Paragon Asra Housing

Litterly useless cut corners in repairs lie constantly and literally a company that covers each others backs. I do not know a single person who can praise pa in anyway not even the staff which can be found online. How they claim to get so called awards is beyond me must be made from chocolate

I am PA tenant for the past 6 Years I never missed my rent not had any complaints against me. However my boiler broke down at the beginning of 2022 and I have been without hot water and heating up until now, not to mention I am vulnerable tenant.

Regardless how many formal complaints I wrote I am yet to get a single reply. I am dismayed the level of professionalism PA has to offer their tenants which is unacceptable:

My sister has been a resident of paragon for 14 years. Her boiler broke down, she reported it and 4 months on its not been fixed.

Shes an NHS worker and has had to live without hot water and heating for all this time during winter and covid! She called and emailed them 100s of time and they just ignore her. Meanwhile she paying her rent every month and on time for what? Paragon are not adhering to their contractual duties but she is.

They simply dont care. Just take advantage of low income vulnerable people. Disgraceful housing association!!!

They should be ashamed. Their properties are a crumbling wreck!

They ignore all communication from residents and other professionals, they don't even respond to solicitors legal letters threatening legal action for their incompetence.

They are not fit for purpose. The properties are in terrible condition, cyclical maintenance is ignored and left to tenants to do.

Staffed by illiterate, unprofessional individuals who only take pride in their ignorance, rudeness and bigotry.

Needs to be shut down, overhauled and reopened using new staff. They are always on holiday but never have a colleague to cover their duties. No one takes responsibility for mistakes, they think they are unaccountable. They view residents as an inconvenience to be fobbed off at every opportunity.

What are they being paid for and by whom?

My partner and I bought a flat from Asra who soon after were absorbed by Paragon to become PA Housing. Our experience with both companies has been poor to the point of it being distressing, and has caused one of us a stress related illness.

For a four month period, and despite paying our mortgage in advance of the collection date every single month, we received letters from debt collection agencies saying we hadn't paid the previous month's amount. This involved numerous phone calls (instigated by us) to PA to query the harassment from the debt agencies - not vice versa. It transpires that PA had given us the incorrect account details in a document pack when we purchased the flat, so we had been paying the full amount each month (and on time), but to the wrong account. My partner spoke with various employees of PA who said they would resolve this reoccurring issue, but instead it went on for four months.

We had to resolve it ourselves. Two months after moving in (and to a new build property) we were told we would need to pay between 1800-**** for new fire doors. Was the building not signed off as being fit and proper when it was built? PA are legally obliged to make any repairs to our flat, and we have had to request numerous repairs (which we aren't especially frustrated by), but of course everything has had to be forced by my partner and I, and the builders have never once turned up on time - and when I say not on time, I mean texting us five minutes before they're meant to be there (with us having left work early to accommodate them) if they could postpone.

By way of example, there are two leaks in the flat currently, and despite my having rung up PA last week on 14 August, and PA saying they would arrange for a builder to speak with me, I haven't heard anything from them since. It's 6 days later. This is a very typical example and it is genuinely pathetic. Last, and most significant, we made a complaint about a fellow tenant (having already reported this person to the police and the local authority).

The core issue here is that the person we complained about should not be residing in our flat block, and their doing so broke a verbal promise between Asra and us. This is something we're taking up with solicitors currently. I set all of this out in a lengthy but clear email on 21 July 2017. The email was titled 'Urgent Complaint'.

I received an email today (with my having had to repeatedly chase them and my case seemingly being passed from person to person) saying that my complaint hadn't been recognised as a formal complaint because I hadn't said I wished for it to be read as a complaint... I can only infer dishonesty from such a response, and also rank incompetence given it has taken 3 months to get a response that is more than 3 sentences long. This response (from somebody in their admin department) simply said I should seek legal advice and that she couldn't promise she would respond personally to any more of my emails. The people who had responded to me historically didn't even bother to include their surname or an email signature when they responded.

They also refused to give me the name of their manager. Frankly, the conduct of this organisation has been a disgrace. And when I asked for the details of their legal department or General Counsel, I was told that they have 'somebody who does some legal things'. This flat was meant to be a dream move, but instead it has turned into an emotional and physical drain, and all because of Paragon.

I would urge people to never use PA Housing.

They present as dishonest, lazy, uncaring and incompetent. Using them has been the biggest regret of my life.