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Feb 05,2018
Feb 05,2018
30
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This is copy pasted from my facebook status so please keep this in mind with the tone it is written:
Not had a rant for some time but let's dive into why Nobody in the Preston area should ever consider Kingswood letting agents when moving house/flat. I now feel more comfortable being public about what's happened because we're with a different agent and no longer have to fear Kingswood.
Me and Pete recently moved out of a flat let by them in Centenary Mill (to another flat in Centenary Mill btw) and it couldn't have been more of a hellhole and the agents couldn't have been worse without legitimately shitting on our carpets and smearing it across the wall using our rent money as a paintbrush.
For a small amount of context before i go into the problems we've had I just want to say that on our viewings of the flat it looked perfectly fine apart from the questionable colour scheme the living room was painted in.
From mid October we had no Hot water because the wiring in the switches for the boiler were actually fucked, we complained multiple times, all to be ignored. Since then me and Pete have had to run cold shallow baths and heat them up by boiling the kettle repeatedly, making it about an hour and half getting ready in the morning each before we could do anything. Meanwhile in the Shower room we haven't touched since we moved in because... well neither of us were going to have an ice cold shower... there's Grey sludge overflowing and settling in the bottom of the cubicle, we rinsed it out a few times, but once we realised it was happening nearly every day we just gave up and never went into the shower room again until we moved out.
Sometime around then we also discovered when trying to paint over the abysmal techno coloured living room that the wiring for the lights in there were BLACK underneath the lighting covers, completely unsafe, absolutely dangerous and should have been an immediate fix by housing standards. They ignored again multiple requests to fix this.
A few weeks into complaints and we found out that our request logs had all been deleted by Kingswood's repair system along with many other of their tenants and we hadn't been notified until we pressed them why nothing was getting done.
Move forward to beginning of December when nothing has been done still, and another problem occurs, the washing machine has flooded after a wash and seeped into the flat below, again we complain about this. Only when the owner of the flat below complains to Kingswood about the seeping water damage do they send over someone to fix the pipe, only the moron they sent looked for 2 minutes, changed a pipe in the washing machine and said it was fine now, despite both Pete and the Owner of the flat below telling him it was a mains sewage pipe that was flooding. Low and Behold we run the washing machine, and again there's a flood, only this time, the pipe's burst even worse so there's a huge flood in the bedroom on the other side of the kitchen where the machine and mains pipe is. So for the next few weeks (because we can't not wash our dishes) we have sewage and water sitting in the carpets and floorboards of a whole room. Now the pipe gets fixed at the start of January, but NOT by Kingswood, no it's fixed by the Lovely Urban Bubble Team who do the maintenance for the communal areas of Centenary Mill, because the flooding was obviously going to affect the building and other tenants.
Just Before Christmas we thought we had a breakthrough as we'd forced them to contact their main office and our Landlord through threatening with housing standards. Our Landlord and a Higher up from Main office come check out the problems in person, and promise fast repairs. We never heard from the higher up again.
Flash Foward to near the end of January, at this point we've got the power of Mark Walsh Estates (our actual saviours in this story) behind us who owned the water damaged flat below us, and housing standards, and the council. Mark Walsh estates offers us a recently refurbished flat in the mill as long as we can get out of our contract.
Kingswood, despite all the problems they've saddled with us and not fixed, Refuse to let us out of the contract.
Mark Walsh Estates managed to directly get in touch with our Landlord to charge him for the damage done to the flat below, the Landlord after much talking and explaining the many problems, finally realises that Kingswood are a useless bunch of twats and agrees to try and terminate the contract on his side too. We finally get out of the contract 2 weeks before housing standards would have taken Kingswood to court. Now to explain, me and Pete did want to take them to court, however we were so desperate to get out of that flat we didn't want to pay February's rent just to get to the threshold to warrant legal action, nor did we really want to have our Landlord caught up in the mess, because as it turned out he was kept in the dark by Kingswood through most of this mess and was only told bare minimum, he was actually quite nice, and as we were moving out he offered to pay our admin fees for moving out, he would have offered more but the amount he earned from letting out the flat after Kingswood took their cut was very little.
Now today we're happily moved into a new flat with hot water, working lights and no weird sewage leaks!
That's not the end though... ohhhh no. Kingswood had the audacity today to contact us to try and charge us maintenance fees for the old flat. Now some of them I understood, like there was some paint marks on the floor from our attempt to cover the techno walls and we had one day to move out so we couldn't fully clean everything spotless which I would understand. However some things they want to charge us for are they're problem not ours. They want to charge us for:
-Fire door latches (they were taken off when we moved in and I hadn't mentioned it earlier but we did ask for them to be put back on)
-Stains on the Kitchen wall (there when we moved in, they're pictured on our move in inventory)
- Tape on the skirting boards (same as the stains, there when we moved in and pictured on our move in inventory)
So Quite rightly we're pissed off again as after everything they put us through they would like us to pay them more money to fix a hellhole they made us live in for months. Absolutely no sympathy, no apologies, nothing. They've been arseholes since the start and I fully recommend anyone to avoid them like the damn plague. I know for a fact the agent that dealt with our case has been fired as well as when trying to contact him we were told he no longer worked for them.
Not had a rant for some time but let's dive into why Nobody in the Preston area should ever consider Kingswood letting agents when moving house/flat. I now feel more comfortable being public about what's happened because we're with a different agent and no longer have to fear Kingswood.
Me and Pete recently moved out of a flat let by them in Centenary Mill (to another flat in Centenary Mill btw) and it couldn't have been more of a hellhole and the agents couldn't have been worse without legitimately shitting on our carpets and smearing it across the wall using our rent money as a paintbrush.
For a small amount of context before i go into the problems we've had I just want to say that on our viewings of the flat it looked perfectly fine apart from the questionable colour scheme the living room was painted in.
From mid October we had no Hot water because the wiring in the switches for the boiler were actually fucked, we complained multiple times, all to be ignored. Since then me and Pete have had to run cold shallow baths and heat them up by boiling the kettle repeatedly, making it about an hour and half getting ready in the morning each before we could do anything. Meanwhile in the Shower room we haven't touched since we moved in because... well neither of us were going to have an ice cold shower... there's Grey sludge overflowing and settling in the bottom of the cubicle, we rinsed it out a few times, but once we realised it was happening nearly every day we just gave up and never went into the shower room again until we moved out.
Sometime around then we also discovered when trying to paint over the abysmal techno coloured living room that the wiring for the lights in there were BLACK underneath the lighting covers, completely unsafe, absolutely dangerous and should have been an immediate fix by housing standards. They ignored again multiple requests to fix this.
A few weeks into complaints and we found out that our request logs had all been deleted by Kingswood's repair system along with many other of their tenants and we hadn't been notified until we pressed them why nothing was getting done.
Move forward to beginning of December when nothing has been done still, and another problem occurs, the washing machine has flooded after a wash and seeped into the flat below, again we complain about this. Only when the owner of the flat below complains to Kingswood about the seeping water damage do they send over someone to fix the pipe, only the moron they sent looked for 2 minutes, changed a pipe in the washing machine and said it was fine now, despite both Pete and the Owner of the flat below telling him it was a mains sewage pipe that was flooding. Low and Behold we run the washing machine, and again there's a flood, only this time, the pipe's burst even worse so there's a huge flood in the bedroom on the other side of the kitchen where the machine and mains pipe is. So for the next few weeks (because we can't not wash our dishes) we have sewage and water sitting in the carpets and floorboards of a whole room. Now the pipe gets fixed at the start of January, but NOT by Kingswood, no it's fixed by the Lovely Urban Bubble Team who do the maintenance for the communal areas of Centenary Mill, because the flooding was obviously going to affect the building and other tenants.
Just Before Christmas we thought we had a breakthrough as we'd forced them to contact their main office and our Landlord through threatening with housing standards. Our Landlord and a Higher up from Main office come check out the problems in person, and promise fast repairs. We never heard from the higher up again.
Flash Foward to near the end of January, at this point we've got the power of Mark Walsh Estates (our actual saviours in this story) behind us who owned the water damaged flat below us, and housing standards, and the council. Mark Walsh estates offers us a recently refurbished flat in the mill as long as we can get out of our contract.
Kingswood, despite all the problems they've saddled with us and not fixed, Refuse to let us out of the contract.
Mark Walsh Estates managed to directly get in touch with our Landlord to charge him for the damage done to the flat below, the Landlord after much talking and explaining the many problems, finally realises that Kingswood are a useless bunch of twats and agrees to try and terminate the contract on his side too. We finally get out of the contract 2 weeks before housing standards would have taken Kingswood to court. Now to explain, me and Pete did want to take them to court, however we were so desperate to get out of that flat we didn't want to pay February's rent just to get to the threshold to warrant legal action, nor did we really want to have our Landlord caught up in the mess, because as it turned out he was kept in the dark by Kingswood through most of this mess and was only told bare minimum, he was actually quite nice, and as we were moving out he offered to pay our admin fees for moving out, he would have offered more but the amount he earned from letting out the flat after Kingswood took their cut was very little.
Now today we're happily moved into a new flat with hot water, working lights and no weird sewage leaks!
That's not the end though... ohhhh no. Kingswood had the audacity today to contact us to try and charge us maintenance fees for the old flat. Now some of them I understood, like there was some paint marks on the floor from our attempt to cover the techno walls and we had one day to move out so we couldn't fully clean everything spotless which I would understand. However some things they want to charge us for are they're problem not ours. They want to charge us for:
-Fire door latches (they were taken off when we moved in and I hadn't mentioned it earlier but we did ask for them to be put back on)
-Stains on the Kitchen wall (there when we moved in, they're pictured on our move in inventory)
- Tape on the skirting boards (same as the stains, there when we moved in and pictured on our move in inventory)
So Quite rightly we're pissed off again as after everything they put us through they would like us to pay them more money to fix a hellhole they made us live in for months. Absolutely no sympathy, no apologies, nothing. They've been arseholes since the start and I fully recommend anyone to avoid them like the damn plague. I know for a fact the agent that dealt with our case has been fired as well as when trying to contact him we were told he no longer worked for them.
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Opening Hours
Address
Kingswood
77 Watling Street Road
Fulwood,Preston
Lancashire
PR2 8EA
01772 71 71 81
Performance statistics
| Services | Valuation Accuracy | Fees Satisfaction | Min Price of property reviewed | Max Price of property reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | 80% | 80% | £102,000 | £1,500,000 |
| Lettings | 100% | 60% | £450 | £950 |
Review statistics
| From Landlords | From Tenants | From Vendors | From Buyers | Other | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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- Lettings
- Block Management
- Surveys
- Conveyancing
- Mortgage Advice
- Home Builder
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Jul 08,2022
Jul 08,2022
0
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Appalling service from Kingswood. Arranged for a box of personal belongings to be delivered to them from a removals company for me to collect once the house was sold months later. They then denied all knowledge of receiving it despite the removals man going in ...
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Mar 13,2019
Mar 13,2019
1
people found
this helpful
this helpful
I was very impressed with the service received from Kingswood in general. We wanted to move quickly on a property and they made sure this happened. Stephen was very attentive and quick to respond to any queries we had and bumps in the road. Would ...
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Comment on agent fees
Good - fees were better than other agents
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Mar 13,2019
Mar 13,2019
1
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Kingswood are really helpful and I'd highly recommended them. My contact was Samantha who replied promptly to all emails and contacted me regularly to keep me updated. Always friendly and ready to help. When Samantha wasn't there I could always lean on Stephen for an ...
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Comment on agent fees
fair fees compared
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Mar 01,2019
Mar 01,2019
2
people found
this helpful
this helpful
I had the most fantastic service from Shoyab, Sam and Stephen at the Fulwood branch of Kingswood and I cannot recommend them highly enough. They are professional, intelligent and caring and go the extra mile to help with what would otherwise be a most stressful ...
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Comment on agent fees
good fees
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Mar 01,2019
Mar 01,2019
2
people found
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this helpful
We had a great experience with Kingswood Estate Agents. We dealt with Stephen Kellett, she was very helpful, starting from making the offer, all the way up to completion. Our requirements were clearly understood, she knows the area very well. I have been given advice ...
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Comment on agent fees
fair agent fees
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Feb 25,2019
Feb 25,2019
3
people found
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this helpful
The best estate agents I have used in the 10+ years I have been living in Preston.
There were some small cosmetic issues when we moved in which were sorted immediately, and at a time that was suitable for us (not, as I have had with ...
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Comment on agent fees
Fair fees and on average with the rest in the area
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Oct 09,2018
Oct 09,2018
4
people found
this helpful
this helpful
I've been with Kingswood for 5 years and they manage all 10 of my properties. I speak with AJ and shoyab mainly who are always helpful - give good advice and know make life easy for me....
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Comment on agent fees
good monthly % rates
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Oct 08,2018
Oct 08,2018
6
people found
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this helpful
I dealt with Mark in the sales team who I must say is an asset to Kingswood! He was very helpful and professional through start to finish with ourselves. Thank you Mark and the team...
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Comment on agent fees
fees were below average after we've been to at least 4 in preston
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Oct 08,2018
Oct 08,2018
5
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this helpful
we're currently renting with kingswood and since last year we've only had 1 issue with them regarding a repair. apart from that the customer service is good and overall i would recommend them. we've been with far worse agencies in preston put it that way,...
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Comment on agent fees
fair fees
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Sep 24,2018
Sep 24,2018
7
people found
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this helpful
Good agents. Helped me when I asked and takes the time out to do so without the hard sell. Nice people to deal with....
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Comment on agent fees
Reasonable and fair
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Oct 01, 2018
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(1)
Kingswood is without doubt the best Estate Agent that I have ever experienced. The service is incredible and very personal. Chris and Mark always respond promptly and sold our property within two weeks! I would recommend to friends and family. ...
Oct 18,2017
Oct 18,2017
7
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Did not protect my deposit, dragging heals fixing repairs and was told by Branch Manager that I should just go to the council and get a repairing order which they will then sort out.
Currently taking legal action over their failure to protect my deposit ...
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Comment on agent fees
Terrible. They charge a fee for referencing. The estate agent does the "email referencing" themselves and no sign of any credit checks or searches. Big con.
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Oct 12,2017
Oct 12,2017
7
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Although it took some time to sell our property and there were quite a few obstacles in our way Tracey continued to chase the parties involved and was determined the sale would go through! Thanks for your perseverance Tracey right up to moving day!...
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Feb 09,2017
Feb 09,2017
14
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this helpful
Kingswood is by far the most unprofessional and untrustworthy estate agents I have ever dealt with. I have signed tenancies with Kingwood on three separate occasions and during this time they have attempted to claim money under false pretences several times, have taken extortionate amounts ...
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Sep 30,2015
Sep 30,2015
10
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this helpful
Everything that is bad about estate agents here. Not returning calls, not being honest and truthful about their policies or the status of properties they're advertising. Out for the quick sale, no integrity with prospective tenants.
After chasing the agent to get an initial call ...
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Sep 18,2015
Sep 18,2015
7
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this helpful
The property was sold and we came up against an incompetent solicitor who was acting for the buyer resulting in many delays and problems. I am based in London and Glenn was superb in dealing with all parties and getting the sale 'across the line'. ...
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Comment on agent fees
Fair and earned
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Feb 05,2018
Feb 05,2018
30
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This is copy pasted from my facebook status so please keep this in mind with the tone it is written:
Not had a rant for some time but let's dive into why Nobody in the Preston area should ever consider Kingswood letting agents when moving ...
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Mar 25, 2018
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Hi Pagan,
I am currently involved in a legal dispute with my landlords which Kingswood have created. Sadly your story is replicating that of many others who I have spoke to over the past couple of months. Would you be interested in getting involved in a potential legal case against Kingswood Properties?
Did you check if they protected your deposit within one of three authorised deposit protection services. They should have done this within 30 days from the date you paid the deposit (not fr ...
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Last updated at 9:48 AM 08/10/2018 by Stephen Kellett
Best Letting Agent in PR2 
I am currently involved in a legal dispute with my landlords which Kingswood have created. Sadly your story is replicating that of many others who I have spoke to over the past couple of months. Would you be interested in getting involved in a potential legal case against Kingswood Properties?
Did you check if they protected your deposit within one of three authorised deposit protection services. They should have done this within 30 days from the date you paid the deposit (not from start of tenancy) and if they failed to do this you could be owed up to 3 times your deposit in compensation along with the return of your full deposit (if they kept any part of it).
I am putting a website together kingswoodpropertiespreston.com and collecting feedback from many ex tenants of Kingswood. Please get in touch if you are interested in getting involved.