“Do not believe what you are told by the Martin & ......”
1 Star Review
Sep 30,2010
By:
'Newport'
Sep 30,2010
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode:
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode:
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Do not believe what you are told by the Martin & Co Newport branch. We are renting a property from them and agreed everything with one person who then left. Unfortunately the handover can't have been that great because we then saw the property back on the market. After a number of phone calls we got it sorted again but we have had various problems...
Confirming a moving-in date: was confirmed 3 days beforehand - and only after we pressured them.
Customer service is not great - they seem friendly enough but are very slow at returning calls or getting answers for you. It usually takes a few phone calls asking for the same thing before you get an answer. And you can't actually trust what they tell you either.
Due to circumstances at time of application, we offered to pay 6 months rent up front - on the condition that it was held by Martin & Co and paid monthly to the landlord. Initially they said they'd have to give it to the landlord but after telling them this is not normal practise and not what other agents do, they agreed they would hold it. After paying the 6 months we asked for them to confirm in writing where the money was being held but it never was, and we've now found out they paid the whole lot to the landlord. So now, if anything goes wrong and doesn't get fixed, or the landlord doesn't pay the mortgage and the house gets repossessed, we have no recourse.
The other thing to watch out for is the schedule of condition and inventory. We received this about 2 weeks after we had moved in and it was very inaccurate. Example - the report said the kitchen tiles are in good condition. In fact, the kitchen tiles are at least 30 years old, so there is a lot of wear showing as well as a few chips and in one part of the kitchen there is a square of 6 - 8 tiles missing with just concrete showing. There are many more examples like this so we made sure we went through it thoroughly and wrote a lot of comments, although I still worry we might have missed a couple of things. We are going to take photos of some of the things that are not in great condition so we have proof.
If Martin & Co Newport read this, I suggest you change the inventory checking company that you use. We are renting out our own house in a different area with a different company and the inventory/condition report was excellent and accurate - and actually in favour of the tenant, to the point where it said the bathroom blinds were dusty and they were brand new, only put up 5 days before the check was done!
I would not recommend using Martin & Co Newport branch until they realise and put into practise the fact that tenants (and landlords) are paying them for a service and they should treat us as customers.
Reading some of the other reviews, it might be a good idea after moving out of a property that you have taken the time to clean, to take photo's to prove it is clean - or a video might be an even better idea.
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