Portico London reviews

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Worst agency I've ever worked with

Worst agency I've ever worked with. They were all milk and honey before we signed the tenancy agreement, after which they took ages to respond to any concerns and enquiries or to get things fixed. When we moved out they tried to charge us money for leaving them some expensive lamp shades instead of leaving bare lightbulbs, as well as trying to squeeze as much money out of us as they could. 260 + VAT to place 2 tiles??It is now 3 months since we moved out and we still haven't received our full deposit back, we now have to go through TDS to get our money. Avoid at all costs!

Muddy · 14 June 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Tried to rent a flat through Portico

Tried to rent a flat through Portico a while ago. Was a bit of a disaster. They tried to get me to pay 6 months in advance. I refused. They withdrew the offer. They tried to keep the deposit but as I had an idea it was going to go sour I paid online with a credit card. I was only refunded when I threatened to initiate a chargeback. Plush offices but disappointing business practices mean I have no choice but to leave one star.

Alex · 31 May 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Hopelessness taken to a new level - both for landlord and tenant

We have been letting properties for over 20 years and have had all sorts of tenants and managing agents through that time - both good and bad. Portico are in a league of their own though for all round incompetence, rudeness and disorganisation.We only became involved with them when they took over a previously very good managing agent but it did not take long for their excellent staff to move on and we were left with the Portico way of doing things: unanswered calls and e-mails, failure to deal with issues and dissatisfied tenants as a consequence. Almost a year after our last tenants left and we had at last parted company with them they called telling us they had found a new tenant! Only today they sent us an "unpaid bill" from 2017 that they had failed to deal with.I realise that yet another one star review will add little to their Trustpilot status - surely one of the worst on record?- but I would warn both landlords and tenants away from them.

Mark · 15 May 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Be Very Very Careful

Portico manage some nice properties for many different landlords. We were gracious enough to pay half a year’s rent in advance. The following things have happend whilst renting our property through Portico:• We were never told by Portico a tube line ran underneath the property and had no idea until it was too late and we spent our first night at the property only to realise in horror• The property had numerous faults when we moved in including broken locks and a faulty shower we could not use• Our complaints and issues raised were regularly ignored by management• One of Portico’s handymen installed a replacement lock back to front on our front door• We also had to report a faulty sofa and Portico tried to blame us for the fault without having inspected the issue themselves • Portico sent in their staff into our flat without our permission and were in breach of our tenant rights and in breach of contract• Portico tried to blame certain issues of their own making on the actual landlord• Staff are arrogant, genuinely lie and ignore / do not respond to things when asked to by email• Portico make it clear (in writing) they don’t care about you the tenant, only the landlord• We met the previous tenants from our flat and they had all of the exact same issues as us. As did our neighbour• If you don’t believe us check out all the other Trustpilot reviews for yourselfWe promise you’ll regret renting with Portico

Oscar · 2 May 2019

★★★★★ 4/5

Google

Nice place and very friendly staff. They helped us find a very nice flat that met all our needs and they were very available for any issue that we had. Greatly recommend

Lenny · 12 October 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid This Company!

Avoid This Company!They left my tenants for four days without hot water & heating after the boiler broke and couldn't have cared less when I raised the issue with them. The lettings manager ignored my calls and emails and I'm currently in the process of reporting them to the property ombudsman. Their stock response to any problem is to ignore it and hope it goes away. Rude, unprofessional and seriously incompetent - don't waste your time and money with them.

Carl · 3 April 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

DONT GET INVOLVED WITH THESE PEOPLE

DONT GET INVOLVED WITH THESE PEOPLE. Did not bother honouring the conditions of the contract when we moved in: WE DID NOT HAVE HOT WATER AND THERE WAS AN ACTUAL SMASHED WINDOW. The agent's are the most sleazy salespeople you will ever have the misfortune of meeting. Our's did not disclose that the landlord had filed for a building permit and we were thrown out after 6 months. We also had many issues with the flat (leaking ceiling etc.) and they NEVER bothered to send anyone. Now they can't even be bothered to give me and my partner references on time for us to move into a new flat as soon as possible. liars, thiefs, deeply unprofessional charlatans. WORST. COMPANY. EVER. Avoid like the plague.

Louise · 12 March 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

We had problems before we even moved…

We had problems before we even moved in! Our original move in day was delayed by nearly 2 weeks all because they didn't send us the guarantor form for a week! And their excuse was "well the intern is leaving soon" as if that somehow makes it ok to leave people homeless for 2 weeks!Ever since moving in we had more problems. First of all the check-in inventory was completely wrong, including every room saying "no windows found". When we moved in, most of the windows did not open and some were sealed shut illegally due to them being loose and whistling. They eventually sent someone to take a look - a week before we moved out!Despite reporting repairs multiple times, it took weeks and sometimes months to get a response. They would randomly reply within a day, then vanish for another week, then come back saying they'd fix the more unimportant repairs. For example, our garden door did not lock property the entire year - and the garden is publicly accessible!At one point we went a week with no heating - while the weather was -2 degrees outside, which is also illegal! It took 3 days just to get hold of someone on the phone/email as their stupid phone system cuts you off after 10 minutes on hold, effectively booting you back to the bottom of the queue.Now after moving out, we finally get our check-out inventory and it was very bad. It was done 3 weeks after we moved out, during which the house has not had any other tenants inside. Yet now the check-out is full of things regarding dust/cobwebs, despite the fact this would have accumulated during the 3 weeks of empty house. It is also full of things that were reported in the check-in - before we even got into the property.They have always been polite and acted helpful, but as a company they are beyond terrible!Would give 0 stars if I could...

Dave · 12 February 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Absolute nightmare - AVOID PORTICO

If I could have chosen zero stars then I would have done. If only we had read the reviews on trustpilot before we rented - AVOID PORTICO THEY ARE ABSOLUTELY SHOCKING. Where should I start - here’s a few examples- took months to fix anything- did not complete the work included as condition of our offer (told us they had, we found out once we arrived with our furniture on move in day)- sent unqualified person round to do electrical work- no response for weeks to an urgent maintenance issue- provides safety certificate with issues and said “you said you wanted a safety certificate - you didn’t say it had to pass”- attempted to make ridiculous reductions from deposit when we moved out despite the fact there was no damage It’s interesting that they have very high staff turnover - one great guy was new and left within a couple of weeks. Probably shows what a nightmare they are as an employer as well as a tenant.Eventually we got our deposit back in full via the deposit protection scheme disputes service. For anyone reading this battling with Portico about deposit deductions, use the dispute service, don’t waste your time continuing to engage with Portico

Jane · 3 February 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

A tenant's worst nightmate

I don't know what Portico were thinking taking over Spencer, which was a decent agency to deal with for us as as tenants.This company is horrific. They take months to fix anything. They illegally enter our property without us knowing about it. They take weeks to respond to emails (or don't respond at all). They lose the keys. They charge extortionate contract renewal fees every year. When we did negotiate a lower fee, they still chased us for not paying the original amount.I'm dreading to think what we'll have to go through when we finally move out, based on the reviews here (there's another page with more reviews on Portico on Trustpilot).STAY.AWAY.

Joni · 2 February 2019

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Sam was super helpful!

Sam was super helpful; had answers to most of our questions, and promptly got back to us when an answer wasn’t on hand. Stuck to COVID-19 guidelines too!

Stephen · 7 September 2020

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

A big thanks to Sean at the Walthamstow…

A big thanks to Sean at the Walthamstow branch. He went above and beyond and made what could have been a difficult situation go away. Would definitely recommend!

Tony · 20 August 2020

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Claire was very helpful with our…

Claire was very helpful with our valuation, spending a lot of time to talk through everything and came armed with lots of back up research too

Jessica · 9 February 2021

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I honestly feel like they should be…

I honestly feel like they should be reported to the police. AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS. They charged us extortionate fees when we moved in (nearly £700.00!) then they were completely ignoring all emails and phone calls about repairs and issues we were facing in the flat (they left us with no heating and hot water for nearly two weeks at one point!). They were lying about arranging repairs so we would be waiting for someone to come and then no one would show up. But the check out and deposit handling exceeded our worst expectations. It's been nearly two months since we moved out and our deposit has not been returned yet so we had to raise it with TDS. They are now trying to deduct money from our deposit for some absurd things! Reading other reviews I really have no idea how they are managing to get away with all this! Avoid them at all costs!

Sandra · 28 September 2018

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Magda is so helpful!

Magda is so helpful.Nothing is too much trouble for her, and she always goes out of her way to make sure she has helped wherever possible!

Holly · 21 January 2021

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Beware of them

After 15 years of renting in London, I can say I've never come across such evil and incompetent agent's before. They charge extortionate fees (when renting and when extending your contract) for absolutely shambolic service. They take ridiculously long to fix anything, we've even incurred some considerable costs due to repairs not being carried out on time. The last non-emergency repair in our bathroom took them 1 year 4 months to complete. Twice they didn't even arrange the repair date with us, so the handyman came round without us being aware of it, which is in complete violation of our contract.Beware of them. What they do should be criminal. I hope they go bankrupt and stop ruining peoples' lives (just look on other review sites to see that they do).

Joe · 14 August 2018

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Grazyna is excellent!

Grazyna has been excellent at answering my queries, she is readily available and extremely knowledgeable. I can't recommend her enough, big thanks to Grazyna for your help and effort!

Jay · 20 February 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid at all costs

Having just finished 3 years of tenancy with Portico, we have experienced the most incompetent display they could possibly offer.There have been many issues throughout our 3 year tenancy however the most unacceptable has been the handling of the deposit. Upon check-out they presented a check out inventory with some proposed charges, the document was completely irrelevant as there had clearly been absolutely no cross-referencing with the check in document at the start of our tenancy. Having raised this with them we are now having to call them multiple times a day, as they still haven't contacted the landlord ONE MONTH LATER. The excuse every day being 'i'm afraid i've got 10 of these calls to make today'. We have been passed from person to person as each of them sells us false hope and then goes on holiday the following week making us no closer to getting our deposit back, money which we need to place as a deposit for our next tenancy. So a word of warning to anyone reading this, DO NOT be a tenant with portico, its just not worth it.

James · 19 July 2018

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Portico complaints and deposit issues.

Portico complaints and deposit issues.All, i am a previous tenant of portico and am in the process of registering complaints with the regulators in respect of their work. In short; Their staff do not reply to reasonable requests, they give misleading information in respect of their obligations to tenants, they fail to act with reasonable care and skill in the undertaking of their work and they do not have a coherent complaints policy or guidance. I urge all of you reading this to contact me on the following email to detail your issues so i can formally register these on your behalf with the regulators. (Consumer_complaints_london(AT)outlook.com)Regards ML

Matthew · 2 July 2018

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

I had a great experience with Pórtico

I had a great experience with Pórtico, especially with Erick, always willing to help, helpful, very knowledgeable. I didn't have any difficulties in renting my apartment because Erick gave us all the support

Jennifer · 2 July 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Terrible company for tenants

I rent a property managed by Portico and since they took over, the service we've received has been the worst I'd ever experienced before. It's diffult to get in atouch with them - I prefer emails since I like to have everything in writing, but they often don't respond to email at all. Repairs take months to be done. They charge very high moving-in fees and contract extension fees every year. I'm really not happy with them, but what can I do? I advise all renters and landlords (if they care about the well-being of their tenants) to not use their services.

Celine · 9 May 2018

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Easy and efficient experience

Easy and efficient experience, Erick has been really helpful for me & my Partner throughout the process.

Kian · 29 June 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Professional and friendly service!

Professional and friendly service from start to finish. Aaron was absolutely brilliant, I would recommend him without doubt. He was very helpful and efficient. Thank you again!

Ase · 11 August 2020

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Thank you sooo much

I want to say a massive thank you for all your help Annie!! You made everything a very smooth process you were so helpful with everything.

Shaz · 6 November 2020