Enfields reviews in Bournemouth, Southampton, Bitterne and 6 more

Mr Sathe, Due to an issue with GooglePlus we must apologise for the delay in our reply but wish to thank you for taking the time to write a review. We can confirm that we lodged your deposit with a government scheme (DPS) prior to you moving into the property thus ensuring that you would be treated fairly. It is common for tenants and landlords not see eye to eye on how the deposit should be handled at the end of the tenancy which is why these schemes are used. In this instance the main issue seemed to be a broken front door lock which you had reported on a Saturday afternoon. The landlord contacted an approved contractor who advised that they could attend to this maintenance issue early the next morning. As the front door could be shut and you had confirmed that you had no plans on leaving the property that evening the landlord went ahead and arranged this repair and you were updated accordingly. Despite knowing this information you took the decision to arrange for your own locksmith a few hours later without the landlords permission at a much greater expense. You then held this money back from your next rent payment without prior permission. The landlord highlighted that the tenancy agreement states “The tenant must not carry out or authorise repairs himself” while you took the stance that the door lock should have been repaired immediately. As both parties were unable to agree on this issue the landlord was happy to leave it to the DPS to review the evidence and decide if they would be eligible to receive the difference in the cost of their contractor to the one you had organised. On this occasion the DPS took the decision that the landlord should cover the full cost of the repair thus bringing this dispute to a final resolution. It is regretful that you are unhappy with how this was dealt with but the DPS by their own admission on their website confirm that tens of thousands of deposits across the country are settled this way. Kindest Regards

Hi Jane, Firstly due to an issue with GooglePlus we have been unable to reply to your review before now but wish to thank you for sharing your experience. We were concerned to read about the difficulty you had with your landlord. It is worth pointing out that a large selection of landlords instruct us to locate tenants on a 'Tenant Find' basis only where our responsibilities are restricted to organising all initial paperwork prior to you moving in. The landlord will then deal with all aspects of the management of your house which may include their own property inspections. We would very much like to have an opportunity to speak with you further about this and would be grateful if you could contact us directly on sales-winton@enfields.co.uk so that we can establish which landlord you were dealing with. We are equally concerned with your observations about viewings that we have conducted during your tenancy. Whilst we always notify tenants of any viewings please accept our sincere apologies that you experienced these issues. We have since addressed this problem by introducing an automated email to tenants when arranging appointments. In the meantime thank you for choosing Enfields to find your accommodation and we hope to have the opportunity to help you again in the future. Kind Regards

Hi Amanda, Thank you for posting this lovely review. We have already shared your comments with the lettings management team! We are delighted that the Enfields team went above and beyond to exceed your expectations, and we hope that we can be of assistance to you in the future.

Hi James, Thank you very much for taking the time to write your review. We value all feedback but on this occasion we were disappointed with the comments made as they are inaccurate. You had originally arranged to view this property in the middle of January which is well known as the busiest month of the year with thousands of students all searching for the best houses. The property you reserved is an extremely popular detached house with four double bedrooms, two bathrooms, three toilets, large lounge/dining room and parking for three vehicles. It is also situated within a short walk of the University and the marketing price was extremely reasonable at £75 per week. Each year it regularly gets reserved in the first couple of viewings so it is unreasonable to suggest that this type of house received no interest from other students during the busiest period of the year. Most viewings we arrange are usually confirmed with the current tenants 24 hours prior as the order of houses we show change frequently given the volume of properties that are reserved daily therefore I would not have expected the current tenants to be aware of exactly what viewings we had arranged. Not surprisingly you decided to reserve the house and it is worth mentioning that three of your house mates renewed for a second year after you left. In relation to your deposit return I can confirm that this is completely untrue. As you are aware we had securely lodged your deposit with a government scheme (DPS) and at the end of your tenancy three of your housemates all renewed for another year. In order to retrieve your share of your deposit the remaining tenants were required to sign an addendum which was sent by our office via an online signature website within 24 hours of you moving out. Unfortunately not all of the tenants signed this document. After we chased the remaining tenants on your behalf eventually the last person came into our office to sign the addendum over two months after the original request was sent. Despite this being done the DPS have confirmed that you failed to contact them to request your deposit back and supply them with your bank details. The DPS confirm that you eventually got in contact with them on the 07/01/15 when they subsequently sent our office an email asking for confirmation of the amount to be returned. We replied to this email on the same day and the payment was sent to you on the 09/01/15. Both our office and the DPS have records to prove all of the above. Your deposit was returned to you after four months, not the nine months you claim in your review and any delays were not caused by Enfields. I would also like to point out that we did not manage your property throughout your tenancy. Your landlord instructed us on a ‘tenant find’ basis only where we were only asked to initially locate tenants and complete the paperwork prior to you moving in. I hope this clears up any misunderstanding and if you have any queries relating to the above please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Miss Raymond, Firstly due to an issue with GooglePlus we wish to apologise for the delay in our reply but want to thank you for giving us the opportunity to review your feedback. We are obviously disappointed to read your comments and this is certainly not the experience we want to provide but we were surprised that you felt that we offered no help and advice. In your case you rented a student house on the 14/01/15. At this time you were comprehensively explained the process when renting a property and signed a form confirming that you had read and understood the terms and conditions. This form not only confirmed the process but also outlined due dates for forthcoming payments and helpful information of things you may wish to know if you have not rented a property before (copy can be provided on request). Shortly after this we emailed you requesting that you read through an attached tenancy agreement which acts as a contract between you and your landlord outlining the legal terms and conditions of your tenancy. At the same time we sent you information relating to you deposit which included how it was protected through a government scheme and specified tenancy related information. We requested you sign both documents confirming that you had read through them and understood the information that had been given. Following this we had to send you two follow up emails on the 02/07/15 and 08/08/15 chasing payment for your first month’s rent in advance as well as missing information. At the time as this payment was over a month late you ran the risk of the property being remarketed but we allowed you more time to arrange this payment which makes your feedback even more disappointing. You had also failed to read through and sign the documentation relating to your deposit which also had to be chased. After reviewing your emails we note that you emailed our office on the 28/08/15 at 22:00 highlighting that we had not responded to a previous email. We sincerely apologise for this and responded to you at 08:30 the next morning confirming the same before supplying you with the information you requested. In relation to our response time we are aware during the summer months when we are dealing many students moving in and out of their houses the time in which it takes us to respond to enquiries can increase and we wish to assure you that we are working on improving this. Overall your remarks are appreciated as they will help us to improve our service. Kindest Regards

Finlay, I was very sorry to read your review. I was happy to note that we were successful in dealing with any maintenance issues during your tenancy but your reference to the lack of communication concerned me greatly. We care passionately about our clients and the opinion you shared of your experience is certainly not what we strive to achieve every day. I can only hope that you can accept my apologies for the difficulties you had. I have now looked into the other problems you encountered and understand that you rented a shared house with five other tenants on a joint and several tenancy agreement which ended on the 23rd July 2016 which is the date your landlord would be taking back possession of the property. I must stress that it is the responsibility of the tenants to make sure all of their personal items are removed from the property before this date. On this occasion we were sorry to learn that you had forgotten your notebook under your mattress and a member of our team went out of their way to visit the property out of working hours in an attempt to retrieve it on your behalf. Unfortunately your landlord had already organised for the property to be cleared quickly as there had been a considerable amount of rubbish left both inside and outside of the house that you had left behind for them to deal with (please refer to your check out report for photos). Although we completely understand how frustrating it must have been to lose a personal possession on this occasion it is unreasonable to expect Enfields to reimburse you the cost of this book. In relation to your deposit I would remind you that your tenancy was a joint agreement so the deposit for the property was regarded as one deposit, even if it is made up of individual payments from tenants. In this instance you were the lead tenant giving you the power to start any dispute process if you disagreed with how the landlord had returned the deposit at the end of the tenancy. As you are aware we received a number of calls from other tenants/guarantors on your joint agreement confirming that relationships had broken down within your group following the end of your tenancy. Although it is not our responsibility to act as an intermediary between tenants given the circumstances we did help you by passing on feedback from other members of your group on how they wished for deposit return to be split. When passing this information there was no need for us to stand our ground and it would be your responsibility to keep the other housemates informed as lead tenant. We received an email from you on the 24th August which thanked Enfields for our efforts in helping you sort out the issues you were having and confirming that you were happy with the amount the landlord had offered for you deposit return enabling this money to be paid back to you. As you were the lead tenant it is your responsibility to ensure that all other tenants receive their fair share of the deposit money once agreed but we understand that other tenants were not happy with what you agreed and have threatened to take legal action against you in the Smalls Claims Court. We do get it wrong sometimes but on this occasion I am bitterly disappointed that our attempts to help you have led to you to feel the way you do. As you know I have already reached out to you but I did not want to miss the opportunity to further explain the events on this forum. I sincerely hope that we can be of assistance to you again. Best Wishes

Mr Gifford, Thank you for sharing your feedback. We have taken into consideration your remarks and feel it is important to highlight exactly what happened. On the 3rd March 2015 you reserved a student house with a group of friends and were required to pay a non-refundable administration fee. At this time you were comprehensively explained the process when renting a property and signed a form confirming that you had read and understood the terms and conditions (copies can be provided on request). Following the reservation of this particular house, despite attempts to contact you and other members of the group, we received very little in the way of communication. An email was sent to you on the 25th April 2015 outlining the difficulties we were having and we updated you what we required in order to complete the administration work. Shortly after this your guarantor refused to provide information requested by an independent referencing company in order to pass the employment section of their references. Our records indicate that you pulled out of the let in May 2015. At this time we referred you back to your signed administration form where it clearly states in the first paragraph "If you or any of the prospective tenants should withdraw from the proposed let for any reason then the payment will not be refunded. If you or any of the prospective tenants/guarantors fail the referencing procedure of if inadequate references are received then the payment will not be refunded." In this instance the landlord/enfields allowed the remaining members of the group to find a suitable replacement rather than re market the house. On the 27th May we were contacted by this person who was required to pay their own administration fee as outlined in the initial terms and conditions. Overall we regret you felt this way but hope we have managed to overcome your concerns. Kindest Regards

Hi Pamela, Thank you for posting a glowing review of your experience with Enfields. We have shared this with the team who all wish to thank you for your continued support. We can't wait to help you again.

Dear Ravinder, Thank you so much for sharing this wonderful review on Google following your experiences with us. I am extremely proud of the reliable and professional team that I have here at Enfields Bournemouth and I am truly pleased to hear that they took the very best care of you; especially Michael who gives good advice and makes you feel so welcome with us. I appreciate your review and look forward to working with you in the future.

Hi Rania, Thank you for making the effort to write this review and we loved reading your comments! It certainly sounds like Rhys went above and beyond to exceed your expectations, and we will certainly pass on your kind compliments to him directly. We very much hope that you enjoy your new property and have the pleasure of helping you again in the future.

Dear Dana, Thank you for taking the time to leave such a kind review! We hope the remaining half of the process went just as smoothly - and your kind words have been passed to our team members here at Enfields. We hope we can help you again in the future if you should need it! Kind Regards,

Mr Akin, Thank you so much for coming back to us year after year! We're delighted to hear about your experience and that you feel our service is excellent value for money. We hope that we can continue to help you and your family. Thank you and best regards,