Hi Tebby,

I am a landlord and have a property which is let through Atlantis. My tenants have contacted me directly to complain about about Atlantis. I am also a tenant up in Chester who has experienced really bad service in the past from a different agent based in Hampshire and can therefore empathise on how frustrating it is when you feel your agent is not treating you fairly. I came across this initiative by Shelter last week which you may be interested in looking at http://england.shelter.org.uk/campaigns/letting_away_with_it?src=hpban-c

It seems, unfortunately, that you are not alone in your feelings.

Dear Mr Tebby,

Thank you for providing your name and property address, as many reviews on this site are posted "anonymously" by way of their username, it was not obvious that Tebby was your surname.

Having now had the opportunity to review your file and discuss the settlement of the deposit with the Property Manager, it would appear that any delay in settling the deposit was as a result of a delay in obtaining either a forwarding address or confirmation from yourself that you had paid all outstanding utility bills, which under the terms of our Tenancy Agreement, we require.

The reason we require this is to ensure that tenants do not receive utility bills for previous tenants usage.

I would also like to take this opportunity to point out that while you may feel that our Finalisation of Tenancy administration fee of £75 + VAT is applied "to write a cheque", this is simply not the case. As members of ARLA, the NAEA and The Property Ombudsman, we are required to follow a number of administrative processes in order to protect both the landlord and tenant in the settlement of the deposit, and while I am pleased to say that in the vast majority of cases, deposits are settled quickly and without dispute, they nevertheless do still require resources and therefore cost us to administer. Moreover, in the rarer cases which are not settled as quickly and there is a dispute, they obviously require greater resources and therefore costs us considerably more to administer.

I hope this has explained why you may have experienced a delay in the processing of the deposit in your case and for our reason to apply a Finalisation of Tenancy administration fee, but would ask that you do not hesitate to contact me directly either by e-mail or phone, should you require any further information.

Kind regards,

Andy Malone

Director
Direct dial: 0118 955 7007
e-mail: [email protected]

Just to update everyone. It has been 3 weeks and now I am being asked to confirm that utility bills are paid.....drum roll......THERE IS A NINETY POUND CHARGE TO RELEASE THE DEPOSIT BACK TO US!

hahahahaha....yeah. They are absolutely ridiculous. £90?! £90?!?!?!?! To write a cheque?! To type an account number on your online banking system?!

This just finally proves that you do ABSOLUTELY nothing in terms of customer service - anything you do IS A PAID FOR EXTRA - that I don't want!

As for you Andy Malone - my name is in the title, that is my surname. Why on earth I would put details all over here I don't know, but since I don't live there...the property is 226 Luscinia View.

Hi Tebby,

I can not agree more on what you have said in your comment about Atlantis. I even question how such business model would ever work and how wrong they call themselves 'professional'. I will definitely try to avoid Atlantis at any cost!!! If you are prepared to be ripped off or/and p***ed off., this is the right place to be!

Dear Sir / Madam,

It is very disappointing to read that your experience of Atlantis was not as positive as you would have hoped for on this occasion, as we strive to offer the highest level of service at all times. However, like the vast majority of businesses we do occasionally fall short, and on such occasions we seek to learn from it in order that we may improve.

Unfortunately as you have not provided your name or the address of the property you rented through us, I am unable to comments any further on your post, but would ask that you contact me directly either by e-mail or phone and I will be happy to look into all your comments further, and specifically provide you with an update on when your deposit will be paid back.

I understand that you, like many other tenants require deposits to be returned promptly after a tenancy, but as members of ARLA, NAEA and The Property Ombudsman, we are required to follow certain procedures to protect both landlords and tenants in the finalisation of deposits, which along with the fact that inventories are carried out independantly by third party clerks, can sometimes result in a longer proccess than many tenants would hope for.

Kind regards,

Andy Malone

Director
Direct dial: 0118 955 7007
e-mail: [email protected]

Hi Tebby.

I too have gone through the same excruciating pain of once renting through these con artists. Just wanted to add to where you left.... Atlantis continues with its thugee at the Inventory stages; during and after check-out that eventually manifests in the form of deducting almost everything out of the deposit on absolutely false observations, old inventory reports and what not... and have left innumerable tenants (including me) fleeced of almost 80% of the deposit. They are such absolute ........ (fill in the blank) in all this, they do it all the time with everybody... so my word of caution to you... ALL MIGHT NOT BE OVER YET IF YOU HAVEN'T YET RECEIVED THE CHECK-OUT INVENTORY REPORT... PLEASE WATCH OUT.