“Written on: 18/08/2012"Do not touch!"Do not touch this agency ......”
1 Star Review
Aug 18,2012
By:
'miraclees'
Aug 18,2012
Branch: Cheltenham, 23 Bath Street
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode:
Branch: Cheltenham, 23 Bath Street
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode:
10
people found
this helpful
Written on: 18/08/2012
"Do not touch!"
Do not touch this agency unless you are prepared for a court battle to get them to respond to disrepair complaints (for which you will need to record, photograph and diarise everything that ever happens with respect to your tenancy), unless you are prepared to be told repeatedly that you are not a client of Surelet, the landlord is, and witness the landlord being prioritised over you again and again and again; unless you want a company with no official complaints procedure; unless you want to be moved in to a managed let where nothing has been checked or found working, no manuals are supplied for any appliance, where you will have to have the cooker professionally cleaned before it is usable, and you will be refused over and over a refund of your money thus spent, including in writing; unless you want to be serially ignored by your 'property manager' through the e-mail system, despite sending numerous warnings that this is not tolerable to you as their client; unless you want to lose your housing and housing reference; unless you want to be accused, in writing, of being anti-social, verbally abusive (even on a call to them you recorded, in their knowledge, and there was NO verbal abuse whatsoever, but extreme rudeness followed by slamming the phone down on you on their part), bullying and causing the letting agent to burst into tears (ditto, ditto); unless you want people looking after your tenancy who completely ignore a serious complaint of disrepair for 18 months - not even acknowledging e-mails - and drive you to the point of having to bring a court case, or complain to the OFT...in short, if you want the mother of all hells of a tenancy and the complete ruination of your peace and quiet enjoyment of your private life and reputation - please give Surelet Cheltenham a call. They will be delighted to take you on board - after all, it's not very hard work for the money when you can get away with doing nothing but calling repair men AFTER the fact, and then saying you've done everything possible. By the way, if you want a qualified lot, don't choose this bunch - they don't seem to understand or be interested in immersion heaters, keeping service records, using reasonable care and skill in any way, or to understand the legal issues and implications of their actions, nor to believe that by advertising properties they should have them ready and fit to live in, nor that by letting to you that implies any kind of contract or obligation to keep you with anything other than utter contempt and the least possible effort. If you want to be left overnight with a blocked toilet drain while Surelet tell you to buy a plunger, go ahead - use them. They won't bother lifting a finger. And I highly recommend them if you do NOT want to hang any pictures on the wall in a 2-bed flat - the tenancy forbids it! Not that you must pay a small deposit for Polyfilla, or make good the walls on leaving, or a small sum can be deducted from your deposit - NO! YOU CANNOT HANG PICTURES, says the tenancy - FULL STOP ('The tenant agrees with the landlord...not to glue, stick or otherwise fix anything whatsoever to the exterior or interior of the Property without the Landlord's written consent). Neither can you have pets (permission may be given by landlord, but may later be withdrawn), sublet (have a lodger - too bad if you like company, you have to live alone if you're single), work at home or have paying guests, leave the property vacant for 28 days (although you must insure landlord's fixtures and fittings)...etc, etc. I highly recommend Surelet if you like to be shouted at - including swear words - to sign a tenancy document you have not been able to read, after you point out that you have not had time to read it. I further highly recommend Surelet if you want to spend two days filling out everything that's not working, on the inventory, for them (in an Economy 7 property), because they haven't bothered to test it themselves. If you want to find the heating, hot water, and cooker are not set up properly, have missing and broken parts, maladjusted thermostats and other parts, need replacement filters, have corroded rings which later spend several months 'exploding', throwing up shards of metal up to an ounce at a time, etc...etc. If you like being accused of malicious damage when flimsy plastic fittings on sliding doors and wardrobe poles snap - even when you send photographs of snapped flimsy plastic parts after more than 2 years' of tenancy - when landlord refuses to repair, and tenancy document says he does not have to in the event of malicious damage by the tenant - call Surelet!! If you would like a nuisance immersion heater which trips over and over again and no plumber can explain why, saying the circuit breaker breaks in such a scenario, and the immersion cannot function the next day, even though this has happened over and over again - each time causing a repair visit - call Surelet! If you would like, furthermore, when this immersion is still not functioning properly after 2.3 years of tenancy, to be told that there's "nothing wrong with it" by one of the Surelet Cheltenham directors, and finding yourself obliged to write to them asking them to cease making tortuous remarks and not to take them beyond Surelet - go ahead! If you want to be treated with utter contempt, choose this agent. If you want to listen to the advice of 1st Stop (housing advice centre) in Cheltenham: be warned. They say that Surelet are "very bad" and "a dead loss". These are quotes from housing workers there. So, I wish you luck. It is extremely time-consuming and difficult to bring a claim to the courts and your money will drain and drain, on top of the all indignity and frustration you will suffer. Be warned! Oh, and this is a managed let, which I am still in. Court claim and OFT complaint pending.
What agent could do to change your mind?
They could have checked the property before letting it to me, including the Economy 7 hot water and appliances, which can be checked by turning them on one day, and returning the next, to see if they're functioning. They could have made sure there was adequate hot water, could have insisted landlord have cooker professionally cleaned and repaired, made sure exposed wiring was covered properly, that extensively-rusted heater cover was sprayed (in fact, this heater needing replacement anyway, since it was not working at all, but it was also an eyesore which confronted one on entry through front door. They could have altered the tenancy to include the under-the-counter permission given to work at home. They could have made sure the filthy grouting in the bathroom was cleaned. They could have had the masking tape from around the kitchen flourescent light removed, and fitter a diffuser (plastic cover to prevent glare). They could have had the filthy, fat-saturated and torn kitchen blind replaced. They could have taken a water meter reading and showed me where the water meter was. They could have supplied a manual for the cooker, heaters and immersion, instead of leaving me with the hard work of finding the serial number and model number on the cooker, locating the make online, and sending off for a manual myself. They could have repaired or replaced the broken grill pan handle, oven shelf and fat-saturated filter. They could have insisted on a fridge where the ONE freezer shelf closed properly (it has a swing-DOWN opening door, so has to be held up with tape, and over-freezes constantly), and made sure I had a fridge with a working internal light, which kept to a low enough temperature. They could have replied to my many e-mails requesting redress from these and other matters, and refrained from writing to me that I was anti-social, verbally abusive (on a phone call I recorded to their knowledge, which will prove I did NOT verbally abuse anybody), bullying (ditto) and caused a member of their staff to burst into tears (ditto, and actually on the recording he is rude, sarcastic, refuses to take the nature of my complaint, and slams the phone down at the end). In particular, they could have investigated BEFORE writing to me that I was anti-social, at a time when I was obliged to call Cheltenham Community Police Officers in THREE times before my neighbour was to discontinue partying/socialising brutally loudly outside my glass front door every other day or so for several months {No doubt the anti-social neighbour had written to them trying to end my tenancy so they could continue partying as they had previously apparently had the freedom to do - and my property manager - of whom I am a paying CLIENT (although Surelet remain willfully ignorant of this fact, jointly and severally (including the franchising director) decided instantly to abnegate her legal responsibility of duty of care and reasonable care and skill, and fire off a letter to me in more contempt]. They could write an apology for all their tortuous and written remarks, as well as the verbal ones, and spoken threats of eviction when rent was a matter of days late, including sending a car around with notice instantly. They could compensate me financially for the serial and several denial of contract with me, for breach of contract, nuisance, spoiling of quiet enjoyment, reputational injury and frustration of contract, amongst other torts. They could have spoken to me about all these matters on any of the many occasions I have telephoned them and written to them to sort things out without having to go to court. My approaches have included the property manager, branch directors, head office 'complaints' (not officially) e-mail address, managing director and finally, franchising director. Time and time again I have been told they have done nothing wrong. They could have pointed out to the landlord, when flimsy plastic built-in wardrobe fittings recently collapsed, that it his duty to repair them under the Landlord and Tenant Act, and refrained from verbally implying that I had been maliciously damaging them after 2,3 years of tenancy in which I had reported disrepair after disrepair after disrepair, organised and allowed entry for numerous repair workers, at the loss of income and quiet enjoyment to myself. They could admit in writing that this was merely an attempt to avoid paying out for repairs, and effectively ended my tenancy, that being one step too far for me, having offered to pay, at most, ‚£37.50 towards this two repairs even though not obliged and having paid a previous repair to wardrobe pole supports myself. They could apologise for thus attempting jointly and severally with the landlord to unjustly enrich themselves whilst making life hell for me. They could offer to compensate for my time in perhaps a hundred hours spent chasing them (including the day before yesterday, over hot water issue) to acknowledge e-mails and reply to them, carry out repairs promptly and at all, for several thousand pounds wasted investing in a property which clearly I was never going to be bale to quietly enjoy, and thus falsely advertising it as being an acceptable standard, for tortuous (wrong) remarks made about me to me, and promise not to continue all the above activities. I really have to get to work now, so I can't detail everything, but anyway, these matters will be sorted out by the appropriate authorities. Surelet will not respond to my e-mails or telephone calls, so they're certainly not going to sort it out in public here - or, they will make denials which will cause me further stress and tortuous injury for public defamation, and therefore I write this as a warning to others, only, and invite you to look out for Facebook Group 'Self Help for Private Tenants in Cheltenham' and following website. In order to meet the conditions of saying this review is 'fair', Surelet have at times been helpful to me, as well as the above, helping me get out of even worse housing at short notice and sending repair men in for the various issues with appliances, etc - but all of the above is true, and I believe others should be warned, and the tenants of this country (more than 10% of the population) need to start fighting back and not staying quiet for fear of losing their homes. Thankyou.
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