Watson PM Reviews 76

Watson’s do the “property management “ for the block of flats I live in (owner occupier). They have become poorer and poorer over the 7 years I have lived here.

They are increasing the management fee by 10% for the second year running and think it’s acceptable to just ignore the directors flagging legitimate concerns about Watsons performance. They seem to forget leaseholders are the customer and they are the supplier.

They do nothing for the fees they charge and do nothing to ensure lease holders get the best value for money.

We will be looking to replace them at the earliest opportunity.

We rent from watsons in oulton leeds very very poor company staff very rood on the phone repairs don't get done takes ages to get a simple repair booked and completed no fire safety in hallway to flats disgraceful property management experts don't make me laugh one star is being polite if I could I would give 0.

Shocking level of negligence and incompetence. Staff lie and are more interested in covering up their mistakes and our building has basically been destroyed with apartments abandoned because Watsons charged us for shoddy work, and every time it failed, they charged us again for the same company to come back out and botch it again adding their 10% on top every time. Building is a disgrace and now has major maintenance issues and fire safety issues which need fixing urgently, and leaseholders have had to abandon their homes because apartments are unsafe or completely flooded. Beyond incompetent!

Disgrace of a management company. Staff are incompetent, fail to update or return calls and can’t even repair leaks. Ongoing serious leak for 4 years, leaseholders have already paid for around 4 repairs and the leak got worse each time, now 3 apartments are completely destroyed and uninhabitable, but ‘James’ says the repairs are correct and doesn’t know where the leak is coming from. Om#nt stormed out of a leaseholder AGM because his palls on the resident’s board were voted out and he knew Watsons would be given their marching orders – leaseholders had to revolt against this sham company.

Get rid of this company – they will rinse you for service charges and provide a shocking service, your building will fall apart and your investment will drop in value. If you have a board of directors on the resident’s management company rally round, get more than 50% of shareholders and use a shareholder’s resolution to vote out any directors who fail to hold Watsons to account and appoint new directors who will give this sham company its marching orders. Let’s see them lose some buildings – their listings on companies house show buildings they manage as J H Watsons or their staff act as company secretaries on most of them, lets see this number dwindle and serve justice on Watsons for all the harm they cause leaseholders!

I'm selling a house that comes under Watson Property Management which charges a fee every six months for cutting grass verges. In order to sell the house I need to buy a Sales Pack. On requesting this, Watson invoiced me £600, an astronomical figure which I paid promptly. A few days later my solicitor urged me to challenge this amount. A pleasant lady informed me over the phone that I had been overcharged by £246 by a member of staff that was now 'no longer with the company'. She said they don't do refunds but they'll credit my account with the 'overpayment'. They used the word 'overpayment' in correspondence and not the word 'overcharged'. I explained I was selling the house and a credit was of no use to me. I requested a refund for the amount overcharged and she promised this within 2-3 working days.

It took Watson over 20 working days to refund my money and each of the four times I chased this, they requested my bank details, claiming they hadn't refunded because they didn't have these. The people in this company told me lies. They had my bank details and they did everything they could to avoid speaking with me, and avoid returning my money. Eventually I had to write explaining that I was issuing a small claim in a county court and that I'd be awarded costs.

I truly despicable company with appalling standards. I honestly don't know how their employees get job satisfaction working for a company with values like this.

Property LACEB/005

"Property management is the daily oversight of residential, commercial, or industrial real estate by a third-party contractor. Generally, property managers take responsibility for day-to-day repairs and ongoing maintenance, security, and upkeep of properties." That's the definition which has nothing to do with Watson PM. Terrible service. Changing the lock took them months. Now after the building was flooded, they did of course nothing. Humidity is at extremely high level, there is disguisting mould growing at the walls because everything is wet and left like that from a month already. Heating doesn't work so it is impossible to heat the corridor. The intercom doesn't work either. Post boxes were flooded too, so at the moment we can't use them. Unbelievable!!!! Unacceptable

This company is so negligent that it is dangerous. Watson's took over management of my building in 2018, charging £230 per month service charge. This service charge covers a yearly 'visual inspection,' of the property to check for any immediate repairs. We have been informed that it would cost £3000 for a more in depth check.

The last visual inspection neglected to look at half of the building- I have carefully studied their most recent inspection report- and an 8 foot stone wall has since collapsed (without any major weather conditions or traffic incidents. ) I have pointed out that this could have killed someone. However, Watsons have made no apology for their error and maintain that they are doing a good job of maintaining the building.

I will be taking further action on this but Watson's incompetence has already caused me far more stress and worry than is acceptable. I would advise everyone to avoid them.

I recently found a 5 star review for Watson here, written by a Watson employee. ! The same guy who told me YEARS ago there was no date to fix the Leaseholder portal. It been down since October 2020. Yes, you read that right. Our building was taken to Tribunal and we still don't have a proper Property Expenditure report since that time. They have refused any report at all for 2022.

Trustpilot has been good enough to remove this review written by Watson pm.

I have given a1star review because there is not a lower one!!
We have dropped WATSON because they just did not provide a proper service and their response to calls was hopeless.This included those to Ian Omant the MANAGING DIRECTOR.
What does the logo they have "PROPRTY PROPERLY MANAGED BY WATSON "mean???
From Keith atWestward House York

Watsons Property Management company are beyond a joke. They are incompetent on so many levels- poor to non-existent communication; speed of problem rectification is slow to dead stop or even moving in reverse; financial incompetence and inaccuracy on bills. Information provided by them when purchased property incomplete and wrong.

DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY
IF I HAD A CHOICE I WOULD NOT DEAL WITH THEM
THE MAJORITY OF REVIEWS SUPPORT HOW BAD AT THEIR JOBS THEY ARE.

COWBOYS! Completely incompetent and negligent. Watsons employed negligent contractors (Wheatly FM) who were paid over £4,000 to (eventually) attempt to repair a leaking roof in 2021, but the repair was shockingly incompetent. The pictures taken during court proceedings show that they failed to integrate the 'new' fiberglass deck into any upstands or the existing roof / balcony deck structures. Plants were even growing out of their “new balcony deck” within a year. They were paid more than another £8,000 by the incompetent management company to return and re-do their negligent work, and only made the problem worse. Watsons (Director Omant) keeps claiming that the balcony / roof is ‘water tight’ despite numerous images and video evidence and the fact the repair had been botched by their contractor.

Watsons also refused to remove this contractor (and paid them more money to come back and botch it again) – lucrative scam sending contractors to botch work again and again when they get a percentage of the invoice value. If the repair fails, just send the same contractor again for another cut of the invoice.

A court appointed expert witness has produced a report stating that the repair was ‘negligent’ and the work is not to a standard you would expect from a competent contractor. The report also identified major issues, like the fact they painted an incompatible rubber sealer onto the ‘new’ fiberglass roof when the fiberglass roof instantly failed.

Watsons claim to be a professional management company, but can not even instruct, supervise or inspect works and has no idea of how a fiberglass deck / flat roof should look. A court appointed expert witness concluded that Watsons (and others) lack the commitment, skill and expertise to instruct and supervise such works and recommends that an independent surveyor inspects and supervises the remedial works. Why pay Watsons (who are supposed to be a property management company) to instruct and manage repair works when they are clearly not capable.

Pictures available on other platforms (google reviews etc) show the initial repair (the new fiberglass deck installed in 2021) just over a year later in 2022, and shortly after, further botched repairs by Wheatleys FM who were instructed to return to their botched work by Watsons. Note how they used silicone sealer and flashbond tape to attempt to repair a round downspout and used a liberal amount of expanding fire foam to try and seal areas. They also tried to integrate the newer Fiberglass deck (installed in 2021) to the existing structure using self-adhesive flash bond tape and silicone sealer. Completely shocking – these incompetent contractors and Watsons have no idea and are clearly bluffing their case. Complete cowboys!

The contractors even used an offcut of 15mm copper pipe which they 'glued into position' using silicone sealer to try and support a failing rain water down pipe which was unsupported. Employ Watsons Property Management at your own risk – this is the standard of work they aspire to and claimed (in court proceedings with a signed statement of truth) have been carried out by a skilled and competent contractor with extensive industry knowledge and skill…. Look at these pictures on other platforms and judge for yourselves!

Update 2024 - court proceedings finished with Watsons settling just before hearing for a substantial amount of money along side their client resident management company. Lunacy from Watsons is next level - forced entry into an apartment which a court ruled was unlawful entry and a breach of the terms of the lease (quiet enjoyment) and regarding a data protection complaint / SARs request a Watsons employee fabricated an email to claim they had complied with legal obligations when they had not. This employee Sarah Harding refused to explain her fabricated email. Sham of a company! Watsons property Management employees who claimed to be qualified surveyors could not even identify an issue with a severely leaking fiberglass deck / roof despite the fact it had gaping holes at the edges and had plants growing out of it. Next level incompetence Omant and James Thompson.... qualified my A##.

Update - Watsons settled just before court date, expert witness found them to be negligent - their contractors are incompetent, Watsons failed to supervise them. Watsons even claimed there was no leak when despite a 'waterfall' running through the apartment from late 2020 until they settled just before the hearing on January 2024 and then still failed to fix the leak - Watsons were removed from managing the building in October 2023 and are incompetent. Absolute clowns... Their staff even tried fabricating emails during the process. Dishonest and incompetent property management company!

Horrendous company! Foul and abusive 'Managers' and only too ready to cut corners. Non existent caretakers who turn out to be cannabis smoking cash in hand residents!

I recently moved into an apartment managed by Watsons. No information whatsoever on arrival and have been drip fed information (in response to my phone calls) regarding the whereabouts of gas and electric meters, water meter etc. My first and only official communication came today - asking me to put a black bin into the bin store. I did this to begin with! As yet I have to see any contract/agreement regarding ground rent six weeks after moving in.

Watson is an appalling management company. They have zero concern for the health and well being of children living under their service management. They have left myself, my 6 month baby and two year old without any heating or hot water for 5 consecutive days now, on top of 23 previous days this year. They should not be allowed to operate as a company!

In response to Watson’s reply, I can confirm that the emergency was reported several times to the out of hours emergency team. Our complex ‘little kelham’ which includes 33 households effected with no heating and hot water for over 7 days, collectively raised the issue via the emergency number 14 times, reported it 68 time via the Watson internet ‘report a problem’ portal (which we were advised to do) and personally, I phoned the Watson designated representative for our department 5 times and left messages to which I never received a reply.

I can conclude that we were left 7 days in total with no heating and hot water. On top on 5 consecutive days before that in December and a total of 44 days over the course of 2022.

I believe that Watson have not only broken legislation in regards to leaving young children without heating and hot water but they have failed to respond to their obligations of a service management.

Our ground floor flat was being flooded from waste water from the flats above, the water was flowing out of the sink and washing machine.
The occupants of the flats above were ask to stop using any water. An e-mail was sent with the details. The following day(Sunday) they were call several times, put on hold, calls directed to other departments and put on hold. Request were made to speak to the manager. There answer was no manager was working. For a company offering an emergency service, it is a requirement.
We only got to speak to different receptionists no engineers.
There view was it was inconvenient, and could offer an appointment soon Tuesday.

We called Blockbusters ourselves, what an excellent service, and reasonable priced for a call out.

Recent in this instance equates to the past three years. The residents' association has built up an outstanding relationship with watsonpm based on honest conversations, objective forward-planning and a desire to create a working relationship that benefits both residents and watsonpm.

It is understood, as a consequence of dialogue with other residents' associations, that the highly effective, representing value for money, operational vehicle that has evolved over the past three years is indeed somewhat unique between Landlord/Management Agent and Residents' Association.

Terrible customer service

I am unfortunately a leaseholder of a property managed by Watsons PM. I work in the property industry and have witnessed 1st hand why whenever the name 'Watsons' is mentioned in the property fraternity, there is a collective sigh.

The service charge figure is more than 3x the average of a similar property in Leeds City centre and 2x more expensive than concierged flats in the centre of London.
Works take an ungodly amount of time to complete. It took over 2 years for them to replace flooring in communal areas due to flooding.
Any works which are done are not done at a competitive rate, usually way above what would be deemed reasonable.
They often miscalculate the Service charge and then have to rectify and re-balance the following year. For example, There was a shortfall in the previous year of say £200, they give you only 14 days notice to make that payment and it cannot be added onto the current years Direct Debit schedule, must be paid in full within 14 days.
The section of their website which allows leaseholders to check where their funds are being spent has been under maintenance since October of 2020. Convenient how the payment section still works fine but not the sections important to their customers, 18 months on.

Thankfully there are some un-happy residents who have been looking into forming a residents association and exploring the RTM (right to manage) process in the hopes of getting rid of Watsons.

All in all they are the worst management company i have come across in years in the industry, their service charge figures are ridiculous and their management of the premises is even worse.

I rang Watsons on 10/05/22 to report a bleeping smoke alarm. I received the usual email stating (Thank you for using our online management system, we endeavor to respond to your message within 72 hours) I just knew they'd fail to respond within the time specified. So, not been able to sleep peacefully for 4 nights as yet!!
I have reported numerous issues in the past which haven't been resolved. The management fee is constantly rising, but the service is increasingly poor or missing.
To the MD, sort it!!!!

Godawful, avoid at all costs. Constant, almost daily failures to do their job with regards to the properties.

What kind of property maintenance professionals use water based paint for exterior window frames and masonry? Allowed our building’s roof to waste away leading to a dangerous structural collapse. Like something out of the dark ages. Awful crooks and should be banned from all future contracts.