Every review we hold for the London office, from every platform, shown as written. First names only.
★★★★★ 1/5
GoogleTook our holding deposit, dragged us through a long complicated reference process with many faults from their “external referencing” for them only to drop us at the end of the process while keeping some of our deposit money . Disrespect from the director all the way to the admin. Bunch of scammersNegativeProfessionalism, Value
Michelle · 25 August 2021
Agent replied · 11 June 2024
Dear Michelle,
Thank you for your review.
During the entire process with you and your group, we have conducted ourselves with nothing but transparency and professionalism, despite the difficulties we have received on the phone from yourselves and guarantors.
We deal with hundreds of students each year placing them successfully in their accommodation ready for their academic year and they all adhere to our referencing process with our external referencing agency.
All our applicants regardless if they are students or working professionals understand that we undertake a strict referencing process to which we have seamless co-operation from students and guarantors alike. In your case, we were met with a lot of challenges trying to obtain information that we gave you ample amount of time to submit and we were constantly chasing for the information to conclude the referencing process.
We have a duty of care to our landlords to ensure that all applicants (and guarantors) are financially viable in order to take up a tenancy in the property and that is why we have zero rent arrears.
In your particular case, during the referencing process, certain information came to light (which was not previously disclosed to us at the very start) in relation to individuals and your guarantors within the group. In light of this, we tried to work with you and offer alternative solutions to help get you placed on the tenancy. Every part of this process, we had always been in constant communication with you all.
At the same time, the landlord had to be informed of our recent findings in regards to the referencing process and put forward your case for him to consider, but ultimately that decision was for the landlord to make. The landlord having considered all the facts put forward, he decided to withdraw from the process.
We had immediately informed you of this decision by the landlord and sought to explain to you that as the referencing process was in the advance stages of referencing, we had incurred some costs and that deductions would be made to your deposit.
The Office Manager had tried to explain to you the outcome of the landlord’s response and why we would need to retain the deposit, but was met with accusations that we were being dishonest. We had already consulted with the Property Ombudsman to which they had advised it was at the discretion of the agent in regards to how much we could deduct as well as following the code of practice for Estate Agents.
When our Company Director made contact with yourselves, she was also met with the same level of hostility from your guarantor despite wanting to resolve this as fairly as possible.
We have emailed yourselves that we are going to refund you part of your deposit to which you were satisfied with.
We have also informed you of our complaints procedure and so far we have yet to receive this from yourselves.
We always conduct our services in the most professional manner and continually strive to provide the best service to both our landlords and tenants alike.
Chanin Estates Ltd
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleI cannot recommend Chanin Estates enough! My experience with them has been absolutely fantastic from start to finish. I had the pleasure of working primarily with Katie, who has been incredibly kind, responsive, and proactive throughout the … More
Aneta · 28 December 2024
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleI was relocating from Scotland to London and had a lot of struggles with flat viewings and liaising with agencies (they were the only agency who was willing to have a conversation) The team at Chanin Estates have been incredible in helping to do both virtual and in person viewings, explaining the application process and helping through the paperwork. They’ve made the process super smooth and easy!
Katy12345 · 12 June 2023
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleI have looked for so long and this amazing friendly helpful agent called Matt is the absolute best of the best. He has been super patient with me! Shout out to Chanin Estates!!!! 100% recommend!
Jason · 12 June 2021
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleYung Lakha was extremely helpful throughout the whole process of helping me move into a beautiful house. The whole team was very professional and created a smooth transition for me. I would highly recommend!
Nell · 12 June 2021
★★★★★ 1/5
Google0 stars in fact if I could. This agency is an absolute scam. I don’t even mind naming and shaming because they are incredibly disrespectful. After reading some of the reviews especially from students, I knew me and my friends weren’t going crazy.
If your a student save your money and your time! They drag you into a long referencing process and make you pay a holding fee just to keep it in the end! They even tried say they would put the property back on to the market when they still had our holding fee?? Tell me if I’m wrong but a holding fee is for the house to stay off the market no???
From Catherine, to Yung, to Sonny! Screaming on the phone, giving us attitude over email, arguing with us like kids. No form of professionalism whatsoever.NegativeQuality, Professionalism, Value
Joyce · 25 August 2021
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleMatthew has provided an exceptional service to me in searching for my first home. He is the best at his work and I have not met any estate agent like him who goes above and beyond to help you. He has not only shown me potential homes but also increased my knowledge on the housing market. He is a very knowledgebale and hardworking person. He has helped me realise what kind of property I wanted. He has amazing contacts, who answered all my questions on Help to Buy loans. And not to forget, he has great negotiation skills.
I did not purchase a property with Chanin Estates but still Matthew had a mojor role in my home purchase.PositiveResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism, Value
Sonali · 25 August 2021
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleI had a very good property purchasing experience with estate agent Matthew Storey from Chanin Estates. He was most helpful in offering advice and arranging flat viewings even during COVID lockdown restrictions. He was patient even when I arrived at the viewing late, and wanted to spend more time on checking the flat out. I was also impressed by how responsive he is on digital communication like email and WhatsApp, and he would always reply to our queries, even if it is just an acknowledgement. But the most important thing that makes him a very competent salesperson is his bargaining (negotiation skills) - he managed to help us make our case to the developers and secure a large discount on the flat's price! 10/10 will recommend! Keep it up!PositiveResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism
Joseph · 25 August 2021
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleMy partner and I recently decided to look at our options in terms of renting. We were not sure we wanted to move, but wanted to see what else was out there. We were contacted by Billy Chan and made an appointment to see some flats on that same day. He showed us several flats that met our criteria, and supported us through making an offer for one of them. We found the team to be very responsive, polite and professional. They were very helpful when we encountered a problem and have been very organised in managing all the paperwork that went into renting. Working with them has veen a very positive experience, much better than we agencies we had worked with in the past.PositiveResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism
N.J · 25 August 2021
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleKatie, Tabitha and the entire Chanin Estates team are top class. Quick to sort any query and very helpful. Would highly recommend, especially for first time renters!!
Sean · 14 April 2025
★★★★★ 1/5
Google0 stars in fact if I could. This agency is an absolute scam. I don’t even mind naming and shaming because they are incredibly disrespectful. After reading some of the reviews especially from students, I knew me and my friends weren’t going crazy.
If your a student save your money and your time! They drag you into a long referencing process and make you pay a holding fee just to keep it in the end! They even tried say they would put the property back on to the market when they still had our holding fee?? Tell me if I’m wrong but a holding fee is for the house to stay off the market no???
From Catherine, to Yung, to Sonny! Screaming on the phone, giving us attitude over email, arguing with us like kids. No form of professionalism whatsoever.NegativeQuality, Professionalism, Value
Jacira · 11 November 2020
★★★★★ 1/5
GoogleTerrible service. There was no customer inside and we were told to wait outside in a raining day to wait for our agent.
Edwin · 12 June 2022
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotBunch of scammers
One star is even giving them too much credit, dragged us through a very long process of referencing with a lot of faults on their end. They had the intention of dragging out everything just to keep our deposit. Very disrespectful and unprofessional staff from the director Catherine all the way down to their admin. A bunch of scammers who make things up along the way and target students particularly, only after mentioning involving lawyers they decided to give us half our deposit. Only to find out after they have done this to countless of people. I honestly wish they get shut down because in this economy they can’t get away with exploiting people out of their money like this
Milika · 19 September 2020
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleWe have been house hunting for six months and have met a fair number of estate agents. Mathew Storey from Chanin Estates, clearly stood out. He was sincere, genuine, responsive and more importantly we felt valued. He was very prompt with queries and kept checking in and giving helpful advice throughout the process to completion. It took some of the pain away from the process buying a property. Keep up the good work.PositiveResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism
Johnson · 25 August 2021
★★★★★ 1/5
GoogleDealing with this company was nothing short of a nightmare. Thus, when pondering upon what I should write for this review I found myself asking; where do I even start?
From the moment we signed on the dotted line for our property, Chanin Estates sought to take advantage of the fact we were students. It is my understanding that Estate Agencies are supposed to be neutral brokers between the tenant and the landlord. Indeed, Chanin themselves persistently claimed this was their position. Nonetheless, we found ourselves constantly faced with Chanin Estates colluding with an unscrupulous landlord to milk as much money out of us as was possible.
Suspiciously, Chanin began nakedly taking sides once we had declared that we would not be renewing our tenancy. Their agents would arrive with short notice at our property for so-called "cleaning inspections" and feed the information back to the landlord in order to exploit a loophole in our contract which allows them to charge us for not keeping the property in a "liveable" condition. Note that liveable means whatever they want it to mean. Of course, these claims were baseless and it was fortunate that we possessed the photographic evidence to dispute them.
Equally, Chanin were extremely hard to get hold of and often agents would never return calls. I can't even begin to count the times we went to them for help, due to unfair treatment from the landlord, only to be shunned.
All in all, this is an estate agency you should avoid like COVID-19.
Disclaimer: You should note that these events took place in 2018/2019. This review was purely from experience and may not reflect the current staff working at Chanin Estates, nor the company's current practises. Take this view purely as an opinion. Who knows? Perhaps Chanin Estates have turned things around, and we hope for the good of tenants everywhere that they have.
Danny · 12 June 2020
★★★★★ 1/5
GoogleAll very helpful and useful...until they got your money. Aside from the inordinate amount of paperwork required to let a property (far more than any other letting agency I have used in the past) our experience with Chanin Estates was extremely negative throughout our tenancy.
The service provided by this company was thoroughly unprofessional and hostile when dealing with an unscrupulous predatory landlord, with Chanin Estates persistently defending said landlord's actions, offering baseless and insulting accusations against myself and my fellow tenants despite us providing extensive evidence negating such 'claims'.
I would strongly advise any would-be tenants, particularly first-time students to look elsewhere unless you want to be made to feel unwelcome in your own letting.
If I could rate this company less than one star I would.
Will · 12 June 2020
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotDO NOT USE THIS COMPANY OR LANDLORD
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY OR LANDLORD
This company and there client who is a landlord for multiple properties in isle of dogs who we found out to be a Mr Patel are fraudsters
Me and my friends paid a security deposit for a 3 bedroom apartment in island gardens
I knew another agent had taken a deposit for this property back in March but chanin estates were adamant the other company were lying
They took our money and told us several months later we could not have the place
My friends also had this problem for a apartment with this landlord near the Mudchute dlr
Trading standards have been informed
New rules as of 1st June 2019 only one deposit can be taken for 1 property It’s illegal to take 2 deposits without informing us
STUDENTS STAY AWAY FROM Chanin estates and Mr Patel the landlord for these students homes
JB · 1 November 2019
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleSasha Goredema is one of the most professional and passionate lettings consultants I've met. She knows the properties and answers to my questions with great advice.
Austin · 12 June 2021
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleMatthew has helped me to search for my new home. He is very helpful and easy to talk to. Honest and knows his craft really well. A professional individual who has very good communication skills. Unfortunately, I was not able to purchase the flat that I wanted due to personal circumstances, but I will not hesitate to call him back when everything’s sorted on my side. 5 stars for Chanin Estates!PositiveResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism
Patrick · 12 June 2021
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleBobby was very helpful and professional. He ensured any maintenance issues were addressed promptly. The whole Chanin Team have been fabulous, I would highly recommend this agency!PositiveResponsiveness, Professionalism
Ruby · 25 August 2020
★★★★★ 1/5
FacebookMyself and partner paid a holding deposit after viewing a flat (Nova Building) that was available to be moved into in a week. Signed 'Statement of Funds' documentation to confirm the payment and subsequent payments to be made after reference checks. Successfully passed reference checks and completed full payment including advance rent, reference and agent fees. We sought further clarification and confirmation with regards to the flat and it's availability. We were informed it will be available and the tenancy will solely be given to us. We are told the landlord has booked an inventory check. On the day we are due to collect the keys from Chanin Offices and move in two days, we are informed our moving date will now have to be delayed a week or two. We requested to speak to the landlord. Chanin made excuses as to the whereabouts of the landlord. We are informed the landlord was in Barbados. More so, on a cruise ship so won't be able to attend to us due to poor internet connection. This was very confusing since Chanin claimed to be in a meeting with the landlord. Chanin Estates staff were unresponsive to emails and refusal to pick up our telephone calls. They continually made excuses as to why they hadn't been in touch with us. We asked for our refund numerous times. The refund was not forthcoming until we decided to seek further action (legal and police action) and told them that was our next step. It was then that the refund was made instantaneously via mobile transfer where a poor screenshot of the payment was sent to us. We were left in the lurch. We were hugely disappointed with the situation that we found ourselves in. We didn't expect such extremely poor professionalism from Chanin Estate who supposedly pride themselves in a reputation of integrity, discretion and professionalism. This lack of professionalism put so much stress and strain on us, where, we lost time, energy, and money. Chanin Estates claim to be members of The Property Ombudsman (TPO). We contacted TPO and found out that was actually not the case. They were also not part of the Property Redress Scheme or the Ombudsman Services Property scheme. Our advice? Be careful when dealing with Chanin Estates and it's staff. From our experiences, their mission statement on their webpage is wholly not true. Its claims are deceiving. We will not recommend them. Chanin Estate staff: 1. Richard Li: Spoke a lot during the flat viewing (waffling). We will later find out that a lot of his talk was just misinformation. He appeared clueless on estate properties and the little details about renting. 2. Catherine Chan: Very unprofessional and lack of integrity. Also lack of good communication where she failed to call and update us as she promised. And when she did communicate, it was rather a poor email or loose talk on the telephone and making excuses. 3. Kiera: Unprofessional. Promised us the flat will be available on the moving date. Once all payments were made we found her to be unresponsive to emails and telephone calls
Alexandra · 17 April 2017
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleDefenietly recomend them. All cases are sorted professionally and within good timeframe. Tabitha sorted last issue with wooden floor we have had in no time. Swift, professional and the contractor sent to us was also a professional, the guy knew what he was doing.
Piotr · 12 February 2024
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleI would highly recommend Matthew Storey. Informative, responsive, honest and reliable. Non-pushy and supportive throughout the buying process.PositiveResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism
Andrew · 25 August 2021
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleI had a viewing with Roshan recently. She provided an informative and enjoyable viewing experience with plenty of useful and impartial advice. The process of arranging a viewing, making an offer and communications with the landlord was also very efficient and professional. I've dealt with about 10 different agencies recently and CE definitely stood out with the customer service they provided. Highly recommend this agency to renters.PositiveResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism
Nessa · 14 June 2021
Where the same review appears twice we show it once. We leave out reviews that name another agent or another of the brand's offices.
