“Julian Wadden are the worst estate agents I h......”
1 Star Review
Mar 28,2020
By:
'James'
Mar 28,2020
Branch: Stockport, 14 Moorside Road
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Rent PCM: £550
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: SK4
Branch: Stockport, 14 Moorside Road
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Rent PCM: £550
Postcode: SK4
12
people found
this helpful
Julian Wadden are the worst estate agents I have ever dealt with. The state of the property was appalling, the landlady was intrusive and aggressive, their management of any repairs has been frustrating to say the least, their level of correspondence has been an embarrassment and they are still trying to charge me rent for a property which I left over a month ago.
As a single man in his 50's, I'd just completed a college course and was working in a call centre near Stockport. I don't throw parties or disrespect property. I don't complain about everything and am quite a sociable person with a quiet lifestyle. Diplomatic in my nature, I also have references to attest that I'm a considerate tenant and neighbour.
When I first viewed the one bedroom flat I was to rent in Warwick Court, Heaton Moor, the agent made apologies for the state of the place and assured me that in the next two weeks, it would be cleaned and serviced; ready for the new tenants. On the day of moving, I paid them £550 deposit and £550 one months rent in advance. I picked up my keys from their offices and nobody offered to show me around. I had to figure out the heating system, meters, water etc for myself.
The oven was filthy and only had one shelf though there were grooves in place for others. The rubber seal under the shower door had broken, so water leaked onto the bathroom floor. The bedroom door didn't close properly because the wood overlapped the doorframe. There was a metal hook on the back of the bedroom door that was hanging on with blu-tac. The lamp standing in the living room had broken glass all around the base and the toilet didn't flush properly. Inside the cupboard underneath the kitchen sink, there was a gaping hole in the wall which meant there was a draught coming directly from outside the block. The garage which came with the flat had never been cleared out, was full of muck and cobwebs with a rusty lock system and the door didn't close properly, so it was not secure enough to store any vehicle.
I rang Julian Wadden Property Management Team and they gave me the landlady's number. She blamed the estate agents, who blamed the cleaners and nobody did anything to rectify the situation. In the meantime, the landlady would appear in her car every morning parked across the road looking over at the flat. This seemed creepy, so I told JW who explained that she was used to renting out the flat to young lads who didn't seem to mind. I told them I didn't fall into that category but she arrived every morning; sitting in her car and staring over at the flat.
I was still paying full rent via direct debit for a flat which was supposed to have been repaired and cleaned before I moved in. After being there for about a month, the landlady knocked on my door and when I opened it, she stood with two burly workmen. This was the first time we'd met in person. She started shouting at me to let her in as there was an emergency leak in the flat downstairs. I told her that there had never been any rush to address the leaking shower, but reluctantly gave them access to the kitchen where it turned out there had been faulty pipes fitted and water was leaking into the flat downstairs. Eventually, (no thanks to JW) after three months, the landlady's workman came and carried out most of the major repairs.
However, throughout this period, I did receive emails at least once a week from JW Property Management Team warning me about my "commercial vehicle" - saying that someone else in the block had notified them and I should not be using the communal car park as commercial vehicles were not allowed to park there. I emailed them explaining that I had a small Berlingo van with no advertising anywhere on the vehicle, so therefore it was not in any way "commercial". I even sent them photos of it so they could see for themselves. After a few weeks of receiving these emails, I told Julian Wadden that this was harassment because they were following up the same groundless complaint from someone else in the block but ignoring any other issues which I'd tried to raise.
The typical pattern of correspondence with Julian Wadden has been that I send an email expressing my concerns about anything and their reply fails to acknowledge, let alone respond to, the issue which I'm trying to address. I have found myself having to send the same email at least 3 times to the same person before they even acknowledge what I've said. This became unbearable after seven months so I moved out mid February but still paid the rent until 20th March. I emailed JW telling them I was leaving and gave them written authorisation to change the locks on 11th March. They told me they would be visiting the property with the landlady on Friday 13th March to do this, then emailed me asking permission to change the locks on the following Tuesday 17th March. I insisted that I had already granted written permission and again, they ignored this. Next, they sent me a demand for rent as the locks hadn't been changed and therefore the tenancy was still active in my name. Despite repeated (and I mean that in the fullest sense - 5 emails sent) requests for a breakdown of the extra £74 which JW say that I owe them for rent, they have ignored every email and continue to send me the same auto-generated correspondence with no explanation of the figure. Also, I have asked them how I go about reclaiming my deposit and as far as I'm aware this was (or should have been) registered with an objective third party. Guess what? All enquiries have been ignored.
I had a nightmare tenancy with a couple across the hallway rowing loudly most nights, a woman with a very good singing voice upstairs but I didn't appreciate hearing it at 7am on Saturdays. The landlady dragged her feet with any repairs, a washing machine that chewed up some of my favourite garments (eventually replaced but again with no thanks to Julian Wadden) but a team of estate agents who were consistent only in their levels of incompetence and refusal to even acknowledge any of my concerns from repairs to rent.
I can provide documents, emails and photos to prove all of the above. I can even provide names of staff I have had the misfortune of dealing with, but if I don't receive an explanation of the amount they say I owe them and at least a response to my enquiry about my deposit, I will be taking legal action.
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