Riverside Reviews 

I am a vulnerable adult living in one of Riverside care homes .

Last May 2025 Universal credit Was stopped the department for working day pensions.
. Because of a review that the dwp was doing at the time .

This no doubt stopped my house in benefit.For that month .

RIVERSIDE have taken the best part of a year before writing to me about this issue .

I was told by my kep worker that I needed to pay 200 pounds a mouth or .

I could be at RIse of losing my home as part of this crew back of Housing benefit. My mental health has been deeply affected today .

And at no point did my key workers show any sense Of duty a care towards. She Kept ongoing on about where are these statements? . I feel at the bottom message is we don't really care about you .

we just care about get our hands on money . Don't care if this is going to affect your mental or your physical health . We don't care if you Ve got enough to live on.

All we care about is getting her hands on the money that your supposed to owe us . I feel that your duty of care towards me goes out

.The window , You clearly do not care how this is going to affect me in any way , shape or from . I have had many people occasions when.
I ve been left with the things not being fixed in my own home .

I m dealing with a housing officer who just wants to pass the buck and put all the blame on you .

And on top of all of it , she want to push up the amount of money that you want to charge per month .

And get out of actually doing the work that needs to be done to bring these places up to standard .

But I guess that's how a big wealthy company works .

I have been told in the past that you don't block email addresses , When it comes to making complaints to riverside .

Well , that's not true , because I ve tried again this evening to make a a prive complaint .

There is nothing wrong with a complaint which I was trying to send to you on your private page.

The only thing is that you don't want already hair.People's complaints

. I m sick and tired of people calling me a customer who works for this company , Because if I am a customer ' them i should be treated with the highest respect

. I was growing up , taught that the customer was always right. Instead .

I get treated as though I m something on the on somebody's feet by a Housing officerhe wasn't even born when I was growing up .

I worked for One Housing Riverside in Hackney for several years and resigned recently. While the role itself was demanding the most difficult issue for me was the management culture.

In my experience working under senior manager Sam Hines was extremely challenging. I found the environment intimidating and at times hostile rather than supportive or professionally managed. I experienced what I believed to be bullying behaviour including repeated undermining dismissive communication public criticism shifting expectations and a pattern where blame often seemed to be pushed downwards. Over time this had a serious impact on morale confidence and day to day wellbeing.

I also experienced frequent staff disputes which in my view were not always handled fairly or consistently. I observed what appeared to be favouritism in decision making and in the way concerns were addressed. This damaged trust within the team and created a workplace atmosphere that often felt divided unpredictable and heavily influenced by internal politics rather than clear processes or consistent leadership.

During my time there I witnessed significant staff turnover across Hackney. Managers and support staff left regularly and the pace of departures was deeply concerning. Since leaving I have also been in contact with former staff and from those conversations it appears that more people have continued to leave. That ongoing turnover raises serious concerns about the working environment and stability of the service.

The constant loss of staff increased pressure on those who remained and affected continuity team morale and the overall running of the service. For me the combined impact of the management culture staff disputes perceived favouritism and continued turnover made the role unsustainable and was a major factor in my decision to resign.

Anyone considering a role here should ask careful questions about leadership culture staff retention and how concerns are handled in practice.

If you want it even safer for review sites I would remove Sam Hines’ name entirely because naming an individual is often what triggers removal even when the rest is carefully written. Here is the safer version with the same impact:

No star for this disgusting HA that ignores any plea FOR REPAIR notoriously they leave tenants with EMERGENCY REPAIR with no hope of service. GOVERNMENT OFFICIAL NEED TO INTERVENE URGENTLY into their state of management. This dubious housing association must not receive any government funds towards their financial needs.
Rats running around inside the walls. The dirty scruffy state of their housing is deplorable

Avoid this company if you’re considering shared ownership. Customer service repeatedly dismisses issues by saying “it’s not Riverside’s problem,” yet service charges increase every year. We’re told the charges contribute to funding the customer service centre, but the support provided is minimal at best. When questioned, they simply hide behind contract clauses to justify the increases. Very disappointing experience. Riverside have been in touch yet again hiding behind clauses to justify increases to service charges, Ive been given a complaint number let's see what utter rubbish they come back with to justify their poor service charge increases for none existent services.

The most incompetent organisation I've ever witnessed in my life. They sold me a faulty shared ownership flat which I've been asking for repairs for 2.5 years now and they now say default period is over...

The most infuriating company. This is the only way to get on a property ladder and these companies are meant to support those with low/limited income yet they charge you for EVERYTHING!
I have been on shared ownership for years and honestly it's become more difficult as time has gone on. Extortionate administration fees, never mind the absolute negligence to us as customers who still pay a rental fee. If I was a 100% rental/social housing tenant, I could apply to get a new kitchen or bathroom, people would fix everything and I wouldn't be charged any fees to install items. Shared Ownership - well be prepared to pay for everything yet still no help or support. I have asked 4 times how I pay a ridiculous administration fee to simply install an EV charger - yet no one can tell me! I asked if the surveyor will even survey the property, given this is what I have to pay for. I have been told no they don't come out. Make it make sense.

In the past few months there has been a lot of bike theft in the building. Riverside is charging us £3500 for CCTV but say the cameras don’t work and that they do not have access. The lifts in the building keep braking down and it takes almost a month for them to repair it. Our hot water has not been working for 3 days

Formal complaints regarding repairs are closed without addressing any of the issues raised and nor a report of the findings. Just awful service and worse since the big merger. Frustrated

simply the worst management company ever

-> not helpful
-> HUGE over charges
-> awful service

absolute crooks

Having refused to give me enough space for my belongings, although they have plenty to spare, Riverside are now harassing me by complaining my room is cluttered. They poke about in my room while I am out which is totally unethical. The more I struggle to comply with their demands, the more unreasonable their demands become:

Rather than acknowledge their unhelpful and inflexible response to my request for space, they accuse me of bringing clutter into the hostel. To refuse to give a person enough room for their belongings and then to criticise them for clutter, is adding insult to injury!

For details of previous harassment by Riverside, see my previous Trustpilot reviews.

Riverside need to take a close look at there contractors and the contract with molymeux, worst week off my life
Cracked bath , leaking taps lazy in complete work neighbours daughter sworn at I fell downstairs as plastic to protect catpet left and wasnt safe no one intresred 22 calls over the week to manager James who doesnt answer email sent to Paul doran lets see if he reads it looks at photos and deals with the mess off a bathroom i was left with never in my life have I been around such a unprofessional group of people riverside should be ashamed of themselves for how Tennants get treated rents go up level and standard of work drops lower over 1 hour to get through on phones friday to make compensation claim for blind, left while plastered on window ruined, towels to soak up constant leaking taps five visits boots mine that held my shower pole up to kerp tiles in place to dry and my hurt back and stress me and my daughter been put through due to general lack of communication and decent work not being done I hope this is read and my complaint looked at and someone has a very close look at molymeux as clearly there standard of work is lacking

Ever since the Riverside took over from One Housing, I have encountered multiple issues with the way they communicate with residence regarding any changes or updates. Their customer care team is unprofessional and i even would say they use language that is design to intimidate you. Do not enter into any "relationship" with this company. Avoid properties managed by them

Unbelievable experience with Riverside. Handover the key without checking all the appliances and fittings. From day one having serious difficulty leave a family life. Specially with kids when there is No hot water , No electric shower, broken sink and bath tap , faulty heater and kitchen extractor fan, very bad smell in hallway and living room. 3 weeks gone now but not a single problem resolve by river side. Booked for appointment but no show without any notification several times.
Do they have family? Are they human?
How can a land lord leave their tenants(family with 2kids) specially without hot water 3 weeks in this cold weather ?

Very bad service from this housing association tiles falling off my kitchen walls for over 2 years decided to do it myself spent alot of money on marble tiles and had to buy adhesive and grout also a cutting machine I started to remove the tiles slide the tiles that were around the plug sockets a live wire shot straight out and electrocuted me the next morning I had a heart attack riverside when they were told sent everyone out to test the electrics out was told by one team the electrics were a mess needed rewiring waited days sent another man out he said its fine just need new fuse box as some of the wires are scorched but its safe riverside told me they will send someone to do the tiles made an appointment date they never turned up im now going to take it now to solicitor and take legal action against them for the faulty sockets and the disrepairs

Currently the 5th time I’ve called Riverside. The first time I was told it was an emergency and someone would be with me in 12 hours and wasn’t given a reference code and nobody turned up despite me waiting in all day for that, and the agent even asked me if I’d be in all day for it so we had a talk about this. I called up again 4am as it was freezing and the man didn’t seem much bothered but said he would log it. On hold now and you’re saying you can’t come out until Monday despite me having no heating or hot water for 3 days now. This is how you treat people. You cannot lie about this either as I have it all documented. Shame on you. Pull your finger out!

Riverside have now written to ex OHG tenants three letters stating we can no longer pay by standing order from 31 December. That if we do we will be in arrears. This is untrue and any attempt to stop payments by standing order is illegal. This is yet another example of Riverside’s bullying tactics - trying to terrify tenants to adopt one of their preferences. This is in line with the Head of Complaints Mark Morgan asking me to accept an illegal contractor struck off by companies house if I wanted my kitchen done under the Decent Homes Act. This means for the first time in my life and 35 years living in my flat I will have no cooking facilities this Xmas. Whereas Steve Young Acting Head of Repairs wrote to senior management stating that the hole in my living room wall with dangerous electrics had been done - it hadn’t. Riverside staff have no interest in providing a service.
It begs the question how they are permitted to run properties.

I'd give zero stars if that was possible.

Their customer service line takes you to a queue that goes on for 1-2 hours because they claim to be ''busy''. Called a different department and managed to get a hold of someone in seconds to be given the worst customer service.

Spoke to advisor Shauna/Shawna/Shona (however you spell their name) and just by the tone of her voice I could tell how incompetent she was for the role. Wasn't of any assistance whatsoever and claimed my address wasn't in the system to call up someone else to tell me a different story. Not sure how she got the job.

Based off the other reviews I can tell my experience is somewhat similar to theirs dealing with incompetent advisors and unpromised scheduled call backs where they will deliberately mute their microphones so they can skip your call.

Garbage company, wouldn't recommend, if you're automatically assigned to these guys through housing associations, you will have a miserable experience.

Unresponsive, very expensive, unprofessional, incompetent, slow to respond, overwhelmed, understaffed, poorly managed, poor communication, absolutely horrible. Nasty. It is incredibly frustrating to pay so much money and receive such horrible service. Such extortionate abusive arrangement with RS.

Edit to respond to request for details:

This is, without exaggeration, the worst management company I have ever dealt with.
1. Lift outage: The lift has been out of service for over a week. No updates. No urgency. No accountability.
2. Customer service farce: I called three separate times, wasting 30–40 minutes per call, only to later discover that your incompetent customer service team had been giving out fake job reference numbers and never actually logged the repair request. This is not a mistake — it is gross negligence.
3. Emails: Zero response. Not slow. Not delayed. Zero. Emails are completely ignored.
4. Complaints process: Entirely useless. I no longer have the energy to repeatedly explain how fundamentally broken and dysfunctional your company is.
5. Communication (or lack of it):
• No notice when the lift is out of service
• No notice when it’s being repaired or reinstated
• No notice when contractors enter the building and knock on residents’ doors
• No notice when window cleaners descend from the roof and suddenly appear outside our windows — a serious privacy and safety concern
6. Service charges: This year’s service charge pack has not been issued. Residents have no visibility over how much is being charged, what it’s being spent on, or why the costs are so high. Total opacity.
7. Website: Most functions simply don’t work (FoB key requests, parking permits, etc.). What is the point of the portal?
8. Incorrect billing: I pay £285 per month in service charges. My next-door neighbour and upstairs neighbour — with identical flats — pay £180. Despite raising this, there has been no response.
9. Direct debit changes: Took two months to action a simple update.
10. Shared inbox chaos: One single email address used for all buildings and all residents, which nobody ever responds to. Every excuse is the same: “overwhelmed”, “backlog”. Completely unacceptable.

Do not take people’s money if you are incapable of delivering even the most basic level of service.

This company survives only because leaseholders are legally forced to pay service charges under their lease agreements. Without that legal obligation, this business would not last a minute.

Utterly incompetent. Completely useless. Extremely expensive for what amounts to no service at all. A total waste of time and money. Avoid at all costs.

You might ask yourself what kind of a person would wish to be employed by a company with such an abysmal track record of tenants/customers dissatisfaction?
A maverick who's genuinely committed to give tenants hope again that a social landlord can improve?
Or a jumped-up little upstart who will lie and say anything that comes into her head to avoid any friction (and to keep her job with all the bogus expenses, pension and twice yearly overseas holidays etc)?
Take a wild guess folks!

Been a riverside occupant for 16 years now and you'd think with time there would be improvement. You'd be wrong in assuming so!
Appointments booked and no show time and time again. Told morning appointment 8am till 1pm wait all day and no one comes once again, after failing to show on Friday also. No phone calls, text messages or emails regarding why just a new appointment sent by text to not show again. Bare in mind I'm booking days of work for these appointments. My time and money wasted. Might just hold a month's rent and pay for it to be fixed my self. It's funny how they send out the tenants reminder text messages about your appointments maybe they should start sending them to their tradesmen too .