ludlowthompson prides itself on being able to fulfill customer expectations, and meet their needs. Whilst it is always our desire to achieve this, should there be a concern from our client we would always wish to be able to resolve it quickly and be given the opportunity to demonstrate our commitment to quality customer service. In order to do this, and engender an approach within our business of ownership and responsibility by all our team for the service provided to our customers, we apply the following approach to any customer complaint / concern:
1. Please refer all complaints initially to the Department that they relate to. (Lettings/Sales/Management/Accounts). Presenting your complaint directly to the party you have been liaising with.
Whilst we would anticipate that this party will have been able to resolve your issue at this stage, should you not receive a satisfactory response or resolution to your problem:
2. Please refer the complaint to our Customer Services Department. (
[email protected]).
Once the complaint is received at Customer Services the matter will be acknowledged and investigated. A full response will be received from the appropriate ludlowthompson representative within 7 working days.
This representative will be a senior member of the team managing the issues on which you have reason to complain.
3. Upon receipt of the response if this is not satisfactory please advise Customer Services and the matter will be referred for review. A full and final response from a ludlowthompson representative will be received within 7 working days.
We would obviously anticipate that no response would leave issues unresolved having been considered to this stage. A 'full and final' response will be advised as such within the detail of the response and will have been provided on behalf of ludlowthompson by an appropriately senior member of the management team to ensure it has been given appropriate review and consideration.
4. However, should this 'full and final' response not be satisfactory please find detailed below the website contacts for each of the following bodies to which ludlowthompson are members. Each will ask you to have ensured you have received a full and final position from us prior to you being able to lodge a complaint with them for review and will guide you on the necessary steps to take.
ARLA (www.arla.co.uk) or NAEA (www.naea.co.uk) or The Property Ombudman (www.tpos.co.uk) . They will then consider the complaint and review the matter.
As an agent, there are elements of referencing that remain confidential and there are parts of referencing that are covered by not only the Data Protection Act, but statute. Ludlowthompson is extremely thorough when carrying out referencing, sourcing only the best quality tenants for our landlords and the checks include, employment references, credit checks, previous landlord checks, proof of ID, proof of address, bank statements and pay slips for individuals. For companies we get information from companies house, we credit check the company to assess financial risk, we run checks on company directors (often being used as personal guarantors), plus photo ID, bank statements and trade references of other companies who have had dealings with the company, usually other landlords.
As part of our Rent Collection service, we do indeed chase the Rent, we have a dedicated team to this and we can take the rent from the tenants debit or credit card if it is over 7 days late. We also offer a door knock service, write letters to the tenants and all landlords on this service subscribe to a Legal and Rental Warranty that covers legal fees and rent payments to a maximum amount. Our arrears rates are some of the lowest in not only London but the country, with the Industry average being around 30%, ours are around 5-6%, which in this climate is highly commendable. The reason it is so low is due to all of the above and our very strict referencing and we are confident in the robustness of our processes.
The rent in this case was due on the 6th and for unforeseen circumstances the tenant was unable to pay until the 13th. As per our Rent Collection Terms of Business Ludlowthompson has up to 10 working days to transfer the rent once it has been received and this was done on a same day payment well within the 10 working days.
We are extremely sorry that you have not been satisfied with the service to date, but rest assured moving forward things will go smoothly. We are a very proud agency, and the office in question only received 1 complaint in 2009 from over 200 move ins, and is consistently winning awards for excellence in customer service. Please contact the local office on 0208 682 1234 in future if you have any further queries.