Purple Frog Property estate agents in Birmingham, Bristol and Nottingham

Dear Maria Sorry to hear that you've had problems with your deposit return. Looking at the time frame, I can see that the council didn't send us your council tax information until 14/08/2018. We do say that we don't release deposit statements until we have confirmation that all council tax is up-to-date. Students are normally exempt, but we still need to check that the council are happy that there's no tax owed. We do this because councils are very happy to send bailiffs to properties, even for the smallest sum. Obviously, by the time the bailiff arrives, there are new tenants, who get the shock of their life. For your tenancy, we've asked the council directly for the information. Unfortunately, the council took far too long to reply. I understand how frustrating it is, having to wait for a third party so you can get your deposit back. I am very sorry that you've had to wait for this. Once we have the information, we say it can take up to five days to send the statement. In this case, we've not sent the statement in that time. This is totally our error. I'm sorry that you've had to resort to posting on a public forum to get your statement sent. I have spoken to the deposits team about your case and they will send your statement to you today. Again, I'd like to apologise for this delay. Please would you email me to confirm when you receive your statement? My email address is james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com. I look forward to hearing from you. James Mason james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com

Dear Elizabeth Sorry to hear that you're not happy with your experience with Purple Frog. Looking at the maintenance reports, I can see that pest control was sent within three days of us receiving your initial report. Unfortunately, you had to send another report three weeks later. When you did this, we sent another contractor out to deal with the issue again. Pests like rodents can be persistent. They are also happy to set up home in any house. Both times we received reports we sent someone to attend to the problem. That you didn't have to report the issue again suggests that the two visits were sufficient to solve this. While paying rent that includes bills is a simple way to manage payments, it is based on fair usage. This will have been explained in the contract. If tenants go beyond the fair usage allocation, it is only right that they have to pay for what they used over this amount. When you queried this, we did explain that all of the tenants are paying equal amounts for the excess utilities. The other two tenants are not part of your tenancy agreement. That means that, other than explaining that all tenants have been charged, we can't discuss their contracts with you. Sorting out the council tax exemption is the tenants' responsibility. As the deposits team explained to you when you spoke to them, we cannot speak to the council on your behalf. This is because the council will not speak to us because of data protection. We advised you that you were doing the right thing and to speak to the council again. It would make our lives so much easier if we could influence the council, so we do understand your frustration. I am sorry that you think that we have not been truthful with you. We send information to all tenants at the start and before the end of their tenancies to make it clear what you need to do to ensure your deposit is returned quickly, with the minimum deductions. Please would you email me at james.mason@purplefrog property.com, so I can find out more information about why you feel you have been lied to? I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards James Mason

Dear Anisha Sorry to hear that you're not happy with us. Please could you drop me an email with more information about your experiences? My email address is james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com. I can't see a maintenance report for a used needle or for cleaning. If you find something hazardous, please let us know as we wouldn't expect you to dispose of it. Please could you send me some more information about the other maintenance issues you've experienced? The majority of maintenance reports all seem to have been closed off in good time. If we are missing reports, it will be useful to know. I have asked the lettings team to look into when you are sent notices of viewings. So far, I can see that your house has only had one booked. Is this the one you are referring to that no one showed up? Once I know more about the situation, hopefully we can start to put it right. Once again, please drop me an email at james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards James Mason

Hi Harvey Sorry to hear that you're not happy with our deposit return process. Having looked at your tenancy details, I can see that you haven't received your deposit statement yet. The inspection document lists possible charges, but isn't the final document - that's the statement. Once you have your statement, you will be able to dispute any charges that you think are unfounded. One of the deposits team will look at all of the evidence and any deductions that should not have been added will be removed. We want any deductions to be fair. If you don't think that our dispute resolution is correct, you are able to raise the dispute with the deposit protection scheme that holds your deposit for you. Sorry that the inspection clerks forgot to bring the inventory with them. It is normal practice to bring it along. Unfortunately, with lots of inspections to do, sometimes people accidentally forget things. We ask you to sign the inspection report to say that you were present during the inspection. I understand that you declined to sign the document, which is of course your right. I do feel it's worth mentioning again that the check out inspection isn't the final charges. The charges that we add are to cover the cost of hiring cleaners and maintenance people to attend a property. I am sorry to hear that you think the way Purple Frog organises its moving out process makes us 'evil'. We try to make the process as transparent as possible. This includes sending emails before your tenancy ends to make sure you report any maintenance, as well as an explanation of possible charges and a list of what cleaning will need to be done. We also give out free cleaning materials. Your statement should be with you within 28 days of the end of your tenancy, provided we receive your bills and council tax proofs. This will detail the actual charges that have been made. If you are still unhappy after receiving this document, there is also a clear explanation of the dispute process included with your statement. In the meantime, we publish lots of information about deposit returns on our website. There's some information here: https://www.purplefrogproperty.com/blog/make-deposits-fair/ I sincerely hope that, once you receive your deposit statement, we can sort out any incorrect charges that might have been added, as described above. Kind regards James Mason James.Mason@purplefrogproperty.com

Dear Liv Rudkin Sorry to hear that you are still waiting for your deposit to be returned. Looking at your tenancy, I can see that the gas and electricity proofs have not been ticked as received. If this is incorrect, please would you drop me an email at james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com so I can chase this up for you? In terms of the deposit returns process, we do explain this to you before the end of your tenancy. For instance, we emailed you on 13/06/2018 and again on 29/06/2018. We make it clear that we will only release your deposit statement once we know that there are £0 bills for the property. The reason that we do this is so that we know new tenants won't be visited by bailiffs or suffer unfair utility tariffs because of debts from previous tenants. This is incredibly stressful for the tenants, especially if they have a visit by a debt collector. If we have missed information that you've sent, I am sorry that this has happened. Please email me at james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com. Please note that I do not work in the deposit team so will not process your statement. I will, however, ensure that they have received any paperwork that you have sent and we've not recorded. Looking at the maintenance log for the property, I can see that the majority of your maintenance reports were dealt with quickly, in line with our published standards. I am sorry that it took longer than expected to replace the mattresses and microwave. I have flagged this with our maintenance team. Please confirm with me when the two outstanding bill proofs were sent and I will chase these up for you. Kind regards James Mason

Dear Naomi Sorry that you were unhappy with with the moving in information you received. I can see from the tenancy that Leah has personally emailed all of the tenants to apologise for the confusion. It appears the problem was caused because we changed the rent schedule to enable you all to pay quarterly, rather than monthly. While we can do this, we do still need tenants to pay their first rent instalment before they can collect their keys. This is stated in our contract and is common practice amongst all lettings agents. To make up for the confusion, we have made sure that all tenants at your property can pay a smaller amount now, in order to collect your keys. Again, apologies for the confusion, but I am happy to see Leah sorted it for you. Kind regards James Mason james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com

Dear Rizzan Sorry to hear you had problems with your viewing request. Please could you drop me a line at james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com with some more information about how you made your booking? I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards James Mason

Hi Jordan Sorry to hear that you're unhappy with our deposits returns process. Sorry that you find us patronising. We try to be straight forward but friendly. It's unfortunate to hear that we've come across in a way we didn't intend. We aim to return deposits within 28 days of the end of your tenancy. Your contract says that you also need to do somethings to ensure we can return your deposit within that time. One of these is to send proof that shows you have paid all of your utility bills for the tenancy. I realise that this is annoying. We do it for a good reason, though. Sometimes in the past, tenants have left without paying their bills. The next residents that moved the house had to deal with bailiffs coming to the property to demand money that was owed by people who were long gone. Not a pleasant experience. You received a reminder email on 29/06/2018, which detailed how to return your utility information to us and that not doing this would slow down your deposit return. I can see that some bills proofs were sent to us on Thursday 26/07/2018. Unfortunately, these were not sufficient to show that the bills had been cleared, so we asked for them to be resent with additional information. Once we have received your bill proof we aim to get your deposit statement to you with five working days, so you are not waiting round any longer than you need to. The majority of our tenancies ended on the same day as yours. To manage expectations of how long it might take us to reply to an email, we send an automatic response that says we could take five working days to respond. You're right, that is a while to wait. But, we are upfront about this and don't make any claims to having a faster response time. To try and keep our tenants informed of the process, we have published a blog about deposits: https://www.purplefrogproperty.com/blog/make-deposits-fair/. If you have any comments about how we can make the process easier for students, or where you feel we have got it wrong, please let me know. Finding out about people's experiences using our services is how we improve. Please drop me a line at james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards James Mason

Dear Oliver Sorry to hear your friend had issues with their tenancy. I appreciate that you are being protective of them by posting this. Who doesn't want to help a friend? However, I feel I should say that, as you don't have direct experience of using Purple Frog, your review is inappropriate. You are making serious claims about the business without having direct knowledge of the events you are discussing. As you aren't a tenant, you would not have been included in any of the discussions between Purple Frog and the tenants, around the issues you detail above. In terms of your assertion that we ask for money at every opportunity, our fees and charges are clearly published on our website: https://www.purplefrogproperty.com/contact-us/fees-charges/. We do not hide any charges and are upfront about costs from the very start. Tenants' deposits are protected by a third party and we make sure that tenants are fully aware of their responsibilities when moving out (for instance: https://www.purplefrogproperty.com/students/howtokeepyourdeposit/). This includes being transparent about possible deductions that they may incur. This gives them opportunities to sort these issues before the end of their tenancy, thereby avoid the deduction. While I don't doubt that your friend feels there were problems during the tenancy, you yourself aren't aware of the full facts. After all, you did not see the inventory that we provided at the beginning of the tenancy and you don't know how or why the boiler was mended. We are always happy to receive feedback from people who have had genuine experiences of using our services. If we have made mistakes, we are more than happy to speak to your friend and see what the issue is. To this end, I'd strongly urge that your friend contacts me directly at james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com, so I can find out about the actual issues they have had and see if anything can be done to set the issues right. In the meantime, as it stands, your review is a bit spurious, and I urge you to remove it as it is not based on a personal experience. I look forward to hearing from your friend. My email address is james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com and my direct dial is 0121 796 0041. Kind regards James Mason

Hi Harvey Sorry to hear that you're not happy with our deposit return process. Having looked at your tenancy details, I can see that you haven't received your deposit statement yet. The inspection document lists possible charges, but isn't the final document - that's the statement. Once you have your statement, you will be able to dispute any charges that you think are unfounded. One of the deposits team will look at all of the evidence and any deductions that should not have been added will be removed. We want any deductions to be fair. If you don't think that our dispute resolution is correct, you are able to raise the dispute with the deposit protection scheme that holds your deposit for you. Sorry that the inspection clerks forgot to bring the inventory with them. It is normal practice to bring it along. Unfortunately, with lots of inspections to do, sometimes people accidentally forget things. We ask you to sign the inspection report to say that you were present during the inspection. I understand that you declined to sign the document, which is of course your right. I do feel it's worth mentioning again that the check out inspection isn't the final charges. The charges that we add are to cover the cost of hiring cleaners and maintenance people to attend a property. I am sorry to hear that you think the way Purple Frog organises its moving out process makes us 'evil'. We try to make the process as transparent as possible. This includes sending emails before your tenancy ends to make sure you report any maintenance, as well as an explanation of possible charges and a list of what cleaning will need to be done. We also give out free cleaning materials. Your statement should be with you within 28 days of the end of your tenancy, provided we receive your bills and council tax proofs. This will detail the actual charges that have been made. If you are still unhappy after receiving this document, there is also a clear explanation of the dispute process included with your statement. In the meantime, we publish lots of information about deposit returns on our website. There's some information here: https://www.purplefrogproperty.com/blog/make-deposits-fair/ I sincerely hope that, once you receive your deposit statement, we can sort out any incorrect charges that might have been added, as described above. Kind regards James Mason James.Mason@purplefrogproperty.com

Dear Lawrence Sorry to hear that we only rate one star. Please could you drop me a line at james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com so I can find out what's wrong? Then we can start working on fixing what#s gone wrong. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards James

Dear James Sorry to hear that you're unhappy with us. I can't find you on our tenant database. Please could you drop me a line at james.mason@purplefrogproperty.com, so I can find out why we have only earned a 1-star review? Getting in touch will be the best way to sort this issue, as I don't know who you are or what's caused you to be disappointed in us. Kind regards James Mason

Hi Finn, Sorry we've disappointed you. We've had to cancel 4 times. Two definitely our fault. Others caused by a stranded lettings person and a car crash. We spoke to one of your group to explain. This message obviously hasn't got through, though. Kind regards James