Dear Judith. Thank you for your response, however it is quite misleading. “It appears I wasn’t a named tenant” That’s not really correct though is it? You were made aware at the very beginning that I would also be sharing the property, but my brothers name would be on the lease as I travel frequently with work, thus being a paid tenant. I had to provide I.D etc as part of the admin process prior to moving in and I was also the primary person who communicated with you for any issues or maintenance needed within the property which wasn’t an issue at that time whether I was a “named tenant” or not. Castle estates have always been happy to deal with me solely. It only became an issue when I complained though. You were also more than happy to receive over £30,000 in rent from me alone in 3 1/2 yrs, also paying half of your fees at the beginning so please respect when it’s due, with that amount of money paid I have definitely earned my right to review and provide details of my own experience with this company. Therefore, your point is irrelevant. As soon as I made a formal complaint upon leaving you refused to communicate with me using the above reason. This is in my opinion disgraceful, disrespectful and you’re trying to remove all credibility from me.

The deposit was in our opinion delayed by yourselves. My brother had replied to the email in question, but I guess you can deny that because it’s our word against yours. Either way the deposit should of been returned automatically once you had deducted the fees you had charged.
With regards to the cleanliness of the property on leaving, the carpets had been professionally cleaned and you only sent us photos of before and after of the fixtures that needed to be cleaned with a steamer that wasn’t as was put to us “professionally cleaned” (big difference) which unfortunately I don’t own a steamer and the work done after does not equate to £150 worth I’m afraid and that was my point of feeling ripped off and it seems we will never agree on this. My brother had never subsequently agreed to the cleaning charges, a complaint was made by myself and no response was received until I spoke with your colleague after contacting castle estates again we had complained about this issue and you refused to compromise, so that wasn’t really a choice from our side.
I assume you do agree with my points with regards to the issues of entering the property illegally to show a prospective tenant round at 7pm in the evening and attempting to charge us for the mistake your contractor made, as you haven’t provided a counter argument for those issues.
Best wishes Jayne

Dear Jayne. I can see that you have not been a named tenant in one of our properties but understand that your comment refers to your brother's tenancy with us. Unfortunately the property was not left in a clean state, requiring a clean after your brother's move out to which he subsequently agreed. The delay to the process was caused by your brother who I understand has a very demanding work schedule: We contacted your brother on 18 September 2019 about the deposit return but unfortunately he only responded to us 2 months later. We again contacted him 2 days after that but it took another month for your brother to respond with his agreement. We are always happy to receive feedback and use this to improve but on this occasion I strongly feel that we acted promptly and fairly. Best wishes, Judith.