Megan said about Philip James Partnership

Services : Letting( As a Tenant )Date: 21st Feb 2024

Avoid like the plague!! Horrendous experience from start to current day.
Firstly they are impossible to get a hold of for viewing, after over a month of trying we managed to get in contact with someone for a viewing. We ended up getting the flat (mainly due to lack of other options) and paid a holding fee deposit on request. We heard nothing back not even a confirmation, they have an automated checking system to complete vetting and when we emailed with questions regarding this process we again received no response.
Eventually we had an email asking for the full deposit from Lorraine Usher which we sent, again no confirmation or further instruction. We were informed in the email requesting the deposit that we'd be sent the contract & moving in details at least 2 days prior to move in. Despite this being very poor practice and last minute we had no other options but to wait.
However when it was 2 days prior to move in we had still heard nothing back, emailed Lorraine and heard nothing back. In the end I threatened a formal complaint and finally a contract was sent.
Then, 1 day before move in date, Lorraine informed us that 'work hadn't been completed on the property' and our move in date was delayed 'until further notice'. She was still impossible to contact throughout this process and was very negligent, we had to threaten legal action to actually find out what was wrong with the property which was, of course, mould!
After 10 days of delay we were told we'd be able to move in. Lorraine Usher terminated our current contract and didn't refund our deposit or send us a notice that our deposit would carry over to our new contract (which took a while), repeated emails regarding our deposit were ignored. We sought legal advice and when threatened with that we received a response. Following this Lorraine didn't think to give us the direct debit guarantee, which is a legal requirement, or any of the door and gate codes we needed, so on arrival we had to rely on other residents for help. Half of our keys were missing as well, apparently they were still with a contractor? Seems pretty unsafe.
On arrival we found the only 'work' completed was the mould being painted over, half of it hadn't even been painted over! On top of that the dishwasher didn't work, a chair was missing, the oven didn't work and one mattress had blood all over it.
When trying to resolve all of these issues Philip James informed us that they couldn't do anything because they couldn't even get in contact with our landlord. After a month of back and forth and a broken dishwasher standing in the middle of our small kitchen for over two week we finally had the appliances fixed. The only person that has been helpful was Keir the maintenance manager.
Things started to go slightly more smoothly ... until now. We had been on a weekend trip away and came back to a notice of abandonment letter on our door :). Turns out our landlord hasn't been paying the mortgage and our flat has now been handed over to a mortgage provider company. Philip James actually asked us to not cancel to rent direct debit to them despite countless letters telling us to pay the rent directly to the mortgage provider.
I'd expect them to do better due diligence on their landlords, ours 'works overseas' and apparently never responds which concerns me as to how he managed to advertise a property with them.
Who knows what will happen now. Overall I don't recommend at all if you want to keep your sanity.
Apparently they write their own good reviews after a bad one so I except there'll be a new one after this shambles.

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