Riverside Property Hull Ltd

Within a week of moving in we reported a smell of sewage from one of the bathrooms, we were told by Riverside that nobody had complained of this before, but the builder reluctantly came out and said he needed to refer it to the maintenance company . Someone else came out and they said it needed to go back to the builder. Back and forth for a few weeks, eventually the guy from Handley Gibson changed the position of a pipe in the flat above’s attic. This improved the smell for a couple of months but as the weather began to get worse the stench came back and it could be smelt outside of the building on the communal stairs. Nothing further was done about this, they stated that they would need to go underground to investigate further but never did. The built-in dishwasher stopped working. An Engineer came out with the builder from Riverside, the engineer found a screw that came out of the machine and lodged itself, the builder said this was not his so we must have put it here somehow! Having no access to screws I denied this. Then I noticed the builder slyly sliding the screw inside his pocket !! We had intermittent cold water from the boiler, we reported it as intermittent, an engineer visited and reported back to Riverside that the hot water was mostly on, not establishing the root cause of the problem. Riverside proceeded to charge us £50 for a call out fee where no problem was detected. We called to discuss this and explain that it was intermittent, we were screamed at by a female member of staff who said someone would come back to us. The next day the Director, an older lady, called me and once again we were shouted and screamed at, she eventually waived the £50 charge, by this point, we had no hot water whatsoever. This went on for 10 days with no hot water at all and numerous call outs. Eventually we had the repair done after 12 days of no hot water. At this point we were weighed down with the awful way we were getting treated by Riverside. Although we did have it in writing that the £50 charge was waived there was no apology. In October we were burgled, the burglar made his way into the main building door by pressing the ‘Trade’ button outside the building which opened the door to anyone, 24/7 – unbeknown to us, or any other residents in the building. He had then used a plastic card to gain entry into the flimsy apartment lock into our flat. We contacted Riverside about strangers being allowed to let themselves in, the Managing Director, an elder man, said we need to change the timer in the electric cupboard ourselves, and contact Handley Gibson about this matter. We rang them over our concerns of the button for any person to allow themselves in and the flimsy main door to the building which could easily be pushed in. They said they would come back to us, but never did. We followed this up with a formal email 10 days later, but they never replied. Eventually we refused to live this way any longer, being treated as if we didn’t matter and whenever we tried to communicate in a polite and professional manner we were shouted and screamed at. So we decided to leave the property. The estate agent dealing with our house contacted Riverside for a reference, they stated we owed them £50 and that we had damaged the property by installing a water filter that caused a hole and fitted new pipework inside the kitchen. The hole was 2mm that we had previously agreed to fill if we ever left, the pipework was a thin flexiwire that attached itself to a plastic tap which they had not even seen. The £50 owed was a lie and it turns out they were referring to our waived charge of an engineer call out fee. We explained our nightmare to our leasing agents, of course they believed us, and we are now happier than ever settled into our new home. Riverside decided to deduct £170 from our bond because we did not hang their pictures back on the walls for them, or put their mattress base in position for them, but why contest it? We certainly were not going to be shouted or screamed at again, and money is not everything, happiness is.