Review of   Douglas Martin, Hendon    Phone: 020 8202 6333     Address: 18 Central Circus

Do not use Douglas Martin to purchase a property. They are extremely unprofessional and dishonest. The owner likes to use bully boy tactics to increase the price and expects you to place a deposit to ensure the property is taken off the market.

Douglas Martin have a terrible reputation of making up 'other interested parties' and will constantly hound you to pressure you into making a decision. They have no integrity and are incredibly rude!!! Do not deal with this agent!

Value for money:		Not rated
Service & support:		Poor
Quality:		Poor
Location:		Not rated

Review of   Select Properties, Hayes    Phone: 020 8569 2000     Address: 392 Uxbridge Rd

I paid my deposit and a months rent in advance, but the agent retained all of the deposit, despite the landlord agreeing that nothing should be deducted.

I contacted the agent over 20 times and finally gave up. Do not deal with this guy - he is a cowboy!

Value for money:		Poor
Service & support:		Poor - Does not respond to calls or if he does fobs you off.
Quality:		Poor
Location:		Good

Review of   Lenwell Property Services Ltd, Luton    Phone: 01582 616263     Address: 8 Wellington Street

The customer service at Lenwell is absolutely horrible. They will be nice to you till they get you to sign the contract and then when you have to deal with management department you will be very sorry you ever chose this letting agency. They treat their tenant as rubbish and not answering the phone and never ringing back. If you are dealing with this agency my personal advice would be if you agree on any work that they promising to do or anything at all have it in writing so make them write you email with confirmation rather than agreeing on something verbally because afterwards they are denying anything they agreed on verbally. I just moved out from the house and of course they kept almost my all deposit because there were few marks on the walls which is ridiculous because I was living there for two years and it is just wear and tear. I am sensible person and I look after the place I live and also I work hard for that money and feel completely ripped off by this letting agency. They should be reviewed by some trading standards or watch dog. I would better sleep outside than go to rent from Lenwell in Luton again.

Value for money:		Poor - they never carry out any work they promised to do
Service & support:		Poor - Absolutely rubish!!!
Quality:		Poor - never ever would use it again
Location:		Poor

Review of   Midland Homes, Birmingham    Phone: 0121-551 6077     Address: 164 Oxhill Rd

We contracted Midland Homes in march 2009 to find and vet a suitable tenant. They failed, and put a totally unsuitable tenant in our property. By unsuitable we mean; she was on a tag, had a probation officer, and a police liaison officer. She has intimidated, harassed, and verbally abused the residents. If Midland Homes vetted this person, did they fail to find, or choose to ignore, her outstanding issues ? The director of Midland Homes, personally guaranteed us, the deposit, within 2 to 3 weeks of the tenant moving in. Over 4 months later we are still waiting.

Midland homes were contracted to arrange, regular payment of the correct rent. To today, 05-08-2009, from 28-03-2009, we have received 1 payment, on 17-07-2009, which appears to be for 1 months rent.
Midland Homes are evasive and rude when we have questioned them about all these issues, constantly defending the tenant, even when we provide evidence, ie police logs, to back the other residents statements.

We as landlord, pay for midland homes services, so, one would think that they, midland homes, have a duty of care, to, who has contracted their services. Not so, midland homes appear to believe their responsibility, lies with the tenant. This is causing a conflict of interest. After failing to provide us with a complaints procedure," put it in writing" was their response, and failing to resolve any of our issues, we have been forced to go to the property ombudsman.

We believe this company, Midland Homes, have failed in their code of conduct, and would advise any perspective landlords to STAY WELL CLEAR !!!!!.

Value for money:		Poor - NO
Service & support:		Poor - NONE
Quality:		Poor - NO
Location:		Not rated

Review of   J Lord & Co, Northwich    Phone: 01606 351133     Address: 457-459 London Rd Davenham

We have recently sold our property through J Lord & Co from Davenham. When we originally went into office she asked us which Solicitor we would be using and we said that we were going to shop around, she informed us that CFP in Northwich were always very good and that they dealt with CFP a lot, so against our better judgement we used them. I WOULD NOT recommend them, we only spoke to our Solicitor on two occasions and one of those was because we had complained. But thats another story. After a inital flurry of activity and viewers (some who were quite unsuitable for our property).

We received an offer vastly under the asking price and we felt that Jackie Lord talked us into accepting a very low offer with her "Estate Agent" talk. After feeling like we would never be able to sell our property we accepted this low offer. After we had accepted the offer J Lord & Co contacted us on less than 5 occasions. We were not kept "in the loop" and at times did not know what was going on. On 2 occasions I rang and asked for Jackie to ring me back and no call was returned. Jackie did however ring me 2 days before completion advising and I quote "I guess by now you know that you have exchanged contracts and completion is on thursday". When I rang the following day and asked to speak to her she was not in so I spoke to Rebecca in the office and explained to her that we were unhappy with the service that they had provided, never updating us etc and she did apologise.

However I spoke to Jackie Lord 2 days after that and at no point did she offer an apology for the extremely poor service we have received. She was just not interested, you would have thought that as we have family in Davenham Village and know an awful lot of people that she would have been concerned that we were unhappy with the service provided. But it felt like "You've paid me now, Ive got your money, I dont have to be nice to you"! I would NOT recommend putting your property up with this agent, the service we received was very poor and they are a lot more expensive than some of the agents in Northwich Town Centre, most of whom would give a much better service for your money. BE WARNED! Don't fall for her Estate Agent Patter!

Value for money:		Poor
Service & support:		Poor - Service was very poor and unacceptable
Quality:		Poor
Location:		Fair

Review of   strutt and parker,     Address: shropshire office

if you have one of the offices to strutt and parker come to your house with a possible listing,, they will try to charge you 850 pounds outfront to list and if they can't sell your place in two months ,, they keep the money and have you lower the selling price,,aren't they regulated by the real estate board? I have never in any years I have been doing real estate heard of this ripoff,,,, Beware....folks...

Value for money:		Poor - ripoff out front money scam
Service & support:		Poor - agents don't tell you about the money at first
Quality:		Poor - hungry agent comes to the house for the listing
Location:		Poor - offices everywhere ,,, you are the prey