The Lowe Group Reviews 115

I’ve had the pleasure of working with The Lowe Group for a number of years and their level of professionalism and service that I see to both their occupants (namely key workers in search of affordable housing!) and to landlords (who want to do good and utilise empty buildings whilst at same time avoid any risks) is by far the best in the industry!

If I was either a landlord with an empty building or looking to rent a place myself at an affordable price (almost impossible in London these days!) I wouldn’t hesitate to use them as I see the level of care and passion that this family run business brings to the job. Focusing on social as well as economic good, whilst also employing individuals from less advantaged backgrounds means they “get it” and aren’t just out to make a ‘quick buck’. They’ve been trying to ease the affordable housing crisis for almost 10 years with great effect and long may it continue!

The Lowe Group have been great to work with over the past 6 months, Poppy and the team have been super easy to communicate with throughout.

When I was in the UK recently I stayed in one of Lowes buildings, very accommodating staff who were really sincere.

Regards, Jon

My experience with Lowe was very pleasant. Specifically the communication and support provided by the team. Any questions or issues I was facing were explained and clarified in a way that easiest for me to understand.

Professional, positive people to work with. 5 stars for service and many thanks to the team. Justin

Fantastic! The service was good and efficient. The team was quick to respond and done so in a timely manner, highly impressed by their professionalism. I would highly recommend!!

The building I stayed in was lovely, the people who loved after us were so nice and accommodating - the building was so well looked after as well!

Rachel H

Wonderful living space. Well kept and they genuinely cared for our well beings!!!

I've had a great experience with the team from the Lowe Group. From start to finish they were friendly, professional and true to their word. Any questions I had they were quick to respond and seemed to want to help me get set up. Central location and great value for money. I've enjoyed my experience to date.

My friend was moving out so at the same time as notifying them he told them I would be able to move in the next day. They said I could have the room, I filled out all the forms and had all the info they needed in less than 12 hours. They then gave the room to someone else and tried to get me to pay nearly £200 a month more on some absolute dive nearby. They couldn't even be bothered to tell me at first, just sent me a viewing appointment to the other place. Scummy business practices.

The social living community experience was the best part. Lowe are good communicators any issues were timely resolved.

errr believe I was also in same place as last review! Yeeee, totally get the drugs comment. If it is the same building, there is this ‘go to’ guy there. There was a crowd who just had the air that they had just snorted coke and were forever touching their noses and ‘in the know’. Very clique-y place that was overtaken by a dominant group - or two?
I felt the same as the last reviewer. There were just too many drugs and I didnt feel comfortable.
Heard about the girl but never actually saw her in like - 2 months or something. She was the invisible woman.

The guy who got evicted created an insanely volatile place - he was evicted for several things and to be honest, totally warranted. But it was cringe - as he never accepted Lowe’s decision. I heard he is still there too - in one of the rooms. Totally weird if you ask me. Doesn’t know when not wanted.

I also left as felt like there was so much of this weird thing or focus on ‘working from home’ and a dominant few attempting to ‘police it’. I felt I couldn’t work from home without others accusing me of not having a job. Totally weird childish vibes. Not cool and not guardianship values. Lowe attracting wrong types me believes - very ‘druggy’.

The building just ended up also having the vibe of an ugly dive or student squat - and I have long since grown out of this.

I have lived in two Lowe properties, one good, one bad.

I have just moved out. I mainly used the room as a Pied a terre, as I work in London in healthcare and have a property elsewhere.

The main problem is the DRUG issue. Two groups moved in from prior guardianship buildings and a drug culture was created. There were at least two dealers in the building. One is a serious dealer, dealing 10g orders of coke, but claiming to work for a ‘high end luxury retail store beginning with ‘H’”.

The issue is so obvious and bad that neighbours complained, including the fire station behind us. Once guy was ‘evicted’ but has since sublet a room upstairs with Lowe’s knowledge and they dont seem to be doing anything about it. The drugs were being flaunted in front of bare open windows brazenly, and I ended up embarrassed to live there. I work in drugs rehabilitation and healthcare.

One lady tried to complain and she was severely bullied and accused of not having a job. It was odd, as out of all the people, she was the one person who I thought definitely had a job and was always busy working or studying. This woman was relentlessly bullied - even by someone else she thought was her friend, because they didnt want her working from home and wanted to have communal areas to themselves in the day. It was really horrible to see as the lady was vulnerable.

The building’s atmosphere was strange with a couple of people around in the day but actively listening in, and watching eachother. This guy even tampered with fire doors so he could hear who was coming and going. It was creepy. These same people complain about people working from home, creating catty rumours that anyone working from home is not really working. They do it because:

1. They want to be the only ones there in the day times
2. They have time on their hands to monitor others
3. They want the building to themselves to take drugs all day

In addition, I suffer from several health issues and understood the building and outside to be smoke free. Especially given that the building is behind a fire station, the same one that were 1st responders to Grenfell. The whole building has had warnings, but the younger and larger group still smoke brazenly in the garden - knowing it is a fire serious risk as the fake grass is old and not fire resistant. There is a particularly rude Liam Gallagher wannabe in a cupboard room that smokes weed in the night and sleeps all day, never leaves the building, and continues to smoke. When anyone confronts him, he is aggressive and shouts. But Lowe will not give him any warnings at all. My health is bad and I can’t be around smoking.

The other building had general issues over the quality of the building but the culture was not as strange as this last guardianship building.

I believe ‘drug gangs’ and dealers have taken over Lowe, and in general, checks are not being done to ensure smoke free, drug free, honest people are in the building. It appears to be a den or home for anyone illegal, dealing illegal drugs or anyone who perhaps don’t have the genuine legal right to reside in the UK.

STAY AWAY !!!

Lowe guardianship is a scam ran by very rude, condescending and heartless people. You will be evicted at the drop of a hat and have no right to appeals or complaints as this ponzi scheme is all managed in house. Grace the manager is particularly rude and corrupt.

They prey on desperate people get a few months rent out of you then find a way to evict you. Youd do better staying on the street !

I lived with lowe for 7 months. Got to live pretty central for great rent and shared the building with nice people. The staff were always really friendly and helpful with maintenance issues!

Nice website, slick salesman & poor customer service. Quick to get you to move into a vacant office space (minus telling you that the locals like to urinate & defecate outside one of their properties) & when there's a mis-communication that ends up costing the licensee (thats what you are) merely offer pittance back & will evict you for as per the agreement ASAP. Avoid & find the ability to place a roof over your head elsewhere.

Under their neat and bubbly veneer, Lowe employ a number of dubious practices that effect the wellbeing of people living in their guardianships. Ultimately, they are very much working for the property owner, and against the guardians.

- They are unapologetically intrusive, conducting frequent inspections of your room and your space. They'll traipse about your room, (obviously without wiping or taking off their shoes), and photograph everything. You'll catch them preparing their lunch in your space; urinating with the door open.
- They advertise rooms knowing full well that they are soon to lose a property. I've seen poor souls move into rooms - some that were previously store rooms - only to be given their 28 days' notice within days of moving in. I myself have turned away a number of people whom Lowe had invited to view a room, because we were all soon to be evicted. (If you are desperate enough to go with Lowe, do your due diligence on a place: sale history; length of time its been a guardianship; if it's council owned read the minutes)
- When a building is coming to an end, they introduce a fascinating side-hustle: an appointment with one of their "moveologists". Great, you think, they're going to find me another room somewhere. Nope, it's just someone trying to sell you a premium man-and-van removal service.
- Returning deposits is a nightmare. My god, they will try to find the pettiest thing to deduct you for.
- Repairs will be done reluctantly, if at all. I moved into a room a week after it had been vacated. All the windows were open, the hinges broken, and the lights had been left on, meaning we had to first remove all the bugs, and withhold our moving in date until they'd fixed the windows.
- The CEO has snooped into competitor guardianships incognito, to build a case to the property owner to switch to Lowe and evict the current guardians. Not exactly trustworthy behaviour.

What Lowe does well is foster a strong feeling of community within the guardianship, because everyone who lives under their management finds they have a common enemy.

927778312Never buy anything from Lowe's. They are SCAMMERS disguised as a reputable company. I received a Primo water cooler advertised as “new”. The box was torn apart, the the top and bottom gone and only styrofoam to support. I had no option but to dispose of the remnants. It's very possible that we received a REFURBISHED item. The previous PRIMO we owned lasted us almost 10 years with the pump sort of failing at the end. Instead of trying to figure out to fix it, we ordered from Lowe's thinking their price was decent for the item because Sam's Club and Costco were out of Primo's under $200. A little over 2 months, it's defective (does no cool water and everything comes out warm). We contacted Lowe's who, gave them the whole spill about the “no box” and the circumstances. They assured us that this was not a problem, and that Fedex will take care of boxing it at their expense. So we scheduled for a pickup with Fedex noting that there is “no box” and faced no objection. A Fedex rep showed up today and said he won't take it without a box. This resulted in additional hours spent over the phone and they prompted me to re-scheduled another pickup with them, saying “this time we should have no issues”, adding an apology that “it wasn't noted correctly”. I thought that was that. Then some Fedex supervisor called me changing his tune and saying they WON'T take it as it and that even if it was dropped off at a location, it won't get accepted. I do not have a vehicle that fits the cooler and I shouldn't be liable for driving 12 miles to drop it off at a location, but I wanted to find out if there is a distinction between a pickup and a dropoff. I have now started a credit card dispute and I'm in the process of submitting a complaint with BBB.

Do yourselves a favor and spend the extra money, if you have to, to buy your appliances from a trustworthy source to get a “brand new” item with a reliable return policy. I purchased another unit through Costco knowing their guarantee is trustworthy. They have their own staff to pick up large appliances if a customer is not satisfied. Lowe's simply scammed us, exploiting our limitations.

Really patronising on the phone very unprofessional ..to be honest I am glad because I've just seen all the reviews!!!
Appsalute Joke of a company

Had a really bad experience when I lived in a Lowe property. We had a mentally unstable housemate who broke several contract clauses repeatedly which were reported to Lowe on several occasions and Lowe would not evict her even though we had evidence. I left the property and stayed away on several occasions because I was genuinely worried about my safety in the house, she tried to kick my locked bedroom door down once and even physically assaulted one of the housemates while drunk but this still wasn't enough for Lowe to evict her... They were more concerned that if they evicted her for breaking the clauses and she harmed herself it would look bad on them as a company but they weren't concerned about the physical danger the other 5 members of the household were in by letting her remain. She would sharpen knives while staring at me as I was trying to work from the kitchen so I would end up locking myself in my room all day until someone else came home. I was too stressed to be in the house with her a lot of the time but also didn't trust to leave the property incase she tried to burn it down out of spite when no one in the house would talk to her anymore. We had the police come over on an instance, it was a pretty traumatic living experience in all honesty.