Dear Gemma,
I am saddened to receive your one star review which is certainly not reflected in the general feedback that we receive. It would seem there have been some challenges on this occasion which I will go on to address.
Firstly, please allow me to respond to your comment about us having properties on the market for months and the suggestion that the criteria we work with is unreasonable. I am afraid this comment is unfounded. We are an incredibly busy agency. I understand your property search was based in PE10. Our rightmove.co.uk statistics demonstrate that we let far more properties than any other agent in PE10. During 2020 we maintained our strong market share and achieved 44% of all lets agreed in the area, according to rightmove.co.uk. In 2021 so far this has increased to over 60%. This is more than twice the amount of any other agent locally. This supports the notion that we are finding plenty of ways to work with any difficult or unusual circumstances that tenancy applicants might find themselves in and that we absolutely understand the challenges the pandemic brings.
Please understand that we are in the business of finding people homes and managing their onward tenancies. We would not achieve such results if we were unreasonable or created unnecessary hurdles.
The measures that we are taking at this time are in keeping with the government guidance on how we should be operating during these challenging times. It is a careful balance between continuing to operate to meet demand and doing what we can to protect our team and those we come in to contact with. Right now, the third party referencing providers are considering the employment situation of any applicants in respect of any furlough status and what that might mean in terms of employment stability. From what you have shared in your review it would seem that the furlough status of your partner and your impending new job would have meant that there may have been questions over the stability of the application, hence the suggestion for a suitable guarantor or potential rental payment in advance. Any decisions we make are in collaboration with the referencing providers criteria and also our landlord clients. It may have in fact been a landlords request for an additional level of protection to be put in place by way of a guarantor.
I hope you can understand the position and that it would not be our intent for you feel disappointed in the service received. I would welcome a call from you on this matter should you wish for me to explore this further. From our perspective all feedback is valuable and appreciated and so I thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.
Reassuring you of our very best intentions,
Hayley Norfolk
Managing Director