100% sales valuation accuracy
50% sales fee satisfaction
100% lettings valuation accuracy
83% lettings fee satisfaction
Aug 17,2016
Aug 17,2016
20
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One star because no stars is not an option. Absolutely, unbelievably, the worst and most farcically incompetent agent I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with in almost a decade of renting. My partner and I have lived in a property managed by Kings in Walthamstow for nearly two years.
First the contract, until pointed out by us, was set to begin on the 31st of September - a date which doesn't exist. This might sound minor, but this is a legal document. Then (after correcting the date) the agent seemed surprised that my partner and I actually wished to read the contract before signing it (again, legal document!) and attempted to hurry us. It should have been a warning sign, really.
Then we moved in. Someone had changed the locks the day before, but not bothered to check that the new lock was aligned properly from the inside, meaning that the first time we locked the door from the inside (which they implied we should not have done, but we had opted to do since a: the outside door was broken meaning anyone could wander into the downstairs hallway - a fact that was hidden from us when we initially viewed the property and b: the inner door was flimsy and not particularly secure looking, potentially easily kicked down with just the flimsy Yale lock in place if someone decided to break in), we ended up trapped inside our first-floor flat.
When we eventually managed to get through to someone from the repairs department the woman I initially spoke to told me I'd have to wait for a repair until the landlord returned from his holiday(!), after I'd told her that we were trapped in a first-floor flat. Only after I asked whether she was suggesting we jump out of the window did she agree to send someone round to fix the lock. An apology would have been nice, perhaps an explanation of how such an oversight occurred, but we heard nothing more from them. After several unanswered emails and phone calls where I was told that someone would get back to me (mysteriously never happened), my partner and I went into the branch to speak to someone in person. Instead of apologising, this person laughed at us as if it were somehow funny that their incompetence had left us each missing half a day of work with no notice whilst trapped in a first-floor flat (with what turned out to be a gas leak). We did not ever receive an apology or an acknowledgement of fault.
At the time, there was also a fairly serious gas leak under the cooker (in the words of the engineer from the national grid That's dangerous, it's been fitted in a really strange manner, it has to go now) that Kings took almost a month to fix after we'd had the national grid come out to cut us off. So that's a month with no heating or hot water, no hobs, but still full rent, of course.
Then we have the quarterly (I say quarterly because sometimes they don't come round for half a year, and on one occasion decided to do it twice in two months) inspection process. Kings send a letter, on one occasion with less than two days notice, informing us that they are coming round for an inspection (presumably to make sure we're not up to anything naughty in the flat - something I've never experienced elsewhere including in many years of renting student accommodation, but it's always nice to be treated like a disobedient child) and if we can't be there, in the middle of the day, with next to no notice, that we will be billed £50. They don't attempt to arrange a mutually convenient time, they never ask when we are available, they just inform us that they are coming and that we will be fined if we cannot be there. For the most recent inspection date, Kings called to cancel at 5PM the day before, after I had already arranged to work from home, at great inconvenience. When asked if the £50 bill applied the other way around we, surprise surprise, got laughed at.
The latest issue began about a month ago. My partner was called in mid July and informed that we are in rental arrears totalling one month's rent. This was not the case, and he forwarded them bank statements as proof. Although he asked for confirmation that the matter had been dealt with, this was never received but the fact that we heard no more about it led us to, perhaps naively, assume that the matter had been dealt with. Wrong.
Yesterday morning my partner received two missed calls from Kings whilst he was in a meeting. He informed me and I called them back during my lunch break. I was told that we are in rental arrears totalling one month's rent. I painstakingly sat going through my bank statements with someone from accounts, reading him every date of every payment (we pay by standing order on the same day of every month) until he realised that we could not possibly be in rental arrears - what had happened was somebody on their end had, for some unknown reason, invoiced us for September's rent a month and a half early, so our account appeared in one month's arrears. It took a month and both my partner and myself spending a huge amount of our own time on the phone to Kings, for anyone in their accounts department to realise what seems like a pretty ridiculous error. The person I spoke to assured me it would be rectified but admitted that he did not know how to rectify it himself, so I'm not massively hopeful that I won't have to deal with this again in the coming weeks. Obviously our greatest fear now is that they will pass our details to a debt collection agency and our credit rating will suffer because of their mistake.
Additionally, the first person I spoke to on the phone yesterday initially mistook me for the landlord. Before realising that I was the tenant, she told me that my partner and I were unreliable, did not answer phone calls and ignored communication. This is not only incredibly insulting, it is also patently untrue. It is our emails to Kings which are unanswered, our phone calls which are unreturned. On the day in question, I was calling back in response to two missed calls made in the same morning during working hours. Clearly, if your tenants work full time, they may not always be able to instantly drop everything to spend the best part of an hour on the phone fixing what was a mistake on the part of Kings. As always, one of us called back as soon as we were available to do so, and it's bordering on slander to suggest, to our landlord no less, that we had been ignoring communication.
I have now been assured over the phone that the accounts issue will be dealt with but I have asked for written confirmation that this is the case, as well as a written acknowledgement that any fault was on the part of Kings to be sent to both myself and the landlord. I have also requested details of their official complaints procedure. Unsurprisingly, this has been met with silence and I will be contacting the regulatory authority used by Kings (ARLA - http://www.arla.co.uk/ ) to investigate escalating the issue. I'm beginning to suspect that their reluctance to email me is because they'd rather I didn't have paper evidence of their incompetence. We're set to move out in a few weeks (thank God) although I foresee us having a very difficult time getting our deposit back, based on the agency's behaviour so far.
I couldn't recommend strongly enough that if you are considering renting a property managed by this agency, don't. My partner and I have done everything right. We have paid our rent on time every month, kept the flat spotlessly clean and in good condition, and not caused any problems for the agency whatsoever but we have had nothing but problems since we handed over the deposit and have been treated like something scraped off somebody's shoe. This company should not be trading.
First the contract, until pointed out by us, was set to begin on the 31st of September - a date which doesn't exist. This might sound minor, but this is a legal document. Then (after correcting the date) the agent seemed surprised that my partner and I actually wished to read the contract before signing it (again, legal document!) and attempted to hurry us. It should have been a warning sign, really.
Then we moved in. Someone had changed the locks the day before, but not bothered to check that the new lock was aligned properly from the inside, meaning that the first time we locked the door from the inside (which they implied we should not have done, but we had opted to do since a: the outside door was broken meaning anyone could wander into the downstairs hallway - a fact that was hidden from us when we initially viewed the property and b: the inner door was flimsy and not particularly secure looking, potentially easily kicked down with just the flimsy Yale lock in place if someone decided to break in), we ended up trapped inside our first-floor flat.
When we eventually managed to get through to someone from the repairs department the woman I initially spoke to told me I'd have to wait for a repair until the landlord returned from his holiday(!), after I'd told her that we were trapped in a first-floor flat. Only after I asked whether she was suggesting we jump out of the window did she agree to send someone round to fix the lock. An apology would have been nice, perhaps an explanation of how such an oversight occurred, but we heard nothing more from them. After several unanswered emails and phone calls where I was told that someone would get back to me (mysteriously never happened), my partner and I went into the branch to speak to someone in person. Instead of apologising, this person laughed at us as if it were somehow funny that their incompetence had left us each missing half a day of work with no notice whilst trapped in a first-floor flat (with what turned out to be a gas leak). We did not ever receive an apology or an acknowledgement of fault.
At the time, there was also a fairly serious gas leak under the cooker (in the words of the engineer from the national grid That's dangerous, it's been fitted in a really strange manner, it has to go now) that Kings took almost a month to fix after we'd had the national grid come out to cut us off. So that's a month with no heating or hot water, no hobs, but still full rent, of course.
Then we have the quarterly (I say quarterly because sometimes they don't come round for half a year, and on one occasion decided to do it twice in two months) inspection process. Kings send a letter, on one occasion with less than two days notice, informing us that they are coming round for an inspection (presumably to make sure we're not up to anything naughty in the flat - something I've never experienced elsewhere including in many years of renting student accommodation, but it's always nice to be treated like a disobedient child) and if we can't be there, in the middle of the day, with next to no notice, that we will be billed £50. They don't attempt to arrange a mutually convenient time, they never ask when we are available, they just inform us that they are coming and that we will be fined if we cannot be there. For the most recent inspection date, Kings called to cancel at 5PM the day before, after I had already arranged to work from home, at great inconvenience. When asked if the £50 bill applied the other way around we, surprise surprise, got laughed at.
The latest issue began about a month ago. My partner was called in mid July and informed that we are in rental arrears totalling one month's rent. This was not the case, and he forwarded them bank statements as proof. Although he asked for confirmation that the matter had been dealt with, this was never received but the fact that we heard no more about it led us to, perhaps naively, assume that the matter had been dealt with. Wrong.
Yesterday morning my partner received two missed calls from Kings whilst he was in a meeting. He informed me and I called them back during my lunch break. I was told that we are in rental arrears totalling one month's rent. I painstakingly sat going through my bank statements with someone from accounts, reading him every date of every payment (we pay by standing order on the same day of every month) until he realised that we could not possibly be in rental arrears - what had happened was somebody on their end had, for some unknown reason, invoiced us for September's rent a month and a half early, so our account appeared in one month's arrears. It took a month and both my partner and myself spending a huge amount of our own time on the phone to Kings, for anyone in their accounts department to realise what seems like a pretty ridiculous error. The person I spoke to assured me it would be rectified but admitted that he did not know how to rectify it himself, so I'm not massively hopeful that I won't have to deal with this again in the coming weeks. Obviously our greatest fear now is that they will pass our details to a debt collection agency and our credit rating will suffer because of their mistake.
Additionally, the first person I spoke to on the phone yesterday initially mistook me for the landlord. Before realising that I was the tenant, she told me that my partner and I were unreliable, did not answer phone calls and ignored communication. This is not only incredibly insulting, it is also patently untrue. It is our emails to Kings which are unanswered, our phone calls which are unreturned. On the day in question, I was calling back in response to two missed calls made in the same morning during working hours. Clearly, if your tenants work full time, they may not always be able to instantly drop everything to spend the best part of an hour on the phone fixing what was a mistake on the part of Kings. As always, one of us called back as soon as we were available to do so, and it's bordering on slander to suggest, to our landlord no less, that we had been ignoring communication.
I have now been assured over the phone that the accounts issue will be dealt with but I have asked for written confirmation that this is the case, as well as a written acknowledgement that any fault was on the part of Kings to be sent to both myself and the landlord. I have also requested details of their official complaints procedure. Unsurprisingly, this has been met with silence and I will be contacting the regulatory authority used by Kings (ARLA - http://www.arla.co.uk/ ) to investigate escalating the issue. I'm beginning to suspect that their reluctance to email me is because they'd rather I didn't have paper evidence of their incompetence. We're set to move out in a few weeks (thank God) although I foresee us having a very difficult time getting our deposit back, based on the agency's behaviour so far.
I couldn't recommend strongly enough that if you are considering renting a property managed by this agency, don't. My partner and I have done everything right. We have paid our rent on time every month, kept the flat spotlessly clean and in good condition, and not caused any problems for the agency whatsoever but we have had nothing but problems since we handed over the deposit and have been treated like something scraped off somebody's shoe. This company should not be trading.
What agent could do to change your mind?
Incredibly expensive considering the unbelievably poor service. Add in the fact that they charged us to provide a reference to our new landlord - apparently this is the industry standard, but pretty unreasonable.Attached Filesnbsp;
Comment on agent fees
Incredibly expensive considering the unbelievably poor service. Add in the fact that they charged us to provide a reference to our new landlord - apparently this is the industry standard, but pretty unreasonable.
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Opening Hours
Address
Kings Group
248 Hoe Street
Walthamstow,London
Greater London.
E17 3AX
020 8521 1122
Performance statistics
| Services | Valuation Accuracy | Fees Satisfaction | Min Price of property reviewed | Max Price of property reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | 100% | 50% | £450,000 | £450,000 |
| Lettings | 100% | 83% | £1,100 | £2,500 |
Review statistics
| From Landlords | From Tenants | From Vendors | From Buyers | Other | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 5 |
Areas covered
Services offered
- Sales
- Lettings
- Block Management
- Surveys
- Conveyancing
- Mortgage Advice
- Home Builder
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Jun 09,2022
Jun 09,2022
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Broklin was very helpful, knowledgeable and professional. He patiently gave me the time and space to take the property in - including taking photos and video. He has a positive, proactive approach and his input really helped me make the right decision. Thanks Broklin!...
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Apr 12,2021
Apr 12,2021
0
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Gabriel is very professional, communicative, helpful and proactive. He let out my property in less than a week and found the type of tenants I was looking for. I will use King's Group again in the future. Thank you Gabriel...
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Apr 12,2021
Apr 12,2021
0
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I received great support from Lauren Scripps on my purchase, she was always available for queries and quick to respond, and very communicative with the seller and her solicitors on any questions we had. Thank you for making the process as smooth as possible during ...
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Sep 10,2019
Sep 10,2019
0
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Lee in Lettings has been absolutely brilliant in helping us find two sets of tenants for us, in two separate properties. He arranged a mountain of viewings, and kept us updated along the way. Always happy to help, answer questions and with through challenges. Thank ...
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Jun 10,2019
Jun 10,2019
0
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Luke handled the re-letting of my property. I was kept informed at all times. He was polite and courteous whenever I spoke with him....
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Comment on agent fees
My property has been with Kings for years. I understand that the letting fees is 12% which would appear to be reasonable. I have previously asked years ago if the letting fees could be taken from the rent on a monthly basis, rather than all at once?
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Jun 27,2018
Jun 27,2018
0
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Kings are very polite and helpful. a great agency.
Scott Aiken helped me with my property search and was very professional and helpful.
I would definitely recommend Scott to friends and family....
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Dec 01,2015
Dec 01,2015
6
people found
this helpful
this helpful
I am both a tenant and a Landlord, I use a different agent for renting out my property, Kings Group are shockingly bad. The Landlord contacted us recently they charged her £100 to change 3 batteries in the smoke alarms... A job I did as the tenant. ...
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What agent could do to change your mind?
Train their staff in customer service would be a startAttached Filesnbsp;
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Jun 26,2015
Jun 26,2015
7
people found
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Agents left the door to my property wide open after going in with kings. No apology was given. There was also a fire cause by faulty electrics which resulted in a young woman experiencing a serious burn. Several emails and phone calls about the incident ...
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What agent could do to change your mind?
Terrible.Attached Filesnbsp;
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“Unprofessional throughout, Terrible service, No communication whatsoeverI rented with them ......”
Aug 22,2014
Aug 22,2014
2
people found
this helpful
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Unprofessional throughout, Terrible service, No communication whatsoever
I rented with them for precisely a year, and had various faults throughout. They never returned calls or emails. Getting through to a relevant person was time consuming and difficult (constant waiting times, always "with a client" etc.)
...
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Jul 03,2014
Jul 03,2014
5
people found
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this helpful
I honestly can't believe what has just happened to me or why Kings Group thought that this stunt would either a) work or b) ever make me want to do business with them.
They have a bogus property advertised on their website and also on ...
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Mar 03,2014
Mar 03,2014
4
people found
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Avoid at all costs.. They did not respond to my offer for a week, implying it wasnt high enough but not in so many words which made us feel like we needed to up it. We then had our offer "accepted" and I was invited ...
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What agent could do to change your mind?
Aggressive Manipulative Poor communication Broke code of ethics for estate agents Just awful. The type of company that gets all estate agents a bad nameAttached Filesnbsp;
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Feb 21,2014
Feb 21,2014
3
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Kings lettings/ kings group is very terrible letting agent, poor service overall.
I've being used at least 10 agents, but kings is the worst.
At first place, when we enter our property, we find it's not cleared, the agent told us we don't need to clear ...
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What agent could do to change your mind?
I won't use them any moreAttached Filesnbsp;
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Feb 11,2014
Feb 11,2014
4
people found
this helpful
this helpful
I tried to put an offer on a flat which I absolutely fell in live with. Kings Group got me in to "discuss my finance" which really meant they were trying to get me to move mortgage brokers. They wanted it done all in house ...
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Feb 03,2013
Feb 03,2013
8
people found
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NEVER go to kings group as they are only there to make money. i am agree companies run business to make money which is most important part of any business. But there are some business ethics aswell. kings group failed to even follow one busines ...
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Dec 13,2012
Dec 13,2012
4
people found
this helpful
this helpful
The estate agent was late ( I know the names but not ready to name and shame them yet) -the agents only arrive after you have arrived at the address and then have to call ask where the agent is-then have to wait another 10 -15 mins ...
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Jul 08,2011
Jul 08,2011
0
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I have been scouting in the area for a potential agent to rent my property in Walthamstow, I have never rented before however I have my choice of agents in Walthamstow as their are so many. I had invited a few round to my house ...
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Aug 17,2016
Aug 17,2016
20
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One star because no stars is not an option. Absolutely, unbelievably, the worst and most farcically incompetent agent I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with in almost a decade of renting. My partner and I have lived in a property managed by Kings in ...
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What agent could do to change your mind?
Incredibly expensive considering the unbelievably poor service. Add in the fact that they charged us to provide a reference to our new landlord - apparently this is the industry standard, but pretty unreasonable.Attached Filesnbsp;
Comment on agent fees
Incredibly expensive considering the unbelievably poor service. Add in the fact that they charged us to provide a reference to our new landlord - apparently this is the industry standard, but pretty unreasonable.
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