Acorn Property Group Reviews 

I am posting this review to highlight concerns regarding the transparency of Acorn Property Group’s Trustpilot reviews. A recent five-star review, posted on 21 October 2024 by Patty Pereira Taylor, raises questions about a potential conflict of interest. Ms. Taylor is an employee of Caesarstone, a company that supplies materials for Acorn’s developments, including Bucklands Place in Nailsea. Despite this business relationship, the review was presented without disclosure, potentially breaching Trustpilot’s guidelines on review authenticity.

This is not an isolated incident. On 11 May 2023, Acorn's own Group Financial Controller, Yonatan Ayele, left a five-star review while appearing to be an independent customer. When questioned, Acorn confirmed Ayele was an employee but also a purchaser. However, this relationship was not clearly disclosed upfront, which raises concerns about the integrity of their reviews.

A broader review of Acorn Property Group’s Trustpilot ratings reveals a striking pattern: an unusually high number of five-star and one-star reviews. This imbalance suggests the possibility of selective review moderation, where negative feedback may be discouraged or removed while positive reviews from internal or affiliated individuals remain visible. Transparency is essential for consumer trust, and review platforms should ensure that all reviews - whether positive or negative - are treated equally.

I have personally had a negative experience with Acorn Property Group, and their approach to customer engagement and transparency has significantly eroded my trust in their business.

A Word of Caution to Potential Buyers, Investors, and Landowners.

Anyone considering buying a property from Acorn Property Group, investing in one of their unregulated investment schemes, or entering a joint venture as a landowner should proceed with extreme caution.

Buyers: Ensure you conduct thorough due diligence on the build quality, completion timelines, and contractual obligations before committing to a purchase.

Investors: Acorn offers investment opportunities that are unregulated, meaning they do not fall under the protection of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This means investors have little to no recourse in the event of financial losses or disputes.

Landowners: Those considering joint ventures with Acorn should seek independent legal and financial advice before signing agreements. Ensure all contractual terms are clear, fair, and enforceable, as disputes over land agreements can be complex and costly.

Trust and integrity are vital in the property sector, and I urge Acorn Property Group to take steps to ensure all reviews on this platform reflect genuine customer experiences without undisclosed affiliations.

Trustpilot has confirmed that the above review meets its guidelines and will remain published on its platform. (Ticket #31728934)

Brilliant and tidy resolution of snagging. Thanks

Thankyou very much Vincent for your due diligence and commitment to putting problems right.Without your perseverance and ability we surely would had had bigger issues.
Hopefully Acorn will listen to your recommendations and act accordingly in the future.
Regards Dave and Terri Mitchell

Being a valued client over last 4 years its all gone downhill last year having 3 investments inc 2 isa leaving me being taxed at source and losing over £2800 which i was never told about. As you can imagine im pretty pissed off as the total lack of communication and help has led me to invest elsewhere. Management awful and only help i recieved at the end was communication from Harry. Beware before you invest and find out about any small print to be on the safe side.

This relates to my previous review where I complained that Modbury, the new property management company for the Courtyard at Duporth, have made application for payment on the 6th Jan 2025 declaring it to be overdue if not paid by 1st Jan 2025! The hugely increased service charge being unsubstantiated. Following multiple complaints/questions from residents they issued a general response but with still no proof or justification for the increased/added costs and some important questions ignored altogether.

They cited TP1 obligations of the residents in order to encourage immediate payment. But the TP1 works both ways - they have to supply actual spend accounts for the previous year, to say that they have not received actual spend accounts from the previous property manager (Penina) is not an acceptable excuse. Surely Penina are obliged to hand the accounts over? Did Acorn (the landlord) not facilitate the handover?
Penina have never supplied clear actual spend accounts so residents have never been able to see exactly how much of and on what their money was spent. I am still owed reimbursement for terrorism insurance that was erroneously placed on the estate insurance last year.
Now the residents are being threatened with debt recovery:
‘Owners who choose to withhold payments will unfortunately need to be referred to the arrears recovery process. This is not our preferred approach, but it ensures fairness for all owners and protects the development as a whole’.
According to the TP1 until actual spend accounts are available and issued to residents the property manager only has the right to ask for half the estimated payment for the forthcoming year. So Modbury need to reissue their application for payment and return half the payment to those who have already paid the full amount. Then get to work on those actual spend accounts.

Also Modbury/Acorn still need to address the unanswered questions raised by myself and other residents. The most important being about shared costs between the estate and block where the split is apportioned, which a leaseholder has apparently influenced - initially Modbury admitted that a leaseholder had kindly helped with the invoices but they are not saying that now. This shows bias. Acorn/Modbury must be 100% sure that costs have not been unfairly skewed in the leaseholders favour (causing estate contributors to pay more than they should). Whilst costs are shared we can never trust them. How can the estate insurance possibly cost £2577.65? We have a g2 listed Clocktower in the ‘private’ grounds nevertheless it shouldn’t cost anywhere near this amount. Estate and block should have separate insurance policies. Separate everything, ne’er the twain shall meet. How difficult can that possibly be to achieve? I have requested insurance policy details and a copy of all the invoices but they are not forthcoming.

I have tried raising all of the above and more with Modbury and AcornPG and Acornblue but got no response, not even an acknowledgement, from any of them, so I am forced to put it in a Trustpilot review.

I was initially very happy with my Courtyard property but what with its lack of insulation, it’s dodgy heating and the property management mess, also I have to pay two estate service charges - yes two, I now regret my purchase.
Update 29/1/25: Modbury are not in direct contact, despite numerous requests from me by email and on their online system - no response. And no actual spend accounts either.

Acorn property will give their email address in these reviews, however Acorn do not respond if you email them. I had to call the police the other day because of the sales team at St Leonard’s Quarter (Exeter) harassing me outside my own home, this was very distressing. Acorn will reply here on the reviews, however that’s where it stops when it comes to getting anything sorted.

We’ve been at Acorn Duporth for nearly 3 years and at first we’re pleased but the management has really gone downhill since. We would not have bought here had we known
Caveat Emptor

Acorn Property Group mis-sold a property to a family member at St Leonard’s Quarter. Be very aware of the sales team. They now deny lying. This issue still hasn’t been resolved despite Acorn Property having had numerous opportunities to do so. They probably won’t respond to this review.

We had a few problems with our flat at St Leonard’s Quarter; one big and several small problems. Happily these were dealt with by a very pleasant and extremely competent young man, Ian Stevenson, your “snagger”.

Vincent Brown of Acorn has been fantastic. Friendly, approachable, highly skilled, experienced and knowledgeable, all his work has been first class.

We have accessibility needs, and the team went above and beyond to find a property that would work for us and to put in place plans for us to modify and make changes to the property to ensure it would suit our family. Couldn't recommend them more!

Lizzie's dedication to helping us with the purchase of our house was amazing- she listened to everything we said and was always quick with her responses, both positive and negative. We totally trusted her judgement and trusted her to do exactly what she said she would do. Far from being a pushover she was balanced and calm and weighed up all the arguments before responding.
Acorn has a gem in Lizzie and she is a tremendous asset. We wish there were more genuine reliable people around like her that not only are able to sell but also relate and form good relationships with clients.
We wish Lizzie and Acorn all the best for the future.

Further to my review of 12 June 2022. The apartment is great but the after service from Acorn is extremely disappointing. It seems once they have your money they are not bothered. Their communication is very poor (do not reply to emails) and any issue has to be chased multiple times.

5 Stars - Stunning Homes at Buckland's Place!

I recently visited the new Buckland's Place showroom in Nailsea, and I was thoroughly impressed! The moment you step inside, the homes feel light, spacious, and high spec.

The kitchen, featuring Caesarstone countertop, upstand and splashback with a lifetime warranty, is absolutely amazing.

The location is ideal—just a short walk to the train station and only 2 hours from London! North Somerset is a wonderful place to live and raise a family, and Buckland's Place is the perfect blend of convenience and luxury.

Thanks Jessie, Suzie and Julie!

After the torrential rain our new house sprang a leak in the roof. Ian was at the end of the phone, came around first thing next morning. He got roofers in and found source of problem and sorted it. Ian will be back to redecorate. Honestly, Ian is one of the outstanding stars of the organisation, he is always lovely to deal with, reassuring, professional and knowledgeable. And has given so much help over the last 8 months. Thank you!

Please read the reply below from Acorn to my post. The moral of my story is that, if you believe Acorn, that YOU SHOULD NEVER DEAL WITH AN SPV OR SUBSIDIARY OF ACORN PROPERTY GROUP. This is because Acorn’s post shows that it doesn’t consider it “untoward” that its wholly owned and controlled SPV has breached agreements, breached planning permission conditions, deprived a local community of affordable housing, and that it allowed the SPV to go into insolvent liquidation owing over a million pounds and with an incomplete development.

The post it replies to was the following: “Acorn tells me it is putting its SPV into insolvent liquidation for the development where I have an apartment. This leaves residents with unpaid debts and an unfinished development. The SPV has apparently failed to pay Cornwall Council amounts due for affordable housing and has an unpaid judgment against it for over £1m.

It appears that Acorn let residents pay their completion monies in August 2024, even though it was in breach of the section 106 agreement and didn’t tell residents. It cannot be trusted therefore to give residents or purchasers full information.

The High Court on 2 October 2024 entered judgment against Acorn, finding that there was no arguable defence put forward by Acorn.”

IN MY VIEW, YOU CANNOT SAFELY BUY AN ACORN PROPERTY FROM ANY ACORN SUBSIDIARY.

As a current resident of the new development as The Old Printworks I reached out to the sales team to view the apartments as a potential investment. The sales ladies, both were amazing, lovely and professional. Lovely tour of some stunning apartments, breathtaking. The space and and layout is amazing and the view being so calm and peaceful. Definitely one to keep an eye on.

I bought my new house from ACORN BLUE part of the ACORN PROPERTY GROUP at The Courtyard Duporth in Apr 2022. An issue with my heating, i.e. it can’t adequately heat the house (ACORN BLUE installed underfloor heating but did not install wall insulation!), was reported to ACORN BLUE aftercare in Dec22. Eventually ACORN BLUE acknowledged the problem and the thermal imaging survey report I had had commissioned, ACORN BLUE said they would ‘do what it takes’ to fix it. All ACORN BLUE did was supplement the loft insulation, which had no effect. ACORN BLUE are no longer responding to my emails. I HAVE REPEATEDLY ASKED TO INITIATE THE DISPUTE RESOLUTION SERVICE ADVERTISED ON THE ACORN PROPERTY GROUP WEBSITE BUT GET NO RESPONSE. I will continue to post reviews wherever I can - next stop Spotlight News. I will also contact my MP. ACORN BLUE can apparently get away with making appalling errors. Buying a house is the most expensive purchase of most people’s lives yet there is no way of getting a refund for a faulty product. Unless you’ve got lots of money for lawyers, its almost impossible to get defects fixed if the builder doesn’t want to. Its as serious as the post office scandal. Watch out for ACORN GREEN - if they can make the mistake of installing underfloor heating in a house with no wall insulation, imagine what their environmentally friendly housing is going to be like….

….Some progress has been made. I had a meeting with Andy from Acorn who was able to explain the lack of wall insulation. He is gathering quotes for a range of heating solutions. He made me feel confident that a satisfactory solution will be found. Thanks Andy and Stuart.

For anyone looking to buy a property with Acorn….DONT BOTHER!! Absolute car crash of a company…. Come and see the site they abandoned at Cottrell Gardens….they packed up and disappeared with the site in a mess, no roads, footpaths, street lights, and houses incomplete…Our house has many problems still to rectify but Acorn have been useless at addressing these….There is zero customer care…and many residents have issues far worse than ours, I’m talking damp issues, sewage pipes leaking and flooding the house, structural problems, electrical/fire safety issues….Also…be mindful that the way Acorn structure their business is set up to protect the ‘Mothership’ company, ie Acorn…for the Cottrell Gardens site they set up an SPV called Bonvilston Vale Ltd to develop the site… Why does a company do this? Essentially so that if the site goes bully up then the ‘Mothership’ company is protected… so be wary or even better avoid at all costs. Visit ‘Acorn Cowboy Builders’ Facebook page to post your horror stories and upload pictures of your house defects…Come and knock on any door at Cottrell Gardens and you will be guaranteed to chat to the owner with their own story…If you’re lucky enough to knock my door I will put the kettle on as you’ll be here a while….You have been warned!!!!!