“I recently finished renting with Ace Relocations for 5 months and ......”
1 Star Review
Oct 27,2016
By:
'GB'
Oct 27,2016
Branch: London, 70 Upper Richmond Road
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: SW12
Branch: London, 70 Upper Richmond Road
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode: SW12
15
people found
this helpful
I recently finished renting with Ace Relocations for 5 months and can honestly say without doubt that it was one of the worst experiences I have ever had renting a room in my entire life. They are quite simply one of the most unprofessional, disorganised and borderline criminal companies I have ever seen. None of the staff seemed to communicate with each other, were constantly lying or omitting details and always passing any problems onto someone else. The owner in particular, Christopher Florence, is one of the most aggressive, unpleasant, obnoxious and unprofessional people I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with and from the first day I moved in I experienced nothing but problems and appalling service from them on pretty much every level imaginable.
The property itself was a new acquisition for the agency in a great location and so myself and the other tenants were the first to rent it, but from day one I found a number of problems with my room, which included:
- One of the locks on my bedroom window not working
- My door not only didn't lock, but also didn't even stay closed as the latch was broken
- The water pressure from my shower was extremely poor and barely a trickle at all times
This list doesn't even include the other problems with my room or the rest of the house that we had in my time there and having never been supplied an inventory list I was forced to photograph and document everything before they would send someone out to fix them. After nearly 3 weeks of nothing happening and constant excuses they finally sent someone over who addressed some of the issues. I then received my first call from Christopher Florence who proceeded to scream down the line that I wasn't staying in a 5 star hotel and that I was expected to handle this level of maintenance work myself" despite me making it clear to him that it had been in that state when I moved in. He also called me deluded", that I needed to sort my life out" and that he hates dealing with tenants". He seems to know nothing about his own company, bulldozers into situations without getting the facts first and is extremely confrontational, aggressive and downright unlikable in every way.
Another major thing to note is that ‘Ace' do not make you sign a tenancy contract like most agencies or landlords, but rather a License" which basically means that they are under no legal requirement to put your deposit into a secure deposit protection plan and can more easily evict you early and without notice if they chose to (i.e. you have very little legal rights to challenge them in any way).
When it came to getting my own deposit back they were 3 days late in transferring it and had deducted £110 under the excuse that the mattress needed cleaning despite me having used a good mattress protector from day one and having checked it before leaving. I eventually managed to recoup £80 of it after demanding to see photographic evidence that merely showed a tiny black speck between two of the stitches, but still feel I was severely ripped-off for the remaining £30.
Ace Relocations may appear to have some very tempting properties on their books, but trust me when I say none of them are worth the long-term hassle and stress you will endure. All of the 1-star reviews on this site completely tally up with my experience and I strongly suspect that stooges or employees of the company itself have posted the two 5-star reviews. Please save yourself a world of trouble and do not rent from them, as there is absolutely nothing ‘Ace' about these crooks whatsoever. You have been warned!
Comment on agent fees
No worse than any other letting agent, but considering the agro I had to endure whilst renting from them i'd classify them as appalling.
15
people found
this helpful
Was this helpful?
Yes