“One of the worst housing associations I have had to deal with…” Tim Loughton MP (East Worthing and Shoreham), September 2008.
There may be one or two people out there who wondered what happened to the devastating noise disturbance situation my ex-partner Lin and I were going through in 2007 and 2008.
Eventually the housing association concerned moved their tenant out (the second crazy anti-social behaviour nightmare in two years – we were attacked and threatened on our doorstep, with loud screaming and swearing at all hours, amongst other things), they properly sound-proofed the flat below Lin’s, and they moved their unfortunate local manager on. Lin is now being treated with the respect that any innocent member of the public deserves. She does actually own her flat after all!
It took five visits to our local MP Tim Loughton and well over twenty letters to Sanctuary Housing and various other organizations (including the now defunct Housing Corporation, Supporting People, and the head of local police) before they took us and several of our neighbours seriously. The police and the local council were reluctant to get involved, although they were helpful at times, especially the supportive but ultimately powerless PCSOs. “It’s not a police matter”, we were repeatedly told. The Environmental Health recorder didn’t get results. No-one seemed to be seriously bothered about the stinking “skunk” cannabis, we wouldn’t have minded ourselves if they’d kept their windows closed.
For over a year, Sanctuary Housing’s behaviour was astonishing:- blatant bullying tactics, lies, dishonest back-covering and incompetence by several managers (fortunately we had evidence of this – you really should be ashamed of yourselves local manager Peter Jackson, Sanctuary Supported Housing head Tim Susans and regional manager Wendy Fletcher, what were you doing? Astrid Kjellberg-Obst and Steve Wood, is all this okay with you?), local and national offices ignoring many of our letters including one sent through their complaints procedure, contradictions and lack of clarity about what the law actually was on more than one occasion, written false representations of what we had written to make it mean the opposite i.e. outrageously manipulative lies, the accusation that Lin had not been co-operating with West Sussex Mediation Services – when in fact they themselves were preventing this from proceeding by not returning the mediation people’s phone calls.
Presumably they thought they could bully us into shutting up? It was obvious there was a real long-term problem but they preferred to try and make us look unreasonable for daring to complain. In the meantime Lin had serious depression, migraine headaches and I virtually had a nervous breakdown both before and after moving out. Both of us had problems at work due to exhaustion and ultimately our relationship itself did not survive the nightmare. The neighbours across the road, a lovely friendly retired elderly couple, were extremely upset by their complaints not being taken seriously.
“Sanctuary Housing? Oh no!”, said a nurse friend of mine when I told her about all this. “They kept ignoring several serious complaints and sending us threatening letters when I was in their student accommodation in Brighton. The university had to get involved on our behalf, it was a nightmare”. We and our MP couldn’t help wondering how many other people up and down the country have been on the receiving end of Sanctuary Housing’s grotesque and morally bankrupt unprofessionalism. And just plain indifference.
On their website, Sanctuary Housing describe themselves as “An industry leading social enterprise helping to set standards across the entire sector”. In his patronizing, clueless and ill-informed letter of denial to our MP, the Chief Executive David Bennett couldn’t even be bothered to get our address right.
According to an article from The Guardian in January 2004, the Chief Executive David Bennett of this “not-for-profit” organization was at that time receiving over £200,000 per year from tax-payers money. (According to Inside Housing and the Daily Mail 25.9.09, he is still one of the biggest housing ‘fat cats’ – now on £288,000.) Good luck to them, the money is obviously rolling in as they expand their “not-for-profit” empire, around 70,000 homes making them one of the biggest Registered Social Landlords in the country. Thanks for sorting out our situation in the end David, but from our experience at least, your organization appears to have one or two problems.
Yes, all the above is actually true! No full apology or explanation was ever offered. Useless. Uncaring. Arrogant. Disgusting.
August 13, 2009 at 4:18 pm |
Wow! – You have my deepest sympathy for the way Sanctuary Hereward have treated you, but i can assure you, this is not an isolated incident.
I have lived with Sanctuary for nearly 12 years and of those, the last seven, we have been in dispute over a specific issue.
I too have experienced mail going missing or just ignored. There does seem to be an issue with communication, as they do alter their position both verbally and in letters on a almost daily basis.
I have nothing but disgust for the staff at head office, as its seems to be more important to close ranks and protect work collegues to the expense and detriment of the tenants.
I am awaiting a court date, for a judicial review for my issue, but Sanctuary have gone and topped this by threatening my with a “re-possession order”, if i do not halt legal proceedings.
In my mind, this pathetic attempt, which was made verbally, is a bullying tatic, which they seem to use on a regular basis.
Sanctuary? Hardly!
Am looking forward to my day in court.!
August 13, 2009 at 8:17 pm |
Hi Ian. Oh dear, it all sounds very familiar. I’m not surprised that this may be widespread, we suspected as much. We certainly had more than enough evidence to take them to court but we just wanted to get on with our lives. All the very best of luck with that one.
Our experience was unbelievable. Where is their self-respect, let alone respect for others? Perhaps they have problems recruiting staff? Are they deliberately trying to make themselves look useless?! Our MP was pretty shocked and he’s seen a few things in his time.
To anyone else reading this who may have suffered at the hands of Sanctuary Housing… DON’T GIVE UP. However much of this is going on, THEY WILL EVENTUALLY HAVE TO CLEAN UP THEIR ACT IF ENOUGH PEOPLE STAND UP TO THEM.
Perhaps they have got too big to function properly?
“Committed to excellence” they continue to boast on their website. I genuinely hope that this is the case in the vast majority of their expanding empire of 70,000 homes. With us however, one of the many police officers we spoke to was nearer the mark:- “They don’t know their arse from their elbow!”
September 11, 2009 at 5:01 pm |
Taking a broader view, this post by a Housing Association tenant on a housing website seems to sum up a lot of the problem:-
“HAs have been encouraged by government policy to become property speculators who sideline in social housing, tenants’ property functioning as a useful loan guarantee for market speculation. The ‘charitable status’ is a joke – their profits (sorry, ’surplus’) pay whacking salaries to Chief Executives of £170,000+ for presiding over often appalling levels of services. The Housing Corporation & Ombudsman have failed, in the opinion of many tenant complainants, to regulate properly for years and displayed extreme bias… The new Tenant Services Authority has been talking tough about dealing with HAs – but then why weren’t these same officials tough when at the Housing Corporation?”
Good question.
Anthony Mayer of the TSA has said “I don’t think it much matters if you are big or medium, you can be big and have a regional or local focus.” Well that certainly wasn’t our experience. Sanctuary “we take this very seriously” Housing didn’t have a clue what was going on in our little neck of the woods, nor were they remotely interested. Maybe this was because they had only recently taken over the flat and others from Ashley Homes, part of the well-publicized empire-building of Sanctuary Group. No hang on – you would have thought that would make them MORE concerned about any complaints wouldn’t you?
ALL THE UNPROFESSIONALISM AND INABILITY TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY COULD SURELY NOT HAVE GONE ON FOR SO LONG IF THERE HAD BEEN SOME LOCAL SENIOR MANAGEMENT.
As our complaints eventually got passed to different managers in offices many miles away from us (Reading, Worcester), Sanctuary Housing became even less professional than the local manager Peter Jackson who reduced me to tears down the phone and who lied in writing to our MP. Our hopes were briefly raised when we got a letter from Astrid Kjellberg-Obst (Director of Corporate Services), saying an investigation into the local manager’s conduct had started and that we would receive a full reply within 10 days. We heard from them properly over a month later, when the threats, back-covering and general dishonest nonsense went up a notch as Tim Susans and later Wendy Fletcher of Sanctuary Supported Housing threatened us with their “Persistent, Serial and Vexatious Complainants Procedure”! (Whatever that is… does it even exist?)
MY THEN PARTNER AND MYSELF WERE COMPLETELY INNOCENT MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC WHOSE LIVES WERE BEING DESTROYED. SITTING MILES AWAY IN THEIR OFFICES, THESE MANAGERS HAD THE UNBELIEVABLE NERVE TO THREATEN US!!
I strongly suspect that they themselves have never been on the receiving end of long-term extreme noise disturbance from neighbours, or indeed that they have never been physically attacked for politely asking neighbours to keep the noise down at 4 in the morning.
Why on earth didn’t they just acknowledge that there was obviously a real long-term problem that people had been complaining about for years, deal with it quickly and save themselves a whole load of trouble? The complaints from us and our neighbours (like my ex-partner, they own their own homes) were never taken anything like seriously enough from the start.
Good God, one of the senior managers could even have tried… how’s this for a radical management suggestion… TALKING WITH US! We had sent them plenty of evidence that showed we were completely reasonable people just trying to get on with our lives.
Sanctuary Group continue to expand their empire.
September 26, 2009 at 1:50 pm |
I used to live in a sanctuary housing hostel in lancing. I was thrown out due to a member of staff making up a couple of things which i’m fine with now as my life is sorted now days. This was all 3 years ago. The last contact I had with them was a couple of years ago because I went to stay with a friend who lived there for a night but couldn’t stay unless i paid my debt from when i was there before of £7.00 so i paid it upfront and stayed the night. NOW 2 YEARS LATER AT MY GRANDPARENTS ADDRESS A LETTER OF £45.25 IS BEING DEMANDED FROM A DEBT COLLECTING AGENCY FROM ME AND THREATNING COURT ACTION IF I DON’T. The dead line is Monday and i just don’t understand why i shuold have to pay something that I don’t owe surely records of me should have been deleted when i paid my actual debt of £7.oo oh well as usual i’ll be f***ed and won’t be anything i can do other than ending up paying even more money i don’t even have………………..
September 26, 2009 at 5:08 pm |
Hi Zoe. Obviously it’s up to you and I’m no legal expert – but if the situation is as clear-cut as you describe, I strongly advise against paying up. There is plenty you can do! Try writing to Sanctuary regional manager Wendy Fletcher in Littlehampton (Google for the address) who may be sympathetic if you can present your case clearly and reasonably – it’s important not to get too angry, they can use that against you! Alternatively, you could first go to the Citizens Advice Bureau who can help you with any letter-writing to the debt collectors and Sanctuary. I also strongly recommend an appointment with Tim Loughton MP (again you can Google his site and contact) who is well aware of Sanctuary’s bullying tactics. If you have a genuine case, he will be on your side. Best wishes, Tim.
September 30, 2009 at 10:41 am |
I found the following from an internet forum last year, discussing Sanctuary’s newly-acquired (it was previously council housing) Shiregreen Estate in Sheffield:-
“I wrote to Dave Bennett, chief exec of sanctuary twice and these problems are now to be sorted out (yeh! right) but since, i have had not only a vist but also a phone call wanting to know why, wait for it, i owe less than £10 rent. When i had stop laughing went and paid £20. Seems complaints are not tolerated at Sanctuary Housing… i just think it was a not so subtle way on their part of saying, if you complain we will harrass you…” (my italics)
September 30, 2009 at 12:33 pm |
Just thought you might be interested in an update on my issue with Sanctuary…….
As you know i have been waiting for a judicial review to happen, which has been a long and stressful process.
The Equality and Human Rights Commission suggested one last attempt at opening a dialog with Sanctuary, They suggested they would act as a mediator in concilliation talks.
I was quite happy for this to be put to sanctuary, unfortunately and typically Sanctuary didn`t even bother to reply to The Equality and Human Rights Commision communication.
In the mean time i have recieved Pre-court papers from sanctuary accusing me of harassment, making 280 phone calls in 4 days and an alleged threat to harm an unamed member of their staff.
This was 5 weeks ago, and i have still not had any official court papers in relation to this matter……
I wonder why?
Because it is all fabricated and intended to try and intimadate me to withdrawing my case against them.
They do not have a shred of evidence to back up their wild claims, as it is all untrue……..
Lying is all they know when it comes to resolving issues that they know they are at fault, definately smacks of deja vu here!
Will keep you updated!
September 30, 2009 at 8:51 pm |
Thanks tim have already phoned them several times just waiting for responses now. Someone who works there has ovbiously tampered. Alot of strange things go on with that company I swear, there are alot of people in the wrong job……….. Not at all surprised to see what Ian just wrote!! Good Luck! Sure you won’t need it.
October 4, 2009 at 9:18 am |
I hope they ring you back Zoe, you never know your luck!? Good luck from me too Ian, I am very interested in the final result! TB
November 8, 2009 at 3:26 pm |
Interesting to hear Home Secretary Alan Johnson’s recent comments on antisocial behaviour, following the suicide mother Fiona Pilkington case. He has told the police to do more. The police and others say that “local authorities” must also play their part. Presumably, housing associations with not-so-local-managers are counted as “local authorities”?
More on what George Galloway MP has called “the perversely named Sanctuary Housing Association.” From a Sanctuary tenant in Sheffield, who used to work for Sanctuary himself:-
“Sanctuary staff have a lot to cope with – the management is pants – the general staff are bullied pressurised and belittled on a daily basis – the sickness record is unbelievable 24 staff including 3 senior managers and 7 line managers leaving 14 general workers of which 12 have been off work with work related stress and depression speaks volumes! A lot of the departments are managed by people in hull or leeds that dont understand shiregreens (estate in Sheffield) problems or needs and often tie shiregreens staffs hands in dealing with people…”
Ah yes, that will all be part of Sanctuary Group being “committed to excellence”, this covers everything, right down to the abusive treatment of their own front-line staff.
Don’t forget folks, CHIEF EXECUTIVE DAVID BENNETT IS ON £288,000 OF TAX-PAYERS MONEY PER YEAR.
November 8, 2009 at 5:14 pm |
Hi Tim
Thought I would leave a post following our chat. Sanctuary on its web site claims to be an “investor in people”. I have worked with them sometime on the front line, taking all the abuse and crap from upper managers who regularly coerce middle managers into closing ranks.
Their staff like myself are intimidated bullyied and treated like robots, frightened to open their mouths for fear of losing there homes.
They have absolutely no duty of care to their staff, sad in todays world.
One of my tenants was even threatened with his own tenancy on Friday of last week because he chose to support me,and he is classified as being vulnerable, the very people we are supposed to protect…..
November 8, 2009 at 6:51 pm |
Hi Wally, they really are unbelievable aren’t they?
Sanctuary Group are very positive about having met the “Investors In People” standard since 1997:- “Investors In People was praised as a tool to help the organization to improve key areas of the business including employee morale.” Hmmmm.
According to their own website, Investors in People is “a flexible and easy to use standard which helps organisations transform their business performance. Our frameworks are outcome focused…”
Going by all the above on this blog, the Sanctuary Housing Group “outcome” seems to be pretty clear…
THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT ANYONE.
November 8, 2009 at 11:42 pm |
well I am on the front line and regularly have experienced poor management of upper managers coercement of middle managers, no duty of care, I am blown away that a company can and does get away with this treatment with no come back at all