I am sorry to hear that, overall, you are not happy with the service you received.
We absolutely do not want tenants to leave us feeling angry, frustrated and it is especially disappointing to hear that you would 'systematically avoid Happy Lets when looking for a flat'.

I hope that I can address the points raised and that this may go some way in having you consider using our services again; I would hate for you to miss out on your dream property on the basis that it is managed by our agency.
It is our aim to have this seen as a positive, not a negative, aspect.

With regards to the rent payments; I am sorry to hear that only agreed to paying part of the rent in advance out of desperation and because you were ‘too far down the line’.
I have checked our system and can see that you agreed that you could pay rent upfront if you were unable to provide UK based guarantors; we relayed this information to your landlord who then confirmed that we could take a holding deposit on that basis.
I can see that just after taking the holding deposit, all tenants were emailed to reconfirm and further clarify this matter with full payment dates given.
This email also stated that the reason for this was because you were students without guarantors.

It is standard in the industry for landlords to only accept student applications if there is a guarantor and, in my experience, it would be very rare for a landlord to let to students without a guarantor and without any other rental guarantees.
Many landlords mortgage agreements and/or insurance policies do not let them let to students at all and other specify that they can only let to students with guarantors, for other landlords it may be a choice based on other reasons.

Had you not been able to pay upfront, it may well have been the case that the landlord would not have accepted a holding deposit from you as she would look to minimise her risk but I do not feel it is entirely fair for this to be used as a reason to associate the landlord or the agency as being ‘dodgy’.
I thought that the communication demonstrated our transparency as an agency as this very detailed information was given from day 1 and definitely well in advance (in my view) of being ‘too far down the line’.
It may well be that your personal circumstances in looking for a property (leaving for the summer/differing circumstances of flatmates etc..) left you in a situation where you had to secure a property quickly and under ‘desperate’ circumstances but we would definitely not take advantage of anyone in such circumstances and the system and policies of the companies, together with any landlord decisions, are the same for all tenants.

The rent secured on the property was in line with the market for similar properties (the rent has actually increased since you vacated the property). I understand if you feel that it was too high for the property and you are entitled to this opinion.
I am sorry that you only agreed to this due to your circumstances however, again, this was detailed from the very beginning from the property advertisements and the condition of the property was clear from the viewings.
I can see from the notes on our system that you did not view the property yourself but were happy to proceed on the basis that your flat mate had viewed the property and had taken photographs.
We do not normally accept holding deposits if tenants have not seen the property as we want to ensure that every tenant is happy with the property in advance of the deposit being taken however we made an exception in this case further to your written confirmation that you had seen photos of every room from your flatmate.

I am sorry that you feel that we charge tenants wherever possible; could you please detail what was charged over and above rent and deposit so I can look into this?
We do not charge application or referencing fees or any administration fee for processing applications, for preparing inventories (which tenants benefit from), or any other charge for a service to tenants apart from a nominal fee for providing a reference at the end of the tenancy (which is detailed in our lease agreement), which is very reasonable for the work involved (time and administration involved in checking your file, notes, rental history, complaints record etc….).

With regards to the maintenance issues which were present on your arrival, I cannot locate all of the information to allow me to investigate why you would feel that it was ‘poorly addressed’, however I do see that damp works were authorised and completed. I note that tenants moved in at separate times over a period of 3 months; if you could contact our office directly to confirm which tenant reported these issues and around what time I can investigate this matter for you.

I am glad that you found us to be genuine and friendly but it is disappointing to hear that you found us condescending on occasion. This is not how we want our tenants to feel and, again, if you could contact our office to provide further information on when this happened, which staff member is involved, I will investigate this also.

I am glad that you took advantage of our current initiative to encourage honest feedback by leaving a review and having your fee waived as we will use your feedback to identify where improvements in our service can be made.

I hope that I have been able to clarify some of the matters raised and you would not entirely dismiss renting a property managed by Happy Lets in the future.

If you wish to contact the office please request a copy of our complaints procedure which details who to contact and how we will deal with your complaint.