a great deal of distress.

ago
i felt hopeless by Aster Letting team
Dear Sir/Madam

i am writing this later to sake justice Please help me

On 17th of September I am due to move from my present council flat to a council house in Bassett Green. I have been in contact by email with Aster letting team concerning my move this week from friday 1st of September until the email I have received from Aster letting Assistant Called Laura Harper today. I should appreciate it if you would please consider what I say below:

Several weeks ago, I forget the precise date i massage Vanessa Aster housing officer, I asked her what the rules are for leaving my present Aster flat and moving into a council house. I have a wife and 4 young children and hoped to make any arrangements in good time. My precise concern was when to formally inform Aster of the date we would be moving into the new house and leaving the present flat. Vanessa didn't even reply i was expecting response but she did not. Quite reasonably, I waited for Vanessa’s reply until last Friday 1st of September when I called the Housing Office to inform them that I shall move into my new council house. i asked please post the quit form and Laura Harper Aster letting assistant promised that she will do.

I received a later from her on Thursday 7th of September with out the form saying that I needed to officially fill in a form + return it to Housing but no form accompanied the Housing later. I therefore emailed Housing back requesting an official form– I received this form today Friday 8th of September by email, . I returned it the same day.

if Laura Harper Aster lettings Assistant have been sent me the form on Friday i would have returned on Monday the 4th.

i am absolutely shattered i have feeling that I have been treated badly by Aster to make me pay extra week of rent. As cost of living crisis as father 4 children how can i pay two rent for 5 weeks

despit being an outstanding tenant for the past 13 years.

i received call from Southampton City Council housing on Friday 1st of September that my house is ready t view on monday the 4th i receive the my council house key.

Now Aster team saying we will not accept your Quit notice from friday the 1st of September Laura Harper Aster letting assistant said my 4 weeks notice will start from Monday 11th of September it means i have to pay 5 week rent for two

Dear Sir/Madam 

i am writing this later to sake justice Please help me 

On  17th of September I am due to move from my present council flat to a council house in Bassett Green. I have been in contact by email with Aster letting team concerning my move this week from friday 1st of September until the email I have received from Aster letting Assistant Called Laura Harper today. I should appreciate it if you would please consider what I say below:

Several weeks ago, I forget the precise date i massage Vanessa Aster housing officer, I asked her what the rules are for leaving my present Aster flat and moving into a council house. I have a wife and 4 young children and hoped to make any arrangements in good time. My precise concern was when to formally inform Aster of the date we would be moving into the new house and leaving the present flat. Vanessa didn't even reply i was expecting response but she did not. Quite reasonably, I waited for Vanessa’s reply until last Friday 1st of September when I called the Housing Office to inform them that I shall move into my new council house. i asked please post the quit form and Laura Harper Aster letting assistant promised that she will do.

I received a later from her on Thursday 7th of September with out the form saying that I needed to officially fill in a form + return it to Housing but no form accompanied the Housing later. I therefore emailed Housing back requesting an official form– I received this form today Friday 8th of September by email, . I  returned it the same day.

if Laura Harper Aster lettings Assistant have been sent me the form on Friday i would have returned on Monday the 4th.

i am absolutely shattered i have feeling that I have been treated badly by Aster to make me pay extra week of rent. As cost of living crisis as father 4 children how can i pay two rent for 5 weeks 

despit being an outstanding tenant for the past 13 years.

i received call from Southampton City Council housing on Friday 1st of September that my house is ready t view on monday the 4th i receive the my council house key.

Now Aster team saying we will not accept your Quit notice from friday the 1st of September Laura Harper Aster letting assistant said my 4 weeks notice will start from Monday 11th of September it means i have to pay 5 week rent for two property.

I have been living in my shared ownership property for 6 years now and have just gone through the selling process with Anna Dillon. I have always felt very apprehensive about the selling process because I've heard it was very complex. However, with Anna by my side, the process has been smooth and surprisingly easy.

Shared ownership has given me an opportunity from a young age to get onto the property ladder, to move out and be independent from the age of 23.

Thank you Aster Housing for giving me this opportunity.

My whole reservation process was put off by the way the Aster negotiators were so eager to take my money rather than dealing and acting on my concerns, not forgetting ‘the house will be offered to the next person if we don’t get your money’ threat

Hopefully Aster will improve in the future via some better customer interaction training, until then, it’s a no from me

I have been a tenant with aster group for many years . I have kept my home and garden to a high clean tidy standard and. Respected the property. I love my home very much
So After looking forward to my kitchen replacement coming my way i finally got to choose my options and date .however the men that turned up was grumpy unfriendly and made me feel uncomfortable. The person I am tried to be chirpy offered them both a coffee unaccepted coffee that’s fine . However Everything I asked was bluntly refused. Ie if I buy my own worktop please could I have that fitted instead of the not nice choice replied no do it yourself . This came with every question. They said We been done over before so won’t be doing anything. I was told to buy my own extra cupboard if wanted even though I wasn’t offered the correct amount.I want to be happy with the plan however as I needed to get to the dr I went with what they said . Thinking what was that about it was a awfull experience.On noticing a error the next day ,I called the guy and was told I’d get a call back from him as he didn’t have plan in front of him . Nothing . I have messaged and emailed . Nothing . This has really upset me and am now dreading the new kitchen being fit as it’s not right . Is the workman going to be the same . This maybe just be another council house to them but to me it’s my home I love. I felt like I was some undeserving great unwashed tenant. This is not on . I am really upset . Yes I’m greatful for a new kitchen I pay my rent so why not .

I am writing this review purely to praise Anna Dillon, the Resale and Staircasing Manager.

Anna was appointed to me when I bought the remaining shares of my property and demonstrated diligence, empathy and an eagerness to solve all queries quickly, throughout the whole process.

During what was overall a lower than average experience with Aster, Anna stood out as being an example to the business as to how things should be done. She responded promptly, in a friendly, down to earth manner and I was constantly impressed by her customer service, which was far better than even that of my solicitor who I was paying!

Anna deserves significant recognition for her hard work and customer care, for going above and beyond and representing Aster Group in such a positive way.

I would like to again pass on my thanks to her for all of her hard work and support throughout the process and wish her the the best of success with her career- Anna I hope you're promoted soon, you deserve it! Anna, you get 5 stars. As an experience overall however Aster were slow, and did not care about any of the snags that I had, as I was shared ownership it was clear that my purchase didnt matter and the damage to my property before I even moved in was not going to be repaired.

All 3 turned up on the correct date & time I was told, they even popped around the day before for a quick chat about what work they were carrying out, I had my front fence & back fence & 2 gates replaced, they were so polite, friendly & didn't leave any mess behind, the actual jobs are spot on aswell. None of them left early, even with the winds & the rain we had they stayed out there to complete the job, so it was finished on the day they promised😊 extremely happy with them & my new fences 😊

Avoid at all cost.
I’m charged over £1000 a month but my neighbours whome are also with aster in the same houses as mine are only paying £630 a month they refuse to speak to me about this or let me speak with anyone who could explain it.
I have been through trauma in this house and have struggled to be here due to what happened here, they say they support their customers but really they don’t care and have 0 lack of empathy, I lost my 9 day old baby and they wanted to know if I was going to pay rent.
Lots of jobs have been done and most are bodge jobs done cheap as possible in one case I had to get them to come and redo it because I was that bad.
I was doing a swap to another home of which aster told me i had to take my shed down and remove it (it came with the house) the swap failed and aster are now saying I’m no longer allowed a shed! Yet all houses on the row with aster came with sheds.
Garden floods, front garden we were told not to touch and it overgrowns on to the stairs leading up to each home with weeds they send someone out once every 2-3 years.

In all honesty I think aster are one massive money making company who only care for themselves and not the people in their property’s.

Before I start, I fully understand house swaps are “sold as seen”, but had your surveyors do a proper job on this house, things might be very different.

We did a house swap, as we had been desperately needing a bigger property for over 4 years, when this house came up. We have children with disabilities and my wife is also disabled. So space was needed and to make life easier for our family.

When we came to visit the property numerous times, the house was in a state, but more clutter and lack of cleanliness than anything structural that we could see. So to us it was going to be; move in, clean it top to bottom, decorate it and get carpet and job done. Oh how wrong we were!

The days after we moved in a cupboard fell off the kitchen wall, my wife burnt herself on a plug that she had used in a socket that clearly hadn’t been checked properly, we found huge cracks in many walls after removing years of wallpaper, the front door had previously (previous tenant) been kicked in (by the police) and hadn’t been fixed, the concrete water/rain skirting above the window fell off (luckily we weren’t stood there when it happened). We then had someone check the outhouse to find that it needs new lintels as one in particular is pretty much non existent, the bath has been put in the wrong was around, the shower is faulty and runs at 9.59KWH which is ridiculous, the sink waste pipe just goes into a hole, no fixture to hold it in place, the previous tenant was asked to do things before he moved in and he hadn’t done those jobs at all.

We had an engineer come out to check a leak in the bathroom and he broken the bath. Thankfully that means a new bathtub the right way around as my wife can not use the shower due to the huge incline and the anti slip guards being the wrong way, and someone came to fix a leak with the toilet and made it worse to the point it leaked into our hallway! When the engineer came out (as emergency on a Saturday) for that he was given the wrong information and didn’t have the right parts to sort it and was informed to close off the only toilet in the house, luckily he found what he needed and magically fixed it.

When we looked at the property, we were made aware by the previous tenant that the kitchen was due to be replaced. We had mentioned this several times to aster and they responded stating that it was possible it needed doing but they had lost paperwork on this. Everyone who has attended the property has said it needs a new kitchen badly. When aster reviewed this they said they wouldn’t put in a new kitchen despite cupboards falling off, because we had put in a freestanding fridge freezer. Absolutely baffling.

The ceilings in the living room, dining room and downstairs hallway are all artex and contain asbestos which should have been sorted a long time ago.

Our kitchen door should be a fire safety door but ours isn’t. It also has an inch gap between the bottom of the door and the floor. This will not slow down the spread of a fire.

This has made my wife so ill and depressed. We just want a safe, nice, clean house to live in. It’s not a huge ask. It’s going to cost us thousands to plaster all the walls, redecorate, put in a new kitchen and re do both front and back gardens due to the way they’ve been treated. We are a low income family because of my wife’s health and can not afford this.

Aster are a terrible housing company, I have a shared ownership house.

Had lots of antisocial behaviour from neighbours, noise complaints and they do nothing.

Rent has increased lots since I first got the house making it more difficult to afford this house now, all this when other home owners sub let and rent out their homes (against tenancy * mortgage)

Made various complaints about service charges and grounds maintenance not being done, leaving the estate looking like a mess.

Recently had a threatening solictors letter because I had not provided a gas safety certificate, threats of £1,500 court costs or imprisonment if I don’t provide one 😂

The attitude of Aster staff is poor, they don’t take complaints seriously or follow their own code, more people need to complain to the ombudsman about Aster.

Time to contact my local MP about these rogue housing landlords who are abusing their powers with tenants and shared ownership owners, they suck you in and screw you over with rent and service charges.

Worst thing I have ever done buying a shared ownership house with Aster.

Only option some people have to get on the housing ladder is shared ownership, trapped!

Sell my house, easier said than done!

Nigel from Aster came out to treat mould in my flat again today - this has been an ongoing issue for months. I spoke with him when he arrived and explained what has happened in terms of treatment etc. He then went away, spent 20 mins on the phone to his manager to find out what was going on - he came back to inform me that there were more issues than just ceiling/wall mould and that there would be external repair work done. He could've easily left having spoken to me for 2 mins, but he went above and beyond to keep me up to date on what is happening. Thank you Nigel!