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Written by rosalind renshaw

With agency review sites a big talking point at the moment, we were intrigued to come across the online UK Letting Agents Directory.

Here, at its lettings reviews centre, users “can read unbiased reviews about local firms” to help them make their choice, or write their own reviews.

Consumers apparently need little prompting, as you can see from the link. But you’d be hard put to find a decent review of almost any agent.

So, what do we make of this?

Is it a frightening indictment of much of the industry?

Or does it just prove that people can really only be bothered to comment when they have something negative to say?

However, trawl through some of the reviews and it is pretty clear that some agents have done a singularly awful job, earning the lowest possible ratings.

Communications and customer care seem big problems, at least in the eyes of tenants and landlords, and apply not just to ‘unregulated’ agents but to some who are ARLA and Ombudsman listed.

Whichever way you look at it, this particular site does very little for the reputation of letting agents as a whole.

What are your thoughts?

http://www.uklettingagent.co.uk/reviews/

Comments

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    INTIRE - DOWNEND

    I was initially impressed with the letting agent's enthusiasm for our custom, and first impressions were good. They had a well presented, contemporary office with a team of smart and professional looking people. The first impression was wrong.

    We paid the "holding deposit" for the property to secure it's lease to us and was told that although our home insurance would be paying the rent (we had to move out of our owned property for building work to commence), we would need to pay the holding deposit, that would be paid back directly to us once the security deposit was paid.

    Upon payment of the security deposit, I had to battle with Intire to pay our holding deposit back to us because company policy was to deduct this from the first rental payment. This was a clear contradiction of the reassurance of the member of staff we discussed this with initially. Anyway, after an arduous battle, I managed to get my holding deposit back after being made to feel like a trouble causer and a problem customer.

    Upon moving into the house that looked as though it hadn't seen a clean since the mid '90's, We promptly bleached, cleaned and scrubbed every surface to make it hygienic and functional.
    After various other battles with the agents over little things, our lease was up and it was time to move out. Again, we bleached, cleaned and tidied the whole house to a much higher standard than when we first arrived. Upon inspection by the agents, they identified a number of leaves on the ground in the back garden. (of course there were, it was January 13th and for the last month or two, we had seen nothing but torrential rain and wind!). The landlord said that this would need to be cleared and they would get a quote for it. The garden was roughly 5 metres by 5 metres and consisted of a flagstone path and a pebbled area.
    The initial quote was for £145! I offered to clear the leaves myself and did this on the Saturday morning. Again, the wind and rain meant that the ground was soaked. I collected the leaves from all the flagged area and the majority from the pebbled area however, removing the last of the leaves from the pebbled area would have resulted in the pebbles being taken with the leaves due to the excess water adherence. This was explained to the letting agents however, this was quickly disregarded and I am now currently battling with the landlord over the £50 they are trying to deduct from the security deposit that they claim to have paid to a gardener for leaf collection. I only hope that the next tenant has more control over the weather systems in the UK than I do otherwise they too will be in an outrageous position when they come to collect their security deposit.

    I feel as though we have been treated like nothing more than petty criminals during our rental experience with Intire and would actively discourage anyone from using them in future.

    • 31 January 2014 13:28 PM
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    Todds Lettings are terrible. I have a broken boiler and was without hot water for a month. Karen Todd actually owned the property! :'(


    Not happy.

    Don't use this agent:

    Todd Lettings

    117 High St, Crediton EX17 3LG
    01363 777373


    They give all the good agents a bad name!!

    • 30 January 2014 19:34 PM
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    Seven property management are the worst I've ever experienced! Called by the director who said apparently I'm not the only person who works six days a week and should weed my front garden in December/January because she does. Gutted out the garden after the heavy wind and rain pulled out weeds and broken bushes and apparently her opinion is the garden looks worse than when we moved in. Unbelievably rude spoke over me and argued with me and needed to rein spect the property when it is clean tidy and well kept! Couldn't believe my ears. She went silent when I asked if I could speak and stayed quiet for a minute then said I was just letting u speak. Worst letting agent ever to deal with complaints and inspections they just pick up anything idiots. I now feel like I can't live comfortably in my house in case I mess it up or do something they don't like. Steer clear they have lost our money now!!

    • 29 January 2014 22:33 PM
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    Lancasters Letting Agents in Stocksbridge are definately an Agent to keep well clear of if you want to rent your property out. My own personal experiences with them has been awful from the word go. I did not know of hidden charges until they had been taken out of the first month rent, I was not told of hidden charges taken out of the second month rent. The Agent failed to inform the Utilities of the new tenant details. Gas and electric meters were not read and passed on to the relative Company. It takes days to get any kind of response from Agent. The new tenants were given a free week of rent without consulting me. I have heard some shocking information about the Agent from the new tenants which is contradictive of information the Agent gave to me. I have requested a meeting with the Agent and her Manager and unsurprisingly my request has been ignored. The Agent has lied to me on numerous occasions. I suspect that this message will not go live but not to worry, there are other sites this information will be put on. Not an Agent that can be trusted or recommended.

    • 07 January 2014 00:31 AM
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    I have to agree with KB above - if you give a crappy service then be prepared to get slated. I have seen the top reviews and these are the agents who are clearly getting it right... and are getting the praise they deserve. Unfortunately my agent is ranked 11649 out of 11650 and having had laughably poor service from them, am not surprised by their rating and recognise many of the complaints. It isn' t about whiney tenants who trash the place and then whinge about not getting their deposits back, it is about extortionate and unearned fees, shockingly bad service and a rude, bad, the world owes me a living attitude to go with it. I wouldn't mind paying an administration fee if I got efficient and conscientious service in return. Good review or bad review, feedback is invaluable. Stop whining yourselves and start acting on this free feedback.

    • 06 August 2013 16:49 PM
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    I sold my property with Resi London from abroad and there was restricted with what I could do as a seller. Resi London was very helpful in taking care of my property and any loose ends and kept me updated with the whole process. Was very easy to communicate even though I live abroad and are truly professional. Exceptional service.

    • 19 April 2013 14:52 PM
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    The Cloister located in Great Portland Street- Marylebone provided an excellent, efficient and professional service. My questions were answered and dealt with immediately through email and phone. Excellent communication between me and the sellers which made the process very easy and non-complicated. Also after buying the house communication was excellent making sure everything was going ok and I was happy with the results. An excellent team I would defiantly recommend The Cloister

    • 19 April 2013 14:28 PM
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    Burns Lettings in Bournemouth-

    The worst letting agency I have ever come across, we were left without an oven for 2 months and giving not the slightest bit of acknowledgment or compensation. Kept ringing and finally told we would have to pay even though that was never in the agreement.

    Told we had to do the gardening again not in the agreement except we had not gardening tools given to us.

    On expection of the property the house was immaculate and when we explained that the heating which had also not been working was broken as well as the heating and the electric which when the kettle was boiled tripped the switches, we were told to tidy the carpet and not contacted.

    Really ever so poor shall not be reccomending them or indeed using them again awful. Best to go private always.

    • 16 March 2013 20:54 PM
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    MOVE LOCATION LETTING AGENCY, CARDIFF

    MOVE LOCATION Agency = AVOID. A group of scum that call themselves 'a freelancing agency'

    Completely unprofessional, ill mannered.

    Viewed houses with them, liked one. The 'agent' was compulsive,pushy and dominant. He did not know anything about the house or details.He asked me to contact the landlord for details while we were viewing the house!!!!! He could not provide me with a number to contact the landlord or neither arrange a meeting with the landlord. He was only interested in me paying him the £200 agency fee 'asap' to 'book the house'. They could give me no written documentation at any time.

    I found a nice place myself. Please do NOT trust this agency. I doubt they are even legal. Roaming in a car showing people houses doesn't make you an housing agency. They only try to make money of someone's misery of finding urgent accommodation or moving houses.

    Take care.

    • 05 July 2012 13:53 PM
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    @ Des

    "The whole purpose of a review is to allow customer the freedom to be able to write about THEIR experience as a customer."

    What about the freedom for the Agent to write about THEIR experiences with a tenant?

    • 16 January 2012 10:59 AM
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    So a tenant can write and publish anything they like regarding service they've received, deductions from their deposit they thought was unfair.... yet a Landlord/Agent can't publish anything about how a tenant conducted a tenancy or the state they left the property in at the end of a tenancy... Bit one sided...

    • 16 January 2012 10:57 AM
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    @julie

    The whole purpose of a review is to allow customer the freedom to be able to write about THEIR experience as a customer.

    I mean let's be honest, if a customer writes a damming negative review about you, are you going to allow that to be published on your site?? I believe this is why Allagents have brought out their transparent agent scheme.

    Good review sites also give you a right to reply. So if you don't know who a reviewer is, then you have the opportunity to do so there.

    • 15 January 2012 11:14 AM
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    I rent to a lot of students who love review sites; I’ve battled with false reviews that I really can't identify. Why do we have a complaints procedure when it's never used? Should the review site not have to see a paper trail to confirm the review is legitimate? Should a review site not be legislated?

    I've recently set up my own review site from an agent’s point of view. www.julietwist/reviews.co.uk. On this site they can't leave a review unless I have the details to contact them.

    • 15 January 2012 01:30 AM
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    We are not on any of these sites so must be doing something right. Would however like a similar site for TDS where we can air our grievances over how they deal with deposit complaints.

    • 13 January 2012 18:05 PM
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    Having read a review of our company - Titled "Agents who don;t work for tenants" - on this site yesterday - the tenants was legintimately charged early termination fees in accordance with his sigend tenancy agreement, I reported it with the following comment:

    "I would like to be able to provide a response to this comment as the Tenant read and signed their Tenancy agreement and all the charges for vacating early are stated in this agreement. I do not believe that Tenants should just be allowed to make comments without the agent being able to respond as this only provides one unqualified side of a story."

    The response the same day from the site was:

    "Hello,
    Review #385 has been removed from our website.
    We are sorry for the inconvenience, and appreciate your understanding as we work to improve our service.
    Kind Regards,
    The Editorial Team"

    I can only think that they must be getting quite a few complaints abouthow they are handling this...

    • 13 January 2012 11:28 AM
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    Tenants are a bunch of moany children that don't like to take responsibility for anything. When you tell them the hard reality they go and have a cry on sites like this. Boo hoo..

    • 12 January 2012 21:14 PM
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    I am concerned that some agents are appearing on this site repeatedly so something must be amiss.

    Much of what has been written is just ignorance but I have to say that a lot more is probably only too true.

    In an unregulated business where only agents who want to be regulated voluntarily do so then it will continue in this vein.

    There are many many agents who are bumbling along not realising they are not as good as they think they are, and that is a much higher percentage than you might think!.

    • 12 January 2012 19:03 PM
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    Although well intentioned these 'review' sites are not a true reflection of our industry and only offer a disproportionate view.

    Firstly, It's not about defending your actions or having the right to reply. It's about the customer's experience so regardless of you doing everything by the book it's boils down your bedside manner.

    Secondly, in our industry founded largely on image and reputation a negative emotion carries greater effect than a positive one. Happy customers do not experience such elation that they immediately turn to a review site, it's often us who encourage them to.

    Lastly, there is no way to police this type of site so inevitably as agents we are at their mercy. That said, maybe we should just accept an entry as fair comment on our people skills if nothing else.

    • 12 January 2012 16:40 PM
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    IF the review sites had to email the agent when a review was placed.

    IF that agent had the opportunity to defend their position and

    IF the review was found to be mindless ranting where the customer was clearly in the wrong or the agent had done everything in their power to resolve the review would not be published

    THEN and ONLY THEN can I condone a review site.

    Also if any of these sites insisted on the reviewers registering their details so that they may be contacted in the event of a query I'm sure it would reduce a lot of the ranting.

    • 12 January 2012 16:02 PM
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    @Ray Comer on 2012-01-12 12:45:24

    I am sorry to havve to say I cannot agree with your acceptance of this, mainly, rubbish. In some other professions I believe they would be sued silly over unsubstantiated claims of wrong doing.

    • 12 January 2012 14:09 PM
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    This highlights the issues with review sites - you have to take the bad with the good. Unfortunatey, human nature being what it is, tenants will usually post negative comments even if unsubstantiated.

    On the whole I think they are a good idea but they ought to allow agents to at least defend themselves i.e. each party gets one post to put their side across to avoid lengthy disputes.

    We're not on this site fortunately but we are on another where an aggrieved tenant complained that 'we' had taken his whole deposit because of a few marks on the carpets. No mention the carpet being 6 months old or that the 'few marks' were caused by him letting off fireworks in the property!! Multiple burns to the carpet and skirting boards.

    Do any of us lose money due to sites like this? I expect so but its impossible to quatify so we just have to take it on the chin as one of the disadvantages of running a business.

    • 12 January 2012 12:45 PM
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    It's a piss poor site for reviews, they aren't even linked to the agent's profile page so there's no easy way of searching.

    • 12 January 2012 12:42 PM
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    I was surprised to see my company on there, and even more surprised to see the tenant who was complaining as they had a deposit paid by the council! And the council agreed that it should be deducted!

    I am a licensed arla agent, a member of the property ombudsman and a member of the tds. We pay a lot of money each year to ensure that we are seen as we are, professional, respectable agents. Sites like this allow a tenant to vent publicly, when if they have got a legitimate complaint they can go through a hell of a lot of avenues that will uncover the truth. Thats what we pay all these ever increasing subscriptions for.

    At the end of the day, we know that any tenant who has deposit monies deducted is going to think it is unfair, is the only way to avoid being publicly denounced to just let bad tenants get away with trashing a property? It would seem so.

    to me, what has been written about our company is completely libelous, surely the site owners have a responsibility to validate facts before publishing a story?!

    • 12 January 2012 11:37 AM
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    I see allagents have eventually given separate profile pages to branches . This was my biggest gripe as we do well on their site but were getting tarnished by other branches that weren't performing.

    • 12 January 2012 11:10 AM
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    Just left this review on their site, lets see if they print it:

    Company: Uk Lettin Agents Directory

    Comment: A web site full of groining tenants who's main complaint should be directed to the landlords. Unfounded malicious drivel in a really bad format where you can not even search a town or area, you just have to scroll down. ?100 to the first positive review left on this site, I could even offer more as no one will bother.

    • 12 January 2012 10:29 AM
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    @SFL

    Agree 100% (and with London Agent too).

    One other thought for posters - I see at least one post had a full name and looked like a real name i.e. not Mickey Mouse etc.

    Any agent able to trace a complainant who is posting what is subsequently shown to be at best an incomplete story and at worst malicious falsehood or even libel and that ex-tenant could find themselves in some very deep and hot legal water.

    Especially if the agent is the nasty bag of spanners some posters make them out to be and decide to retaliate. Most agents could probably work out who the complainant is anyway if a case was that serious, detailed and presumably recent. Unless of course they are buried in complaints or just don't care anyway.

    Just a thought - which of course makes false names more likely and in turn the posts even more irrelevant.

    • 12 January 2012 10:17 AM
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    Anyone in the profession who supports this kind of site, with its mainly unsubstantiated comments from anonymous authors, has very little understanding of human nature. (Nomatter how old they are or how long in the business)

    • 12 January 2012 10:12 AM
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    SteveFromLeicester - its far worse than all agents and seems that there is no real search function.

    The problem with review sites remain malicious comments without foundation. 99% of reviews are either 1 star or 5 star.

    Even obvious blatant false posts are not removed, rather you are encouraged to 'respond' which is fine, but the average rating remains affected.

    • 12 January 2012 09:58 AM
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    I confess I haven't looked at the site yet, but I bet it's much the same as Allagents.

    The two main sources of complaints on Allagents are

    "The nasty agent unfairly withheld money from my deposit" (Erm, no he didn't. The LANDLORD withheld money from your deposit, if you weren't happy with this you could have taken it up with the appropriate dispute service. Either way the agent doesn't retain any money)

    and . . .

    "The agent didn't do any repairs on my property" (Wrong - the LANDLORD didn't do any repairs on your property / wouldn;t authorise the agent to do repairs).

    The irony being that a small number of letting agents really do provide awful service and sail very close to the wind where legalities are concerned, but they're lost in a sea of complaints about things that the agent actually has no control over.

    If these review sites actually offered some guidance to tenants about what the agents responsibilities were, and what their rights were about deposits etc then most of the - shall we say "misinformed" complaints would disappear and the sites could then be a force for good naming and shaming those agents who really were providing poor service.

    • 12 January 2012 09:34 AM
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    @KB

    In my view you couldn't be more wrong. Sites such as these are simply the Trip Advisor equivalent for our industry. Don't get me wrong I'm all for justified criticism and complaint where it is merited.

    So I have the same view of the Landlord sites where they can slag off tenants - and which I still think are illegal anyway under DP Act provisions.

    Having said that the reason so few positive posts appear, apart from the fact people are quicker to blame and moan than to laud and praise, is that of course those paying fees are entitled to at least good service if not better. So when they don't get it understandably they moan.

    But it is giving a platform for comments like those posted in this site that led to the TDP legislation courtesy of the CAB Unfair Deposits report which was also incredibly skewed courtesy of poorly worded questions.

    I noticed Victoria Knight who I've never heard of had three entries though two were from the same person. But VK is a member of TPO so presumably if the complaint was serious enough and justifiable i.e. the tenant actually had some evidence then presumably if VK didn't sort it out and compensate the tenant went to the TPO - or did they?

    The other major problem here is that any grievance is a dissatisfaction real or perceived. You could have an agent who moves heaven and earth to try and satisfy a complainant only to find that the complaint isn't in fact justified. So then the tenant moans on this site.

    Agents will know if comkplaints from Landlords and tenants are justified. If they are presumably if half decent they'll try to sort and satisfy and if they are not then the agent is better off with the client off their books. Some people really never are satisfied!!

    • 12 January 2012 09:26 AM
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    Online reviews are, I believe, probably one of the most effective tools to improve the standards of the letting industry outside of proper, well thought out legislation.

    I know most agents are sceptical- you can't please everyone all the time. And often, Tenants forget that as agents we represent the Landlord. However, as a company, we have always taken a strict policy with Landlords- if they do not provide a professional service to Tenants (quickly agreeing to reasonable works, etc.) then we simply don't deal with them again.

    However, all review sites have a responsibility to be open and fair. We are now one of the higher rated agents on allagents however I only discovered this site by chance aprox 12 months ago- only to discover that a mysterious former Tenant (to this day I still don't know who they are) had submitted a bad review about us.

    All review sites should have a system whereby, any time a review is left, an notification email is sent to the companies main address. With more and more review sites out there, it is impossible for agents to keep up with them all. It is also only fair, that they get to tell their side of the story.

    I can't see any reviews for my company on this site and, looking at it, it is a very poor review site when compared to sites like allagents, freeindex and whichagent.

    Like it or not, however, these sites are here to stay so if you give a crappy service, be prepared for it to be blurted about on the web soon!

    • 12 January 2012 08:59 AM
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