“DO NOT, DO NOT USE ATLANTIS. It is incredibly unfortunate ......”
1 Star Review
Jul 02,2013
By:
'Mrs'
Jul 02,2013
Branch: Reading, 23/24 Market Place
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: RG30
Branch: Reading, 23/24 Market Place
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode: RG30
6
people found
this helpful
DO NOT, DO NOT USE ATLANTIS. It is incredibly unfortunate that Atlantis let some very attractive properties at decent rental prices. We'd heard bad reviews about Atlantis before renting a property through them. An acquaintance reported one of the property managers for allowing himself into the house at inappropriate times and harassing her. I believe said person no longer works there.
As for our experience with Atlantis, the viewing was brief, the agent showing us the property did not seem very knowledgeable and having then spoken with the landlord we find actually told us un-truths regarding the property. We had problems submitting our references, there was more than one person dealing with our references and each told us a different story as to where they were/why they'd not been accepted/what needed to be done. You may have problems submitting references if you are a contract worker and work for an Agency, at least I did.
The landlord informed us that although we were renting the property through Atlantis they would not be managing the property as they had done with the previous tenant, as in that case they'd not kept up their quarterly reviews, not informed him of issues with the property or the tenant and as such the property was left in an uninhabitable state when the old tenant left. We were to go through the landlord for everything as he did not trust Atlantis.
Atlantis's fees are incredible! Fees to get in the door and indeed, be prepared to lose £90 from your deposit whether the landlord agrees to have it returned in full, for their admin fees. It took months for us to have our deposit returned as the account manager did not inform us that we'd need to agree to this fee, nor were we given a realistic time scale. We were only informed that the reason for the hold up was because we hadn't agreed to the fee weeks after we'd moved out and Atlantis had received the landlords email confirming the deposit was to be returned, after we chased them for information!
Oh, and please do not think that once you've moved out, paid all the fees and settled all the bills that your fiasco with them is over! No no!
Nearly two months after we moved out, the energy supplier for the property sends a rather large bill to the property, addressed to no one and quoting a new account number (the energy provider has our new details and has been communicating with us at this address to settle our final bill). It turns out that Atlantis, after being told they would no longer be letting the property and that the landlord was letting it privately, waded in and contacted Spark Energy to switch energy suppliers! Under who's instruction? Not ours, not the new tenants, and not the landlord!
Atlantis contacted Spark in error causing this random bill to arrive on the new tenants doorstep, causing severe friction between us (the old tenants who are dutifully dealing with the final bill) and the landlord who's new tenants have been served this bill!
When trying to contact the property manager regarding their communication with Spark, I spoke to a rather unhelpful receptionist who, when I asked to be transferred to a direct line, hung up on me.
Atlantis have admitted fault and will settle the issue and pay the bill they caused to be generated. But still, this is not a company you want to deal with, they can effect your life in so many negative ways, stay away from Atlantis.
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I am genuinely sorry that you did not have a good experience letting a property with Atlantis.
With regards to the fees at the end of the tenancy we have recently changed our policy so that no administration fees are charged at the end of Tenancies under our new Tenancy Agreement. Whilst I appreciate that this does not assist you it does mean that if a Landlord is managing his property and undertakes his own checkout no fees will be charged for releasing the deposit by our company.
Our initial fees are comparable and in many cases lower than a number of our competitors, so whilst I appreciate it is a lot of money the lettings industry is an open market and a competitive market in Reading
The issue with Spark Energy was a systems issue with a report which was provided to them and this is most unfortunate. Please do accept my apologies that this did occur and I have also spoken directly to Spark Energy about this particular circumstance so that we can prevent it from occurring again.
If you would like to discuss the above, or any aspect of your letting further I would welcome your call.
Kind regards,
Andrew Strong
Managing Director
Direct dial: 0118 955 7001
e-mail: [email protected]