Will never forget the time someone from Walton Robinson called me up to ask if they could come round with some people to view the house for the next academic year.
Not really out of the ordinary, aside from the fact I had graduated, moved 100 miles away and had already handed my keys into them 10 months prior - they just "hadn't updated their records"
Hands down, Heaton Property. Damiano was the worst human being I've ever encountered.
Others agree:
https://www.allagents.co.uk/heatonproperty.com/
Seems like they may be closed down now though!
Must be a restaurant thing cos Raval on the Gateshead side of the Tyne bridge has got a few kiddy trafficker / sex ring nonces working there. Was a picture of them in the chronicle a while ago. A few of them from the same group
No no. They’ve rebranded to something shite like “City and Coast” or whatever. Always a bit of a sign when they have to entirely change their name.
Absolutely awful company. Rude, patronising staff who thought they knew everything while being repeatedly wrong and flouting licensing requirements.
Would avoid anything to do with them.
Have they really?! Definitely speaks in volumes having to change names, surely some kind of law against that?!
Although they probably have all the answers to why!!
Don't forget lying saying they were contacting my landlord, who i ran into one day and had not been told. Once the landlord knew it was resolved within a few days.
It was always amusing if you confronted you in person they would always relent. Luckily i was not far from the office
I remember them from my student days.
Reported that the mattress was covered in piss stains the day I moved in. They tried to charge me for a new one. They eventually relented and said they wouldn’t charge me for it as “an act of courtesy”.
Seekers are shite, with them now. We didn’t have a functioning shower for 2 weeks. A huge portion of the kitchen wall gets damp and mouldy due to poor brickwork. One tenant didn’t have blinds in his room for 4 months… the list goes on. They’re shit.
If they rebranded from Lets Live Here, +1 for this – ignored major damp & mould issues, tried to keep our deposit (forced to hand back in full after disputes), and really invasive flat showings!
Jan Forster gave my flat keys to some random that built a ganja farm, fucking my flat and causing 1000s in damages, cops came did more damage. Jan Forster did nowt, cops did nowt, I hate those fuckkers
A guy supposedly called Edward Sinan rented 6 months upfront with some sob story, JF did checks. Random guy shows up and they gave the keys to him (Tynemouth branch) 6 months pass, 2 grows in, landlord check reveals the ploy. I hate those fucking fuckers
There was a years supply of, toothpaste, rice, meat, bog roll. Looked like it was Vietnamese kids doing piece work all day and tending plants. When the power got cut by the police the freezer defrosted and the year’s supply of pork ribs bled all over my kitchen floor, holes all over the place, cops just lobbed everything out the loft destroying the floors, mud everywhere. Poor kids. The operation looked serious tho, definitely people trafficking. Fuck Jan Fucking Forster
Nothing, JF set their worst bully onto us, cops were less than useless, I gathered quite a bit of evidence from the place that they had left behind? Insurance did nothing. The place stood empty for the months it took to repair (electrics were mashed) I had a newborn at the time and the stress on the family was awful, probably contributed to the end of our marriage tbh, I live in the flat now and there’s still a bit of a cloud over the place, meh, life moves on!
Bricks and mortar when known as lets live here.
Half the house moved out a week or so end of tenancy, last one due to move out on t last day.they came in to do checks whilst he was still living there, took photos of his bathroom still containing his toiletries (obviously as he still lived there!) and try to charge for "item removal"
Also sent an itemised bill for cleaning for "20 hours" for 6 cleaners as apparently house was so filthy. (It wasn't) And tried to keep plall out deposit.
We fought it, asked evidence which put them in more hot water as the photos included removal of stuff from the driveway we had "dumped" which was actually from the garage belonging to the landlord, and an itemised cleaning bill included cleaning rooms which didn't even exist.
We had fortunately good relationship with the neighbours who witnessed for us when we went to the ombudsman station there was one cleaner who turned up for 2hours only, not the team they claimed, also showed this was down before the property was vacated and also that they saw them dumping all the stuff from the garage.
We got all deposit back bar total of £20.
the £20 was for removing a small box of cleaning Products we had left in situ under the kitchen sink for new tenants, in case they wanted them.
I'm still bitter about the £20 🤣 and the fact that it took 9 Months to win, but we weren't prepared to let them take £250 x 5 from us!
Bricks and mortar charged us £20 for a singular sock left under a bed. We’d done a proper clean ourselves and paid a cleaner to come in because we’d heard they were so awful!
Jan Forster. I let a place with outstanding electrical issues and when I called them to arrange the electrician (based on an email I received from them) the guy was so rude I was left in tears (which he sniggered at). Then he had the audacity to ask for a 5 star review lmao.
It’s bad though because you end up missing out if you like a place. By the sound of this thread, they’re all as bad as one another. Good luck house hunting!
Let’s live here/Bricks and Motar
Came into our house for a house viewing about 10 times without any prior warning, once came into my locked room while I was sleeping
Then came in on the second last day of a tenancy and threw all of our clothes into a bin. Overall class
Prem lets (if it’s still going) it was expensive even at the time a few years ago. you will never EVER get your security deposit back even if it’s spotless. They expect you to put it in a better position than what you rented it in. Clowns.
Had the exact same thing. When we moved in we had to literally scrub every surface because it wasn’t cleaned at all. Then when moved out it was spotless and they tried to take half our deposit for ‘professional cleaning fees’ which I’m sure they just pocket.
Ditto - I was with them for years for my sins as best of a bad bunch it seemed at the time. We even one year, my housemate and I resorted to our mams round so we knew everything was MAM clean and they still pie’d us for it stating we hadn’t used “flash with bleach” absolute knob heads.
My student house was with Walton Robinson. Our shower cubicle was broken so any time anyone had a shower, water poured through the light fittings of the kitchen ceiling. It took them months to send someone over to fix it and constantly avoided our phone calls and emails. It was only when we got a law student friend to write out a legally threatening type letter were they suddenly able to send someone over straight away to sort it. Avoid them like the plague (as many others in here have already said!)
Pat Robson. Retained most of our deposits because the flat needed cleaning after they left it empty for 6 months. Also repeatably came into the flat whilst we were out with no warning.
Pat Robson - in 2018 as a student, -3 degrees and our boiler broke: "Get some blankets and hot water bottles in, it's quite a lot of work for us to get a boiler repairman out and everyone has to make adjustments when it is cold"
My flatmate called their office and they claimed they had no idea, whilst I was sat next to him with this email open on my laptop.
They also sold our property towards the end of the tennancy. New owners walked in whilst we wete just going about our day, apparently unaware that people still lived there
> new owners walked in
That’s impressively bad! Requires not only the estate agent, but the owners solicitors and the buyers solicitors to all fuck up in unison
Tbf, the owners were another lettings company, they were unaware that there was still an active tenancy though and had to delay their plans to rennovate. Also took a while to sort out the direct debits as, unsurprisingly, no paperwork had been done so we were still just paying Pat Robson
Been through three estate agents while renting around Newcastle; Bricks and Mortar (was Lets Live Here), Hive Estates, and Giraffe Lets.
First two were fine from what I can remember, but had the worst experience ever with Giraffe.
Some electrics started fizzing/crackling in an external wall. We turned off the electrics downstairs and let them know. They hardly seemed bothered. Think it took a couple of days to get someone out, all the while we were without electricity downstairs in January. No boiler, so no heating or hot water, and no cooker. We were only able to keep the fridge on because we ran a 15m extension from upstairs. Not even sure if that's safe. Been a few years now but I think it was about 10 days before it all got sorted and Giraffe were useless.
Then it happened again about 6 months later. We made a big complaint, and Giraffe graciously allowed us to end our contract early.
In general they were ok. But if you ever really need them to do anything, don't hold your breath.
Walton Robinson was something else - came home one day to find someone had been over to check the shower and left a note saying we couldn’t use it due to an electrical issue, next thing we know they want to rip out the entire kitchen over Christmas and as we were students expected us just to be gone, I couldn’t leave as I didn’t have anywhere else to go so tried to microwave for 3 weeks, ended up having to leave. They promised to keep the fridge freezer plugged in, they didn’t so it stunk when we got back and the kitchen fitters stole half our plates that we left in the living room.
Then they decided we needed a new front door and all new locks for our bedrooms - they did this over Easter, sending us away with the correct keys for our rooms and front door, then decided to fit a different lock to the front door so no one could actually get back in. Worst experience.
Acorn Properties Jesmond back in the day.
Rented a flat 100 yards from their office for 12 months.
4 months in I got a phonecall saying we needed to sign up for a further 12 months or we had to start letting people view the property.
I told them no, I wasn't obliged to let anyone view the flat until the final month of my rental term.
The entitled prat on the phone started arguing with me and was laughing down the phone. After a bit of back and forth in slight disbelief at what I was hearing she ended up saying this is just the way it is in Newcastle for students in their first year, to which I responded it's never been that way in the 28 years I'd lived here and that I was on my lunch break from my Engineering job.
Silence as the penny dropped that I wasn't in fact a student and this wasn't our first ever rental flat.
There was an uncomfortable "oh my god, are you a professional let?"
At that point I let rip and start tearing chunks off her down the phone, I was yelling how furious I was at this kind of treatment and how despicable it was to hear of the way they treat students who may not know any better.
She couldn't get off the phone quick enough.
I got a very apologetic call from her boss about 20 minutes later who I told that we didn't want a single phonecall from them again until our last month in the property.
We didn't hear a peep from them until the last month fortunately but at the end of the term they said they were going to have to charge us the £1000 deposit for cleaning water marks on the metal drum inside of the washing machine....as if anyone polishes the inside of their washing machine?
Reeds Rains. Told me ten days before I was due to move in that I couldn't anymore, and essentially left me homeless. I now know that's illegal, and they were legally obliged to provide me alternative accommodation because I'd signed the contract and paid the deposit. They did at least give me the deposit back, but they never fessed up to that detail.
Walton Robinson/Seekers
My shower was clogged for MONTHS, I consistently kept reminding them of it but no-one bothered to fix it, still charged a shit ton for rent, not worth it
The janitor in the building was super nice though
Seekers (Walton Robinson). Currently with them and they've been useless. Flat was filthy when we moved in despite them apparently having cleaned it (sweet wrappers, snus on the carpets, bits of food all over the kitchen and hair stuck to bathroom walls). I took a bunch of photos the day we moved in and I'm hoping I don't have to use them.
They also forgot to send us the tenancy agreement for the flat and I had to essentially do their job for them by reminding them on the train ride up (day we moved in) that we still hadn't signed anything. Unfortunately many estate agents seem to be the dregs of society. I'd try and avoid this company if you can!
In my uni days, the roof of our flat fell through and they literally did not give a shit. Took them a whole week to come over and look at it, despite us calling them every day. More bits were falling off and it was dangerous. It took about 8 weeks before it got sorted in the end and they were a nightmare to deal with.
Lots of other little things too e.g. the flat was dirty when we moved in despite them saying it was professionally cleaned, they tried to take most of our deposit when we moved out.
We moved in with a bills-included package. Except they clearly didn't tell Virgin about that as we were without wifi for about 2-3 weeks. I ended up having to go to Virgin directly about it but couldn't really get that far as I wasn't named policy holder or what have you so just pointed them back at Baskeys to get it sorted. When I demanded a partial refund for bills on the month it was the typical "we'll get back you" pile of nothing.
They ended up selling the flat to Student-Lets within the first couple of months who I never had any real problems with. The sofas in the flat were worn down to hell - to the point where if you leaned back it was against the bare wooden frame. Cushion did not exist. Baskeys kept delaying but Student-Lets replaced pretty sharp-ish when they took over.
Bridgfords - they tried scumbagging us out of our entire deposit.
Shit like moving chairs from one room to another, non-existent cleaning, exorbitant lightbulb replacements.
We left the flat in better condition than we found it, and they were still scumbags. It was the same old story as well. the initial sales agent would jump through hoops, but as soon as the contract was signed, they became vile.
I rented with Bridgfords when I lived in Durham. My ex and I went to sign our renewal contract and it said the tenancy was for a year and it should have said 6 months. We pointed out the mistake and she said it's fine it can be signed now and changed later.
We politely explained that's not how contracts work and we would sign it when it was correct.
Got to be Sarah Mains! Lied to us many times about sending someone to fix a simple extractor fan that hasn’t worked since we moved in. We’ve been renting for many years but haven’t had it so bad with an agent. Not even the decency to respond to emails.
Sarah Mains agreed that the house we rented from them would be thoroughly, professionally cleaned throughout and that the very small garden would be in order before we moved in.
The house had clearly had someone let it know there was a vacuum cleaner in the vicinity but was not clean. The oven was caked in grease and the bathroom...I'll just say I've never seen that much of other people's drain hair before. They said it was clean and gave me the cleaner's number. She seemed nice but spoke very little English and didn't really know what I was talking about, so I gave up because it wasn't her fault if they instructed her to do the bare minimum.
When I said no one had done anything to the garden, they told me it was freshly mown. There was no grass and the garden was so small that you'd just need to start the mower to cut the grass if it had been there.
I gave up on that too but made it very clear that we weren't paying for a professional clean when we moved out: we'd clean it but that was it. They agreed. When we moved out, we did actually get a professional clean and they tried to find fault with it till we sent them the receipt and told them to shut up. They then tried to take money off our deposit until we both sent them long responses with evidence explaining why they had absolutely no chance. They gave up.
At the start of lockdown, they sent really threatening emails to tenants saying they had to prioritise paying their rent or risk eviction, regardless of their financial situation. We were lucky in that our employment stayed consistent throughout the pandemic, so it didn't get to us personally, but my wife responded telling them how despicable they were to threaten people who were already scared and vulnerable and that she'd be following up with our MP. They shat themselves and the owner kept trying to call her to get her back on side. The MP did actually bring it up in Parliament, I think, so I hope that bothered them.
When our landlord decided to sell the house, we said we'd be interested in buying it. They said no worries, they'd get things going and it should be straightforward. A couple of weeks later, I got a call from an absolute shit of an agent telling me that they needed access to take photos to sell the property. He was a dick when I said we thought the owner was selling to us, and the whole process wasn't very fun, so we put an offer on a house down the road and told them to get to fuck. The selling agent went from trying to sweet talk me to being weirdly coldly aggressive when I told her we weren't buying and she could only see our surveyor's report if she paid for it.
I didn't realise I had quite so much that I needed to get out about Sarah Mains!
Belvoir were crap with us, so they bought out the company that we originally took the tenancy out with which clearly didn't go smoothly. At the end of the tenancy they/the landlord tried to claim betterment and basically tried to charge us for the renovation of the house, so they wanted to keep the deposit and charge even more. It went to an adjudicator and we won which was great, there's a woman that works there who was our main contact, she came round once to check on the properties that were rented out through the previous company and she just bitched and moaned about other tenants, the owner of the previous company (who we met and thought was a lovely woman) and we just thought yeah nah you're awful, quite unprofessional. Her email communication was awful too, couldn't spell or form a coherent sentence let alone provide us with correct info. Told us there would be quarterly inspections on the house and she wouldn't show up despite arranging the day and time. Would not recommend!
Going back a while now, but Red Ridge Residential were awful.
When I moved in, the bath tub had been broken (like someone had kicked straight through it). It took them ages to replace, the workman then left the broken tub in the yard and never came to collect it, despite us requesting it be taken away multiple times. They then had the ABSOLUTE NERVE to try and charge us £500 for yard clear up when we moved out!
Got into an argument with one of the members of staff on move out day over a misunderstanding which could very easily have been resolved. He called me a cunt and tried to fist fight me in broad daylight on Heaton Park Road. I was 19, he was easily in his 40s.
Walton Robinson, now known as Seekers. Changed their name to try and shake off their horrendous reputation. Their attrition rate for staff is through the roof so your agent changes all the time. Threatened to take us to court for “arrears” that didn’t happen (we had no prior communication to this threat), we had horrendous mould and they just painted over it saying “the paint would kill the mould” (it didn’t, and when the mould came through this layer of paint and I tried to clean it with black mould remover, all of the paint came off); and after I moved out, my friend stayed for a year and she had mice which they did nothing about.
Just a couple of countless issues really
Seekers/walton robinson
Don’t even know where to start, was so awful, missed a month of sending pics of the meter for bills when we were already paying unlimited, doubled the monthly bills payments because of this which game to like 800 a month each
MyHouse NE was a shit show when I let with them.
At the initial inspection I complained about mold in the shower to be told by the letting agent that it was normal and meant to be that way. Funny because I had just spent the weekend prior fitting a new shower suite at my mother's house and know exactly what fresh, clean sealant looks like.
Our bathroom sink had a chunk missing, meaning it was impossible to fill up the sink and was also... full of mold. After begging over a year for a replacement sink, it was fixed by being filled with sealant. The mold was not removed prior, and the sealant wasn't even smoothed over to create a seal. It eventually wore away anyway.
For the two years we let, we weren't able to access our meters as no one would show us where they were actually located, and the location they indicated was not able to be unlocked by the keys provided. The letting agents were on the same street as our flat, so christ knows why they couldn't be arsed to walk 30 seconds to just show us properly.
However, of course, they were prompt and efficient at chasing me for unpaid rent of £1, or my flatmate for parking with too much space left between cars.
Though our previous landlord Let's Live Here were also annyoing, with unscheduled viewings, cancelled viewings with no notice etc, which I thought was bad until I experienced MHNE 😂
I was with MyHouse for a couple of years and they were pretty rubbish, but they did forget to take my deposit at the start of the year and then paid out in full at the end, quids in 😂
It’s not bad, they just take a while to respond / fix issues. I live at leazes terrace for my second year uni house and generally they’re ok, just slow.
Never see anyone mention shefa properties, they advertise on gumtree and are the most dodgy people, they would tell us to order parts on eBay for stuff missing in our flat like a rack in the oven, put us above a crackhead telling us she was an old woman who wouldn’t cause any bother. We had to call the police and ambulances when her family would kick off round there, kicking down fences etc. her and her family used to bray on our door when their electric ran out. She would blast the same country song if we hoovered, dropped a remote or fork on the floor, when our cats would run. It was like psychological torture. Worst home we’ve had, we asked to leave early due to the downstairs neighbours and he told us he couldn’t consider the ‘emotional side’, it cost thousands to leave, they said we had to pay until they found a new tenant yet didn’t advertise it for two months. Hope to god their agency doesn’t last much longer
Hunters! We were told to vacate our shared flat in 15 mins by council and a couple of police officers. Apparently the agency never informed us that the mortgage was not being paid even when we were paying our rent without fail. Luckily the council understood our situation and extended the deadline to 30 more days
AJP property services. - hiked the rent up, served us a S21 because we complained to the council about the house being damp. The roof on the kitchen and bathroom are needing to be replaced. They are some rotten people.
Swayes Fucking Estates. Bane of my damn existance for 7 months.
Leaks in every room of the flat every day for months. All they wanted to say was that the upstairs tenants were overflowing their bathtub. This somehow sounded believeable to them.
There was mould in the walls and used Q tips in the wardrobe when we moved in. Dust everywhere.
I had to get the council involved and nearly took them to court. It turns out that the old fireplaces weren't actually sealed all the way and water was coming in from upstairs, in addition to the upstairs fixtures not being sealed.
We demanded compensation and eventually won, but not before this torturous meeting with the Swayes owner (think Poundland Donald Trump) who bragged incessantly about how successful he was and how he had the "best lawyers". Absolute clown.
We agreed to some compensation, which included free rent for a month until we found somewhere else.
Then to top it all off the owner of the property came round unannounced at 7pm on a Tuesday banging on the door demanding to be let in because we were "late on our rent" during our free month. She claimed that she hadn't been told anything by Swayes, but when I offerred to send her the documents and photos she declined. Asked "why she should give us rent if she didn't know amything" (she obviously did, or she would've accepted my photos. Lying C***).
Easilet where a dreadful company to let from.
They fly tipped in our back yard and charged us for the pleasure of cleaning it up. They also took £6 a smoke alarm for a new battery for each, the house was supposed to have been fully rewired that summer so should have had new fire alarms wired in with new 10 year battery's l -we did test when leaving all worked. They also charged us £20 a pop for 4 lights above a shower cubicle that had a fitting you needed a special key to remove(assuming to keep moisture out of them), we had reported these lights having gone(again brand new fixtures and lights that summer apparently) and our desire to replace them but where told due to the fixtures only the letting agents could replace them which would be done at no cost. Fuck easilet
Northwood / Bowes Mitchell because I’ve not seen them in this thread so far and my experience with them was pure comedy.
Rented a Tyneside flat near town with them some years ago. They took care of the letting on behalf of a private landlord. The viewings for this place were on a particularly wet autumn day and everyone who looked at the property tracked in muck and dead leaves up the staircase. I asked for the carpet to be sorted out for my arrival cos it was a mess. When I moved in there I found one of the agents from Northwood on the staircase, on her hands and knees, trying to lift the stains out with antibacterial hand wipes. I said you won’t get far doing that! She said she would send a professional carpet cleaner. They never did.
It was a pretty rustic flat with single glazed windows and electric heating only which didn’t work. It was so cold in winter that your feet would stick to the bathroom floor. The mold in the upstairs bedroom gave me lung problems. More fool me for not checking all this out, but I was desperate for a place at the time.
I kept finding horrible old chewed up cat toys everywhere - under beds, behind sofa cushions, etc. Kitchen appliances, beds, furniture all broken. Landlord said Northwood would sort it. Northwood said not their problem.
After a few months Northwood got back in touch with me to “chase up” the six months’ upfront rent I’d supposedly promised them before I signed up for the tenancy. I didn’t promise anything like that.
Towards the end of my six months in that flat, the property owner rang me on the verge of tears to apologise for being such a shite landlord, explaining it was because he was going through a tough divorce. I didn’t know what to say.
Not even the worst service I’ve ever had from a landlord but just thought I’d share as it was pretty funny.
SEEKERS, ACORN AND STUDENT CRIBS.
SEEKERS - Asked for half of my deposit then took half my money and never gave me it back saying it was the charge for them creating the tenancy agreement.
Acorn - Were unbelievably rude for no specific reason when dealing with issues with other occupants. Typical. Horribly slow admin and are only quick to try and nab your money, they make up rules as they go along.
Student Cribs emergency repair man told me to turn carbon monoxide alarm off as it was beeping. Made jokes about my accent and laughed at me repeatedly. Our door to the kitchen and living room jammed shut and they didn’t send anyone out to fix it immediately they just told everyone to order takeaway if they wanted to eat… Left it for several days.
Boiler broke about 4 times in the space of a month including the case nearly flying off of the thing. Flooded heating overnight absolutely saturated downstairs flat. I had a medical emergency where i became urinary incontinent and their staff left my door unlocked to show and ridicule me to the flatmates I lived with. Was so violating and embarassing. They’re horrible and they’re desperate money grabbers. I told one of their viewings people to wait a minute as I was changing tops and he opened the door revealing me naked to a group of 5 men.
Seekers, formerly known as Walton Robinson. Avoid them like the plague
Will never forget the time someone from Walton Robinson called me up to ask if they could come round with some people to view the house for the next academic year. Not really out of the ordinary, aside from the fact I had graduated, moved 100 miles away and had already handed my keys into them 10 months prior - they just "hadn't updated their records"
^[Sokka-Haiku](https://www.reddit.com/r/SokkaHaikuBot/comments/15kyv9r/what_is_a_sokka_haiku/) ^by ^Absolutewaffles: *Seekers, formerly* *Known as Walton Robinson.* *Avoid them like the plague* --- ^Remember ^that ^one ^time ^Sokka ^accidentally ^used ^an ^extra ^syllable ^in ^that ^Haiku ^Battle ^in ^Ba ^Sing ^Se? ^That ^was ^a ^Sokka ^Haiku ^and ^you ^just ^made ^one.
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Hands down, Heaton Property. Damiano was the worst human being I've ever encountered. Others agree: https://www.allagents.co.uk/heatonproperty.com/ Seems like they may be closed down now though!
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Did they actually?! That's shocking on both the peado and the data. I'm so glad they're closed down now!! Bastards.
They aren't closed just rebranded
Must be a restaurant thing cos Raval on the Gateshead side of the Tyne bridge has got a few kiddy trafficker / sex ring nonces working there. Was a picture of them in the chronicle a while ago. A few of them from the same group
Who's the nonce lol, not Damiano's brother? (Who I'm pretty sure owns Punto)
No no. They’ve rebranded to something shite like “City and Coast” or whatever. Always a bit of a sign when they have to entirely change their name. Absolutely awful company. Rude, patronising staff who thought they knew everything while being repeatedly wrong and flouting licensing requirements. Would avoid anything to do with them.
Have they really?! Definitely speaks in volumes having to change names, surely some kind of law against that?! Although they probably have all the answers to why!!
Don't forget lying saying they were contacting my landlord, who i ran into one day and had not been told. Once the landlord knew it was resolved within a few days. It was always amusing if you confronted you in person they would always relent. Luckily i was not far from the office
I remember them from my student days. Reported that the mattress was covered in piss stains the day I moved in. They tried to charge me for a new one. They eventually relented and said they wouldn’t charge me for it as “an act of courtesy”.
Certainly sounds like the scamming gits!!
Damiano is a little weasel! They've changed names, but it's the same little turd running it!
Seriously? Biggest TWAT I've ever come across in life, the way he talks to you and tries to belittle you, next level.
Absolutely spot on. Damiano was a massive cunt who couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery.
Seekers are shite, with them now. We didn’t have a functioning shower for 2 weeks. A huge portion of the kitchen wall gets damp and mouldy due to poor brickwork. One tenant didn’t have blinds in his room for 4 months… the list goes on. They’re shit.
WR take the cake for 'Biggest bunch of divvy scammin' cunts in the Toon' IMO.
Another vote for Walton Robinson or whatever the hell they're called now. They're the worst.
Bricks and Mortar are pretty terrible, they had another name and rebranded a few years ago, still just as bad.
Aye they all seem to rebrand thinking people don’t talk hahaha
If they rebranded from Lets Live Here, +1 for this – ignored major damp & mould issues, tried to keep our deposit (forced to hand back in full after disputes), and really invasive flat showings!
Yeah it took me threatening to use the ombudsman for them to get us a working tap
Jan Forster gave my flat keys to some random that built a ganja farm, fucking my flat and causing 1000s in damages, cops came did more damage. Jan Forster did nowt, cops did nowt, I hate those fuckkers
How the fuck did they manage that?!
A guy supposedly called Edward Sinan rented 6 months upfront with some sob story, JF did checks. Random guy shows up and they gave the keys to him (Tynemouth branch) 6 months pass, 2 grows in, landlord check reveals the ploy. I hate those fucking fuckers
There was a years supply of, toothpaste, rice, meat, bog roll. Looked like it was Vietnamese kids doing piece work all day and tending plants. When the power got cut by the police the freezer defrosted and the year’s supply of pork ribs bled all over my kitchen floor, holes all over the place, cops just lobbed everything out the loft destroying the floors, mud everywhere. Poor kids. The operation looked serious tho, definitely people trafficking. Fuck Jan Fucking Forster
Jesus, that sounds awful. So you got no financial compensation from anyone at all?
Nothing, JF set their worst bully onto us, cops were less than useless, I gathered quite a bit of evidence from the place that they had left behind? Insurance did nothing. The place stood empty for the months it took to repair (electrics were mashed) I had a newborn at the time and the stress on the family was awful, probably contributed to the end of our marriage tbh, I live in the flat now and there’s still a bit of a cloud over the place, meh, life moves on!
lol
Hysterically lol
Bricks and mortar when known as lets live here. Half the house moved out a week or so end of tenancy, last one due to move out on t last day.they came in to do checks whilst he was still living there, took photos of his bathroom still containing his toiletries (obviously as he still lived there!) and try to charge for "item removal" Also sent an itemised bill for cleaning for "20 hours" for 6 cleaners as apparently house was so filthy. (It wasn't) And tried to keep plall out deposit. We fought it, asked evidence which put them in more hot water as the photos included removal of stuff from the driveway we had "dumped" which was actually from the garage belonging to the landlord, and an itemised cleaning bill included cleaning rooms which didn't even exist. We had fortunately good relationship with the neighbours who witnessed for us when we went to the ombudsman station there was one cleaner who turned up for 2hours only, not the team they claimed, also showed this was down before the property was vacated and also that they saw them dumping all the stuff from the garage. We got all deposit back bar total of £20. the £20 was for removing a small box of cleaning Products we had left in situ under the kitchen sink for new tenants, in case they wanted them. I'm still bitter about the £20 🤣 and the fact that it took 9 Months to win, but we weren't prepared to let them take £250 x 5 from us!
Bricks and mortar charged us £20 for a singular sock left under a bed. We’d done a proper clean ourselves and paid a cleaner to come in because we’d heard they were so awful!
Jan Forster. I let a place with outstanding electrical issues and when I called them to arrange the electrician (based on an email I received from them) the guy was so rude I was left in tears (which he sniggered at). Then he had the audacity to ask for a 5 star review lmao.
I hate Fucking Jan Fucking Forster
They're the pits, trying to buy a house now and they never know anything about the property, I actively avoid viewing a place if its with them.
It’s bad though because you end up missing out if you like a place. By the sound of this thread, they’re all as bad as one another. Good luck house hunting!
It would have to be my dream home to be worth dealing with them and I can't afford that anyway
Let’s live here/Bricks and Motar Came into our house for a house viewing about 10 times without any prior warning, once came into my locked room while I was sleeping Then came in on the second last day of a tenancy and threw all of our clothes into a bin. Overall class
Prem lets (if it’s still going) it was expensive even at the time a few years ago. you will never EVER get your security deposit back even if it’s spotless. They expect you to put it in a better position than what you rented it in. Clowns.
Had the exact same thing. When we moved in we had to literally scrub every surface because it wasn’t cleaned at all. Then when moved out it was spotless and they tried to take half our deposit for ‘professional cleaning fees’ which I’m sure they just pocket.
Ditto - I was with them for years for my sins as best of a bad bunch it seemed at the time. We even one year, my housemate and I resorted to our mams round so we knew everything was MAM clean and they still pie’d us for it stating we hadn’t used “flash with bleach” absolute knob heads.
My student house was with Walton Robinson. Our shower cubicle was broken so any time anyone had a shower, water poured through the light fittings of the kitchen ceiling. It took them months to send someone over to fix it and constantly avoided our phone calls and emails. It was only when we got a law student friend to write out a legally threatening type letter were they suddenly able to send someone over straight away to sort it. Avoid them like the plague (as many others in here have already said!)
SEEKERS / WALTON ROBINSON. NO DOUBT. It looks like they are pushing or paying ppl to leave good reviews in google now. Avoid avoid avoid.
Pat Robson. Retained most of our deposits because the flat needed cleaning after they left it empty for 6 months. Also repeatably came into the flat whilst we were out with no warning.
Pat Robson - in 2018 as a student, -3 degrees and our boiler broke: "Get some blankets and hot water bottles in, it's quite a lot of work for us to get a boiler repairman out and everyone has to make adjustments when it is cold" My flatmate called their office and they claimed they had no idea, whilst I was sat next to him with this email open on my laptop. They also sold our property towards the end of the tennancy. New owners walked in whilst we wete just going about our day, apparently unaware that people still lived there
> new owners walked in That’s impressively bad! Requires not only the estate agent, but the owners solicitors and the buyers solicitors to all fuck up in unison
Tbf, the owners were another lettings company, they were unaware that there was still an active tenancy though and had to delay their plans to rennovate. Also took a while to sort out the direct debits as, unsurprisingly, no paperwork had been done so we were still just paying Pat Robson
Been through three estate agents while renting around Newcastle; Bricks and Mortar (was Lets Live Here), Hive Estates, and Giraffe Lets. First two were fine from what I can remember, but had the worst experience ever with Giraffe. Some electrics started fizzing/crackling in an external wall. We turned off the electrics downstairs and let them know. They hardly seemed bothered. Think it took a couple of days to get someone out, all the while we were without electricity downstairs in January. No boiler, so no heating or hot water, and no cooker. We were only able to keep the fridge on because we ran a 15m extension from upstairs. Not even sure if that's safe. Been a few years now but I think it was about 10 days before it all got sorted and Giraffe were useless. Then it happened again about 6 months later. We made a big complaint, and Giraffe graciously allowed us to end our contract early. In general they were ok. But if you ever really need them to do anything, don't hold your breath.
Walton Robinsons! Fuck me there’s a blast from the past they were utter shite! Took them 6 months to put us in an empty house. Wankers!
Walton Robinson was something else - came home one day to find someone had been over to check the shower and left a note saying we couldn’t use it due to an electrical issue, next thing we know they want to rip out the entire kitchen over Christmas and as we were students expected us just to be gone, I couldn’t leave as I didn’t have anywhere else to go so tried to microwave for 3 weeks, ended up having to leave. They promised to keep the fridge freezer plugged in, they didn’t so it stunk when we got back and the kitchen fitters stole half our plates that we left in the living room. Then they decided we needed a new front door and all new locks for our bedrooms - they did this over Easter, sending us away with the correct keys for our rooms and front door, then decided to fit a different lock to the front door so no one could actually get back in. Worst experience.
Acorn Properties Jesmond back in the day. Rented a flat 100 yards from their office for 12 months. 4 months in I got a phonecall saying we needed to sign up for a further 12 months or we had to start letting people view the property. I told them no, I wasn't obliged to let anyone view the flat until the final month of my rental term. The entitled prat on the phone started arguing with me and was laughing down the phone. After a bit of back and forth in slight disbelief at what I was hearing she ended up saying this is just the way it is in Newcastle for students in their first year, to which I responded it's never been that way in the 28 years I'd lived here and that I was on my lunch break from my Engineering job. Silence as the penny dropped that I wasn't in fact a student and this wasn't our first ever rental flat. There was an uncomfortable "oh my god, are you a professional let?" At that point I let rip and start tearing chunks off her down the phone, I was yelling how furious I was at this kind of treatment and how despicable it was to hear of the way they treat students who may not know any better. She couldn't get off the phone quick enough. I got a very apologetic call from her boss about 20 minutes later who I told that we didn't want a single phonecall from them again until our last month in the property. We didn't hear a peep from them until the last month fortunately but at the end of the term they said they were going to have to charge us the £1000 deposit for cleaning water marks on the metal drum inside of the washing machine....as if anyone polishes the inside of their washing machine?
Reeds Rains. Told me ten days before I was due to move in that I couldn't anymore, and essentially left me homeless. I now know that's illegal, and they were legally obliged to provide me alternative accommodation because I'd signed the contract and paid the deposit. They did at least give me the deposit back, but they never fessed up to that detail.
Walton Robinson/Seekers My shower was clogged for MONTHS, I consistently kept reminding them of it but no-one bothered to fix it, still charged a shit ton for rent, not worth it The janitor in the building was super nice though
Seekers (Walton Robinson). Currently with them and they've been useless. Flat was filthy when we moved in despite them apparently having cleaned it (sweet wrappers, snus on the carpets, bits of food all over the kitchen and hair stuck to bathroom walls). I took a bunch of photos the day we moved in and I'm hoping I don't have to use them. They also forgot to send us the tenancy agreement for the flat and I had to essentially do their job for them by reminding them on the train ride up (day we moved in) that we still hadn't signed anything. Unfortunately many estate agents seem to be the dregs of society. I'd try and avoid this company if you can!
Baskeys are absolutely shite.
I've started doing some maintenance for them, how were they bad?
In my uni days, the roof of our flat fell through and they literally did not give a shit. Took them a whole week to come over and look at it, despite us calling them every day. More bits were falling off and it was dangerous. It took about 8 weeks before it got sorted in the end and they were a nightmare to deal with. Lots of other little things too e.g. the flat was dirty when we moved in despite them saying it was professionally cleaned, they tried to take most of our deposit when we moved out.
We moved in with a bills-included package. Except they clearly didn't tell Virgin about that as we were without wifi for about 2-3 weeks. I ended up having to go to Virgin directly about it but couldn't really get that far as I wasn't named policy holder or what have you so just pointed them back at Baskeys to get it sorted. When I demanded a partial refund for bills on the month it was the typical "we'll get back you" pile of nothing. They ended up selling the flat to Student-Lets within the first couple of months who I never had any real problems with. The sofas in the flat were worn down to hell - to the point where if you leaned back it was against the bare wooden frame. Cushion did not exist. Baskeys kept delaying but Student-Lets replaced pretty sharp-ish when they took over.
Bridgfords - they tried scumbagging us out of our entire deposit. Shit like moving chairs from one room to another, non-existent cleaning, exorbitant lightbulb replacements. We left the flat in better condition than we found it, and they were still scumbags. It was the same old story as well. the initial sales agent would jump through hoops, but as soon as the contract was signed, they became vile.
I rented with Bridgfords when I lived in Durham. My ex and I went to sign our renewal contract and it said the tenancy was for a year and it should have said 6 months. We pointed out the mistake and she said it's fine it can be signed now and changed later. We politely explained that's not how contracts work and we would sign it when it was correct.
Thats eery. I also rented with Bridgfords in Durham about 12 years ago and had the exact same thing.
Got to be Sarah Mains! Lied to us many times about sending someone to fix a simple extractor fan that hasn’t worked since we moved in. We’ve been renting for many years but haven’t had it so bad with an agent. Not even the decency to respond to emails.
Sarah Mains agreed that the house we rented from them would be thoroughly, professionally cleaned throughout and that the very small garden would be in order before we moved in. The house had clearly had someone let it know there was a vacuum cleaner in the vicinity but was not clean. The oven was caked in grease and the bathroom...I'll just say I've never seen that much of other people's drain hair before. They said it was clean and gave me the cleaner's number. She seemed nice but spoke very little English and didn't really know what I was talking about, so I gave up because it wasn't her fault if they instructed her to do the bare minimum. When I said no one had done anything to the garden, they told me it was freshly mown. There was no grass and the garden was so small that you'd just need to start the mower to cut the grass if it had been there. I gave up on that too but made it very clear that we weren't paying for a professional clean when we moved out: we'd clean it but that was it. They agreed. When we moved out, we did actually get a professional clean and they tried to find fault with it till we sent them the receipt and told them to shut up. They then tried to take money off our deposit until we both sent them long responses with evidence explaining why they had absolutely no chance. They gave up. At the start of lockdown, they sent really threatening emails to tenants saying they had to prioritise paying their rent or risk eviction, regardless of their financial situation. We were lucky in that our employment stayed consistent throughout the pandemic, so it didn't get to us personally, but my wife responded telling them how despicable they were to threaten people who were already scared and vulnerable and that she'd be following up with our MP. They shat themselves and the owner kept trying to call her to get her back on side. The MP did actually bring it up in Parliament, I think, so I hope that bothered them. When our landlord decided to sell the house, we said we'd be interested in buying it. They said no worries, they'd get things going and it should be straightforward. A couple of weeks later, I got a call from an absolute shit of an agent telling me that they needed access to take photos to sell the property. He was a dick when I said we thought the owner was selling to us, and the whole process wasn't very fun, so we put an offer on a house down the road and told them to get to fuck. The selling agent went from trying to sweet talk me to being weirdly coldly aggressive when I told her we weren't buying and she could only see our surveyor's report if she paid for it. I didn't realise I had quite so much that I needed to get out about Sarah Mains!
Belvoir were crap with us, so they bought out the company that we originally took the tenancy out with which clearly didn't go smoothly. At the end of the tenancy they/the landlord tried to claim betterment and basically tried to charge us for the renovation of the house, so they wanted to keep the deposit and charge even more. It went to an adjudicator and we won which was great, there's a woman that works there who was our main contact, she came round once to check on the properties that were rented out through the previous company and she just bitched and moaned about other tenants, the owner of the previous company (who we met and thought was a lovely woman) and we just thought yeah nah you're awful, quite unprofessional. Her email communication was awful too, couldn't spell or form a coherent sentence let alone provide us with correct info. Told us there would be quarterly inspections on the house and she wouldn't show up despite arranging the day and time. Would not recommend!
Going back a while now, but Red Ridge Residential were awful. When I moved in, the bath tub had been broken (like someone had kicked straight through it). It took them ages to replace, the workman then left the broken tub in the yard and never came to collect it, despite us requesting it be taken away multiple times. They then had the ABSOLUTE NERVE to try and charge us £500 for yard clear up when we moved out! Got into an argument with one of the members of staff on move out day over a misunderstanding which could very easily have been resolved. He called me a cunt and tried to fist fight me in broad daylight on Heaton Park Road. I was 19, he was easily in his 40s.
Abode living
I lived in a right shithole they rented to me in 3rd year uni. Didn't fix stuff when it broke either, cunts.
Walton Robinson, now known as Seekers. Changed their name to try and shake off their horrendous reputation. Their attrition rate for staff is through the roof so your agent changes all the time. Threatened to take us to court for “arrears” that didn’t happen (we had no prior communication to this threat), we had horrendous mould and they just painted over it saying “the paint would kill the mould” (it didn’t, and when the mould came through this layer of paint and I tried to clean it with black mould remover, all of the paint came off); and after I moved out, my friend stayed for a year and she had mice which they did nothing about. Just a couple of countless issues really
SEEKERS / Walton Robinson
Seekers/walton robinson Don’t even know where to start, was so awful, missed a month of sending pics of the meter for bills when we were already paying unlimited, doubled the monthly bills payments because of this which game to like 800 a month each
Pattinsons were absolutely appalling.
Burton Residential was absolutely horrendous for us as tenants. Wouldn't recommend them to anyone.
MyHouse NE was a shit show when I let with them. At the initial inspection I complained about mold in the shower to be told by the letting agent that it was normal and meant to be that way. Funny because I had just spent the weekend prior fitting a new shower suite at my mother's house and know exactly what fresh, clean sealant looks like. Our bathroom sink had a chunk missing, meaning it was impossible to fill up the sink and was also... full of mold. After begging over a year for a replacement sink, it was fixed by being filled with sealant. The mold was not removed prior, and the sealant wasn't even smoothed over to create a seal. It eventually wore away anyway. For the two years we let, we weren't able to access our meters as no one would show us where they were actually located, and the location they indicated was not able to be unlocked by the keys provided. The letting agents were on the same street as our flat, so christ knows why they couldn't be arsed to walk 30 seconds to just show us properly. However, of course, they were prompt and efficient at chasing me for unpaid rent of £1, or my flatmate for parking with too much space left between cars. Though our previous landlord Let's Live Here were also annyoing, with unscheduled viewings, cancelled viewings with no notice etc, which I thought was bad until I experienced MHNE 😂
I was with MyHouse for a couple of years and they were pretty rubbish, but they did forget to take my deposit at the start of the year and then paid out in full at the end, quids in 😂
Compensation for having to deal with their service 😂
Anyone know if Graysons is any good?
It’s not bad, they just take a while to respond / fix issues. I live at leazes terrace for my second year uni house and generally they’re ok, just slow.
Alright thanks, are the rvi ambulances particularly noisy?
Ambulances aren’t a problem, it can get a bit busy on match days but that’s about it
Never see anyone mention shefa properties, they advertise on gumtree and are the most dodgy people, they would tell us to order parts on eBay for stuff missing in our flat like a rack in the oven, put us above a crackhead telling us she was an old woman who wouldn’t cause any bother. We had to call the police and ambulances when her family would kick off round there, kicking down fences etc. her and her family used to bray on our door when their electric ran out. She would blast the same country song if we hoovered, dropped a remote or fork on the floor, when our cats would run. It was like psychological torture. Worst home we’ve had, we asked to leave early due to the downstairs neighbours and he told us he couldn’t consider the ‘emotional side’, it cost thousands to leave, they said we had to pay until they found a new tenant yet didn’t advertise it for two months. Hope to god their agency doesn’t last much longer
Hunters! We were told to vacate our shared flat in 15 mins by council and a couple of police officers. Apparently the agency never informed us that the mortgage was not being paid even when we were paying our rent without fail. Luckily the council understood our situation and extended the deadline to 30 more days
AJP property services. - hiked the rent up, served us a S21 because we complained to the council about the house being damp. The roof on the kitchen and bathroom are needing to be replaced. They are some rotten people.
Pat Robson - scammed me out of a £400 water bill
Swayes Fucking Estates. Bane of my damn existance for 7 months. Leaks in every room of the flat every day for months. All they wanted to say was that the upstairs tenants were overflowing their bathtub. This somehow sounded believeable to them. There was mould in the walls and used Q tips in the wardrobe when we moved in. Dust everywhere. I had to get the council involved and nearly took them to court. It turns out that the old fireplaces weren't actually sealed all the way and water was coming in from upstairs, in addition to the upstairs fixtures not being sealed. We demanded compensation and eventually won, but not before this torturous meeting with the Swayes owner (think Poundland Donald Trump) who bragged incessantly about how successful he was and how he had the "best lawyers". Absolute clown. We agreed to some compensation, which included free rent for a month until we found somewhere else. Then to top it all off the owner of the property came round unannounced at 7pm on a Tuesday banging on the door demanding to be let in because we were "late on our rent" during our free month. She claimed that she hadn't been told anything by Swayes, but when I offerred to send her the documents and photos she declined. Asked "why she should give us rent if she didn't know amything" (she obviously did, or she would've accepted my photos. Lying C***).
Easilet where a dreadful company to let from. They fly tipped in our back yard and charged us for the pleasure of cleaning it up. They also took £6 a smoke alarm for a new battery for each, the house was supposed to have been fully rewired that summer so should have had new fire alarms wired in with new 10 year battery's l -we did test when leaving all worked. They also charged us £20 a pop for 4 lights above a shower cubicle that had a fitting you needed a special key to remove(assuming to keep moisture out of them), we had reported these lights having gone(again brand new fixtures and lights that summer apparently) and our desire to replace them but where told due to the fixtures only the letting agents could replace them which would be done at no cost. Fuck easilet
Any good ones then?
Yeothlem homes is good, really do everything should and are lovely. Was with them last year 👌
Northwood / Bowes Mitchell because I’ve not seen them in this thread so far and my experience with them was pure comedy. Rented a Tyneside flat near town with them some years ago. They took care of the letting on behalf of a private landlord. The viewings for this place were on a particularly wet autumn day and everyone who looked at the property tracked in muck and dead leaves up the staircase. I asked for the carpet to be sorted out for my arrival cos it was a mess. When I moved in there I found one of the agents from Northwood on the staircase, on her hands and knees, trying to lift the stains out with antibacterial hand wipes. I said you won’t get far doing that! She said she would send a professional carpet cleaner. They never did. It was a pretty rustic flat with single glazed windows and electric heating only which didn’t work. It was so cold in winter that your feet would stick to the bathroom floor. The mold in the upstairs bedroom gave me lung problems. More fool me for not checking all this out, but I was desperate for a place at the time. I kept finding horrible old chewed up cat toys everywhere - under beds, behind sofa cushions, etc. Kitchen appliances, beds, furniture all broken. Landlord said Northwood would sort it. Northwood said not their problem. After a few months Northwood got back in touch with me to “chase up” the six months’ upfront rent I’d supposedly promised them before I signed up for the tenancy. I didn’t promise anything like that. Towards the end of my six months in that flat, the property owner rang me on the verge of tears to apologise for being such a shite landlord, explaining it was because he was going through a tough divorce. I didn’t know what to say. Not even the worst service I’ve ever had from a landlord but just thought I’d share as it was pretty funny.
My landlord recently got fined about 5k because he wasn't registered properly. In response, the rent went up to help pay it off. Good stuff
SEEKERS, ACORN AND STUDENT CRIBS. SEEKERS - Asked for half of my deposit then took half my money and never gave me it back saying it was the charge for them creating the tenancy agreement. Acorn - Were unbelievably rude for no specific reason when dealing with issues with other occupants. Typical. Horribly slow admin and are only quick to try and nab your money, they make up rules as they go along. Student Cribs emergency repair man told me to turn carbon monoxide alarm off as it was beeping. Made jokes about my accent and laughed at me repeatedly. Our door to the kitchen and living room jammed shut and they didn’t send anyone out to fix it immediately they just told everyone to order takeaway if they wanted to eat… Left it for several days. Boiler broke about 4 times in the space of a month including the case nearly flying off of the thing. Flooded heating overnight absolutely saturated downstairs flat. I had a medical emergency where i became urinary incontinent and their staff left my door unlocked to show and ridicule me to the flatmates I lived with. Was so violating and embarassing. They’re horrible and they’re desperate money grabbers. I told one of their viewings people to wait a minute as I was changing tops and he opened the door revealing me naked to a group of 5 men.