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Uddingston, G71
1/5, 11 Reviews
0% Recommended
Mears Group, a UK-wide housing and social care provider has won the contract to provide accommodation in Glasgow to house Asylum seekers in Scotland
"The mears group have taken..."
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1 Star Review
Chris
By : 'Vincent'
Services : Letting(As a Owner)
Rent PCM : £500
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : G31
Dec 21, 2019
People found this helpful5
The mears group have taken over the contract to house asylum seekers in Scotland. We relet properties with them on the promise from Chris that everything would improve , however it was just rubbish. The problem is that they have refused to pay us the last 3 months rent until we sign their lease terms! Here are they things we found out. Firstly in order to help you understand them, you need to know that the Mears group are a large maintenance company and as such with by having this new asylum contract And forcing landlords to only use their lease agreements, they have been giving a blank cheque book to determine how much work gets done in each property and to instruct their own contractors to do it at the landlords cost. 1. They will only pay LHA rates and tried paying it in arrears. Best letting to People on DSS 2. Despite claiming that they will carry out any small adhoc repairs themselves at no cost, they have now written into their lease that they dan do any work and deduct it from the rent. This will no doubt be a money generating machine for them to take as much of the rent as they can. 3. Even if you are allowed to get your own contractors in, they Have strict criteria and will only allow them in if they have had a disclosure check. Another hurdle you have to overcome. 4. They reserve the right to do any safety checks they want at your cost, without giving you the option to send your own contractors in 5. They make you sign a 3/5 year lease with no break clause on landlords side, but tenants can walk away 7. They have requirements that are well above the standard that a private tenants require. They will gladly move a tenant in, however once the lease is signed, they will come back to you with all these extra things that need done at your expense In summery, you may be tempted by this long term lease, however it will cost you dearly in the long term with all their additional requirements and charges, many of which are not required in normal private lets
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By : Alicia Davies
Oct 25, 2020Mears group are renting my fathers house and subletting to a tenant. My father depends on the rental to cover the cost of his sheltered accommodation. Mears group have been raising a catalogue of expensive repairs and demanding my father pays them, leaving him little to cover his rent. They are now trying to say that if he doesn’t approve repairs that they will get them done and charge my 94 year old father the cost.
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Mears Group
Calder House, Ellismuir Way
Tannochside Park, Uddingston, South Lanarkshire
G71 5PW
01236 793300
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1 Star Review
By : '1-2-let'
Services : Letting( As a Owner )
Rent PCM : £395
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : G31
Mar 23, 2023
People found this helpful6
Mears Group have a a ONE BILLION POUNDS government contract to house asylum seekers. As a letting agency, We have been renting a high number of properties to the various companies operating these contracts over the last 15 years and had very little issues, until the MEARS GROUP won it in... Read Full Review
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Mears Group have a a ONE BILLION POUNDS government contract to house asylum seekers.
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1-2-let said about Mears Group
Services : Letting( As a Owner )Date: 23rd Mar 2023
Mears Group have a a ONE BILLION POUNDS government contract to house asylum seekers.
As a letting agency, We have been renting a high number of properties to the various companies operating these contracts over the last 15 years and had very little issues, until the MEARS GROUP won it in Scotland. We are now trying to recover just about all of the properties that are let to this PLC company and severe ties with them.
They are constantly looking for properties with the incentive of guaranteed rent, They offer 3 and 5 year lets. however here are a few things that you need to know about them. This experience is based on the Scottish contract, managed by Steve Robbins
* Unless you own your property outright, you may be breaking your conditions with your mortgage lender or insurance company. Many mortgage companies would not allow you to sign 3 or 5 year tenancy contracts. However please read below, as this may become 3 or 5 years plus of hell!
* They use their own company leases, geared heavily towards them. These come under commercial leases, not residential. In Scotland, if a landlord has any issues, they can apply to the First Tier tribunal free of charge for payment orders or evictions. With Mears group, you have to go through court to evict or chase for rent arrears. This requires employing expensive lawyers, particularly with evictions. THIS IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT AS YOU NEED TO READ BELOW
*They pay low low rents. You would be better off letting to tenants on housing benefit and certainly get more rents in the private sector. Some of the rents are 50% less than what we can achieve in the private sector
*Now the MEARS GROUP operate to a more stricter standard that is required by law. This means that a landlord has to carry out much more work for them than a normal tenancy required under the repairing standards. They simply go in and carry out works, then withhold the rent until its all paid off. Most if not all of these repairs are extortionate and not all necessary required. There is nothing that you can do. They know that individually a landlord has to accept this unacceptable behaviour as they do not have the financial means to challenge a PLC company in court. Even if they do give you notice of repairs, there is strict timescales you have to action them in otherwise they go ahead and do it anyway. We have witnessed this on many occasions. Some of our landlords have been close to nervous breakdowns financial ruin because of them.
* Now here is the BIG thing you need to be aware of. The Mears Group DO NOT vacate your properties. We have about 12-15 properties where the blatantly refuse to leave. Even our lawyers (Matthew Currie of Jones Whyte) is not getting a response for them. They know it is expensive to raise court action to evict and you will find it difficulty to recover all your legal costs. So you are left with having to let with them until THEY DECIDE if they want to hand it back. This is the big issue we are having with them. The are refusing to leave and refusing to pay the increased rents that we would get had we let to anyone other than the MEARS GROUP.
Avoid the MEARS GROUP at all costs.
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We gave Mears our property to ...
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1 Star Review
By : 'ana'
Services : Letting( As a Owner )
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : G32
Mar 11, 2022
People found this helpful4
We gave Mears our property to let, now they have went and withheld our rent claiming unwarranted upgrades are required Despite being advised not to. I signed a 5 year agreement with them believing this would give me piece of mind, now there is nothing i can do. Please don't make the... Read Full Review
Comments (1)We gave Mears our property to let, now they have went and withheld our rent claiming unwarranted upgrades are required
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ana said about Mears Group
Services : Letting( As a Owner )Date: 11th Mar 2022
We gave Mears our property to let, now they have went and withheld our rent claiming unwarranted upgrades are required
Despite being advised not to. I signed a 5 year agreement with them believing this would give me piece of mind, now there is nothing i can do.
Please don't make the mistake i have made. Do your research and avoid these bulllies
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By : RSJ
Oct 2, 2023Hi there! I hope you don’t mind me reaching out here . We would be very interested to have a chat with you about this issue, as we are currently looking at Mears Groups and potential breach of...
We haveThis is why the Mears ...
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1 Star Review
Steve
By : 'ExposeMearGroup'
Services : Letting( As a Owner )
Rent PCM : £450
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : G31
Jul 27, 2021
People found this helpful9
We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. We have gone through the teething problems of the Angel Group, right through to Orchard & Shipman, Serco and now The Mears Group in 2019. During this journey, we expected... Read Full Review
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Comments (0)We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. We have gone through the teething problems of the Angel Group, right through to Orchard & Shipman, Serco and now The Mears Group in 2019. During this journey, we expected lessons to have been learned, however in our opinion The Mears Group are by far the worst service providers to date!
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ExposeMearGroup said about Mears Group
Services : Letting( As a Owner )Date: 27th Jul 2021
We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. We have gone through the teething problems of the Angel Group, right through to Orchard & Shipman, Serco and now The Mears Group in 2019. During this journey, we expected lessons to have been learned, however in our opinion The Mears Group are by far the worst service providers to date!
Prior to taking over the contract, landlords were told that the properties would be maintained and all repairs would be carried out at their expense. The leases were on their terms, however given what they were promising, including long term lets and guaranteed rentals, many unsuspecting landlords signed up.
Recently, the Mears group has been heavily criticised for placing people in hotels during the pandemic.
During a recent Disclosure TV programe https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000x4lv/disclosure-series-4-1-desperately-seeking-asylum. Many of these concerns were raised by Sam Poling to Steve Robbins, the man in charge of the Mears contract in Scotland. In the show, Mr Robbins claimed that he was only using hotels because of a shortage of housing, however in our view, this isn't the case. Private Landlords DONT want to rent to them because they are just bullies using their weight to force them into agreeing to anything, deducting large sums of money from rent payments without reason and withholding rents whenever it suits them. These unnecessary actions put many landlords could into financial difficulties with the majority having no option but to accept.
Let me give you an example of one of our current issues. One of our properties, a 2-bedroom flat in Dennistoun, we were getting £595 from the previous service provider, so naturally we wanted to continue at this rent (considering some properties nearby by are fetching up to £950pcm in the private sector, we consider this to be very reasonable). Mears told us we were only getting £450pcm! We refused to sign the lease and asked them to vacate if they are not prepared to pay.
Not only did they not leave, but they REFUSED TO PAY US A PENNY IN RENT FOR 18 MONTHS and only then after we instructed lawyers. Even then, they have still not recognised the actual rent and furthermore decided to deduct £2200 from it to install a new boiler! That's a nice money making scam! All this was confirmed in an email from Mr Robbins himself attached). Court action is pending for them.
This is a £1 Billion contract where they are PUTTING PROFITS FIRST. Not only are they trying to squeeze rents down, but are subsequently finding ways of maximising profit further at the landlords expense. I know many landlords who regret leasing to them.
Blame for all these failures lies firmly at the doorstep of Mr Robbins. Unless the Mears board acts now to fix this, the government must step in during 2021 and strip them off this contract.
I have no doubt many more private landlords will be suffering at the hands of these guys and I have set up an email for anyone that wishes to contact us. Our email address is SayNoToMearsGroup@gmail.com
Together we can demand change for both landlords and Asylum seekers.
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MEARS began OK, but as of ...
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1 Star Review
By : 'Jonathan'
Services : Letting( As a Tenant )
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : NE2
May 16, 2021
People found this helpful3
MEARS began OK, but as of late, it has engaged in a campaign of intimidation, harassment, denial of service, sexism, heterophobia, and cover ups. It is disgracing the... Read Full Review
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Jonathan Solomon said about Mears Group
Services : Letting( As a Tenant )Date: 16th May 2021
MEARS began OK, but as of late, it has engaged in a campaign of intimidation, harassment, denial of service, sexism, heterophobia, and cover ups. It is disgracing the government.
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Having a great laugh about ...
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1 Star Review
By : 'DSL'
Services : Property Management
Sold price : £500
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : CB22
Jan 26, 2021
People found this helpful4
Yet again Mears have cancelled an appointment with no notice or attempt to contact me. I am disabled and have been with no heating since 7am. When speaking to a very rude member of Mears staff they hung up. I was trying to make a new appointment and was told that i could not cancel the appointment... Read Full Review
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DSL said about Mears Group
Services : Property Management( )Date: 26th Jan 2021
Yet again Mears have cancelled an appointment with no notice or attempt to contact me. I am disabled and have been with no heating since 7am. When speaking to a very rude member of Mears staff they hung up. I was trying to make a new appointment and was told that i could not cancel the appointment if ill. When i pointed out that i would call if i was ill i was hung up on. I am sick and tired of been treated like something you find in the gutter by this company who found it funny that i had been cold since 7am, its now 2pm.
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Unprofessional, unhelpful, ...
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1 Star Review
By : 'Caroline'
Services : Letting( As a Tenant )
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : BD22
Nov 25, 2020
People found this helpful0
Unprofessional, unhelpful, time they got their act together, sending arrears letters out to an 87 year old on the day he moves in to a flat when it's already been... Read Full Review
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Caroline Abbey said about Mears Group
Services : Letting( As a Tenant )Date: 25th Nov 2020
Unprofessional, unhelpful, time they got their act together, sending arrears letters out to an 87 year old on the day he moves in to a flat when it's already been paid.
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The worse service I have ever ...
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1 Star Review
By : 'Malgorzata'
Services : Letting( As a Tenant )
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : NG31
Oct 16, 2020
People found this helpful1
The worse service I have ever came across! After waiting for two weeks for an engineer to turn up, he only came to say it’s beyond repair! Another few days added without hot water and heating... eventually boiler has been fitted and worked for two days! Phoned Meres and I was told they... Read Full Review
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Malgorzata Nowicka said about Mears Group
Services : Letting( As a Tenant )Date: 16th Oct 2020
The worse service I have ever came across! After waiting for two weeks for an engineer to turn up, he only came to say it’s beyond repair! Another few days added without hot water and heating... eventually boiler has been fitted and worked for two days! Phoned Meres and I was told they have 24h to have a look at it!
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Same Old Story Different ...
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1 Star Review
By : 'taking'
Services : Letting( As a Tenant )
Rent PCM : £400
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : MK3
Jul 21, 2020
People found this helpful3
Mears Group / YourMK, YourMK /Mears Group it doesn't make any difference which way round they go, in Milton Keynes they're one in the same and they all hang out with and get paid by Milton Keynes Council at the expense of disabled council tenants. They have always done odd repairs... Read Full Review
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taking said about Mears Group
Services : Letting( As a Tenant )Date: 21st Jul 2020
Mears Group / YourMK, YourMK /Mears Group it doesn't make any difference which way round they go, in Milton Keynes they're one in the same and they all hang out with and get paid by Milton Keynes Council at the expense of disabled council tenants. They have always done odd repairs take your pick, a brand new ceiling that has a crack down the middle, fence panels replaced onto rotten fence posts, replacing an old path so of course they block the drain and the whole thing needs digging back up, a broken tap so instead of replacing both they replace only the one and even that is not straight just to name a few. But when your disabled and you have 2 bodged wet rooms, 2 bodged brand new front doors, and now 2 bodged raised access ramps, from a grant that Mears shouldn't of even been using in the first place then you start to think that they are taking advantage of disabled council tenants. So you complain and complete a mystery 3 stage very long complaints process, and the same woman replies at the end of every stage funny how that happens they might as well just have the one stage. So you complain to 20 managers in total from the Mears Group to the council, to your local MP, and the Housing Ombudsman. In the end a disabled woman has to go to court just to try and get some kind of justice, with over 300 pages of evidence over a 3 year period. End result your told to give Milton Keynes council and Mears/YourMk a chance to put things right, so you give them another other other chance and ask for different contractors to do the work. Your told that they are but even now we are left with another dodgy access ramp, built on behalf of Mears by a company called S&S Property Services so Mears said but with no reviews I doubt it. Not happy with dodgy work that won't kill you, now they have started sending annual gas safety people out who aren't even Gas Safe registered. So you complain again to Mears, Gas Safe, even the latest Chief Executive for Milton Keynes Council and well 3 weeks on and It's business as usual for these lot.
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Disgusting house company and ...
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1 Star Review
By : 'Lima'
Services : Property Management
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : NE8
Mar 14, 2020
People found this helpful0
Very very very bullshit house company They have given a three bedroom house, for a family of 7. All the bedrooms are tiny and it stinks. They are liars and trick u to move house by giving false description They are really forceful and give fake utopian description of where they move you to,... Read Full Review
Comments (0)Very very very bullshit house company
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Lima said about Mears Group
Services : Property Management( )Date: 14th Mar 2020
Very very very bullshit house company
They have given a three bedroom house, for a family of 7. All the bedrooms are tiny and it stinks.
They are liars and trick u to move house by giving false description
They are really forceful and give fake utopian description of where they move you to, where in reality it turns out into a trash house.
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Disgusting ...
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1 Star Review
By : 'Katie'
Services : Property Management
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : S41
Feb 28, 2020
People found this helpful3
We reported we had no access to hot water on the 16th January as our immersion tank needs replacing - it is now the 28th February (over 6 weeks later!) and they have done nothing. We have a newborn son, which they are aware of, and they have still done nothing. Our local council has contacted them... Read Full Review
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Katie Bishop said about Mears Group
Services : Property Management( )Date: 28th Feb 2020
We reported we had no access to hot water on the 16th January as our immersion tank needs replacing - it is now the 28th February (over 6 weeks later!) and they have done nothing. We have a newborn son, which they are aware of, and they have still done nothing. Our local council has contacted them to demand they replace our immersion tank and still nothing. It's disgusting, and other reviews/comments on their social media pages seem to suggest these issues affect many of their tenants.
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The mears group have taken ...
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1 Star Review
Chris
By : 'Vincent'
Services : Letting( As a Owner )
Rent PCM : £500
Would you recommend ? : No
Postcode : G31
Dec 21, 2019
People found this helpful5
The mears group have taken over the contract to house asylum seekers in Scotland. We relet properties with them on the promise from Chris that everything would improve , however it was just rubbish. The problem is that they have refused to pay us the last 3 months rent until we sign their lease... Read Full Review
Comments (1)The mears group have taken over the contract to house asylum seekers in Scotland. We relet properties with them on the promise from Chris that everything would improve , however it was just rubbish. The problem is that they have refused to pay us the last 3 months rent until we sign their lease terms! Here are they things we found out.
Was this helpful?:
Vincent said about Mears Group
Services : Letting( As a Owner )Date: 21st Dec 2019
The mears group have taken over the contract to house asylum seekers in Scotland. We relet properties with them on the promise from Chris that everything would improve , however it was just rubbish. The problem is that they have refused to pay us the last 3 months rent until we sign their lease terms! Here are they things we found out.
Firstly in order to help you understand them, you need to know that the Mears group are a large maintenance company and as such with by having this new asylum contract And forcing landlords to only use their lease agreements, they have been giving a blank cheque book to determine how much work gets done in each property and to instruct their own contractors to do it at the landlords cost.
1. They will only pay LHA rates and tried paying it in arrears. Best letting to People on DSS
2. Despite claiming that they will carry out any small adhoc repairs themselves at no cost, they have now written into their lease that they dan do any work and deduct it from the rent. This will no doubt be a money generating machine for them to take as much of the rent as they can.
3. Even if you are allowed to get your own contractors in, they Have strict criteria and will only allow them in if they have had a disclosure check. Another hurdle you have to overcome.
4. They reserve the right to do any safety checks they want at your cost, without giving you the option to send your own contractors in
5. They make you sign a 3/5 year lease with no break clause on landlords side, but tenants can walk away
7. They have requirements that are well above the standard that a private tenants require. They will gladly move a tenant in, however once the lease is signed, they will come back to you with all these extra things that need done at your expense
In summery, you may be tempted by this long term lease, however it will cost you dearly in the long term with all their additional requirements and charges, many of which are not required in normal private lets
The UK's Largest Customer Review Website for the Property Industry
By : Alicia Davies
Oct 25, 2020Mears group are renting my fathers house and subletting to a tenant. My father depends on the rental to cover the cost of his sheltered accommodation. Mears group have been raising a catalogue of...
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