Cosy Birmingham Apartment - Madison House

I’m so glad I finally moved out. I moved into Madison House in Jan/Feb 2023 and had been trying to leave ever since. The lifts in both stairwells were out of order for months, despite numerous reports to Centrick, who did nothing. People experiencing homelessness were breaking in and tampering with the building. It felt like a wasteland, and parcels couldn’t be delivered safely because people could walk in and take them. There was an incident with squatters one morning. Homeless people also got into apartments, knocked on doors and fought in the corridors. The C-Block staircase smelled of urine, with it on the walls and carpets. There was rubbish everywhere, needles on the floor and huge piles of excrement on the stairs. Centrick doesn’t care about residents’ safety, only the money. One resident’s window still hadn’t been fixed. Please don’t waste your money or move here.

I’m so glad I don’t live at Madison House anymore. There are better apartments in Birmingham city centre, and I’d avoid this place. Homeless people constantly get in, leave rubbish, take drugs in the corridors and make noise. Security may as well not be there, since they do nothing. Centrick, the building management, is terrible: it takes ages to get anything done, and even reaching them is a mission. There are parking problems too, with people getting fines for no reason even when they have permits. The building also has ongoing leaks, beyond the usual sort. My whole apartment leaked in every room, causing a lot of water damage and damp. Don’t let estate agents convince you it’s a good place to live.

The city location is convenient, but I can't think of another positive about living here. We pay incredibly high rent and nothing gets fixed. The only people benefiting seem to be the owners, who have recently posted positive reviews. I've read reviews going back 3-4 years and the same problems are still here. I wish I'd looked into it properly before moving in. People regularly get into the building and sleep in the hallways. They leave needles, excrement and cigarettes around, urinate and smear blood on the walls, take parcels, and try to get into apartments. The so-called caretaker is meant to look after the place, but I've never seen them and nothing has been done. The two lifts, one at each side of this five-floor block, keep breaking down too. If walking is difficult for you or you're disabled, please avoid it. When there was security, I reported someone squatting on my floor. The guard said he'd handle it, but I called the police anyway. They later told me they couldn't find the guard and the person was still causing trouble in the hallways. A great use of our rent money. Avoid this place.

The apartments are fairly modern and nice, with only minor cleaning and mould issues, but that doesn't make up for how little management seems to care about residents' safety. This place was advertised to students and professionals. I moved out and am so glad to be away from it. People broke in regularly to take drugs, and squatters were found asleep in the building. Sometimes you'd be followed or threatened if you didn't let outsiders in. The building often smelled of weed, fish and urine, and one week I found human waste on the stairs in C-Block. Parcels were stolen too. Before I left, residents were reporting and sharing a series of stolen deliveries. The security guards were no help. We reported a squatter outside our apartment to one of them, and he did nothing. We only heard what happened an hour or two later after contacting the police. For what you pay, it's not worth it. Save your money or find somewhere else in the city.