We have been renting a considerable number of properties to Asylum seekers ever since the home office contracts began. We have gone through the teething problems of the Angel Group, right through to Orchard & Shipman, Serco and now The Mears Group in 2019. During this journey, we expected lessons to have been learned, however in our opinion The Mears Group are by far the worst service providers to date! Prior to taking over the contract, landlords were told that the properties would be maintained and all repairs would be carried out at their expense. The leases were on their terms, however given what they were promising, including long term lets and guaranteed rentals, many unsuspecting landlords signed up. Recently, the Mears group has been heavily criticised for placing people in hotels during the pandemic. During a recent Disclosure TV programe https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000x4lv/disclosure-series-4-1-desperately-seeking-asylum. Many of these concerns were raised by Sam Poling to Steve Robbins, the man in charge of the Mears contract in Scotland. In the show, Mr Robbins claimed that he was only using hotels because of a shortage of housing, however in our view, this isn't the case. Private Landlords DONT want to rent to them because they are just bullies using their weight to force them into agreeing to anything, deducting large sums of money from rent payments without reason and withholding rents whenever it suits them. These unnecessary actions put many landlords could into financial difficulties with the majority having no option but to accept. Let me give you an example of one of our current issues. One of our properties, a 2-bedroom flat in Dennistoun, we were getting £595 from the previous service provider, so naturally we wanted to continue at this rent (considering some properties nearby by are fetching up to £950pcm in the private sector, we consider this to be very reasonable). Mears told us we were only getting £450pcm! We refused to sign the lease and asked them to vacate if they are not prepared to pay. Not only did they not leave, but they REFUSED TO PAY US A PENNY IN RENT FOR 18 MONTHS and only then after we instructed lawyers. Even then, they have still not recognised the actual rent and furthermore decided to deduct £2200 from it to install a new boiler! That's a nice money making scam! All this was confirmed in an email from Mr Robbins himself attached). Court action is pending for them. This is a £1 Billion contract where they are PUTTING PROFITS FIRST. Not only are they trying to squeeze rents down, but are subsequently finding ways of maximising profit further at the landlords expense. I know many landlords who regret leasing to them. Blame for all these failures lies firmly at the doorstep of Mr Robbins. Unless the Mears board acts now to fix this, the government must step in during 2021 and strip them off this contract. I have no doubt many more private landlords will be suffering at the hands of these guys and I have set up an email for anyone that wishes to contact us. Our email address is SayNoToMearsGroup@gmail.com Together we can demand change for both landlords and Asylum seekers.

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