“Incompetent, unprofessional, immature and borderline criminal...”
1 Star Review
Apr 13,2020
By:
'Steve'
Apr 13,2020
Branch: Nottingham, The Pavilion,1 Lace Market Square
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Rent PCM: £650
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: NG1
Branch: Nottingham, The Pavilion,1 Lace Market Square
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Rent PCM: £650
Postcode: NG1
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people found
this helpful
I started renting a property advertised by Walten & Allen last year and now that I've finally got my deposit back I though I'd let everyone know how bad this agency is - you'll probably be shocked if you read the whole review.
To start off with their agent was late to our appointment to view the flat and had me waiting in the cold until they finally showed up. I was showed the flat with another prospective tenant which was a bit unproffesional in my opinion. The flat was misadvertised as a 1-bed flat even though it was a studio. Despite this I agreed to rent the flat and was reassured that all the maintenance issues would be fixed before I moved in. When I moved in there was no hot water and the bed was broken in half. After repeat phone calls, emails and visits to the agency the hot water got fixed about two weeks later and the bed got replaced after two months - after I filed an official complaint. Their reception would almost always dismiss my email and when I called or visited them they'd say we'll fix it tomorrow - this went on for two months. I should mention that when I spoke with the complaints team at first they were helpful and sped things up, but later on they were very unprofessional, immature and pedantic, and were just backing each other up without admitting it was their fault.
The property had fob access as well as standard key, which I was given at the begining of my tenancy. The agency was so incompetent that they didn't even have a spare key to gain access to the property so I gave them my key during those two months. Unfortunately, one Saturday evening my fob stopped working so I called the out of hours service (that cost me over 10 pounds to call by the way) and asked if they can come by and let me in with the key I had given them. I was told no, they would only come by if there was a fire or a water leak. They expected me to sleep on the street over the weekend!
Over the spring months contractors had to redeck the balcony so they needed access to my flat. This ended up lasting for 3-4 months in which people would be in my flat from 8 am to 5 pm, five days a week. I had no privacy and the flat was always in a mess and smelled of the toxic chemicals they were using to redeck the balcony (I took pictures of the labels stating that the chemicals and vapours were toxic).
I asked the agency if they could put me in contact with the landlady as I wanted to make sure that she was aware of all this and how W&A had handled it. They thought they were very smart in telling me that legally they had two weeks to provide that information and they didn't have to give me her email address. So on the 14th day they sent me an email with her address in France! However, I then spoke with the building manager (independent to W&A) and the manager was able to forward an email to the landlady on my behalf.
The landlady replied to me saying she was shocked by what she heard and only heard the story from the estate agent's side before. She then granted me a rent reduction for when the months the work was going on and also fired Walton & Allen!
I should also mention that the estate agents knew that there was worked scheduled for thre spring but did not disclose this information when I viewed the property.
They only care about money and as a result are incompetent and very shallow people.
I've rented from a few estate agents in the past and W&A are by far the worst!
Stay away guys :)
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