Dear Future Tenant,

Thank you for writing the review, we appreciate feedback and that you have concerns with your up and coming tenancy.

We have recently sent out our moving in emails which lay out various details of the moving in process as you know. The charges below were outlined in this email in order to give greater transparency showing the way in which we work. We detail these charges in all tenancy agreements as well as display them clearly in the office. I appreciate you may feel we may be trying to sneak charges in and would be grateful for the opportunity to explain them, please see my comments below:

£12 to send a letter about outstanding rent
This is only charged as a last resort having tried to contact tenants on many occasions through telephone calls, emails and texts. Often if a valid excuse is given we are happy to waive this charge.

£10 to request letters or documents
Again this is a last resort, many tenants ignore our reminders to hand in guarantor and standing order forms for many months. If a valid excuse is given we are happy to not charge this fee.

£50 to 'notify change of the burglar alarm code'.
Often the alarm codes are set by the landlord on a 3 yearly system and simply writing down a new code is more than the job entails. We have to send a qualified electrician to the property to change the alarm back to the initial system code. Again if this is a simple task we are happy to not charge and make a note of the new code.

£70 for being locked out accidentally outside office hours.
If a call out is made often at very early hours in the morning we have to pay someone to go to the property to let people in. This is so that the tenant can avoid calling a locksmith at much greater cost. If the call out if at say six o'clock and someone is still in the office we will of course not charge the full amount but only what it costs the office.

- Only get 48 hours from key-handover to report any faults and problems with the house, which can take up to 2 WEEKS to resolve? (but miraculously any problems in finance can be resolved immediately)

The condition report is an outline of the way in which the house is found by the new tenants so a 2 day window is necessary, any more than that and the property will have been in the tenants possession long enough for the condition to have changed. The condition report only takes an hour or so and is very important for the tenant when getting their deposit back.
We aim to have everything in the house ready for when you move in. We often resolve issues straight away if they occur. Some issues with a lower priority (e.g. outside windows need cleaning.) may take up to 2 weeks to complete as we are extremely busy at this time of year.
Finance issues are often a lot easier to manage in a short space of time with internet banking and speedy processes, however we aim to complete all tasks given to us in a timely manor.

- I also find it ridiculous that even as the agent of the property you require us to ask the landlord for any information we want and STILL have the cheek to ask us to pay a fee for this 'inconvenience'

This is the case where the property is not managed by Tomlinson Estates and on a let only basis. We do not find any requests from our tenants an inconvenience and welcome you into the office at any point to discuss any issues you may have.

-Sure, all these things can be written in the tiniest small print in the T&C's that I didn't read before I signed the house but it's just a con to spring all these extra charges on you AFTER you've signed the dotted line because none of these were made clear anywhere else during the moving in process!

I am happy to email you a copy of the contract for you to look over in your own time, every house that signs is given a copy at the time of signing. We encourage everyone to thoroughly read the contract before signing. If you would like any clauses explaining following reading through it again I would be happy to do this.

-It even looks like some of these reviews are fake and are clearly written by Tomlinson themselves like that one dated 11/02/2013
-You guys are real sly and if you want a better response from Students and the like, you should probably stop being so money grabbing at every opportunity possible !! Why so conceited? I really hope you aren't going to make this experience hell for us.

Tomlinson Estates is family business, we have been working in Lenton for many years and can assure you it is not our intention to come across this way. If you would like to contact me directly for further discussion I am happy to arrange a meeting or answer any questions on an email. Throughout your tenancy you can also contact me directly to make sure issues are resolved if they occur. I completely understand your point of view and only ask that you give us chance to prove ourselves as an agent that is invested in its customers.

Please don't hesitate to contact me direct:
[email protected]