0% lettings valuation accuracy
67% lettings fee satisfaction
Nov 06,2020
Nov 06,2020
2
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Firstly, let me concentrate on the positive.
Thank all that is holy, we are finally rid of this abhorrent company.
If you can’t or don’t have the time to read this entire review (it’s a long one) let’s start with a friendly and hopeful bit of advice (WARNING).
Landlords:
Please, If you value your property and are a landlord, I strongly advise you not to use this company to let your property. Your property is not “In safe hands” as the website states. We found this out in an extremely awkward three way meeting between ourselves, City Let’s and the landlord, which was called by the landlord after we complained about city lets to him. He is now using redmove to let this property.
It turns out that not only had very little of the problems we had reported to city lets been addressed but the landlord had been receiving little to no information from city lets about them.
Tenants:
If you are a tenant, again I strongly advise you stay clear of this company. If you have no other option, do not allow yourself to be intimidated by this company, be careful, challenge everything and follow up. Unfortunately you will have to do the later regularly as they do seem to need reminding of issues and chasing constantly, regardless of severity.
This company are incompetent, unprofessional and careless.
..............................................................
Due to city lets’ continuous incompetence, we felt we had no other option but to refuse to deal with them and demanded the landlords contact details so that we could deal directly with him. Luckily, our landlord was understanding, very reasonable and after inviting him to the property to see the problems we had reported, much to his dissatisfaction, he could see that the problems we were having were with city lets and that most of the issues with the property we had reported had not been reported to him.
We had the misfortune of dealing with Pam who was constantly rude, obnoxious and condescending with a clear hierarchical attitude who saw us, the tenant, at the bottom of the list.
We rented this property from city lets in the December, five years ago. During the viewing, it was apparent the house was in need of a clean, paint and new carpets throughout, all of which were agreed by the landlord and thankfully were completed before we moved in. That is about as good as it got.
The property was advertised as having a modern family kitchen which was filthy and consisted of two very small old kitchen units, far from the modern family kitchen advertised. We asked about this and were told the landlord had no desire to fit a new kitchen so we paid for and had one fitted before we moved in so that it was serviceable.
The cooker did not work which we reported and repeatedly chased up to finally be told a new one would be fitted in three weeks. When I asked what I am supposed to do when feeding my children I was abruptly asked, “well you have a microwave don’t you?” Due to the fact that this was dealt with in a untimely manner, we had to buy our own cooker and pay for a gas fitter to install it. We then left the cooker in the new kitchen at the end of the tenancy.
The garden was so overgrown it was inaccessible. We asked if this would be sorted as we had two children and would need the garden space for them. We were fobbed off with the commonly used phrase we hear from estate agents “just leave it as you found it” which seems to actually mean, “we can’t be bothered and have covered our backs by saying those magic words, you don’t matter so we won’t be doing anything to sort it now or ever, you will then get bored of asking and the problem will go away until we can eventually charge you for the issue at the end of your tenancy”.
We again spent hundreds of pounds of our own money to overhaul the garden and create a nice area for us to enjoy as a family. True to the statement above, we were then charged at the end of the tenancy for not keeping the garden maintained. This poses a question. Did the previous tenant also get charged for not maintaining the garden? If so, where did that money for “maintenance” go? Because it certainly was not in the garden before our tenancy started.
The boiler broke down in the winter which took just over three weeks to fix. During the first week of the boiler brake down I gave birth and had to bring my new born baby back to a freezing house, we then rented four electric heaters to try and keep everybody warm. After week two this just wasn’t enough in the middle of winter, forcing myself, my partner and our now three children to move in with my parents until it was sorted.
I had never missed a rental payment throughout my entire time at this property however, on one occasion I received a phone call from Pam. I was interrogate, spoken to like a criminal and threatened with action as she believed I had not paid my rent. After she had finished shouting and arguing which reduced me to tears she demanded bank statements proving I had paid my rent which I quickly provided, regardless of the possible data protection risks. It transpired that it was in fact city lets that had lost my rent money when changing companies and I am still yet to receive an apology.
The shower tray was filling rapidly when in use meaning we couldn’t shower for any sufficient length of time. We tried all the home remedies suggested but to no avail so we called the problem in again. A “plumber”, employed by city lets, finally came round to inspect the bathroom and immediately condemned the bathroom as it wasn’t fit for use and by his estimation was well over 20 years old. After almost a month of having no shower we were told the plumber would be round to fit the new shower and cubicle the following week. We arranged for this to happen when we were away on holiday for the week and we were assured the work would be completed before our return. We arrived back to find that not only was the work not completed but every single room in the house had debris, packaging, parts, dust and dirty footprints in. After speaking with the neighbours we realised why the work hadn’t been finished and that was because he started work on the Wednesday afternoon. Although, after speaking with the landlord we were told he had billed for the full weeks work.
Immediately the sealant was coming away and the new tray was also filling rapidly leaking now through the kitchen ceiling. Again we called it in, the plumber came round and “found” a huge clump of blonde hair in the pipes, which was apparently causing the problem. We can not understand why this had not been found during one of his earlier visits or indeed why he did not find it when fitting the new shower.
Again another example of work not being carried out in a timely manner or to a professional standard. We were constantly lied to, fobbed off and threatened with bills to fix the plumbers shoddy workmanship.
All in all not a good company and I would advise staying clear.
Thank all that is holy, we are finally rid of this abhorrent company.
If you can’t or don’t have the time to read this entire review (it’s a long one) let’s start with a friendly and hopeful bit of advice (WARNING).
Landlords:
Please, If you value your property and are a landlord, I strongly advise you not to use this company to let your property. Your property is not “In safe hands” as the website states. We found this out in an extremely awkward three way meeting between ourselves, City Let’s and the landlord, which was called by the landlord after we complained about city lets to him. He is now using redmove to let this property.
It turns out that not only had very little of the problems we had reported to city lets been addressed but the landlord had been receiving little to no information from city lets about them.
Tenants:
If you are a tenant, again I strongly advise you stay clear of this company. If you have no other option, do not allow yourself to be intimidated by this company, be careful, challenge everything and follow up. Unfortunately you will have to do the later regularly as they do seem to need reminding of issues and chasing constantly, regardless of severity.
This company are incompetent, unprofessional and careless.
..............................................................
Due to city lets’ continuous incompetence, we felt we had no other option but to refuse to deal with them and demanded the landlords contact details so that we could deal directly with him. Luckily, our landlord was understanding, very reasonable and after inviting him to the property to see the problems we had reported, much to his dissatisfaction, he could see that the problems we were having were with city lets and that most of the issues with the property we had reported had not been reported to him.
We had the misfortune of dealing with Pam who was constantly rude, obnoxious and condescending with a clear hierarchical attitude who saw us, the tenant, at the bottom of the list.
We rented this property from city lets in the December, five years ago. During the viewing, it was apparent the house was in need of a clean, paint and new carpets throughout, all of which were agreed by the landlord and thankfully were completed before we moved in. That is about as good as it got.
The property was advertised as having a modern family kitchen which was filthy and consisted of two very small old kitchen units, far from the modern family kitchen advertised. We asked about this and were told the landlord had no desire to fit a new kitchen so we paid for and had one fitted before we moved in so that it was serviceable.
The cooker did not work which we reported and repeatedly chased up to finally be told a new one would be fitted in three weeks. When I asked what I am supposed to do when feeding my children I was abruptly asked, “well you have a microwave don’t you?” Due to the fact that this was dealt with in a untimely manner, we had to buy our own cooker and pay for a gas fitter to install it. We then left the cooker in the new kitchen at the end of the tenancy.
The garden was so overgrown it was inaccessible. We asked if this would be sorted as we had two children and would need the garden space for them. We were fobbed off with the commonly used phrase we hear from estate agents “just leave it as you found it” which seems to actually mean, “we can’t be bothered and have covered our backs by saying those magic words, you don’t matter so we won’t be doing anything to sort it now or ever, you will then get bored of asking and the problem will go away until we can eventually charge you for the issue at the end of your tenancy”.
We again spent hundreds of pounds of our own money to overhaul the garden and create a nice area for us to enjoy as a family. True to the statement above, we were then charged at the end of the tenancy for not keeping the garden maintained. This poses a question. Did the previous tenant also get charged for not maintaining the garden? If so, where did that money for “maintenance” go? Because it certainly was not in the garden before our tenancy started.
The boiler broke down in the winter which took just over three weeks to fix. During the first week of the boiler brake down I gave birth and had to bring my new born baby back to a freezing house, we then rented four electric heaters to try and keep everybody warm. After week two this just wasn’t enough in the middle of winter, forcing myself, my partner and our now three children to move in with my parents until it was sorted.
I had never missed a rental payment throughout my entire time at this property however, on one occasion I received a phone call from Pam. I was interrogate, spoken to like a criminal and threatened with action as she believed I had not paid my rent. After she had finished shouting and arguing which reduced me to tears she demanded bank statements proving I had paid my rent which I quickly provided, regardless of the possible data protection risks. It transpired that it was in fact city lets that had lost my rent money when changing companies and I am still yet to receive an apology.
The shower tray was filling rapidly when in use meaning we couldn’t shower for any sufficient length of time. We tried all the home remedies suggested but to no avail so we called the problem in again. A “plumber”, employed by city lets, finally came round to inspect the bathroom and immediately condemned the bathroom as it wasn’t fit for use and by his estimation was well over 20 years old. After almost a month of having no shower we were told the plumber would be round to fit the new shower and cubicle the following week. We arranged for this to happen when we were away on holiday for the week and we were assured the work would be completed before our return. We arrived back to find that not only was the work not completed but every single room in the house had debris, packaging, parts, dust and dirty footprints in. After speaking with the neighbours we realised why the work hadn’t been finished and that was because he started work on the Wednesday afternoon. Although, after speaking with the landlord we were told he had billed for the full weeks work.
Immediately the sealant was coming away and the new tray was also filling rapidly leaking now through the kitchen ceiling. Again we called it in, the plumber came round and “found” a huge clump of blonde hair in the pipes, which was apparently causing the problem. We can not understand why this had not been found during one of his earlier visits or indeed why he did not find it when fitting the new shower.
Again another example of work not being carried out in a timely manner or to a professional standard. We were constantly lied to, fobbed off and threatened with bills to fix the plumbers shoddy workmanship.
All in all not a good company and I would advise staying clear.
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Mar 30, 2021
This is almost identical to my experiences! Pam especially whom I complained about and was told she is just doing her job.
Agent Response / Add a Comment
You can use this form to reply to the above review or a displayed comment on the above review.
Browse popular links for estate agents, letting agents and properties nearby
Latest Reviews
1st Nov 2024
reviewed by 'Rainie'
6th Dec 2022
reviewed by 'Jacqueline'
22nd Sep 2022
reviewed by 'Wendy'
30th Jul 2021
reviewed by 'Sharon Beard'
19th Jul 2021
reviewed by 'Alex'
26th Feb 2021
reviewed by 'Rebecca'
Performance statistics
| Services | Valuation Accuracy | Fees Satisfaction | Min Price of property reviewed | Max Price of property reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lettings | 0% | 67% | £650 | £1,500 |
Review statistics
| From Landlords | From Tenants | From Vendors | From Buyers | Other | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | 4 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Areas covered
Services offered
- Sales
- Lettings
- Block Management
- Surveys
- Conveyancing
- Mortgage Advice
- Home Builder
Advertise on
Members of
Rankings
Overall
Overall
Latest Properties
No Properties
Nov 01,2024
Nov 01,2024
0
people found
this helpful
this helpful
I would like to express my sincerest gratitude to this company. As a foreigner, renting a house in York is not easy, but this company has shown me the greatest care and tolerance, ultimately providing me with perfect service. I recommend this company to all ...
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Dec 06,2022
Dec 06,2022
0
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Home from a weekend in York with friends. Stayed in a lovely apartment overlooking the River. Comfy beds, nice kitchen area and a lovely view from the living room onto the River. City Let's were very helpful with my enquiries and we are booked in ...
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Sep 22,2022
Sep 22,2022
0
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Tried to rent a short term let through CityLets York only to be told that the minimum term is 12 months (despite 'short term, flexible, six month lets' being slapped all over their website). Rental properties on the website are being advertised at prices from £995 pcm ...
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Jul 30,2021
Jul 30,2021
0
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Middle cottage Dunnington.
Cosy cottage with everything thought of.
Tasteful, with attention to detail shown throughout.
Spotlessly clean and a great host.
Beautiful village with fab bakery, supermarket , coffee shop and pub.
Park and ride nearby for York City centre....
read full review
read full review
Attachments
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Jul 19,2021
Jul 19,2021
1
people found
this helpful
this helpful
I want to leave really great feedback for City Let’s York and Sally who helped me so much. I was desperate for somewhere to stay for just one month before a flat tenancy started elsewhere, she was able to get me a short stay ...
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Nov 26, 2021
View all comments
(1)
Thank you Alex for your lovely words and for the chocolates. Always welcome.
I am happy we were able to help you and wish you all the luck in your new home and job.
Sally ...
Feb 26,2021
Feb 26,2021
0
people found
this helpful
this helpful
We have had dealings with Michelle, Karen and Clare so far and all of them have been brilliant. Warm, friendly service and very responsive. We are going from our owned property into rented, renting from a landlord through city let's but we also had Michelle ...
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Nov 06,2020
Nov 06,2020
2
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Firstly, let me concentrate on the positive.
Thank all that is holy, we are finally rid of this abhorrent company.
If you can’t or don’t have the time to read this entire review (it’s a long one) let’s start with a ...
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Mar 30, 2021
View all comments
(1)
This is almost identical to my experiences! Pam especially whom I complained about and was told she is just doing her job. ...
Sep 30,2019
Sep 30,2019
2
people found
this helpful
this helpful
The worst estate agents I've come across. I don't say that lightly. Incompetence would be a compliment - choose any other agency if you have the option....
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Sep 03,2019
Sep 03,2019
0
people found
this helpful
this helpful
City Lets were very helpful when we stayed in York for the August Bank Holiday. They met us on time with the keys and gave us a lot of information about the area as we had never visited before....
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Dec 03,2018
Dec 03,2018
1
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Absolutely terrible service, wish I had seen the reviews before I rented through them. Now over two months since we moved out and deposit still not received, despite several promises it would be with us this week they keep blaming the delays on ridiculous reasons ...
read full review
read full review
Comment on agent fees
Bad, but the least of the problems.
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Nov 03,2018
Nov 03,2018
0
people found
this helpful
this helpful
CityLets have provided an excellent letting and management service for my two apartments in York during the past year. Their staff, particularily the Manager, have always been ready to help with and resolve any issues as and when they arose....
read full review
read full review
Comment on agent fees
Reasonable.
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
May 30,2018
May 30,2018
3
people found
this helpful
this helpful
I moved into a flat I rented from Citylets. Upon doing so, I was given the wrong door code to get to the bins (meaning I couldn't throw rubbish out for two weeks. If it weren't for me eventually tracking down a neighbor I would ...
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Sep 10,2017
Sep 10,2017
2
people found
this helpful
this helpful
The service from city lets was shocking! After letting a flat through them for a year we had a large range of problems. Before we moved into the flat we were told there was free guest parking (something that was a big sell in the ...
read full review
read full review
Comment on agent fees
Ridiculous amount of fees
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Feb 20,2017
Feb 20,2017
3
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Gave us an appointment to visit a house on a day at 3.30, then, reconfirmed 2.30 by email.
We went at the house for the visit, the right day at the right time, but no one from Citylets was there to process the visit.
The former tenants ...
read full review
read full review
Comment on agent fees
Certainly much too high for the "service"...
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Feb 06,2017
Feb 06,2017
3
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Had a viewing booked, rang to confirm appointment on day as was travelling from away. was then told property had let and they wouldn't be doing the viewing. no common courtesy to let me know when they had supposedly let the property. How hard is ...
read full review
read full review
Comment on agent fees
n.a
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Apr 21,2015
Apr 21,2015
4
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Rented a flat through this company for five years, over that time they:
1.)Repeatedly failed to pass on requests for repairs to the landlord
2.) Failed to inform management companies of problems with the area surrounding the flat (such as the bike sheds) and even replied ...
read full review
read full review
What agent could do to change your mind?
1.) Write a contract they planned to stick to and didn't later dismiss as 'misleading' (their own words there!) 2.) Give me my money back on time and in full, rather than waiting 2 months before saying they not only wanted to keep the deposit but charge us for damages. 3.) Act properly as an intermediary between us and the property owner rather than siding with him on every issue and forcing us to get outside legal advice to keep our deposit.Attached Filesnbsp;
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Feb 18,2014
Feb 18,2014
5
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Awful Service. The worst I've ever dealt with. Lied about cleaning the property and lied about the maintenence. Worst company I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with....
read full review
read full review
What agent could do to change your mind?
Total revampAttached Filesnbsp;
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Dec 19,2012
Dec 19,2012
6
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Terrible customer service. Felt as if they were passing me from pillar to post. Snide remarks and condescending attitude. Also, misspelling properties. Avoid at all cost....
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Apr 03,2012
Apr 03,2012
6
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Terrible service and management. Subsequent ombudsman appeal processing....
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
No fees information available
Kindly note that legally, letting agents need to publish information about their tenancy fees, government-approved redress schemes and client money protection schemes on their website and on third party websites (on which agents are listed). For properties to lease/rent in England, agents need to keep this information up to date and precise on allAgents or specify within the property description.
Complaints Procedure
No procedure available.
