Stepping Stones

I cannot over state how appalling their "service" was. I had rented a 2 bed flat in Peoples Place for 3 years when the then landlord sold the property to another property investor. When the new landlord took over they appointed Stepping Stones to "manage" the property. From here things started to go wrong. Stepping Stones were slow to respond to maintenance issues and were adamant that it was perfectly acceptable to leave me without a washing machine for 2 weeks and many weeks more before they restored my kitchen back to its original state. Stepping Stones wanted me to sign a new long term contract which wasn't possible due to my personal work circumstances something they never even tried to discuss. Having taken on the property they had clearly failed to read and understand my existing tenancy agreement. Stepping Stones sought to raise my rent without following the correct procedure. Within less than a year of taking on the property they sought to increase my rent by 15% (£100). I asked a local solicitor to look in to the matter. They reviewed all the documents Stepping Stones had sent me along with my previous agreement. My solicitor established various problems including that Stepping Stones had failed to send me details of the deposit protection scheme and also never sent me a Section 48 document which is a legally required document when a new landlord takes over. My solicitor also found various errors in their docmentaion rendering them at best incorrect and at worst invalid. My Solicitor contacted Stepping Stones to ask them to clarify the matters. When he asked for evidence they had complied with the necessary requirements Stepping Stones responded with an eviction notice. Stepping Stones sent me a number arrears notices one of which threatened court action. These were invalid as Stepping Stones had not followed the correct procedure and my solicitor told me to ignore them. Eventually Stepping Stones admitted they made a mistake with these but blamed it on "computer error" failing to recognize that it was their mistake that led to the computer issuing the letters. As I was getting nowhere with Stepping Stones I reported them to The Property Ombudsman (TPO). At this point Stepping Stones offered my £1800 to withdrawn my complaint but would only do so if I signed a non-disclosure agreement. I declined the offer as from my perspective this was an attempt to bury the complaint and they made no commitment to resolve the underlying matters. Stepping Stones have fought this case all the way. Thier response to the TPO even tried to suggest my solicitor wans't qualified to deal with the matter! The ombudsman has now reviewed the case and a few excerpts from their investigation are below : "Failure on the part of SS to appraise themselves of all the facts is likely to have contributed to a level of unnecessary aggravation, distress and inconvenience." ... "No evidence was received from Stepping Stones in their submission documents to support the fact that these letters were sent" ... "I consider that there is sufficient evidence of a failure to undertake due diligence and I refer specifically to Paragraph 11c of the Code." ... "I have found that there were service shortcomings/failings under the Code of Practice and I will make an award that I consider fairly compensates for the aggravation, distress and inconvenience caused by those shortcomings." The TPO clearly recogises the failings of Stepping Stones but I have no doubt they still have their heads firmly in the sand. The problem with the TPO is that if I accept their report I accept this as final when actually there are strong grounds for legal recourse. As such I will be declining their response /compensation so the door is open to taking this further. There were various other issues and this is the short version of this story but my advise is have google around and no matter how much you like a property it isn't worth it and stay well clear.