Good afternoon Candice,

Thank you for your further comments. Please rest assured that I have fully understood your initial comments on our company procedures as well as your frustration with them. I am aware that you requested to switch the tenant who was sharing the apartment with you at the end of a fixed terms, but you remaining in the property is a continuation of your habitation there and therefore a continuation of the original signed inventory and the registered deposit. The reasoning behind requiring you to move out for a short number of days is, as I have previously stated, for us to remain 100% compliant with the tenant deposit scheme and to correctly protect our landlord. Had we allowed the tenant swap to happen without a brand new inventory and new date stamped condition photos, we would essentially have left the landlord unable to claim for any damages or cleaning costs should there have been a necessity for this at the end of your agreement. Regardless of what other estate agents do in the city, Buckley Frayne work to the guidelines and protocols set out to us by the governing bodies and authorities from the lettings sector.

I would just like to clarify the term ‘flat share’, this makes it sound as though you were simply renting a room in a property. This is not the case, we only ever rent properties with an assured shorthold tenancy agreement, this is made extremely clear as the entire front page of the contract that you signed contains this wording. This type of contract binds both tenant to the property as a whole and in its entirety, this is not a separate agreement that allows the swapping of tenants at any stage.

I agree that it would have been ideal if you had stayed in the property and we did everything possible to manufacture your stay, however as I have mentioned previously, we cannot compromise of the processes that were set out to us by the TDS. Had we done this and something had gone wrong then Buckley Frayne would have been liable for footing the bill ourselves to correct any problems with the property.

I must apologies for the lights being left on during viewings, this is a human error and we accept that this was a mistake at our end. What I would like to say is that mistake does not meet our high service standards that we have set for ourselves and we now completed further in-house training to ensure that we eradicate this kind of error. Admittedly that does not alter the fact that this incident took place and I can only apologies for this.

In terms of “pink fat and mould” this is solely down to the tenant, the seal is only in need of replacing where regular cleaning has not been completed. A brand new seal should last for multiple years if cleaned property and regularly, and therefore the damage to the seal in this instance was unfortunately down to yourselves as tenants. It is always outlined to all tenants that a property must be returned in the same condition that it was rented in, with fair wear and tear taken in to consideration.

I do understand your frustrations with the process however we have and always will attempt be as amenable as possible, but please understand that we do have to work to the guidelines set out to us by the governing bodies and although other agents may bend or break the walls, we pride ourselves in always completing thing correctly.

Thank you for your comments and feedback, they have been duly noted and we will use them to attempt to improve our business further in the future.

Kind regards,
Simon Hunt
Office Manager

Good afternoon Simon,

Thanks for your answer. It seems like there is some misunderstanding that I would like to clarify. In regard to your first point and problems to ''switch one of the named tenants on the contract'', this is not correct as it was the end of the contract and the new tenant would have been part of the new tenancy agreement so I was not asking for modifications to the existing contract. If you have problems to manage inventory, check-in pictures and deposit in this case, I suggest you get in touch my other agencies in Manchester who successfully allow tenants to find replacement in the event that one of the flatmates does not wish to renew a tenancy.

However, I would like to emphasize that my main point was that at the beginning of a flatshare, you should make potential tenants aware that they will have to leave the property at the end of the tenancy if one of them decides not to renew it and moves out, which eventually will happen. I was aware from the start that my flatmate would only stay for a year and I assumed that I would be able to renew the tenancy, stay in the flat and look for a new flatmate, as the contrary had not been said to me and that it is usually allowed by competent agencies that care about not only their landlords but also about their tenants. Given this, I had also booked a holiday months in advance in the period of when the tenancy was finishing as I expected to be able to renew the tenancy without any issues and be able to stay in the flat. You can imagine how going on holiday cannot only being exciting but also stressful. While I should have been able to focus on my holiday only, you added the stress of not only having to look for a new place but also of moving, that can be quite significant as you may know. When I said that I could not move out because I was going on holiday it was the least of your concern.

All in all, I would say that my ski holiday was partly ruined as I had to move out the same week and I arrived to my holiday destination totally exhausted and not being able to enjoy myself. I could have been better prepared if it had been mentioned to me or in my contract that I would have to leave the property in the event that my flatmate decided to move out at the end of the tenancy. This is a lack of transparency for tenants that Buckley Frayne should look into.
This has not only impacted me as a tenant, but also impacted the landlord as you struggled to re-let the property and also had to decrease the monthly rent that was being asked for. If you had let me stay in the property, there would have been not gap in tenancies and I would have accepted the rent increase, so you made the landlord lose money by not being able to manage a tenant replacement. This was to the point that you were still doing viewings in the flat the day before the checkout, and obviously we had already moved out. This also brings me to the point that on three occasions when you were doing viewings the lights were left on and I found it very ironical that you had the audacity to invoice us for a light bulb at the checkout. I have attached a screenshot of a message that I sent to one of your colleagues as the lights were constantly left on, and I am sure it was still the case between when we moved out and the checkout.

In terms of the checkout, the picture you attached was not sent with the checkout invoice and do not refer to my bathroom while I covered the cost. I believe that the seal was brand new when we moved in as you probably charged the previous tenants to replace it as you did for us. In that case, when you send instructions for the checkout, you should state that the sink seal should be brand new or will be charged £50. In this case, I would have redone it myself and saved £45. Once again, if you want to be totally transparent to your tenants, that should be stated in the checkout instructions where you mention that ''all the pink fat marks'' should be removed. Why not mentioning the mold and make it clear? As you mentioned it, sealing is down to maintenance which is the landlord’s duty and if there are recurrent problems of humidity and mold then the tenants should not be charged for it.

I hope that through all the above clarification you can assess the extent of my disappointment in my experience with Buckley Frayne and I regret that the agency is not able to be more flexible to deliver a better service not only to landlords but also to tenants.

Good afternoon Candice,

Firstly I would like to take the opportunity to thank you for your time as a tenant with Buckley Frayne Estate Agents, it is disappointing that you are unhappy with the checkout process. As stated in your opening paragraph, if you had not disagreed with the checkout process then you would have rated Buckley Frayne with 5 stars.

To address the first issue that you raised; when it came up to the end of your contract and you were discussing the possibility of switching one of the named tenants on the contract. The reasoning behind all parties having to vacate the property is to ensure that the deposit remains completely compliant with TDS rules. There is no opportunity for us to simply change the names on the TDS certificate. We are required to end the current deposit, send the corresponding amounts back to the vacating tenants and then re-register a new deposit in the names of yourself and the new tenant.

The difficulty arises with the inventory and the check-in photos. Should there then be any problems with the property on the checkout of this new tenancy, we must evidence to the TDS that the property was completely cleaned and a fresh inventory created, as well as providing date stamped check-in photos. It would have been impossible to complete these steps with you still in the apartment, therefore there is a necessity for you to vacate whilst this process is completed. Now whilst I can absolutely appreciate that this is not the easiest of things to arrange, I hope that you can appreciate our need to remain completely compliant with the deposit scheme, and take the appropriate steps to protect both the landlord and tenants..

In terms of the checkout appointment, I of course cannot pass comment over what was spoken about between the checkout clerk and your former flatmate, however I can confirm that 149 date stamped photos were taken and if you wish to see these we would be more than happy to email them across to you to evidence the needs for some cleaning in the apartment. I can also confirm that both the sink and bath seals were brand new when you moved in and when you moved out unfortunately they had not been maintained and therefore required replacement. Bathroom seals are not considered part of the fair wear and tear of an apartment when they are brand new, because if they are correctly cleaned regularly they will last far in excess of your 1 year stay in the apartment. In addition, a bulb had to be replaced, and a light clean had to be completed on the apartment. I have a copy of the invoice that can be provided to you to evidence all the works required in the apartment after your vacation, along with the supporting photographic evidence.

Finally the checkout fee is listed in your contract and this is a fee charged by the majority of estate agents. If you had issues with this fee it would have been prudent to raise this with us before signing the contract prior to your move in date. This was correctly charged in line with your signed tenancy agreement.

Buckley Frayne follow the ethos of service without compromise, and we strive to deliver this on a daily basis. We follow what is correct for both the landlord and the tenant and where possible we strive to be flexible and amenable to all requests. However I hope that you can appreciate all the information documented above and the rationale behind everything you have raised in your review.

Should you wish to discuss any of the matter further, I would be more than happy for you to contact me directly on 0161 236 0004.