Thank you for your review, however on this occasion I do feel the need to defend our business as I do not believe we have done anything incorrectly. I will reply in order of the points you have raised.

In regards to the communal fire alarm, in all developments this is monitored and maintained by the block management company. As an estate agent, we have no control over this communal issue and therefore the responsibility lands with the management company, details of which can be found in and around your development, including their emergency contact details. In this instance that should have been the port of call rather than our emergency contact number which is monitored and responded to appropriately however in this case nothing could have been done on our part unfortunately. I have spoken to my team and confirmed that they are all aware of the process of how to deal with such a situation (to report it to block management) I can only apologise if you were advised you to mess around with the fire alarm system as this is obviously not sensible action to take. As I recall I do believe that the issue was resolved the morning after you reported the problem and therefore completed in the quickest possible time-frame.

Other agents may allow tenants to swap in the middle of a tenancy and perhaps without speaking to the landlord but that is not how we run our business as it could potentially jeopardise our relationship with our landlords. Part of the service we provide for our landlords is to ensure that we find the most suitable tenants for their property and ultimately they get the final say, therefore everything must be confirmed with them. Most of our landlords don't like doing tenancy swaps. The few landlords that have done so in the past have only allowed a swap on the basis that the original tenants vacated the property, we conducted a full checkout so as not to jeopardise the deposit return and set up a new tenancy. Your landlord had agreed to do the swap on the basis that it was a friend that was moving in, however it transpired, as you mentioned, that the new tenant had been sourced on Spareroom and when this was relayed back to the landlord he decided it was too much of a risk for him to take which is why he changed his mind. We are obliged to follow the clear instructions given by the landlord who owns the property.

Under normal circumstances if a tenant wishes to terminate their contract early, the landlord will usually allow them to do so but on the basis that their costs are covered to source a new tenant and the rent and utility bills are paid up until the day a new tenant moves in. The landlord's fee wasn't around £700.00, but in fact closer to £500.00, and after you queried the landlord's fee we went back to them and 2 days later they decided that the quickest way to draw a line under the matter and move forward was for them to cover the fee.

I'm glad to hear you were happy about the deposit return and this is part of the reason why we send all our tenants a very detailed email of what is required to be done in the property before they vacate to enable them the best possible opportunity to get the deposit back.

I totally understand that someone's personal circumstances can change for one reason or another, but if you were both really unhappy with the service you received between June 2015 to August 2016, I am curious why your flat mate and the new tenant wanted to continue to stay in the property.

I trust the above clarifies our process and the landlord's reasoning for not allowing the tenancy to continue with a tenant swap but if you wish to discuss this further then please don't hesitate to contact me at [email protected]

Kind Regards

Fintan O' Malley
Office Manager

Office 0161 236 0004
Web www.buckleyfrayne.co.uk
6-14 Great Ancoats Street
Northern Quarter,
Manchester M4 5AZ