Every review we hold for the Longbenton office, from every platform, shown as written. First names only.
★★★★★ 5/5
Trustpilot3.5yrs - 100% deposit returned - overall would recommend
We lived in a flat from the first day it was built and we moved out a short time ago - 3.5 years in total. We only moved out because we bought a house and we're happy there whilst we stayed there.A few negatives were the furnishings which looked great but didn't wear well. Definitely a case of looking the part but probably not having longevity. I believe they were from a company called Loft.The insulation was poor both ceiling to floor (above us) and floor to ceiling (below us). We could hear music really loudly if it was being played in the room below and conversations and doors slamming from upstairs.Finally, there were issues with thefts from the post room in our building and it took a while for the building manager to put cameras in and frosted glass. It seemed to fix the problem but I avoided ordering things for delivery unless I was certain I'd be in. Simple life were easy to deal with and responded to our requests in a timely way with their app. They organised events every now and again to get us together too which was a nice touch. The building and communal areas were kept clean too.The rent cost was increased yearly but by a modest amount and by the time we moved out we were actually paying a bit under what I'd expect for the area. The car parking cost didn't rise in the 5 years and was secure.When we moved out we were wary of being stiffed on the deposit but we ended uo having no charge, which is the main reason why I am giving it 5 stars. There is a free service for them to check and advise on what might be chargeable. We paid for a deep end of tenancy clean and we replaced the freezer drawers (which were smashed up to be fair) and did a few patch ups of the paint but other than that they accepted a few scuffs as wear and tear instead of using our deposit as a weapon and an excuse to fleece us - I've experienced this many times so pleased to report this didn't happen to us.All in all would recommend and was a positive experience over the time we loved there. We would've stayed a while longer had we not got on the property ladder.
Matt · 10 September 2024
Agent replied · 22 October 2024
Hi Matt, thank you for your valuable and fair feedback. We will take note of the niggles you experienced and will pass them on to the relevant teams. We wish you many happy memories in your new home!
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotFAIL TO DELIVER ON THERE PROMISES
Fail to deliver on there promises-House was selected and deposit was all paid and move in date all agreed .. but near the moving date they have decided to push the date back - which obviously caused us issues as everything was planned to go ahead on certain date .. but we agreed to this new move in date but a week later date pushed back a whole month which left us no where else to go. Not professional at all lame excuses and no empathy on someone circumstance.. caused me additional stress and anxiety for no reason.
Amit · 7 September 2024
Agent replied · 22 October 2024
Hi Amit,Thank you for providing us with identifiable information allowing us to locate your records. We’re really sorry to hear of the problems you have faced with your move in date and we’re sorry for any stress this has caused you. We can see that the lettings team have been keeping you updated along the way, but unfortunately we faced initial delays due to an issue with receiving the keys back from the previous resident, and then once we were able to access the property, there was a much larger volume of works than anticipated that required attention in order to bring the property to a suitable condition for you before you moved in to the property. Whilst we do our best to allow adequate time between move out and move in dates, in some circumstances where we are unable to access the property at an earlier date, we’re unaware of the full extent of works required. We can see that the lettings team did their best to look for an offer other available properties within the wider Simple Life portfolio for you.
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotSpoke to Charlotte and Niamh a few…
Spoke to Charlotte and Niamh a few times over the last week, both super helpful discussing available properties in the manchester area
Mia · 14 May 2026
Agent replied · 31 May 2026
This is fantastic to hear. Thank you for your review, Mia!
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotCharlotte was concise and enthusiastic…
Charlotte was concise and enthusiastic about the property we viewed- she assisted greatly by answering any questions we had thoroughly. Brilliant service!
Blake · 13 May 2026
Agent replied · 31 May 2026
Thank you for your lovely review, Blake!
★★★★★ 2/5
TrustpilotPoor customer service
House is comfortable new and estate is well maintained. Contractors used are decent and did a good job when issues were raised. About everything nice I can say. They Are trying to do us over with the deposit return. We painfully gutted cleaned and tried as hard as we could to look after the place to be hit with a few fees for weeding and cutting the grass after we left even though the inspection was done 8 days after our hand in date mid summer and was still half the length it was when we moved in and was freshly seeded 12 months ago so any weeding issues they have seem ABIT ridiculous. "patch painting" was also listed at near enough 40 a scratch and are saying we owe 30 pound in rent after paying on time each month and handing keys back early.Cost of rent considering the area we were in was very high in our opinions could easily be 200 pcm lower. Thanks for not much simple life you truly were a serious waste of money
Calum · 13 August 2024
Agent replied · 24 August 2024
Hi Calum,It sounds like you were happy with Simple Life during your tenancy and we thank you for your feedback regarding your development and the quality of our contractors.We’re sorry to hear that your proposed deposit deductions have not met with your expectations. The team have reviewed your move in report/pictures and compared this with your checkout report and we feel the deductions are unfortunately warranted and already take in to consideration fair wear and tear. I believe the team have sent you a copy of your report and pictures for your reference, and have given you the information required to dispute the proposed deductions. We recommend that if you are not happy with these, that you raise this dispute with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS) who will independently review.
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotMy experience with Charlotte was very…
My experience with Charlotte was very helpful she guided me through the process and explained everything in detail.
Tracey · 27 May 2026
Agent replied · 31 May 2026
This is fantastic to hear! Thank you for taking the time to share your experience, Tracey! We wish you all the best.
★★★★★ 3/5
TrustpilotSimple Life are okay
I'd say Simple Life are okay, nothing spectacular but not completely terrible. Our home again was okay, but did have mould in no matter how much we tried to ventilate the property. In fact, it seems as though within the week and a bit of moving out of the property judging from the check out photos from Simple Life the mould had returned in some areas of the house. The bathroom wasn't fitted with an extractor fan which we never understood given that the property was a fairly new build. As you can imagine this again meant there was an issue with mould. The garden always flooded towards the bottom end I think because they didn't flatten the ground when the house was built. Cracks in walls and paint somehow falling off the walls despite nobody touching them. Monthly rental costs were decent to be fair, however after speaking with neighbours who moved in quite a while after us in the same type of property it seems they were being charged a fair bit more than us. I don't know if this is standard practice for rental properties but just thought I'd mention it. I obviously had no way either of validating this, I'm just repeating what they said.I think communication is what really lets Simple Life down. When enquiring about moving into a property they are very quick, however if you need to contact someone after it's very difficult. I think one very simple replacement/repair we needed took them the best part of a year to respond to, and even then they massively overcharged for it as we were able to find the exact same product online far cheaper with a quick Google search. Another repair we enquired about they never actually got back to us about. Because they seemed to change property managers all the time it was also difficult to even know who to speak to regarding different issues. When moving out Simple Life gave us a list of repairs and costs needed which the vast majority of were fair, however when sending this they advised that if we disagreed with anything we needed to contact them in writing to tell them this by the deadline. We did email them regarding a couple of bits, multiple times yet still haven't heard back. There were occasions where we were able to get a pretty quick response during the tenancy but these were few and far between. Regarding moving out and getting deposits back I noticed quite a few complaints on here. Simple Life didn't give clear instructions on how to get the deposit back which I think is part of the problem. I haven't had any issues getting the money back yet apart from the poor communication already mentioned, and I do trust that we will get the remainder of it back, however I was confused on how to do so as all Simple Life said was "contact TDS as outlined in your welcome pack" or something along those lines. As we lived in our property for an extended period of time it was impossible to find the welcome pack given on move in day. I searched through my emails back to around the time of moving in day and nothing, no welcome pack. I really hope they weren't referring to a physical welcome pack after living in the property for years and having been moved out for weeks, as that could very easily have gone missing or even thrown out after moving out. They also said we needed to contact them if we disagreed with the repairs but then said we needed to contact TDS which was confusing. The following email telling me to contact TDS I might add was not in response to any of our previous emails. They seemingly ignored all previous emails and then randomly sent this one separately in a different email chain. After logging into my TDS account again there were no instructions on what to do and no option to raise a dispute, if that's what I wanted to do. Of course I enquired with Simple Life about this but haven't heard anything back. I reckon to reduce the number of complaints regarding this and help with the confusion Simple Life should be more supportive and should better explain to tenants how to do this, especially with how poor their communication is when you follow up.I've definitely had worse landlords but Simple Life are as I said just okay. Generally speaking the bar is pretty low when it comes to landlords these days.*Edit* Hi simple life, I posted this review accidentally from a family member's account, however the purpose of this review was not for you to reach out and assist me, but rather to give my honest review to potential new tenants of Simple Life properties. You cannot help with the issues we had with our home, the lack of response to simple repairs throughout the tenancy as it's way past move out date now, and you haven't been helpful with explaining how to get holding deposits back. If you really wanted to help you'd have already responded to the multiple emails that have already been sent to you rather than waiting for a review to be posted online.
Ellie · 12 July 2024
Agent replied · 24 August 2024
Hi Ellie, Thank you for your feedback. We have searched our database using on the information available to us in this review but we are unable to identify you. You will see that we have sent you a find reviewer request so that we can gain some identifiable information. It would be really appreciated if you could respond to this so that we can help you further.
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotAnnie E has made my experience great …
Annie E has made my experience great thus far with my application, someone completed an application 5 mins before for the property I wanted, she then found me the same exact apartment for cheaper in the same building.
Things are moving quickly in regard to referencing as well having completed within 1 day.
Dom · 23 August 2026
Agent replied · 24 September 2026
Thank you so much for your wonderful review Dom!
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotI am so pleased with the process so…
I am so pleased with the process so far. A special thank you to Christine Thompson who guided us through everything and was so quick at responding enabling us to also be as sufficient as we could back. We are so pleased to have found our lovely home, from applying, to referencing everything has gone so well so far. We are also grateful to the help we’ve received from Shannah Levey and happy with everything so far and long may it continue! We hope that we have all the same views when moving in. :) can’t wait!
ERS · 2 July 2024
Agent replied · 24 August 2024
Thank you so much for your wonderful review! We're delighted to hear that you're happy with your home and the services our team has provided.
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotFinalising our future home st the current time
We are currently in the process of finalising a property with simple life and up to now I can’t fault them at all. Everything has been super quick and if I’ve had any queries the staff have been quick to respond.A special thank you to Holly who has show us around twice now as my partner could t make the first viewing and she’s been on hand via messages when I’ve needed any other advice
Julie · 18 September 2024
Agent replied · 22 October 2024
Thank you so much for your review Julie! We will pass your feedback on to Holly.
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotWithout a doubt one of the most painful…
Without a doubt one of the most painful experiences iv ever had. Getting through to somebody unless you are looking to be a new Tennant is near impossible, when you go down that route you get fobbed off with the usual ‘I will get someone to call you back’ which as expected never happens. I moved out over 8 weeks ago now and iv not had one single email regarding my holding deposit, I have tried ringing every week and have managed to speak to somebody once which they said it was ready to be emailed and should be with me shortly, this was 4 weeks ago this week. This has been expected as i know multiple people who have dealt with simple life regarding holding deposits and they are absolutely horrific regarding them. Charging £70 for the removal of dust of a radiator being an example. They are notoriously known for making it extremely difficult to get any response or any money back from your holding deposit. I will continue to attempt to contact them as legally they have my money but in reality I expect absolutely nothing anytime soon, awful company, horrific communication, no aftercare at all or clear process in place. Once your out your bottom of the list in terms of response.
Jack · 25 June 2024
Agent replied · 24 August 2024
Hi Jack,We’re sorry to hear that you feel you have not had your deposit returned quick enough. Legislation states that from the point to which a resident contacts the Tenancy Deposit Scheme to request their deposit, we have 10 days to then confirm any proposed deductions.We can see that your check out inspection took place 2 days after you vacated the property and you should have now received communication around your deposit release and any deductions required. Our Head of Maintenance Matthew will be calling you today if he he hasn't already late last week to ensure you have had this and to answer any questions you might have.
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotTerrible experience, terrible company
My recent experience with Simple Life Homes was incredibly disappointing and frustrating. The application process was nothing short of a nightmare. The representative handling our case, Shannah, was consistently rude and unhelpful throughout. Every interaction felt like an uphill battle, with her dismissive attitude making an already stressful situation even worse.There were some delays in our application process due to my wife's HR team being difficult (which we communicated to them) with providing references. While we acknowledge this caused some setbacks, you can truly judge a company by how compassionate and understanding they are when things don't go exactly as planned. Unfortunately, Simple Life Homes showed no compassion or understanding during this time. Instead of working with us, they added to our stress and frustration.One of the most significant issues was their refusal to adjust our move-in date to allow for a proper in-person viewing of the property. We wanted to ensure the home met our expectations before making any commitments, but Simple Life Homes made this impossible. They seemed entirely unwilling to accommodate this reasonable request, pressuring us to make hasty decisions without adequate information.It felt like we were being time-pressured at every step, leaving us no choice but to sign documents and move forward without the due diligence we deserved. This high-pressure tactic made us feel like we were signing away our rights and agreeing to terms we weren't fully comfortable with.Overall, the experience was highly unsatisfactory, and I would not recommend Simple Life Homes to anyone looking for a stress-free and respectful home rental process. Their lack of flexibility, poor customer service, and absence of compassion left a lasting negative impression.Looking at all the unpaid reviews, you could say we got lucky in rescinding our application. Avoid.Edit:We later got a call from a contracting company on behalf of simple life wanting to do repairs, they thought we were living at the property even though we had rescinded our application. It turns out, that the bath was rotting due to leaks, no wonder they didn't want us to see the property! Watch out for 75 Newport Lane, do thorough checks!
Edmundo · 14 June 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Hi Edmundo,Thank you for getting back to us with some identifiable information, allowing us to look into our communication records with you.Firstly, we’d like to say that we’re really sorry if you felt pressured in any way. For all our applications, our system allows a 24 hour hold for the applicant to pay the initial holding deposit, which subsequently secures the property from the market. Due to the high levels of demand, we do this to ensure that our customers are not left disappointed should another applicant take the property they are interested in, hence the 24 hour grace period.We can see that due to the dates that this property was available and as it was subject to high demand, it was communicated from the offset that the move in date would need to be adhered to. We can see that only the day before move in, a viewing had been requested. Whilst we would always try to accommodate such a request and having already communicated the move in date, regretfully, we were unable to facilitate the viewing at such short notice on this occasion.We’re sorry that this felt inflexible and you felt our team lacked compassion, this certainly wasn’t our aim and we will feed this back to the team.Finally, we want to address your unjust accusation around paid reviews, we have never incentivised reviews any of the reviews you have seen on Trust Pilot. If you have any evidence of this, then we would be keen to investigate, so please share with us.
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotAvoid!! Rude!! Unhelpful!! Money scamming!!
avoid!! Want you to hand in your notice before they even accept you .. why would I hand in my notice and risk being homeless with 3 children! Accepted me a week before they wanted me to move into their property! Asked for it to be pushed back a week or so but no they've absolutely refused, continue to blame me for not handing in my notice.. for a property I wasn't even accepted for, for 3 weeks!! Alicia is rude and very unhelpful. Asked to view the property over & over again, they offered 1 date which I couldn't do, so I emailed another 5 or so times just to be ignored !! Should've believed all the bad reviews they had on their Facebook page. Won't let you change the date you pay rent. Shambles of a company!!
Georgia · 10 June 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Hi Georgia,We can see numerous members of the lettings team have had conversations with you on this matter. We take applications based on a number of criteria, one of the many factors we consider will be when someone says they are able to move in, particularly on a development where we are experiencing high demand. We can see that you were offered a property based on a specific move in date. You had requested that this date was moved back a week, which the team were happy to, and did, facilitate. A week before your new move in date you had told us that you hadn’t yet served notice to your current landlord and therefore wanted to push the date back further, which we were unable to accommodate. It is the responsibility of the applicant to make sure that they are in a position to move in or afford the rent on the date that has been agreed by all parties.As this is a brand new home, we took your application off-plan. Therefore, we hadn’t had handover of the property from the housebuilder to facilitate a viewing until construction was complete. This is very normal within the new build industry, whether you are buying or renting a property. We can see the team offered a viewing but unfortunately, you were unable to make that date and given the limited amount of time before your move in date, we were unable to find a date and time that both you and Simple Life could attend. We’re sorry if this caused you any inconvenience but our team makes every effort to give you a good representation of the home including photos, video walkthrough videos, floorplans and room measurements.
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotAwful company
Awful company, AVOID. Applied for a property in March and was accepted. We were given a move in date for start of April and so gave our private landlord notice that we would be moving to avoid paying double rent. Fair enough the date was provisional but we had a few weeks left in our property and so didn’t think it would be a problem if a small delay did occur. The date was moved by a couple of weeks so we went to stay with family assuming we would be moving in shortly. After absolutely no communication I called Simple Life at the start of May for an update and only then was told we were looking at a July move in date. Obviously this wasn’t the news we wanted but we had no choice but to persevere and simply wait. I had to call the company every week to chase for an update as they never bothered to communicate with us. Every time I called the staff were in a meeting or an annual leave. Despite all the “meetings” and being told an update was being chased daily with the contractor there was never any update whenever I called, just always the same excuse of a certificate that was holding our move in date back. At the end of June I got a call to say our deposit was being refunded as legally they couldn’t keep hold of it. I expressed concerns that I felt we would soon be told that our propertly had fell through but was assured that everything was fine and July was still the proposed move in date. Today I have had a call to say that the contractors have pulled out and I’m being given our holding deposit back as we can no longer have the house, it’s now off the market indefinitely. I have two young children with no where permanent to stay and storage costs that are rising each month. The communication on Simple Life’s side has been awful. No one knows what’s going on when you call and when you do get to the right person there is absolutely no sympathy or understanding. They were quick to send threatening texts rushing us to send our deposit or we’d risk loosing our application. Their excuses are dishonest and their is no accountability, it’s always the contractors fault. They even had the nerve to say we would get first refusal when the property is ready but I would never rent from them after the experience we have had. I know of families who were waiting for homes on the same site who have suffered the same situation. I have no idea long it is going to take to rehome my family and there is no compensation or care on their side, they only see people as tenants to make money from, disgusting!
Lauren · 10 June 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Dear Lauren,Thank you for getting in touch and providing us with identifiable information so we can locate your records.We can completely appreciate the frustration around the delays you have faced for your property at this development. Unfortunately, as communicated, there has been a delay in Simple Life being able to take handover of homes from the housebuilder, which has had a knock-on effect in us being able to confirm move in dates. This is why our move in dates are kept as ‘proposed’ until we have handover of properties which allow for much more certainty. Whilst we know this is not ideal, this is sometimes to be expected with new build developments and it is completely out of Simple Life’s hands. Previously, we offered anyone who is waiting for a property on this development the option for a refund, or if they are happy to wait with limited updates for now, then that is entirely up to the applicants. We can see that knowing this information, you had decided to wait. We have also offered you other properties within our portfolio in the interim, but this has also not been accepted to date. We’re afraid that we have offered all that we can at this stage, and we are unable to change the situation or give confirmed dates to you, as it is simply unknown to us currently.We can assure you that the team are in no way being dishonest about the situation, we simply do not have further information ourselves at this time. With the very long delays and no clarity on dates from the housebuilder so far, we have had to take the difficult decision to cancel applications at this development as we do not want our applicants to be in a state of limbo with little information any longer.
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotGeorge was very quick to update us on…
George was very quick to update us on our progress during the application process, many thanks George
Tom · 18 May 2026
Agent replied · 31 May 2026
Thank you for your lovely feedback, Tom!
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotBest rental accommodation experience out there!
Simplelife Homes is leading the way how to manage rented accommodation. They have thought of everything and it’s clear they have invested time, effort and money in making the process as smooth for the tent ant as possible. They have a dedicated app and process to manage your property, report problems, seek help and much more. They have even included user manuals for all of your appliances in their app. That’s pretty impressive. Ashley Jones has been great in managing the Empyrean site and is always quick to respond and help out. I would highly recommend!
Nikola · 3 June 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Hi Nikola, thank you for your lovely review! We will make sure that Ashley is aware of your kind feedback!
★★★★★ 2/5
TrustpilotA very bad experience
A very bad experience. Had to pay a holding fee of £260 to apply for a tenancy. After three weeks I got an email to tell me that my planned move in day was that very day and as the referencing was taking too long they had to cancel my application. I did not fit the criteria. They kept £120 of my holding fee.I followed this up and asked if I would be accepted if I paid a full year's rent up front ( I have cash but a low income) . They said yes.All this and I hadn't even viewed the property!They must be making thousands by keeping peoples money.If they are so bad at this stage I'm hoping I dodged a bullet. I can't imagine what being a tenant would be like!Surely the process should be - 1.Register interest and view property. 2.Pay for referencing.3.Arrange acceptance of tenancy and mutually agree moving in date. How are people supposed to give notice to current landlords without a defined process?Update - cut and copied from email from Simple Life - "With the proposed tenancy start date being today, I’m not able to give you any more time for referencing, so I’ll have to cancel your application."This has cost me £120. Update - Jade was kind enough to refund me the relisting fee of £50 +VAT. I am very grateful for that.
Jayne · 31 May 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Hi Jayne,At the time of taking your application we did not have access to the property you were applying for. In an ideal situation, the process you outline would be preferable. None of our applicants are required to put down a holding deposit before viewing a property, but where we are unable to gain access for a while, often applicants are prepared to pay their holding deposit to reserve their property before viewing it. This reserves the property and removes it from the open market. Applicants can wait to view before proceeding with their application but due to high demand we’re unable to guarantee that the property will still be available at that stage. We make it clear that a part of the holding deposit will be retained if referencing is failed due to not meeting the criteria, with our criteria being clearly communicated before taking an application to ensure that the applicant feels that they meet with the requirements. We can also confirm that your application was not cancelled because referencing was taking too long. If you’d like to discuss this situation further, then please give us a call and we would be happy to chat through in further detail which we are unable to do via a public forum.
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotNightmare of an experience.
All seems well at the beginning. The company are quick to take your holding fee and begin references. They then prompt the remaining deposit and first months rent. We still hadn't viewed the property but had been to other developments and watched the walk through online. Less than a week before our move in date, and less than 24 hours after we sent the remaining payment over to them (just short of 2k) we were told the move date has been pushed back by two weeks, although this is still only a provisional date. We had already booked the moving van, sold furniture, purchased new furniture, given our landlord an exit date. The works. We were told the reason was an electrical issue, and zero empathy or help was offered other than offering a different property, in an unsuitable location. They said as they don't sign their side of the tenancy agreement until we collect the keys on move in day, they have zero responsibility to us as tenants, or our financial loss and potential homelessness. We then went to view the property two days later, and it was filthly. It smelled like cigarettes, the bathroom silicone was black with mould. The inside of the toilet bowl was black, the back garden was overgrown and we were told the grass would remain that way for another month or two as they don't cut it before you move in if it's wet weather. It has been dry and sunny for 10 days straight by this time. There were piles of post behind the door, which lead us to believe that the company hadn't even started fixing the property at all, and we lost all faith that this would be completed in less than two weeks time. We requested a full refund, which was processed quickly. The staff were helpful in the beginning but little to no customer service by the end. The contract is also ridiculous, lots of strict rules about how often to wash your windows, how often to cut the grass (which they don't adhere to themselves) having to request written permission to put up a certain pole, then pay an admin fee to amend your contract (for each time you amend it or add any poles/shelves etc) and then return the property without the curtain pole at the end of the tenancy.From reading other experiences, we certainly dodged a bullet. Their replies to people who have had poor experiences also show their integrity and lack of empathy.
Billie · 27 May 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Hi Billie,Thank you for your honest feedback and for providing us with further identifiable information so we can look into your records.We feel there has been misunderstanding across a number of areas here. We’re sorry that your move in date was delayed, this was due to the meter not supplying power to the property, which meant the electricity would not have worked. This needed sorting before we are able to allow you to move in. Until we are able to gain access to the property ourselves and a check-out report is completed following the vacation of previous residents, we can never be 100% certain what issues around the house may need addressing to bring it up to our standards, hence move in dates remaining as proposed until such a time that we are certain of works required and time needed to complete them.From an end of tenancy perspective, we generally have a turnaround window of 2 weeks to have the property at a lettable condition for move in, it looks like you viewed the property before the works have been commenced, which given the time frame before the move in, this is completely normal, as all works would be expected to be completed during that two week timeframe.We’d also like to give you clarity over our fees. Whilst we do ask residents to fill out a very quick property alteration request form, so we can monitor what is being changed within our properties, there are no fees associated with a resident making those changes. In some cases, and generally with larger works we will stipulate that the resident has to revert the property back to its original condition upon moving out. A small fee is only applied when making fundamental changes to the tenancy e.g. adding or removing a tenant.
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotWe have been in our lovely home for 6…
We have been in our lovely home for 6 months now, simple life made our dreams come true they have helped us every time we have had a problem within hours they responded to our problem, everything has been fixed promptly and even in-between waiting Hannah has emailed to check if everything is ok and been completed, Hannah is an absolute credit to simple life homes,can't thank you enough.Gary Mountford Ash bank heights
Gary · 21 September 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Thank you for sharing Gary! This is wonderful to hear!!
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotTHE WORST EXPERIENCE.
DO NOT & I repeat, DO NOT bother applying for a property via ‘Simple’ life homes. They are the most inept, ignorant and down right rude company I’ve ever had to deal with. I applied and was immediately met with late night emails, 9-10pm about placing a holding deposit so the application could go ahead as ‘soon as possible!’. Which of course I took the bait, paid the holding deposit and replied to the email instantly, a little while later I was sent to referencing in which again, I complied and provided all info required, ASAP. Two days went by and the referencing was complete, sent back from Let Alliance to ‘Simple’ Life. I then chased up ‘Simple’ life to be told ‘The referencing has gone through and I’ve been deemed as an acceptable tenant and the house is mine!’ Yay! maybe. Probably not. I was then contacted a couple hours later informing me that a CCJ had appeared on my file, which I had no idea about but I take full responsibility. I was informed I can get it removed, then the application with the property can go ahead! Complete lies. You cannot remove a CCJ. I informed ‘Simple’ life of this, only to be told ‘It doesn’t matter if I could anyway as I also need a guarantor, with or without satisfying the CCJ’ so I now need a guarantor! Great. I went and asked everybody I knew to be my guarantor, ones that qualified to the criteria set by ‘Simple’ life. In the meantime I offered the possibility of 6 months rent upfront, which is in the FAQ’s as a ‘solution’. They instantly declined stating it would only be acceptable as 12 months upfront. Hilarious. £7,320, along with the full deposit instantly declined. Ah well. I waited to Let Alliance to then reference my guarantor, they had acceptable income, no adverse credit such as CCJ’s & Bankruptcies and also savings exceeding the amount needed to cover the 36x the PCM rent. Referencing was completed after 12 days! Continuously asked for the same things, which again, needs must. Referencing complete and my guarantor is declined by ‘Simple’ life. They are so incompetent, time and time again they was clueless as to what their own policies are, endless amount of times of ‘let me just ask my colleague’. But they was quick enough to instantly answer a firm no to 6 month rent upfront. This company is all about getting as much money out of you. I now await my holding deposit back but I won’t hold my breath after reading other review as it seems to be a common experience. Avoid at all costs, another scheme which definitely doesn’t operate how they say they do.
Beth · 14 May 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Hi Beth,Thank you for getting in touch. As you will have seen, we have submitted a find reviewer request so that we can obtain identifiable information from you in order to help you further and to be in a position to respond to your review. Unfortunately we have not heard back from you and we are unable to identify you from the information provided to us.If you have had a guarantor added to your application and you have still failed referencing then we can only assume that the guarantor didn't pass the referencing criteria themselves.
★★★★★ 5/5
TrustpilotLovely member of staff
Have spoken to a few companies before about renting and they haven't been very helpful on the phone. They are all very dismissive. Charlotte the girl I spoke to was very helpful and went above and beyond, patiently answering all my questions. If I do decide to rent a property from the company then I will definitely request Charlotte to help me. 🙂
P · 21 May 2026
Agent replied · 31 May 2026
This is wonderful to hear! Thank you so much for taking to time to leave a review.
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotWhat a way to treat your new residents.
I have been a resident with simple life for a week. I have never received my meter reading for electricity. On the inventory, only the water reading was available. Me and my partner have phoned up and raised this issue on probably 5 separate occasions only to be met with the most ignorant, unhelpful responses. Staff have told us “it’s on the inventory” and when we assured them it is not they simple told us “it is” and hung up. On Thursday I rang again and got though to Heather who was slightly helpful. She confirmed that she can see on our inventory that the electricity reading is missing. I explained to her that we really need this reading as a matter of urgency as we can’t set up any utilities until we have this and she understood. She told me there will be someone on sight on Friday 3rd May to take the reading and she will send it to us that same day. She did not. We phoned twice asking for this just to be told Heather is busy and no one else can help us.We have lived here for 10 days only. We had problems from the moment we physically opened our front door and the lock came flying off which we had to get replaced on our first day. Now this rude approach and customer service. It’s such a horrible start to our tenancy we are extremely disappointed. I would like this to be dealt with as a matter of urgency or I am ready to take this further. What a way to treat your new residents.
Zuzanna · 4 May 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Hi Zuzanna,Thank you for your review and your valuable feedback.We can see that we did confirm that the meter reading for electricity was not recorded on your inventory. The property inspector was new and still undergoing training at the time of your inventory was taken so it looks like this was accidentally missed off, we’re very sorry for any inconvenience caused and we can confirm this isn’t up to our usual standards. Additionally, we can see that one of our property inspectors was due to attend, however there was a mix up with the fobs which prevented access to the property. We can only apologise for all the inconvenience caused, we completely hold our hands up and agree that the experience you have had so far is not good enough. Team leader Ashley has organised for someone to re-attend as soon as possible. He will be in touch very shortly, if he hasn’t already to ensure this is seen to.
★★★★★ 3/5
TrustpilotGreat concept - prospective tenants experience needs refining
We are not renting through Simple Life but I do find the process of procuring a property with the company a little bit uncomfortable.We showed interest in a property that was advertised for an indicative move in date of 2nd June. It took 3 weeks of chasing before we were sent a link to pay a fee to take the property off the market and undergo referencing.We expressed interest but had to beg for acceptance to be confirmed in an email. It was sent eventually but it was very generic and almost like a note. We had to contact again for next steps.We did eventually receive the link to pay and were given 24hrs to do so. After 3 weeks of waiting, I couldn't be sure that other people weren't also sent the same link for same property. I was told it was first come first serve but with explicit fees if you 'fail referencing', how could we be certain that we wouldn't be intentionally failed? And how would we know that it's just us going through referencing? Had the whole initial contact been smoother then we may well have pursued. I think the customer service needs to be significantly improved, prospective tenants shouldn't be left to feel as if they have to chase. It kind of sets the tone to what it would be like living in one of the properties, if there was an issue.There is a lot of emphasis on indicative move in dates. It's understandable that as the majority of the properties are under construction, it can be difficult to pin down a date for move in. I don't understand why Simple Life couldn't just wait until the properties are substantially complete before marketing to mitigate this worry for customers. Otherwise, in light of not being able to confirm an exact date or view the property, give a little more comfort by providing an option to view before full internal fit-out or present a rental show property just so prospective tenants can get an idea of what theirs might look like. Seeing absolutely nothing but indicative images before handing over £2.5K with no firm move in date is a little wild for a rental at least. I'd like more clarity on the reasons behind the current process.In all, we were too nervous about pursuing a property Simple Life due to the lack of communication at these early stages and the process . Such a shame really as it's a great concept and much needed in our area. I hope processes can be refined.Updated 18th April: Thanks Simplelife, I think the fact that we made contact via phone since before 18th March and then by email/phone on 18th March about passing pre-tenancy checks. To only just receive information on how to pay the deposit on 8th April is not great. Maybe, it was just unfortunate for us in this instance.I appreciate you outlining the process it makes sense. I think an indicative timeline would be good for prospective tenants, if you guarantee a viewing before moving in. I don't think simply ensuring plenty time is enough for some people. Of course it may work for some others.If the customer services team were undergoing some changes. It would have just been good to be informed, that could of been a simple automated email but I was met with silence. That didn't sit right with me.In any case, thanks for your prompt response here and offering clarity. I do hope if we consider you in the future we will have a better experience. Good luck - it's still a good initiative to provide quality rental homes.
Rococo · 18 April 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Hello,Thank you for responding to our find reviewer request, allowing us to be able to identify you on our records so we can looking to the problems you have faced.Firstly, we’d like to thank you for your valuable feedback, although this hasn’t been a good experience for you, it has really helped us to identify areas where we have fallen short and allowed us to address changes required.We can see that you had chased the holding deposit link once on 25th and once on 26th with no response. Although this is no excuse for the lack of communication you faced we did have a different customer service team in place at the time and we have since had a re-structure and new personnel put in place. This came into effect on 1st April, so as soon as the new team had their first chaser from you on 6th, they responded right away with the payment link, to which we didn’t get a response. We’d like to take this opportunity to clarify a few points you have made around our processes in the hope of alleviating any fears. Referencing fees are only withheld if references fail where applicants have knowingly provided incorrect information such as certain types of CCJs that wouldn’t meet our criteria or the household income quoted before applying is incorrect.We appreciate your concerns over indicative move dates and you are correct in outlining that new development schemes can sometimes have unexpected delays which are unforeseen. We only release properties to the market when we are confident that the indicative move in dates will be met to reduce risk of delays. Unfortunately, letting off-plan for brand new sites is unavoidable, just as open market sale properties are often bought off-plan also, however all applicants should be offered the chance to view the property before they collect their keys to ensure that it meets with their expectations and a confirmed move in date is set in plenty of time before the move in date comes around so there is time to plan. Of course, applicants can choose to only apply once we have handover of a property and a viewing is possible, however, we can't guarantee that the property is still available at this point due to high demand and as we operate on a first come, first served basis.We’re sorry for the delays you previously faced and we’d like to reassure you that we would still love to be able to assist you on the hunt for your perfect home. If there is any chance you’d still like to proceed with a Simple Life home then please get in touch with us at hello@simplelifehomes.com.
★★★★★ 1/5
TrustpilotAWFUL MANAGEMENT AND COSTUMER SERVICE!
Any good review you see for simple life on here is a complete lie...Simple life sucks. I am writing this review because I know they would try to contact to solve the issues and it is such a shame I have had to rest to this kind of tactics to get their attention. I don't even know where to begin! They try their very best to never ever want to give you back your deposit by bringing up the most ridiculous excuses! A neighbour of ours moved out and they talked about how Simple life refused to give them back their deposit due to 'damages' they caused in the house. Mind you I know who moved in to the house and they guaranteed all the damages simple life claimed where made to the property where still there so why where they refusing to give back the deposit since they claimed to have used it for repairs? Liars! They even had the nerve to ask for more money, but didn't fix anything! There was even mold on the windows!They never respond! When we first moved in the garden was overgrown! Spiders everywhere! They didn't even bother mowing it! We called SEVERALLY before they finally came to mow it, but they still did a pretty bad job! I am a hundred percent sure they tried to or infact refused to pay the old neighbours their deposit because of this but it still wasn't fixed when we arrived. I am sure of this because I have personally witnessed this.SEVERALLY have we called them to fix stuff in our house they never actually come , when they do, they don't even resolve the issue. We have been calling them for months to fix our stairs and dishwasher, it has still not being fixed! Mind you most of this damages are due to the poor building materials used in the building of the houses! Yes a lot of their houses are very poorly built and have obvious signs of cheapskatery! A friend of mine e has been dealing with mould in their house due to a leak somewhere in the walls, they haven't co.e yo fix it yet! They claim that it isn't urgent enough! Not urgent enough? Is it until someone dies of mould poisoning before it becomes urgent? Honestly if we could move out right now we would! The only reason why we are still here is because we actually have a good community of people here( the only few good things about this place not like its any thanks to them anyways!) And there isn't really a better option yet. They are soo quick to call to increase rent but never call back when we need them! The only thing they care about is money! Avoid thus company like a plague for your own sanity!
Khadeejah · 18 April 2024
Agent replied · 17 June 2024
Dear Khadeejah,Thank you for getting in touch. As you will have seen, we have sent you a find reviewer request in order to be able to identify your tenancy and to be in a position to help you further. We can see that you haven’t yet responded to this request and we have been unable to identify you on our system using the information available to us in your review.
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