Sage Homes Recenzje 

Getting the keys to my first home should have been one of the best days of my life. Sage Homes turned it into a nightmare.

I was handed the keys without seeing the flat. As soon as I opened the door, I heard water dripping. The bathroom was flooded, and water was starting to get into the corridor. The ceiling was already stained, and water was coming out of the air vent, light fixtures and the corners of the ceiling. Water dislodged the tiles on the floor and went under the wooden floorboards in the corridor. I had to cancel my move, losing money in the process, and rebook it. Going to the toilet meant 1) being in the dark, 2) getting your feet wet, 3) getting a shower from the ceiling simultaneously. The leak didn’t stop until day 3. It took them 6 days to identify the most likely source of the leak, and 18 to get confirmation. I couldn’t use most of the sockets or turn on the lights for 8 days. I was also accused of leaving the tap open because it also flooded the flat below me. I was left to coordinate plumbers’ access to other flats to find the source of the leak. I also had to buy a dehumidifier to salvage the room and run it 24/7. 

Repairs have now been sorted, but I’m now noticing other issues with the flat: cracks near the windows and plinths, marks on the walls/doors, sprinkler system not properly installed, chipped basin, dints on the kitchen worktop and kitchen cabinets, paint coming off the walls, rust stains on the carpets. But because Sage waited until the warranty on the building (Defect Liability Period, DLP) expired to issue the Memorandum of Sale, I’m now liable for all the repairs.

To top it all off, the water meters were not registered with the right flats, so I’m paying someone else’s water bill until Thames Water is willing to sort it out. The building’s heating provider hasn’t issued a single bill to any residents since people first moved in last year, and the intercoms are not working properly.

Steer clear of Sage Homes or you’ll regret it just like me. I've lost a lot of time, energy and money.

(Also the source of the leak has yet to be fixed.)

Update 05/09/2024: I was offered a £250 voucher as compensation, which doesn't even cover a third of the money I've lost.

DO NOT BUY A SHARED OWNERSHIP PROPERTY WITH SAGE.I would never recommend Sage housing to anyone. I bought a shared ownership flat in July 2021 in Oxfordshire. The buying experience overall with Sage was as expected, slow but eventually got there. The last 3 years of living here has been awful. I have had to log a number of incidents on their portal which go unanswered or you have to wait weeks on end for a reply and the response won't even resolve the initial issue. To name a few things, the bin store door has been broken on and off for the whole 3 years I have been here because they can't seem to send contractors that actually know what they're doing. The social housing block has a number of people who cause anti social behaviour including drug deals on my doorstep, a police raid at 7am on a Monday morning, alcoholism and general vile behaviour. I work full time and am often disrupted by antisocial behaviour as I work from home. The main door to my block has been consistently broken for the 3 years I have been here. I have logged this issue and spent time on the phone trying to sort the issue. Currently the door will not open at all and is a huge fire safety risk yet despite spending 30 minutes on hold on the phone to Sage on Sunday and then logging this as an urgent issue on the portal, I have yet to have a response. They have increased their rent and service charge significantly over 3 years and it has become unaffordable. They are a disgusting company with poor values and lack of care for their customers. I can't wait to sell up and move on however I know that their shared ownership resales team are also renowned for being useless.

I am pleased to say that we have received outstanding support from Janice Barton who is in the financial wellbeing team. My dad has finally got his forever home and with him having difficulty reading, writing and understanding things we never knew there was this kind of support out there and Janice you have done amazing my dad has spoken highly of you and he now can get a decent night sleep knowing he has everything in order and if he is ever unsure of anything he knows he can contact you for support. Thank you so much for everything, you are one of a kind and deserve a big shout out and more. If anyone is ever struggling please reach out for support. I’m so glad we did :)

We are in the process of selling our shared ownership house. Firstly, we had to get a RICS valuation with a company arranged by Sage homes. We stressed that we needed to get our house on the market promptly. From instructing sage to arrange this to them making contact with the company this took 2 weeks. We then had to chase sage who were reviewing the valuation outcome after the 7 day mark has passed. Throughout this we had multiple emails saying ' we will look into this'.

Following this, we found a buyer for our property and reserved a property with a housing developer. We informed sage of this in June and the documents for approval were sent by both our buyer and estate agent. We were bound by our new developer to exchange by 16.8.24. We since found out that yes we had paid £170 for a management pack however the approval process had not been started by sage. Sage denied receiving these documents from our buyer, one member of staff questioned whether we had a buyer! Sage homes then asked us to inform our buyer that she needs to sign documents for the approval process to start as it had taken her 2 days. I informed sage that our buyer had not received these documents by email and that they need to be sent again as she has searched for them. I explained again to the member of staff that we can lose our new property and the thousands we have spent on added extras alongside this. I asked how long the approval process would take and asked her to give me an estimate , she said ' I don't want to upset you'. Our buyer when she received the documents to sign then told us these documents were identical to those she signed in June! Our question is why was this approval process not started as soon as we accepted her offer? We have made a formal complaint against Sage for this negligence. If as a result of staff negligence we do lose our new property we will expect financial compensation.

Sage homes are useless, they receive funding from homes england to provide shared ownership ,new model but don't follow the process, the call center goes around in a cycle the complaint tem close the enquiry , again and again I've tried to get answers as far as they are aware they say we only start shares at 25 percent , up
to £500k for some houses , the new model starts at 10, the sales team don't come back to you or state we don't follow new scheme . The customer service pretend to be , each department, so you never really know that you are not through to complaint or sales , they also work from home , poor service. The top managers are not available, the email is never responded to ,. Rubbish , it's just unfortunate they have so many properties, in areas people require housing, otherwise people would not use them . , so please homes england stop giving them funds if they do not comply to your regulations I've tryed for over 12 months with enquiries they are not the only housing association doing this by not selling shares at a lower percentage. Today I will write to the new housing minister in government to formally make a complaint for all of us who are desperate to find housing for our families

Wanted to give Ryan Murtagh an absolute massive thankyou for all you have done to help me and my family move into our home of dreams your excellent knowledge and brilliant support in our process with sage was amazing! Couldn’t have asked for anymore thanks again

Since moving into our property back in November 2023 we have had a consistent issue with our water pressure in the kitchen sink. All other snags where resolved efficiently other than some chasing but nothing we could not deal with as those issues were not urgent.

Unfortunately after inspecting the property we found that the outside stop cock was still making sound after turning the water off in the property which we had done so due to the water pressure in the kitchen. After this we consulted with Sage and raised the potential issue that could cause a void under the property (as advised by their contractors and our local water supplier), due to this we raised this as a urgent defect.

Since then ( November 2023) I have had 4 Plumbers and our local water supply company come out to inspect the issue, every one of them confirmed a ground worker needed to come out and have a look as there is a potential leak in the stop cock. I have raised this multiple times with Sage and I am repeated the same script ' We will look into this and update you' but it never happens. You call, email, webchat the lot and they 'escalate' the issue and then close the ticket?!

Last update I was given was that apparently the 'leak' had fixed itself! And the ticket was closed without question. I'm not a plumber but I'm sure these things don't miraculously fix themselves nor has the poor water pressure in the kitchen either!

Its appalling the lack of support given to first time home owners as they apparently pride themselves on supporting and guiding their tenants yet I have not seen a single bit of evidence of this. We never received the welcome pack we were promised and I'm sure we are missing a Carbon monoxide alarm in our kitchen too.

The 'Complaints' team called me last week after my email sent to the defects team to ask if yet another contractor could come out to the property this morning. Today was apparently the only time they could come as they have moved resource 'out of the area' I know I will never receive compensation for the time spent personally not to mention the time i have had to take away from work too. Despite this, I'm expected to move things around yet again!

As I have stated in my communications, I would not push so hard if I did not deem the issue urgent but the lack of care is evident. I will be contacting the Housing ombudsman as they cant even have the decency to reply to my complaint.

Disgusting/Shocking service. Would not recommend to anyone!

Unfortunately can't give any lower or I would this company need closing down the judge larger family's and say maximum of 5 bed spaces in stead of looking at ages and children and letting family's decide if it's big enough 4 beds and 5 people they need to get shut down

amazing so helpful and beautiful homes with respectful people helping you at any time you need!

Another unfortunate update:
It's now been a further 2 months since i made this review (which all of a sudden made sage actually call me and assigned someone to my case) but its all talk! Nothing has been fixed! They make it sound like they care but the momentthe phone goes down they completely forget about you. I havent had proper use of my bathroom since June 5th, my electrics keep tripping, my garden is waterlogged again, my front door has warped again. This company is an absolute joke and I seriously warn anyone thinking of buying with them - DON'T DO IT!! I put in a formal complaint, it took them over a month to reply and then I escalated it to stage 2 4 weeks ago and still have not heard anything. I am now seeking legal advice because as a single mother with a disability this is absolutely disgusting.

Recent update: they have now been in touch and I am in the process of arranging to have the bathroom & garden fixed.

During the purchasing process the were fantastic, kept in touch, kept me updated, responded very quickly.... however the moment the sale went through and I moved in to my new house it has been nothing but problems and issues. Sage have a ticket system for drfe ts which sounds great but they either ignore them or tell you they'll get back to you and never do.

I'm not unreasonable I expect there to be issued in a new build but I do expect those issues to be addressed. Especially when they increase the rent on the other share after just a couple of months of purchasing.

Since moving in 6 months ago I've had, a shower upstairs leaking out electric sockets in the kitchen, bkack mould all ocer the bathroom walls & under bath (which they wanted to just paint over), heating not working, the garden is full of clay and stones and very little top soil causing inadequate drainage resulting in an unusable swamp, doors don't line up, seals don't work, no tap provided for the back garden, and that's just to name a few.

I'm still waiting for my shower & bathroom to be usable, still can't use my garden & with a dog and child it is unacceptable.

I'm disgusted by the horrendous lack of customer service & have had to lodge a formal complaint & go to the housing ombudsman as there's no communication from sage.

I wish I had read these reviews & reviews on Google before purchasing with sage. I would never have done it.

UPDATE: Sage were very quick to respond to this review and say someone would be in touch BUT 3 days later...not only has no one been in touch they have also closed down tickets without having done any work! It is now 3 weeks no use of my bathroom & 7 months no use of my garden! I've emailed & no response & no one ever picks up the phone.

I placed a complaint over 3 months ago, and followed it up. Still not even had an acknowledgement and it was a serious complaint. Having to go to the housing ombudsman.

The most disgusting excuse for a social landlord there is. Couldn’t care less about their customers - don’t adhere to their own policies or procedures. Admit fault and offer compensation for their failures after 9 months of emailing and calling them everyday but STILL fail to resolve the problem. Ignore emails, don’t answer the phone, have the most incompetent people working for them. Allow their tenants to be harassed and bullied, allows extreme ASB to happen without addressing it, couldn’t care less about your housing as long as you pay your rent on time and the second you don’t - they suddenly want to answer the phone!

We have just completed our purchase of a shared ownership home with Sage and Jaye from the Sales Progression team has been absolutely brilliant, keeping us up to date with the build progress at all times and answering all enquiries perfectly. Thankyou!

This is the worst company and shared ownership scam provider. In my area the company received £35k for each shared ownership unit and £70k for each “affordable rent” from GLA. They make sure that they collect money from all corners: high rents, low resale prices, a lot of various charges, very bad systems and terrible and incompetent employees.
When it comes to repairs, I am still waiting since January 2024 when I first raised the repair to my balcony door.
They are charging me rent based on whatever they think I should pay, no notification about the amounts, just help themselves via direct debit. 1500£ for a 2 bed flat and they call this affordable rent.
They also mixed up my details with someone else, one of their contractor called me, he was outside the property somewhere in the North of England when I live in NW9 London.
I have contacted them and followed up numerous times. I get a useless operator incapable of doing anything.
They ve sent 2 people already wasted my time several times as the last repairman from Mullen Property didn’t turn up and then pretended they will book me the following week, when it came to the agreed morning time, they again didn’t turn up. At least when I called them to check if they will attend, they stretched their legs and Came to see the door. only to have a look at the door lock. I despair at the Sage homes incompetence and greed. They are not social housing or housing association yet they are happy to access grants meant for housing associations and social housing providers.
You can tell that they are run by the American fund Blackrock.
I have started a complaint to the Housing Ombudsman and now they are forced to acknowledge complaints and hopefully follow up on the initial complaints and arrange for the repair. They keep saying that our rent is so high as we live in luxury apartments 😂😂😂, if they call that luxury living in a rats infested building, cartel run that you can’t keep your windows open as the smell will fill your flat. Constant rubbish dumping, distructiv behaviour and damage to communal areas, smelly bin that hits you the minute you enter the building, rubbish, dirty nappies, glass and bottles thrown from above if you have the misfortune to walk under these wild humans behaving despicable. Sage knows who they are, they probably have lower affordable rent too. I turns out to various people in this block are on different levels of affordable rent and many are paying way less than me for a 2 bed. It’s like they saw my incomes and decided to charge me the highest rent rate for an unfinished flat, no kitchen appliances etc, nothing £1500pcm. One new build furnished is £1750 on the open market.
I am not surprised the way they abuse their position and see how many people experienced negative experiences that damaged them and affected their health.

I just wanted to say a huge Thank you to Janice at Sage Homes! Janice has supported and guided me through a really challenging time! After struggling mentally and with financial issues. She genuinely cares for people and understands. Helped me in many ways including introducing me to the help
And support that is out there! I am now working with CAP and in process of becoming debt free! I am beyond grateful for her help! So thank you again Janice. You’re amazing person and great at what you do. Sage are lucky to have you! Jess x

5 star. I had Ryan, He made the application and assessments so easy and stress free. He made sure I was updated on everything so I stayed in the loop! I couldn’t ask for a better person to be allocated too! I can’t thank you enough!

My experience with Rebecca at Sage Homes was perfect, she was extremely helpful and went out of her way in helping me with my queries . Thank you

Over the last two years Sage Homes have improved their services to a very high standard. I am especially grateful to Abiba who went above and beyond in offering her advice and support. Abiba was professional, patient, kind and empathetic. Very consistent and knowledgeable in her field resulting in a positive outcome. It was a great pleasure speaking to you and knowing that you continue to offer your support if required, shows how committed you are to your customers. Abiba you are amazing and a credit to Sage Homes. Thank you.

Abiba

A true professional
Great communicator
Methodical
Excellence knowledge
Listening
Understanding/caring
Patient
Persistent
Gets results

Well done and many thanks for all your help
Kindness goes a long way
A pleasure talking to you

Tim

It seems that raising a Repair for a leak from a bathroom to downstairs living room and being unable to have bath/shower facilities in this hot weather with 2 children and myself being vulnerable that isn't an emergency for this company ... seriously not happy with this company.