Shahed - This is Seth Brindle, I am the director of Sheldon Bishop. Your case dates back to a time when Paul Marks was part of the company and he was responsible for the West Hampstead branch. You mention that the directors of Sheldon Bishop have been part of companies declared bankrupt. This is not the case please refrain from using inaccurate information. All companies I have been part of part of past and present have been and are solvent at this time or their time of closure. Your experience was with the West Hampstead branch of Sheldon Bishop that pre dates the current ownership and management set up and in fact that branch has been closed down. The deposit you paid to reserve a flat was returned in full to you on the orders of the court on the basis of lack of paperwork, no other reason. This despite the file indicating you failing to honour your agreement to move into the flat and in contravention to the terms of the holding deposit. I know you suggest this is not the case and without a paper trail to prove this (as a result of your case all tenants now have to e mail their references) it was the decision of the courts that the deposit could not be used as compensation, however no part of the court ruling indicated that any misrepresentation had taken place just that in this case with the evidence that could be supplied it was deemed fair to return it. This is in keeping with current legal rulings that is not favourable to the use of holding deposits as compensation other than covering costs that are detailed as incurred through the failing to honour the terms of the holding. You will be please to know in the event of tenants not proceeding with a tenancy only those costs incurred as compensated (to the landlords NOT Sheldon Bishop) Sheldon bishop manage over 100 flats and let many more which has resulted in thousands of tenancies over the last 15 years and thankfully precious few have resulted in the protracted fall out that you have been involved with. It is always regrettable when this happens and I wish your experience had been a better one, hopefully you can understand that we have to abide by the terms of our contracts with landlords and tenants and this is what Sheldon Bishop have always done. Unfortunately when tenants or landlords break those terms and there is a financial cost it is unsurprising that people feel aggrieved and want to voice their concern. Should you wish to discuss the matter further do feel free to contact me and good luck with the future.

... if someone knows where I can get quickly legal advise!

Hi Goodz,

Please tell me if you had better experiences with the agency?!
If everyone with bad experiences can please get in contact with me!
I am afraid I might be there next victim, I signed the contract but I have not moved in
yet but I have had plenty of problems with them already.
Please provide me with as much information as possible!
Thanks for your help!!!

Alana, You seem to be talking some serious nonsense. You clearly do not not know what evidence was provided in the courts do you? There were references that were faxed in to the sheldon bishops office which had the fax number on top of the reference, you're trying to say that is not valid evidence? My friend did not cry in the court in fact, she was abusing Archie in front of the judge for lying. The judge could clearly see the through the illiterate, lying, uneducated fool that came in the court to represent Sheldon Bishop. I still have all the evidence relating to this case if anyone is interested in seeing them. Do not try and defend this liars. My friend was not the only victim, there are numerous people reporting that the same thing happened to them, that's evidence enough that sheldon bishop do not understand how to run their business in a professional, honest and transparent manner. If you look at companies house, you can see the so called Director has been part of many firms that went bankrupt/ bust. dissolved. there is a clear indication for people to stay clear from sheldon bishop. What you're claiming is that the county court Judge did not pass this judgement in our favour because of evidence but because the claimant was crying? you clearly indicating that was the reason why we won?? Instead of admitting your mistakes you are defending it, that is exactly what Archie tried in the court.. You all are bunch of idiots..go back to school.

This situation was very clear: The tenants failed to provide the refernces they promised to the landlord, they failed to pay any of the monies required to move into the flat and did not sign the contract, all of this was suposed to be done 24hours before the move in date.Three days after the move in date we still had nothing from them (though they told the courts they came into the office with references - absolute nonsense) !!!!!!! The holding deposit is not to be confused with a deposit /bond paid when moving into a flat a holding deposit is paid to reserve a flat. The landlord will ONLY keep the holding deposit as compensation if a loss of rent is incurred when tenats fail to honour their agrement laid out in writing and do not move in. In this sitauition there was a loss of rent as a result of the tenat refusing to move into the flat on the terms they had originally offered. The landlord was paid these monies. Sheldon bishop did not benefit anythin from this situation indeed it damages our reputation with the landlord.Unfortunately Shaheds friend failed to honour the terms of the holding deposit receipt just as they made up anything she could in order to save losing monet due to the landlord as a result of her actions. The court decided that due to the fact that this particualr tenant was on benefits and appeared vulnerable together with the fact that we couldnt disproove the completely false assertion they had provided references (we now only accept references e mail direct to us a result of this lie) Sheldon Bishop have been renting properties for 15 years, renting and managing thousands of properties and we have been to court three times in fifteen years and this is the first we have been taken to court, the other two occasion we have taken soemeon to court and theyu have found in favour of Sheldon Bishop. The court decison is the deciosn of one individual judge and he makes that decision based on the evidence in front of them, unfortunately a complete lack of paper trail detailing Shahed actions meant that he had to decide on our testiment or the tenats and unsuprisingly he found in favour of a vulnerable a young girl claiming housing benefit who cried during proceedings and not an estsablished Lettings agents. This was understanable but an example of rewarding someone has played the system to their benefit and shirked facing the responsibilities of their actions.Luckily 99% of tenats hpnours their terms and we raerly have to deal with this scenario

Hi Qwerty. Initially Paul Marks and Archie denied us the holding deposit. We took them to the court where Archie came all suited and booted ready to battle but unfortunately for him truth won in the end. Sheldon Bishop had the audacity to send Archie into the court room because they could not dare to face me. In the end the court found them to be lying and we provided just about enough evidence to prove that they were lying. Court Ordered Sheldon Bishop to pay up the full holding deposit + additional costs by a certain date. Sheldon Bishop did not respect the date set by the court a few weeks later someone hand delivered a cheque through the letterbox. If I was you I would not put any holding deposit with these people. If you have already done so let me know I am happy to share information that could help you. Archie even had the guts to tell the court that he expects me to remove the posts from this review site, clearly he lost.

Hello, I am considering putting a holding deposit down on a Sheldon Bishop flat so did some googling to see if they're trustworthy and came across these reviews! I'm really scared they'll steal my holding deposit too, Shahed and Sarah were your holding deposits ever returned? Was there any success in taking them to court? goodz did you manage to move in without any problems? I've seen reports of this happening to others too http://www.justanswer.com/uk-law/1lg4c-hi-i-recently-deposited-one-week-rent-confirm.html but was hoping maybe they'd sorted it out by now and fired everyone involved. Wishful thinking?

Hi Sarah, My name is Shahed. The original review which you responded to was created by myself. It would really help if you could get in touch as my friend now have taken Sheldon bishop to the court. As you have suffered from a similar con from these bastards at sheldon bishop maybe you can help us teaching these cowboys outfit a lesson. Archie turned up at the court today and we were hoping to deal with it today but the court had decided to adjourn the case for another month. It would be really helpful if you could get in touch.

Hi there,

Could you please tell me which property this was for? I am in the midst of moving into one of Paul Marks flats and I am very nervous about the whole thing now.

DO NOT USE THIS AGENT!

We have had a very bad experience with Sheldon Bishop. In particular with Archie, Paul Marks and Seath Brindle. We viewed a flat and once our offer was accepted by the landlord Archie asked us to put down a holding deposit, he said that this would be the only way to secure that we would get the property and that no more viewings would take place. After paying the holding deposit and by a coincidence we found out that Archie had taken a holding deposit from two other people on the same property. When we raised this with Sheldon Bishop they became very unplesant to deal with. When we asked to speak with a director of the company (as we believed that it might just have been Archie that was acting in a doggy manner) we were told to speak to Paul Marks. Later we were told that Paul Marks was based overseas and not a director of the company. What followed was contraditctory statements from Archie, Seath and Paul. They refused to repay us our depsoit.

After doing some reseach online it quickly became clear that people had gone throught the same as us - it seems as if Sheldon Bishop takes holding deposits of various people for the same flat and just before the move in date tells one of the parties that the credit check/reference check (or a purely made up reason) did not go through and therefore they cannot let the property to them however they do not repay the holding deposit. They are not registered with any lettings organisation (such as ARLA) which in hindsight we realise should have been a waring sign.

We did not get our money back and were left without a property to move in to.