Property Improvement & Maintenance Services Ltd reviews and complaints

Hi TC

We made a claim through our credit card company. Took about 9 months and they twice refused to pay out, and we ended up having to go through the financial ombudsman but eventually recovered money for the second invoice, which was about £940.

We called them for an emergency plumber in February last year, the boiler packed up again in May and they deducted monies from our card for the May visit without our permission and without providing us with any invoices. I eventually managed to get invoices for the 3 visits (2 in Feb, 1 in May) in June and after a lot of arguing with a very rude and illogical office manager (think she must have been about 12!) gave up dealing with them and contacted citizens advice. The company we used were called Kingston Plumbers but their invoices were under the umbrella name of Property Improvements. I asked Kingston Plumbers numerous times for engineers reports but never got them and the invoices were basic .. Didn't contain any details of the work carried out or parts used. We expected the May visit to be a warranty repair and although they agreed it over the phone, they denied it when they took money from our card without or knowledge and permission (which is in breach of data protection). Frustratingly, I found that there was a lot of problem getting help from anyone in taking any action against the company (contacted ICO about data protection breach, but they couldn't do anything but advise them they were wrong! and Trading Standards (citizens advice automatically refer the complaint to them) don't seem interested either, although this could be because they seem to have a lot of companies in different areas and as the complaints are made to the trading standards office in the area that they have worked, they are not marrying up as a significant complaint against the head company. I did a fair bit of internet research on consumer law and although they are clearly acting illegally, unless you want to pay out for a solicitor, I couldn't find a way of bringing them to account and getting action taken against them with any government organisation. If I had appointed someone, it would most likely have cost more than my claim! I have heard of someone who managed to get a CCJ recorded against the company name but not sure how easy that was or how much it cost. It is worth bearing in mind though, that my credit card company was asked to contact them by the financial ombudsman in an attempt to get outstanding information, but were unable to get any response, so they are not easy to make contact with. Kingston Plumbers were unable to provide me with an office address other than the one on the invoice for property improvement so they were clearly dodgy! Just didn't know that at the time and we were desperate on a freezing cold Saturday evening in February! Sadly, Property Improvements appear to know how to fleece people and not get caught!

If you do contact citizens advice, my advice is to record the phone conversation as they go through the law, what you should do and say in any letters and by the end of the conversation you struggle to remember half of it! They don't back up their advice in writing so it's worth having something to playback to help you remember!

Good luck! If you need any more info, let me know :)

Hi Cat,

What was the outcome of this? I think I've experienced the same company.

Contact Citizens Advice for consumer help. They will be able to advise you and were brilliant for us. We will be making a claim to recover all of our money (£1, 000+).