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.