From a tenant |
My letting agent Nightmare!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
After leaving the comforts of living with my parents I was often warned of sleazy landlords and dodgy letting agents and for several years lived with the belief that this reputation was a myth until I met AJ, the owner and managing direct of Ashley Charles, a letting agency in Maidenhead. This guy perfectly illustrates the sleazy bad guy in Disney films or Oliver Twist. He has a sneaky smile and devilish laugh as he specialises in charming mostly students into dodgy deals in Berkshire. Things to consider when letting through this scum bag, consider any damage to the property prior to you moving in, your responsibilty, any faults with the home that occur even if no fault of your own, your responsibilty, your deposit is gone the moment that you hand it over, they even charge you just to keep hold of it while you let through them. They have dozens of hidden fees that must be paid, worse than solicitors! Every call, every visit, every time AJ or one of his sleazy drones rub their dirty hands together it means you owe more money.
BEWARE AT ALL COST!!! DO NOT GO NEAR THESE CON ARTISTS!!! |
From a tenant |
I hate letting agents
Having rented a house with a letting agent for a year, I look back and regret walking into their Victorian time warp offices. They are extremely rude, difficult to deal with and extremely uncompromising. The contract is very dated as are their personal policies. Attempting a phone call with them is near impossible due to his rude nature.
Getting our deposit back took 6 months and a solicitor - not because there was any dispute but because they "don't trust the internet"!!!
The hidden charges are astronomical, including having to use all of their "recommended" (compulsory) cleaners for everything who seem to make up charges., I regret every second. |
From a landlord |
Next time I will rent and manage my property myself
I rent a property via a letting agent who has proved to be a nightmare, he has reguarly delayed paying my rental money for no reason ( tenant is great ) and becomes rude and defensive when questioned why he holds on to my money. It says in the contract he would pay monies to the landlord within 15 days but in some cases i've had to wait 34 days! putting me overdrawn.
His staff have given him messages to call me but he denies getting the messages and then blames other people for the late payment, ie he blamed a girl being off sick, but I found out she was off only 2 days and had nothing to do with my account.
So I told him i'd had enough of his poor service and as he had broken the contract I would only give him 1 months notice but he has kept £280 as a termination fee in lieu of 3 months notice! Unbelievable, he fails to provide what I am paying him for and he charges me! Does anyone know how I stand getting my money back?
I have also discovered the gas safety check due 15 Jan 06 was not carried out until 8 Mar 06 this I believe is not only a breach of contract but a breach of the law, is this true? I would be grateful for any help or info on how to proceed. many thanks, Halty |
From tenant |
Beware of this awful letting company.
The internet is already full of complaints about them so be warned and avoid dealing with Essex and Suffolk Lettings at all costs.
They love fees. During our tenancy, we paid out more than £1000 in just fees. And I mean 'fees' - not the deposit, which was additional, and not the deductions to our deposit. Literally £1000 of fees! Fees like 'check in fee', 'resigning contract fee', 'Pet fee', 'Re marketing / break of contract fee' and the 'check out fee'. These are mostly unnecessary. When pressed for a reason as to the existence of these 'fees' the Essex and Suffolk staff just shrug and avoid your eye contact.
They also force you to either resign for a further 12 months or lose your house after only four months of your initial contract. So if you are unsure of where you might be or worse, something awful happens and you HAVE to leave. You are obliged to pay the rest of your tenancy. Of course, this is standard with agents, but pushing you into extending your contract after you've been in the residence less than four months (and then charging a 'resigning fee') is just wrong!
They suck you dry and when you think it can't get it any worse, they tell you how much of your deposit you're getting back. OUCH! We should have had just over J1000 coming back to us. We ended up receiving £201 of that. Why? £496 of Landlord's deductions (he cleaned some mould, painted a bathroom wall and did some gardening), £230 of rent shortfall and of course, the 'check out fee' of £113.
They play by the law, but just because something is technically legal, doesn't make it right. We all know that since the recession really started, complaints about these scumbags have risen. One can only hope that a positive from the economic crisis might be the cleansing of our poor high streets of the lesser breeds of these blood-sucking vultures. Lesser breeds like Essex and Suffolk Lettings |
From Landlord |
Don’t be fooled by their slick offices and cars – Fox----tons
Just wondered if any landlords had experience with them. I'm a prospective tenant looking to rent a house in West London through Foxtons. I've been warned they're tricky bu**ers and they seem to be showing their true colours.
The main sticking points currently are that they demand 6 weeks deposit and one month's rent in their bank account, plus the tenancy agreement signed, before they'll stop marketing the property. This, after I've paid £320+VAT for them to forward my offer (which has been agreed by the landlord) and draw up a contract, which they said was all they needed before they'd stop showing the property. Now they say they need the money and signed contract. They haven't yet managed to produce a contract with the specific details we've agreed to.
I would have no particular objection to signing the contract now rather than in 4 or so weeks time when I'm due to move in. I do object to handing over such a large sum so far in advance - I'd rather be getting the interest than them.
With previous agents, I've handed over a bankers draft and signed the contract on the day I was due to move in. |
From Landlord |
Need some advice
My letting agent is not giving me right information. I rented my house couple of months ago on full management and told him that I wanted to rent my house for 6 months only. He sent me a form which is a contract between agent & myself and it was for 1 year. I didn’t sign on that & asked him to send me the contract between agent & tenant first. After 2 months I got it & found out he has made contract for 1 year. I rang him then he told me you don’t need to worry as it is 1 year contract but you can get your house back after 6 months by giving 2 months of notice. But I am not sure if it is true. I looked at couple of website & it seems I can’t get my house back within 1 year.
Please help me what I should do. |
From a tenant |
Help me?
If a letting agent says there will be carpet in the hall and landing ( All other areas are sanded floors ) and we move in now 4 months and still no carpet, had nothing in writing but both letting agent and landlord knows about it is there anything I can do.
Also been waiting 5 weeks for dishwasher to be repaired am I entitled to any compensation ??? :mad:
I have found dealing with letting agents a real hassle, next time I will look to rent direct from the landlord. |
From landlord |
Wish I had never used a letting Agent
A friend of mine is letting out her property through an agent for a three years contract since last year. The problem is that the agent has never paid her the rent on time (sometimes they did not pay for months), so she has to keep coming to the office and ask for the monies, and if she is lucky then they give her a cheque. They always come up with excuses and try to pass the fault onto someone else in their own company. I told my friend to drop the agent but she was scared. The last straw was just before Christmas when she went to their office and they handed her a letter and stated that they would keep all the monies because they realised that they forgot to take 15% from the rents for the services they provided which was incorrect as they already took it in the first few weeks of last year. Luckily, she still keeps all payment statements from them.
Neither myself nor her know that if she could sack the agent or not and the consequences of doing this. I am just thinking of helping her by writing an ultimate letter to the agent to warn them that they need to act properly before taking legal actions and hope that they would change. Can you please give some advice of what I should write in the letter. For your information, she does not have any written contract between her and the agent, only between her and the tenant with agent is the witness.
Thanks.
|
From a tenant |
I am currently a tenant of Doorknobs, how can I describe them.
The relationship with them started off well, until I raised concerns about a neighbour who was verbally abusive towards me, when I complained I was told to call the police. Because I didn't want to do this, I was told I needed medical help and should be on anti depressants, not a professional comment for a lettings agency to come out with to a tenant and one that they don't know, but perhaps this is how they speak with all tenants.
A few weeks went by then a few months, and having reported a problem with the shower heater, my calls were just ignored. Eventually, an additional problem arose with the front door.
Again it was ignored, when i complained I was more or less told it was a figment of my imagination and there was nothing wrong with the front door. On my insistence that someone come out again, whilst I was there, hey ho, it turns out it wasn't my imagination at all. The door was fixed, hooray a contractor that does his job, but blamed the letting agency for giving him incorrect information.
He changed the fuse on my heater after making an elderly relative wait all day because oh sorry I forgot to come round. The fuse blew after two weeks. Why because the idot they employed as contractor put a 3amp fuse in instead of 13amp. Eventually I got my neighbour to change the fuse.
Moral of the story, if you want a lettings agency that treats you as a customer and not like you get housing benefit to pay your rent which I don't as I actually work for a living do not repeat please do not use this firm.
Spin and lacking substance a lousy letting agency. |
From a landlord |
Lazy hubby appointed lettings agents from hell
After buying a buy to let flat, do it up and new tenants in but................ my hub decided to get lazy and give it to a letting agent to manage.
All of a sudden they are unavailable to talk to me but I have received a copy of the contract for the new tenants (which I am obviously bound by) and it is only for three months instead of six months - due to end on the last day of the year which is a great time to find a new tenant!
This is not what was agreed by me
This contravenes the terms of my mortgage
They have charged me the full management fee for only half the term
I am so cross!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
From tenant |
Swift Properties, Islington - Avoid at all costs
Avoid this cowboy! He is a liar interested only in his money. We found him to be very unprofessional, dealt with us and the landlord in a poor manner and even got angry and stormed out of a contract signing session! That contract was full of mistakes that we alerted him about. Basically totally useless, he only knows how to grab our money. |
From a tenant |
Agent, called Darren or Dorian, didn't show up at the viewing. A current tenant showed me the property. Darren then didn't pick up the phone, and finally, when I reached him, said that it's already let.
It's a normal behaviour for a London estate agent, isn't it? |
From a landlord |
Types of letting agents
To other landlords – rent and manage your property yourself
in my experience there are well, 4 types of letting agents and 4 of them need to be avoided.
before you all scream at me, of course not all agents are like this, this is simply my expereince form talking to landlords who have had a bad experience with him, them or another company and a pattern seemed to emerge to me:
type 1 The Builder/Property maintenance company in disguise
many builders/ maintenance firms do a lot of work for lanlords and they think hey we could stick a person in our office and properties in the window and we will make a load of cash, not only form letting but also all the repairs we will be able to do: firstly they and the person they employ know little about letting, secondly any slack week can be made up by doing more repairs to managed properties
type 2 The Estate Agent in disguise
they think... were in property right, lets chuck a few lets in the window and we will make a load of cash, not only from letting but also all the extra sales
problems: they know little about letting as it I very different to sales and they are primarily motivated by the thoguht that can in future sell your/sell you property
type 3 The big Landlord in disguise
they think, we already do a load of advertising for our property lets bung a few other peoples in the window and we'll....all together now.. make a load of cash.
problems: they do know about letting but they are priamrily concerned with letting their property and maybe even keeping yours empty. you are helping your biggest competitor!
type 4 The conman
he thinks i'll get a shop and stick a person in and properties in the window and we will make a load of cash, not only from letting fees but we can rip off tenants too
problems: as a conman they will care little about you, the tenants, the law or anything, and secondly they give you the impression that all agents are like this so when you meet type 5 you don't recognize us |
From a tenant |
DON'T USE FOXTONS ESTATE AGENTS!!!!
Unless you enjoy being lied to. The BBC show on them couldn't have been closer to the truth. They are the anti-Christ, and probably the most unscrupulous estate agent in London. Their fee is ridiculously high, they'll lie to you about how long your lease has to be (coming from the States I assumed 12 months was the norm, but the norm is actually a 12 month lease with a 6 month break clause... meaning that after 4 months if you give notice, you can leave in 6 and so on).
My £210 per week flat is a complete shit hole. When I moved in the fridge was broken, as was the shower and toilet, and to this day there is no heater AT ALL. Not only that, the carpet which is full of burn holes (under the disgusting futon so I didn't notice until I moved in) is infested with moths. When the place came up for renewal they said the rent was going up to £235 per week, which I promply told them to shove up their ass. Also... if they manage a place... it's as good as having no manager at all (I tried the entire winter to get a heater and ended up having to buy one myself).
Also, they'll come into your flat without telling you. This happened to me today. They came in to 'take pictures to post on their site' and for some reason that involved them obviously standing on my bed or doing something that messed up the covers so badly that it looked as if I hadn't even made my bed this morning.
Don't get me wrong... I'm not against estate agents in general... I just used Lets Do Business in Fulham and had a great experience... but Foxtons is the WORST! If this post saves just one person the hassle I've gone through and will continue to go through I'm sure as I attempt to get my deposit back it will be worth it!!! |
From a tenant |
Private tenants are being ripped off by a system which allows letting agents to impose unjustified and excessive charges whilst providing a poor or non-existent service, a new report from consumer group Citizens Advice says today.
They found that 94% of letting agents imposed up to seven additional charges on tenants, not counting the tenancy deposit and rent in advance and in some cases these added up to well over £600 in extra charges
Charges included a non-returnable holding deposit, a deposit administration charge, a reference check charge, an administration fee, a check-in inventory charge, a check-out inventory charge, and a tenancy renewal fee
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From a tenant |
A bunch of conmen - Circa Residential, South Woodford
Please try to avoid using this agency. The owner is an aggressive and unpleasant liar, they have no grasp of the law, how to serve notice or properly treat their tenants and when you bring this up with the owner he gets very angry. If you point out to any member of staff an inaccuracy in notices they serve, ALL staff will ignore your requests, emails, etc, even if what you're requesting is legally required by law. They will pretend to have inspections in order to come over and intimidate you. In my experience with them I have sent them approximately 30 emails in the past year with no responses (ha, that sounds a lot but you just keep emailing again to chase them when you get ignored). Awful, terrible, horrific agency, AVOID AT ALL COSTS |
From a Tenant |
I Just Encountered A Rude Cock-Face Letting Agent |
From a Landlord |
I was wanting to let my house before emigrating and at first this company seemed friendly and attentive enough. Even though they were fairly small with a poor web presence they were recommended to me and I went with it. The signs were there at the beginning when I had to ask them to come and put a 'for let' sign on my house which they seemed to have forgotten. They told me that they had conducted an extensive search of rental prices in the area and I have found out since that seemed to comprise one flat. Communication regarding how the enquiries are going was poor and I had to chase them.
They told me that quite a few people had been shown round but with further enquiries this turned out to be the grand total of 'one'. They advised me to ask for a lot more than the flat was worth and then blamed me for few enquiries. I was sensible enough to stop dealing with them and managed to get the flat let myself within a fortnight . I told them that I thought their service was poor and asked for the setup fee (£125) to be refunded and they sent me a bizarre reply insulting me. Strange and bizarre with poor service. If I were you I would look for a better division but avoid the Premier!! |
Tenant |
We had recent issues with in our property, these agents do not care about the tenants at all and only care about the landlord. We have a room unlivable and expected to live in an Uninhabitable property |
From landlord |
Landlords - You will have to battle to get every monthly payment from this agent (Thomas and company lettings Milton Keynes)
This agent has caused me so many problems I have had to let my tenant go and will now start again somewhere else. For over a year I have had to make phone call after phone call, month after month to get my monthly payment from them. I am a professional not a career landlord and I have to say this is the most un-profession company and group of people I have ever had to deal with in any aspect of my life. Chasing money has been a constant worry and wasted so much of my time.
I took Thomas and Company as an agent to look after my interests and all they have done is look after their own by constantly withholding my money. Their performance has also caused the loss of a home to the young family who were in my property and paying their rent each month. The legal advice I was given by Trading Standards and private solicitor was to cease the agreement, which I have now done. However, I am still chasing my last months rent and waiting for promised return phone calls that never come.
What these companies do is not illegal but it is totally immoral the best thing we can do is to not use them and spread the word about the awful experience potential landlords will receive from this company.
The man who does the accounts and who promises your money "will be in the bank today" is actually one of the owners of the company - he has a big incentive to hold onto your money in his bank account as long as possible.
I hope this review saves at least some people from the experience I have had with this so-called professional company. Thanks for reading this review, please tell anyone you know who may be considering using Thomas and Company Lettings that it will be a very bad experience. Good luck with finding a good agent yourself. |
From a Tenant |
From the first day we moved in the veneer of quality soon fell apart. Banisters came off as soon as we went upstairs, went we looked we saw they had just been screwed into plasterboard no proper fixings. The towel rails in the house were fitted the same way and also falling off. The estate agents try hard to avoid any dealings with tenants. They give you a number to text when something needs fixing, but this invariably gets nothing done until you phone them over and over again. When they want to come into the house (only when showing someone around, they let themselves into the house unannounced, or in rare cases phone you 5 minutes before hand to let you know. An absolutely shambolic company that don't seem to have a clue about tenants rights. Stay away even if you are desperate there will still be better places to live. |
From a Tenant |
I have just finished renting a flat through H M T Lettings. I rented from an independent landlord who used HMT as their representatives.
I would like to warn other potential tenants that in my opinion, H M T are not trustworthy when it comes to representing your interests to the landlord at the end of the tenancy. This is what happened to me:
1. When H M T performed the property inspection, they accused me of doing an inadequate job of cleaning. They pointed to a dirty spoon, some dust on a bath room pipe, and the interior windows. Luckily I had evidence in my inventory that the property was in a poor state of cleanliness when I moved in. They initially ignored my verbal request for consideration, so I ended up having to send a lengthy e-mail quoting the inventory. After two weeks, they agreed not to charge me.
2. During the property inspection, there were two patches of carpet with discolouration. One was caused by a tea stain, and the other was a water mark caused by the carpet cleaner that I had used. HMT told me that I was liable for this damage, but it took them two weeks to confirm this to me. The law states that reasonable wear and tear should be considered by the landlord, and I felt that it was unfair of them not to take this into account, at least in terms of the amount of money they claimed.
I ended up agreeing to pay for the carpet stain because ultimately I had caused a small amount of discolouration to the living room carpet. The main thing for potential tenants to be aware of is that HMT displayed no collaborative spirit when dealing with me, and they took a lot of time to come back to me. This all lead to considerable delays with getting my deposit back. I felt that this was really mean, because I had always paid my rent on time and never caused problems (i.e. being reasonable about maintenance issues).
For this reason, I would not recommend H M T to other tenants. Regardless of my behaviour as a tenant, they treated me with very little respect when it came to resolving the deposit dispute.
I hope that this enables you to make an informed decision when choosing your letting agent. |
Tenant |
WARNING STEER CLEAR OF JUST LETS IN HOVE EAST SUSSEX
I have never in my life had such disgusing service, quite honestly once they have your money they are not interested.
They have breeched contract in every possible way, maintenance not carried out to the extent that the problems have affected my health and we have lost J100's.
You are rarely if ever able to get through to the right person and when you do they promise you the world and you get absolutely NOTHING!!!!!
Please whether you are a Tenant or Landlord stay away from these people.
I am in the process of dealing with the matter in court. |
Tenant |
Awful is an understatement. Northwood lettings agent, Bristol
I have been a tenant with Northwood for about 2.5 years. The list of issues I have with them is absolutely endless and I cannot believe they anyone would go back to them for repeat business. In fact, I cannot believe that they are surviving the recession. They make attempts to rob you of cash at every oppertunity:
When renewing an existing contract, they aim to charge you 25 GBP for the privilege - 'admin charge'.
When increasing the rent, they write you a letter and aim to charge you 25 GBP for the privilege - 'admin charge'.
If your rent is x days late, they will try to charge you interest.
If you wish to be present at a property inspection, and cannot make a specified time (dictated by them) they will charge you 80GBP (!!!!!) for altering a time (convenient to you).
When they write you a letter, it will be in BOLD littered with spelling mistakes, as will the contract-in some cases they will not not even spell your name correctly.
They are supposed to be agents/property managers etc, but merely pass you over to the actual owner of the property in the event of problem with the property-adding no value whatsoever-either way.
They have no 'out of hours' emergency number-when the alarm on our rented house started going off for no reason, it was fortunate that our neighbours had the telephone number of the owners-who came by and sorted the proble, Northwood have been no help whatsoever.
You will probably not get your deposit back: In the unlikely event that you haven't gathered a rake load of 'admin charges' over a 2 year period for this letter or that letter (unavoidable), they will claim that you are liable for rent for the duration of your contract, even beyond dates stipulated by the notice period. What is the point I ask in having a notice period if you are liable for the rent for the entire contract??????
In the event your boiler packs up and you have no hot water, they will have no interest in sorting out a problem with any great urgency. They will just fob you off for as long as possible until you start to get scary with them.
They increase the rent every 6 months. THEN, attempt to let the property out after your departure for less money than you were paying for the duration of your contract!!!! If that isn't enough to put you off, I don't know what is. I have rented from several other agents in the past, (Kingsley Thomas, Mayfair Property, Andrews) who have all been very reasonable; or as reasonable as lettings agents seem in comparison to these Northwood. They provide an awful service and are complete cowboys. They make any other agent seem like a charity. Avoid at all costs and do not use!!!!! |
From a Tenant |
Do not trust Time2move, Streatham
Having just let a property with Time2move, I cannot tell you how disgraceful their service is. Having agreed to the property being unfurnished 2 weeks beforehand Time2move have still not emptied the property 2 days into the tenancy. Despite assuring us 3 days before and on the day of the contract signing that it was emptied, on our arrival it was not. The agent, Phil, even had the cheek to tell us that one sofa had been removed and the other was being done as we speak.
Liar. In fact that sums him up perfectly. I have rented with numerous agents over the years and never have I come accross such a bare faced liar in all my time. As I write this, the 'removal men' were on their way. 2 hours ago. This follows the previous night where they were 1 or 2 hours away but never showed up. Following Phil's claim that everything is ok, its empty, one sofa has gone, I can only assume that he doesn't know how to tell the truth. What is more frustrating is that he says he will phone them immediately and phone you back. But never does. Indeed, I have had to chase him constantly to hear more excuses and lies.
To make things worse, the removal men have the 2nd set of keys so we cannot have a set each and cannot be sure our flat is secure.
Do not rent a property with them as they cannot be trusted. |
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