0% sales valuation accuracy
0% sales fee satisfaction
0% lettings valuation accuracy
71% lettings fee satisfaction
Feb 06,2024
Feb 06,2024
36
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this helpful
HOW TO BEAT JACKSON & CO AND GET YOUR DEPOSIT BACK – A GUIDE
I will start by asking people to like this review so other people may be helped. I think it goes without saying that I advise any renter and especially students to avoid this company at all costs. I won’t go into much detail on my own personal experience, as the 1-star reviews on Google regarding deposits pretty much tell the same story, but I will give a short guide on Jackson & Co’s tactics, solutions, and additional evidence and links that anyone can use as evidence to help get their deposits back. Jackson & Co know every loophole, every crack, and every crevasse regarding the deposit return process. It is likely that new tenants will move into a damaged property when using Jackson & Co. If you already have moved in, I hope that you took photos of any damage on move in day as Jackson & Co WILL attempt to make you liable for pre-existing damages. However, do not despair if you did not do this, please read on as I will provide you with evidence regarding the inauthenticity of their inventories and checkout. Here are some of their tactics:
(Solutions to 1 and 2 provided below.)
1) REFUSAL TO COMMUNICATE AT TENANCY END
The reason why Jackson & Co refuse to communicate with you is because they need the tenant to be desperate for their deposit before they even begin to engage in the deposit return process. The longer they take to reply, the more desperate the tenant becomes. The more desperate the tenant becomes, the more willing they will be to accept significantly less money from their deposit, due to frivolous deductions that Jackson & Co will inevitably make. They will refuse to raise deductions with the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) until you exhaust every single avenue (I will detail this in the solution) and because they refuse to raise deductions, it means the DPS cannot pay out the undisputed amount. Therefore, the tenant will not see a penny of their deposit and after time has passed, the desperation inflicted on the tenant can be exploited by Jackson & Co. Perhaps more chillingly, this tactic is especially effective against those who are financially underprivileged. Me and my co-tenant are lucky as we had family homes to return to after university so despite the stress Jackson & Co caused us, we could afford to fight them. However, for those who live tenancy to tenancy or don’t have the luxury of financial support from their family, they will be so desperate for some of the deposit back that they will accept liability for anything Jackson & Co thrusts upon them just to expedite the process. It is an appalling example of Jackson & Co’s moral bankruptcy where they deliberately exploit the poorest in society.
2) PHISHING
They want some of your deposit no matter what. They want you to make it easy for them. DO NOT make it easy for them. The first email you are likely to receive from Jackson & Co regarding the deposit return will vaguely mention that deductions will be made, however they will not specify what deductions they will make, nor will they raise them to the DPS. Instead, they will ask you for what damages you think you might be liable for. DO NOT ENTERTAIN THIS. This is a phishing tactic. Jackson & Co want to know what you know, or what evidence you have. This is partly because when they inevitably make ridiculous deductions, they want to make sure that they don’t look stupid to the adjudicator for making a deduction that you have evidence to dispute. If you refuse to accept liability for anything, then they cease communication with you (as aforementioned) or they will provide a poor lie as to why it’s someone else’s fault that they can’t raise deductions before ignoring you for another month. If, after that month, you still refuse to accept liability for anything, then they will ignore you again and ask the same question a month later. They will continue to phish until you sacrifice financial control of your deposit to them.
3) GASLIGHTING
This one is self-explanatory. They will try to annoy you. They will send condescending and patronising emails after weeks or months of ignoring you. The solution is simple, don’t show them your annoyance. Don’t go through their complaints procedure. Don’t complain at all. In fact, bypass communication with them completely. They will attempt to gaslight you and tell you that you ‘don’t understand’ when you accuse them of not following protocol. They are deliberately obtuse, and the solutions below will help you bypass communication with them completely. Trust me, you don’t want to waste your time trying to get them to play fair, I learned that the hard way.
SOLUTIONS to 1 and 2 (this is the quickest way to get your deposit back.)
a) On the day that your tenancy ends, log in to your account on the DPS website and request the return of your deposit. Email Jackson & Co and let them know you’d like your deposit back. Jackson & Co have 14 days to respond to the DPS’ request and I promise you that they will not respond.
b) If (when) they do not respond after 14 days, you must print off a statutory declaration, get a solicitor to stamp it (this costs £5 and takes minutes) and send your document to the DPS.
c) Jackson & Co are now duty bound to raise their deductions within another 14-day period or risk the deposit being paid back to the tenant. For myself, they raised deductions 20 minutes after the statutory declaration was processed; this after 4 months of ignoring my requests for deductions, which indicates that they had the deductions to hand and were deliberately prolonging the process. You MUST go through the statutory declaration process, and Jackson & Co will refuse to parlay until you do this.
d) Now deductions are raised, the undisputed money can be paid out and you can enter a dispute with Jackson & Co for the rest of the money. When your deposit is in dispute, it takes usually around a month for an independent adjudicator to make a decision. Now you can provide your evidence, and if you are lacking in that department, read on as I have evidence that can help you get your full deposit back. It’s important to note that it took 6 months to get my full deposit back, the steps I have outlined here can shorten that to around 2 months. Unfortunately, 2 months is a best-case scenario. The regulations regarding deposit returns are swayed in the favour of letting agents/landlords, so do not bother trying to argue with it. Just follow the steps I have shared to make the process swifter.
I NEED MORE EVIDENCE. WHAT DO I DO?
The following piece of evidence will help you win your dispute with Jackson & Co.
The inventories and checkouts are required by the DPS to be conducted by an independent third-party inventory clerk. Jackson & Co fraudulently claim that they use an independent inventory clerk, but this is not the case. It is highly likely that Jackson & Co manufacture the inventories and checkouts themselves. In my experience they misrepresented the inventory and checkout to show a better property condition at the commencement of the tenancy than at the end. This is how they suggest that it is in their right to make deductions and attempt to conjure a scenario where the tenant(s) could be considered destructive. In my case, the original inventory ignored several issues and stated that the property was in a ‘professionally cleaned’ condition, which was not the case. The property was handed back in the same condition after a 3-year tenancy where – like magic – all of the issues that were ignored by the inventory were picked up by the checkout to implicate tenant liability.
The evidence is provided below. This is good evidence for anyone to use in a dispute.
1) On the inventory/checkout, a company named ‘Non-Stop Inventory Shop’ is provided as the ‘independent’ inventory clerk.
2) A quick search on Companies House reveals that a woman named Maria Carolyn Southgate is the sole officer and company director. If you look at Maria Carolyn Southgate’s work history, you will see that she worked at two separate branches of Jackson & Co, one in Manningtree and then in Colchester, the latter of which this review refers to. This is evidence that the inventories and checkouts cannot be relied upon as they are not independent.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12541803
3) Ms. Southgate worked for these branches from 2014 to 2016, so it would be conceivable to suggest that she has no affiliation with Jackson & Co anymore. However, a photo posted on the ‘Non-Stop Inventory Shop’ Facebook page in 2023, proves that the affiliation exists. On the 8th of March 2023, Non Stop Inventory Shop reposted a ‘happy international women’s day’ photo by Jackson & Co. It shows that their affiliation did not end with Southgate’s resignation in 2016. Further investigation into Maria Southgate’s identity shows that she is actually in the photo herself, giving indication that she still works for Jackson & Co.
This is an important piece of information as it proves that Jackson & Co’s inventories and checkouts are biased. They are not carried out by an independent third-party inventory clerk as recommended by the DPS.
In the event that Jackson & Co delete evidence of their affiliation or make their Facebook accounts inaccessible to public viewing, please email [email protected] and I will provide you with the photos upon your request. In addition, I will provide photos retrieved from Maria Southgate’s Facebook page that 1) show her identity and can be cross-referenced with the photo on Non Stop inventory shop’s Facebook page and 2) show her close relationship with Jackson & Co staff such as Sunni Dewing. This recent affiliation is a key factor when giving evidence that Jackson & Co’s ‘independent’ inventory clerk is not very independent. Links to the ‘Non Stop Inventory Shop’ and Maria Southgate’s personal Facebook pages are provided.
https://www.facebook.com/nonstopinventoryshop/
https://www.facebook.com/maria.southgate.71
Now even if you are liable for damage, you can claim that the inventory and checkouts were not done by an independent inventory clerk, and the adjudicator will take your evidence seriously when making their decision. Jackson & Co have put me and others through hell and they deserve their comeuppance. It is truly disgraceful what they will put you through just for wanting your own money back. I hope that this review can help a few others who are experiencing what I experienced. It is clear to me that Jackson & Co do this to all of their tenants.
I will start by asking people to like this review so other people may be helped. I think it goes without saying that I advise any renter and especially students to avoid this company at all costs. I won’t go into much detail on my own personal experience, as the 1-star reviews on Google regarding deposits pretty much tell the same story, but I will give a short guide on Jackson & Co’s tactics, solutions, and additional evidence and links that anyone can use as evidence to help get their deposits back. Jackson & Co know every loophole, every crack, and every crevasse regarding the deposit return process. It is likely that new tenants will move into a damaged property when using Jackson & Co. If you already have moved in, I hope that you took photos of any damage on move in day as Jackson & Co WILL attempt to make you liable for pre-existing damages. However, do not despair if you did not do this, please read on as I will provide you with evidence regarding the inauthenticity of their inventories and checkout. Here are some of their tactics:
(Solutions to 1 and 2 provided below.)
1) REFUSAL TO COMMUNICATE AT TENANCY END
The reason why Jackson & Co refuse to communicate with you is because they need the tenant to be desperate for their deposit before they even begin to engage in the deposit return process. The longer they take to reply, the more desperate the tenant becomes. The more desperate the tenant becomes, the more willing they will be to accept significantly less money from their deposit, due to frivolous deductions that Jackson & Co will inevitably make. They will refuse to raise deductions with the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) until you exhaust every single avenue (I will detail this in the solution) and because they refuse to raise deductions, it means the DPS cannot pay out the undisputed amount. Therefore, the tenant will not see a penny of their deposit and after time has passed, the desperation inflicted on the tenant can be exploited by Jackson & Co. Perhaps more chillingly, this tactic is especially effective against those who are financially underprivileged. Me and my co-tenant are lucky as we had family homes to return to after university so despite the stress Jackson & Co caused us, we could afford to fight them. However, for those who live tenancy to tenancy or don’t have the luxury of financial support from their family, they will be so desperate for some of the deposit back that they will accept liability for anything Jackson & Co thrusts upon them just to expedite the process. It is an appalling example of Jackson & Co’s moral bankruptcy where they deliberately exploit the poorest in society.
2) PHISHING
They want some of your deposit no matter what. They want you to make it easy for them. DO NOT make it easy for them. The first email you are likely to receive from Jackson & Co regarding the deposit return will vaguely mention that deductions will be made, however they will not specify what deductions they will make, nor will they raise them to the DPS. Instead, they will ask you for what damages you think you might be liable for. DO NOT ENTERTAIN THIS. This is a phishing tactic. Jackson & Co want to know what you know, or what evidence you have. This is partly because when they inevitably make ridiculous deductions, they want to make sure that they don’t look stupid to the adjudicator for making a deduction that you have evidence to dispute. If you refuse to accept liability for anything, then they cease communication with you (as aforementioned) or they will provide a poor lie as to why it’s someone else’s fault that they can’t raise deductions before ignoring you for another month. If, after that month, you still refuse to accept liability for anything, then they will ignore you again and ask the same question a month later. They will continue to phish until you sacrifice financial control of your deposit to them.
3) GASLIGHTING
This one is self-explanatory. They will try to annoy you. They will send condescending and patronising emails after weeks or months of ignoring you. The solution is simple, don’t show them your annoyance. Don’t go through their complaints procedure. Don’t complain at all. In fact, bypass communication with them completely. They will attempt to gaslight you and tell you that you ‘don’t understand’ when you accuse them of not following protocol. They are deliberately obtuse, and the solutions below will help you bypass communication with them completely. Trust me, you don’t want to waste your time trying to get them to play fair, I learned that the hard way.
SOLUTIONS to 1 and 2 (this is the quickest way to get your deposit back.)
a) On the day that your tenancy ends, log in to your account on the DPS website and request the return of your deposit. Email Jackson & Co and let them know you’d like your deposit back. Jackson & Co have 14 days to respond to the DPS’ request and I promise you that they will not respond.
b) If (when) they do not respond after 14 days, you must print off a statutory declaration, get a solicitor to stamp it (this costs £5 and takes minutes) and send your document to the DPS.
c) Jackson & Co are now duty bound to raise their deductions within another 14-day period or risk the deposit being paid back to the tenant. For myself, they raised deductions 20 minutes after the statutory declaration was processed; this after 4 months of ignoring my requests for deductions, which indicates that they had the deductions to hand and were deliberately prolonging the process. You MUST go through the statutory declaration process, and Jackson & Co will refuse to parlay until you do this.
d) Now deductions are raised, the undisputed money can be paid out and you can enter a dispute with Jackson & Co for the rest of the money. When your deposit is in dispute, it takes usually around a month for an independent adjudicator to make a decision. Now you can provide your evidence, and if you are lacking in that department, read on as I have evidence that can help you get your full deposit back. It’s important to note that it took 6 months to get my full deposit back, the steps I have outlined here can shorten that to around 2 months. Unfortunately, 2 months is a best-case scenario. The regulations regarding deposit returns are swayed in the favour of letting agents/landlords, so do not bother trying to argue with it. Just follow the steps I have shared to make the process swifter.
I NEED MORE EVIDENCE. WHAT DO I DO?
The following piece of evidence will help you win your dispute with Jackson & Co.
The inventories and checkouts are required by the DPS to be conducted by an independent third-party inventory clerk. Jackson & Co fraudulently claim that they use an independent inventory clerk, but this is not the case. It is highly likely that Jackson & Co manufacture the inventories and checkouts themselves. In my experience they misrepresented the inventory and checkout to show a better property condition at the commencement of the tenancy than at the end. This is how they suggest that it is in their right to make deductions and attempt to conjure a scenario where the tenant(s) could be considered destructive. In my case, the original inventory ignored several issues and stated that the property was in a ‘professionally cleaned’ condition, which was not the case. The property was handed back in the same condition after a 3-year tenancy where – like magic – all of the issues that were ignored by the inventory were picked up by the checkout to implicate tenant liability.
The evidence is provided below. This is good evidence for anyone to use in a dispute.
1) On the inventory/checkout, a company named ‘Non-Stop Inventory Shop’ is provided as the ‘independent’ inventory clerk.
2) A quick search on Companies House reveals that a woman named Maria Carolyn Southgate is the sole officer and company director. If you look at Maria Carolyn Southgate’s work history, you will see that she worked at two separate branches of Jackson & Co, one in Manningtree and then in Colchester, the latter of which this review refers to. This is evidence that the inventories and checkouts cannot be relied upon as they are not independent.
https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12541803
3) Ms. Southgate worked for these branches from 2014 to 2016, so it would be conceivable to suggest that she has no affiliation with Jackson & Co anymore. However, a photo posted on the ‘Non-Stop Inventory Shop’ Facebook page in 2023, proves that the affiliation exists. On the 8th of March 2023, Non Stop Inventory Shop reposted a ‘happy international women’s day’ photo by Jackson & Co. It shows that their affiliation did not end with Southgate’s resignation in 2016. Further investigation into Maria Southgate’s identity shows that she is actually in the photo herself, giving indication that she still works for Jackson & Co.
This is an important piece of information as it proves that Jackson & Co’s inventories and checkouts are biased. They are not carried out by an independent third-party inventory clerk as recommended by the DPS.
In the event that Jackson & Co delete evidence of their affiliation or make their Facebook accounts inaccessible to public viewing, please email [email protected] and I will provide you with the photos upon your request. In addition, I will provide photos retrieved from Maria Southgate’s Facebook page that 1) show her identity and can be cross-referenced with the photo on Non Stop inventory shop’s Facebook page and 2) show her close relationship with Jackson & Co staff such as Sunni Dewing. This recent affiliation is a key factor when giving evidence that Jackson & Co’s ‘independent’ inventory clerk is not very independent. Links to the ‘Non Stop Inventory Shop’ and Maria Southgate’s personal Facebook pages are provided.
https://www.facebook.com/nonstopinventoryshop/
https://www.facebook.com/maria.southgate.71
Now even if you are liable for damage, you can claim that the inventory and checkouts were not done by an independent inventory clerk, and the adjudicator will take your evidence seriously when making their decision. Jackson & Co have put me and others through hell and they deserve their comeuppance. It is truly disgraceful what they will put you through just for wanting your own money back. I hope that this review can help a few others who are experiencing what I experienced. It is clear to me that Jackson & Co do this to all of their tenants.
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Latest Reviews
10th Aug 2024
reviewed by 'Kathryn White'
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reviewed by 'Drew Johnston'
21st Oct 2023
reviewed by 'EC'
27th Sep 2022
reviewed by 'yao'
13th Aug 2021
reviewed by 'Chris'
17th Mar 2021
reviewed by 'Lily'
Opening Hours
Address
Jackson & Co - Colchester
60 Caelum Drive
Colchester
Warwickshire
CO2 8FP
01206 266 714
Performance statistics
| Services | Valuation Accuracy | Fees Satisfaction | Min Price of property reviewed | Max Price of property reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sales | % | 0% | £0 | £0 |
| Lettings | 0% | 71% | £700 | £1,550 |
Review statistics
| From Landlords | From Tenants | From Vendors | From Buyers | Other | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Areas covered
Services offered
- Sales
- Lettings
- Block Management
- Surveys
- Conveyancing
- Mortgage Advice
- Home Builder
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Aug 10,2024
Aug 10,2024
0
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These guys are the classic poor quality estate agents. They mostly work with students so I'm sure they take advantage of overseas students and young people not knowing what to expect. Not only did they fail to get anything fixed during our tenancy, they needed ...
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Oct 21,2023
Oct 21,2023
2
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worst agent, took months for repairs and no communication at all!...
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Sep 27,2022
Sep 27,2022
0
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Sunni Dewing is a very friendly and nice agent. She treat people patient and offer a lot of ways helping people finding their finest home. She knows quite a lot how to communicate with customer nicely....
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Aug 13,2021
Aug 13,2021
5
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Absolutely appalling. It has been almost a month since we vacated a rental property, and still no sign of our deposit being returned. So far, I have made at 6 calls and every time, the people that can help me are 'already on a call'. They ...
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Mar 17,2021
Mar 17,2021
0
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Jackson and Co has been fantastic with my tenancy. When having to have a change of tenant under a stressful situation, the estate agents were quick and efficient at finding the best way to deal with the old tenant and the issues. I want to ...
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Aug 19,2019
Aug 19,2019
4
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Awful. Absolutely awful.
Poor customer service, all staff are very rude. Response time is slow and you won't get your deposit back!...
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Feb 06,2024
Feb 06,2024
36
people found
this helpful
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HOW TO BEAT JACKSON & CO AND GET YOUR DEPOSIT BACK – A GUIDE
I will start by asking people to like this review so other people may be helped. I think it goes without saying that I advise any renter and especially students to avoid this ...
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
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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
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Last updated at 4:38 PM 25/01/2016 by Dean Jackaman
