Peaks & Plains Housing Trust - Macclesfield

Maria M.

I am one of ten leaseholders at Pennine Court, a 1960s tower block of 92 flats in Macclesfield.

The service charge for 2024/25 was in the usual region of £80.40 monthly/£962.42 annually.

On 18 February 2025, I received a letter informing me that from April 2025, in addition to the service charge (which has gone up to £1,373.60), I was now going to have to pay an annual contribution to a new sinking fund of £5,908, increasing to £6,794.20 the following year when the usual management fee of 15% is added to it. This was six weeks' notice! I am 72. I retired in September 2024. I wouldn't have done so if I'd known about this!

Leaseholders are devastated as we can't afford these charges but our flats are now unsellable. CP&P acknowledges this is the case and its surveyor has valued the flats at £0 as a direct result of the sinking fund charge. CP&P is offering to buy back the flats from us at £15,000 for a one-bed and £20,000 for a two-bed and rent them back to the leaseholders if they want to carry on living there. CP&P's current rent (2024/25) for a two-bed flat at Pennine Court is £114.09 per week, excluding service charge. At a purchase price of £20,000, that's a 30% per annum return on investment; clearly the flats aren't worth £0 to CP&P!

Leaseholders can't afford to accept £15,000, they can't afford to let the flats because the charges are higher than the rent and they can't afford to live there. Leaseholders feel trapped and Pennine Court hasn't even got the wrong kind of cladding!

Before the introduction of this charge, the flats were relatively low-cost to purchase, from £60,000 to £80,000 at most at today's prices. These were the cheapest properties in Macclesfield but the sinking fund charges are over twenty times higher than those for CP&P's other properties which are worth double and triple what our flats were worth. Sinking fund charges on its other properties will be a few HUNDRED pounds. CP&P stated to me that Pennine Court was 'unique' with regard to the level of sinking fund contributions. As that is the case and this new charge, at a stroke, has reduced our flats to being worthless and made us liable for these enormous costs with no notice, the decent thing would be for CP&P to buy them from us at a reasonable price as they are of no value now to us or anyone but CP&P, and they could let them to new tenants. It's not like there are 50 leaseholders in the block, there are just ten leasehold flats out of 92. These will be the only leaseholder properties of CP&P's, where the newly-introduced sinking fund has reduced the value of the properties to £0 on the open market. Sinking funds are generally promoted, including by CP&P, as IMPROVING the saleability of properties, not making them UNsellable! But CP&P would clearly rather profiteer from the situation it has created at the expense of its leaseholders. It clearly wants the flats back but for a pittance and a fraction of what this leaseholder paid in 2018.

MrPrimeGamingHD

Lived in peaks and plains properties for numerous years now in Derbyshire. Everything is always rushed to get you in but the properties are never completed.

Terrible design ideas for most of the rooms, bathroom had a tilted shelf that held water in old flat. Bedroom had no windows or ventilation, new kitchen has nowhere to put a bin.

Was housed in a 1 bed flat for too long with our daughter which had mould problems due to building doors wrong.

Was wrongly advertised our new flat as "ground floor" upon arrival at the viewing it was actually 1st floor.

Finally moved to a 2 bed flat which we moved into in a terrible state. Ceilings were yellow, carpets had holes in, carpets stained, intercom hanging off the wall, bathroom floor ripping up and water damaged, shower door without the seal causing all the water damage, front lock applied in a way which was easily accessible from the outside. And to top it off the boiler doesn't work. Which should have been checked before we had the keys handed over.

I'm absolutely disgusted by the way they've handed us this property over, it's cost us an arm and a leg in decoration to get right and now we've been left in the middle of December with no heating or hot water with out 1 year old daughter, absolutely disgusting. Imagine not checking the boiler works before handing over keys to a family. Shocking to say the least.

Been in our new flat for months now and toilet still doesn't flush, my daughters window doesn't close properly, and our radiator won't turn off even when the heating isn't on, just more things we have to deal with, I absolutely despise this company,they literally dont care about you or your wellbeing. They can't send a joiner to fix my daughters window for 2 months, however they have no problem building new sites 🤣👍

Would not recommend this housing association unless you're absolutely desperate. Or you have lots of money to spare on fixing the previous tenants lack of care to the property.

Sue N.

I am so lucky not to be a tenant of this company. My Mum was for a short while and the standard of service while giving up her tenancy was appalling. I ended up having to take my very poorly baby across town to provide documents they had given me one hour to provide despite having had 4 weeks to ask for them. I was only disappointed when my baby did not vomit all over their desks.

However that is eclipsed by their plans to knock down a large number of old persons bungalows to make way for affordable housing for families. While affordable housing is needed, it's not needed at the expense of perfectly good housing for old people. It's just cruel and P&P should be ashamed.

Joanne S.

Sadly can not recommend especially if you have an elderly relative who may need call out assistance using their third parties!

Ralph H.

For a company that deals with a lot of elderly people, you'd think they'd be better trained. My Mum suffering after a stroke was asked to prove / give details / death certificate of her late husband before they would update their records.
* I have adjusted the rating after I was contacted off the back of this review and had an apology and assistance in resolving the issue, thank you.

jack F.

We had a new kitchen around 5 years ago yet they keep asking if we want a new one?
We have Ben here I’ve 20 years and always paid up yet we are still having to bath in the same one I fitted 18 years ago
Where’s the sense in that ?

Steve S.

My shower hasn't worked for over a week now. They've put their best on it but it's still not working and they don't answer the phone on weekends. I've been on hold for ages. Flat is full of mold. I'm old and disabled. They simply don't care. I wouldn't recommend them to my worst enemy. Ringing my mp on Monday morning

Lacey D.

I've had nothing but trouble with peaks and plains. I've been in my flat for 7 months now and they've done nothing to fix my current repairs which I've had to put up with since the day I moved in and they had the cheek to say to me it wasn't put through properly on the system. I recieved a noise complaint when I first moved in because apparently my music was too loud but I had no flooring at the time and I've reported a tenant in my block of flats to peaks and plains as they kept blasting music after 12 at night which is breaking the law. I reported the tenant to peaks and plains and they did nothing about it and dropped my complaint. I suffer from anxiety and depression plus I have trouble sleeping enough as it is plus they are making me get rid of my emotional support animal as apparently I've got to register my dog as an assistant dog which can't be done in the uk. It just proves that they're a disgrace of a landlord who don't care about mental health but when it comes to money that's when they give a toss