Homeground Reviews

This company is completly rubbish.Cant trust them. full of crooks works there. Never respond to any request.

PLEASE SEE UPDATE AT END...ITS GOT MUCH BETTER!

I feel compelled to write this for anyone who is wondering who this company is. This company may buy the right to "manage" your ground rent, that is money owed to whoever has the right to claim it. You may be here as you have received an invoice so here are some quick points:

1) You cant ring them
2) If you know you owe rent and its the amount you expect to pay or multiples of the amount you have to pay as you owe previous years, I strongly advise you pay before the payment due date. You may have information on what is owed annually. Do not dig heels in if you owe it.

4) This company makes money in a few ways, the ground rent fees (which cant change), fees associated with non-payment, fees for asking permission to do things to your house and selling the rights to your ground rent (possibly to you)
5) Despite opening an account to pay I couldn't pay online or by phone so I did a bank transfer so I had proof of payment. The payment took two days to clear. Check any payment(s) are not returned and KEEP A RECORD.
6) Numerous emails and enquiries went unanswered
7) They cant charge admin fees on ground rent if paid on time
8) It is in their interest that you dont pay so they can charge you non-payment fees
9) If you dispute any amount or fee, talk to a solicitor, dont expect HomeGround to be nice about it or even respond
10) Open an account so you can see your account is paid

After much reading about HomeGround and my experience I have to conclude this company and many like it make money on (for example) non-payment. Fees are unregulated so any challenge may go to court as its all about what is "reasonable". The fact is ground rent is out of the scope of many of homeowners understanding, there are companies like this who passively and aggressively try to exploit your own lack of knowledge.
If you owe pay and keep a record.

Update 4 months after that review (Oct 2019):

Hopefully some help and relief for customers in the same boat as me. I had reason to contact them again over a mysterious arrears charge on my account. I was less happy to see this after the previous experience but to my amazement they have a phone number and I must confess were very helpful! So, don't despair....you can now ring and believe me, they were informative and helpful in clearing up my issue. Massive improvement but my advice above still remains, pay if you owe, pay on time and keep a record and open an account so you can keep track.

Absolutely the most horrendous and appalling company I have ever dealt with. To date I have had no answers to 3 emails dating back from beginning of Feb as I have been trying to find out when to pay my ground rent. On top of that they have constantly fined me with bailiffs for late payment for bills I have never received or that they have never answered. I can truly say they are absolutely the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life.

I'm not surprised at the average 1.5* rating. They take forever to reply to any emails, send inaccurate demands and then add penalties for late payment of the inaccurate demands that they are in process of rectifying. They dont even have a contact number on their website. What legitimate business doesnt have a phone number?

Will charge late payment fees within just 14days of the date on their first invoice. It's entirely reasonable for the resident of an address to be away for 14days and thus not to respond to any communication within that time. Home Grounds policy is clearly intended to catch people out so they can profit off late payment fees.

Urgently needed a homebuyers pack, they managed to turn it around within 20 min and kept the sale on track. Great service and happy to help.

We have been trying to purchase our freehold from these, what a nightmare. No response to emails, they are not taking phone calls because of Covid.... If I was a business thinking of using these guys then I suggest you dont because they dont seem to want to sell the freeholds for you therefore you are loosing money.

Homeground are terrible - they are unprofessional and incompetent. They sent a payment invoice to the wrong address. Complete fools.

They are trying to get payment from 2012 which have been pay and have prof. But can not talk to anyone. Now have letter from Homeground demanding payment.

Does anybody have a contact number for these people?

Really poor communications from Homeground.

It seems like a lottery whether an emailed query will be worthy of an answer or not.

Appalling company - sending wrong demands initially 20x the amount due and following with solicitors after payment was received for the correct amount finally invoiced and paid a month previously. No phone number and no responses to emails.

We made a number of alterations to our flat. HomeGround dealt with these efficiently. Our queries were dealt with by the same individual, Sharan R, in a totally professional manner.

Is it possible to leave less than one star rating?
I've had previous problems with HomeGround who took legal action against me for an unpaid bill they didn't tell me about. Even though they had my current address and up to date email, they used solicitors to track me to my previous addresses, it was only a matter of luck that I managed to receive the bill.
This time, I haven't been able to log in to there site to pay my ground rent, its taken 5 days to try and pay it and multiple card errors. I couldn't pay with any of my credit cards, eventually managed to pay with a debit card.
I would advise to avoid HomwGround, even if you find your prefect house, if HomeGround are the landlords, look elsewhere.
I haven't even mentioned the doubling of ground rent!!!

No phone number. Very difficult to contact.Do not answer emails in time and do not check their accounts properly.

Unacceptable in this day and age.

A truly appalling company, I'd like to give them minus 5 stars, never mind zero stars!. They are organised to make it as difficult as possible to contact them & close for two weeks over the payment deadline period so that it traps the unwary into not being able to pay their ground rent on time. Last year we couldn't log into our account & our bank couldn't do a BACS transfer by phone so we ended up doing a 40 mile round trip to our nearest branch to make the payment before the deadline. HomeGround didn't reset our password until after the payment deadline.
This year we can't log into our account once again (despite the log in details being the ones that HomeGround gave us) so we may have to make the 40 mile round trip to pay if we can't pay by BACS.
We had an email months ago about a proposed rent increase & we queried it but we still haven't had a reply.

Rubbish company just like other management company in the UK. Sent me incorrect invoice led me overpay my ground rent. Don't even have a number can call to clarify bill. They also sent my neighbour's bill to my email address. My friend even received scam email from them asking for money. Absolutely criminal!

im 8 months in to trying to buy my freehold. absolutely ridiculous, trying to get a decent response is a joke, and the way they put the prices up on he rent, WOW.

Incompetent company. The only thing they know how to do is Scam customers. They charge ridiculous amounts for late payments even by a few days, this should seriously be illegal.

Also, I can bet you anything above 1 star is fake.

I suppose my single biggest gripe with this absolutely shambolic entity is not so much with their staff. They are clearly a product of the absolute lack of management and criminal-esque approaches to ethical behaviour and the customer (i.e. the property owners), but it's more to do with the fact that nobody governs them. There needs to be some sort of governance to stop companies like this popping up and making money for nothing. As a property owner, who is FORCED to having to use this absolute dogs-dinner of a setup by some absent minded fool in the leaseholder organisation - I now do the absolute minimum in terms of dealing with them.
If I could avoid - I would, but I can't so I just have to pray that one day their management will get their comeuppance in the form of prison term or hefty fine and ban from running anything like this again.

Only gave one star because Google won't let me give zero.

Here's to hoping that the manager/director of this organisation wakes up one day and realises he's essentially scum. I hope these reviews help to steer as many people away from them as possible. Avoid like the plague.

Moved address and paid account on a redirection letter with New address they have no record
Didn't email,phone or leave a letter at the property just put in hands of a solicitor, tripling the amount due

Absolute scam

Rip off organisation. Ridiculous admin charges. Con organisation.

Hazel was an absolute delight to deal with. helped with all the enquiries and provided the necessary information promptly!!

Absolute joke of a company & should be shut down! Didnt send me an invoice then followed up with a late payment fee letter, when I tried contacting them their how office was shut due to "Training." One of the worst companies I have ever dealt with.

No response for queries at all. Call centre closed no way to get in touch. Apart from receiving the ground rent. Doubt if they do anything. Due to their non response action, everything have to be on hold and a lot of parties involved got impacted.

We urgently required some paperwork from HomeGround for the sale of our property, which usually takes 3-5 business working days. We were desperate, and everyone in the office did what they could to help us get it on time. They pulled together so quickly for us. We were so appreciative of the team at HomeGround for going above and beyond to help us.

HomeGround just took over the lease management of a property I have owned since 1984. I can see straight away that this is professionally run company by their quick response and manner to customer questions. Highly recommended.

Recently I have been dealing with James Williams of the legal department. It was a pleasure to communicate with someone who was able and willing to help, politely . He was able to use his discretion, make decisions and respond in a timely manner. He answered and resolved an issue that has been long over due by understanding the problem clarifying the details. Thank you James.

Horrendous can't even login in to pay then send you threatening letters. Try picking up the phone too

These thugs are utterly disgusting! They are a mafia organisation, and just ride rough shod over everyday people. No contact number, they take their sweet time to reply to messages..an utter shambles!

Have now sent me a notice of legal action for ground rent that's already been paid. After I had to remind them last month that I had already paid them. They sent me an apology, assured me that letter was a mistake, that no penalty fee would be added to my account etc. And yet here we are : I am threatened with legal action for an amount that was already paid (and paid on time, might I add) . Its appalling.

This company is just horrible to deal with. I am trying to sell a flat but the company will not respond to the details my solicitors need. There is no way of contacting other than email, which they just ignore. I am going to loose a sale because of the inefficiencies of this HOMEGROUND!!!!!

Just had our freehold management moved to Homeground. Compared to the previous company, Homeground are a breath of fresh air - the payment process and account setup was so painless.

Thanks also to Patrick and Hannah in support - replies to a query within the hour.

Super service, needed a service charge statement for my solicitor to complete a re-mortgage. HomeGround responded in 5 minutes with the statement - considering it was after 5pm, that is sharp service.

This company is full of crooks and con artists. I own my property but do not live there. I wrote to the company in writing AND made a phone call to tell them that I had moved and to change my correspondence address. Despite doing this they continued to send bills to my old address and when I did not respond (as I had not received them) they instructed a lawyer to harass me for legal fees and fines. Might I add, they decided to do this through email. They had my email the entire time but didn't send me a copy of the invoice via email which I would have received and responded to immediately. The legal company they used (also crooks) then started threatening me with contacting my mortgage company (Is that even legal???!!!!) if I did not pay the legal fines immediately. I can clearly see why this company has a 1 star rating and can only urge anyone that has any association with them to eradicate it immediately and find something that won't cause you the stress that this awful, evil people have caused me.

Can't give less than one star unfortunately, this company make threats of legal action when every penny has been paid causing stress to our family, this should not be allowed.
FCA hopefully getting involved maybe even BBC watchdog or maybe rogue traders.
Would be good to see them on tv.

We bought a new build property on which the land was later sold to Home Ground. This meant we were forcibly entered into contract with them, the details of which are utterly ridiculous. Under their terms (despite owning your property) you More

This company is appalling. The fact that they have no contact number and take at last 5 working days to respond to basic queries, sums them up. Disgraceful.

worse company to deal with , they do so minimal, their business should be offshored , they act like superiors but all they do is demand money w/o justifications , conversations. they are like puppets , feel disgusted to have to deal with them

I have tried to get in contact with Ground Rent for months. I am wondering if this is a real company at all. They sent me an immediate automated response telling me I would receive a reply 'within 5 working days', but I never heard from them again. Also, all apartment within the building they manage are deemed unsellable, due to a claus in Homeground's contract. They are refusing to respond to the home-owners regarding this issue!

Abysmal - do not trust this company.

Representing very shady offshore companies and service is terrible. No email address to contact them and they are very good at taking money and very bad at fixing anything or responding.

Avoid at all costs.

i regret to be one of homeground customers :-(
I received treating letters from J B Leitch, due to the non-payment of my ground rent fees despite i am ahead of my schedule.
I am seeking a legal advise on this !

Horrible horrible company unable to run a company. Avoid at all cost (if you can)

Lots of fake reviews on here, no one can give these animals more than one star.

Company is full of con artists! Already paid my rent and still asking me to pay for it. Never send notice or letters to given address and then send an email few months later with charges and asking me to pay again. Sick of this!

One of the worst companies I have ever dealt with! No phone number, took 12 days to respond to an email, then billed me for a late payment. I paid their invoices then couldn't print a receipt off online as their service was broken, they More

I have been trying to deal with these guys from off shore, not resident in the UK at the moment, and I find they are draconian and very inflexible. Very quick to enagage leagl firms. Its almost like an arrangement fot pushing business to them. They agreed to email correspondence and didnt. Previously the management firm was Ground Solutions fo 10+ years without any issues.

HomeGround did a great job answering and dealing with email enquiries i sent as part of the sale of a property following a bereavement. Responses were quickly and efficiently dealt with.

However I am puzzled why there is no number to call. It can provide a slightly aloof/secretive impression if there is no-one to speak with!

A company who operates at one pace (slow) and are uncontactable except by e-mail which takes 5 days to answer.

ALWAYS CHECK EMAILS! This organisation will swiftly take legal action for non payment of invoices. Little did I know that their invoice was going to my 'Junk' and, by chance, I found an escalation email. Despite having my address, they did not attempt to contact me in any other way. As other reviews suggest, it seems to be a deliberate tactic - they get more money as a result. There's no phone number either. This company is clearly unethical in the way it works.

Got my address wrong despite correcting them then fined me for late payment of an invoice I never received. I wouldn't use them if I didn't have to.

Have to update this - the sheer incompetence and stubbornness is phenomenal. I can only assume these people are doing business as a result of some financial arrangement with managing agents. I pity the poor tenants that have to suffer customer service from the dark ages.

I have had a letter from this company. I have tried to contact them. They refuse to answer the phone. Can you tell me if this is a scam company. The property I am working on is freehold which was purchased a long time ago.

Been trying to get in touch for nearly two months. Absolutely dreadful, and no number to call.

I found the Hazel / H very professional and a pleasure to talk to about my problem. She was spot on with information and very responsive what more could you arks for. They are there to help you. Just also value them and you will get a good response. Although it s there job politeness does not cost.

Trying to contact homeground is quite a lot like playing the lottery but rather less rewarding. You send an email to them, then you wait to see if you are one of the lucky customers that will get a reply.

Total scammers

Same as the last 2 years

Disgraceful

Anyone got a phone number for them as They don t appear to have a number

I would leave negative rating if I can. I received a letter in my letterbox today telling me this is my final notice before legal proceedings - guess what I have never seen any reminder or payment due notice in the very first place for this half-year's instalment. No email reminder either.

I had the same issue a couple of years back so I actually actively look out for any letter that has a homeground stamp on the envelope.

This company is a complete scam probably its revenue stream totally lives on sending those "admin charges" to the leaseholders.

Absolutely useless company. Try to charge you an arm and a leg for practically anything you want to do with your leasehold property, and take an absolute age to get back to you on anything complicated. The sooner leaseholds are abolished and vultures like this go out of existence, the better.

Comfortably the most appalling company in the UK. Disgraceful. If 0 stars were an option I am confident it would this shambolic company's rating.

First experience with paying ground rent to HomeGround. Invoice was received in the post with plenty of notice of the payment date. After not including my reference number on the payment, the Team at HomeGround were quick to resolve this by locating the funds and allocating them to my account. Their response time fell within the 3-5 days as stated. No complaints regards the level of service

Con artists.

Fake phone number. The office they list in Bermondsey is not a real office. They take money then say they haven't received it, then send you letters demanding the payment you already made and they whack on 50% charges.

You can't speak to a physical person there.

It's a disgrace.

Taking advantage of lockdown to shutdown. No customer service what so ever.

Having an issue with ground rent that is in previous owners name , I have lived in my property for over 3 years only found out about this by opening a letter by mistake . How can company s operate with no phone number or fax , has taken 6 days to get a response with a question I have already provided the answer for , reading all the other reviews I m not looking forward to trying to solve this .

I have just got my post code corrected by contacting them on their website. The response was quick n swift. corections are done in no time. The only thing which bothers they dont have any telephone service to contact them.

I am fed up with this company sending me threatening letters when I have acknowledgement from them that I paid the account in full when I sold my flat over 2 years ago. I am taking the case to BBC's Rip-off Britain programme as they need exposing for their incompetence and illegal attempts at harassment and extortion. I have tried to contact them on a number of occasions and have a file of letters,emails and records of unsuccessful phone calls. Impossible people to deal with.

It appears correct that the language used on some of the reviews leads to them being fake! Take heed, this company is not contactable. They take great delight in passing your details onto to another organised crime group known as SLC Solicitors. That's just a by word for thief, scam artist all round dodgy folk. If Carlsberg made companies this is NOT one of them.

Absolutely useless. Just had a letter from them, months after selling my flat, saying they've passed my account to solicitors! Called the solicitor, who have basically said they're useless too!

Paid hundreds of pounds before moving out, to get a statement confirming I'd paid everything, so they knew I'd moved. Unbelievable.

Now I have to sort out the admin of sending my completion documents over to their solicitors, because they're too stupid to know who is living in their properties.