Every review we hold for the Maidstone office, from every platform, shown as written. First names only.
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleFrom the initial pressure free, valuation, to the almost end of our sale, Ben Siggins have been amazing. Everybody I have spoken too has been more than willing to help. Jody being our main contact, has been especially fantastic helping us with the sale of our home. She has been so supportive and ensured we have had a smooth process. I would (and already have) highly recommend Ben Siggins for a multitude of reasons.
Jimmy · 13 June 2021
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Hi Jimmy, thank you very much for taking the time to leave us a 5-star review. I am so pleased to hear that your experience with Jody was so positive. I know Jody works really hard to ensure her clients are kept up to date with everything throughout the moving experience. Its one of the great advantages of Ben Siggins Estate Agents progressing everything in-house. If you need anything at all in the future, please come back to me.
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleStaff at Ben Siggins are very helpful, especially Jody Collins who is very efficient at her job. I have no hesitation recommending this agency to local Landlords requiring property management.
Tanzy · 13 June 2020
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Thank you very much for your kind words. This means so much to me, and I know Jody will be over the moon.
★★★★★ 1/5
GoogleThey were generally unhelpful throughout our stay of two years. We had to chase them frequently if we ever had an issue as they often didn’t respond to emails. When we were due to move out they twice phoned us to say we were breaking our tenancy contract despite they fact they’d already let the flat to new tenants!
As of today they are still not releasing our deposit or even bothering to reply when we enquire about it. They did not explain the deposit return process at all to us. Luckily my partner created an account on dps website or we wouldn’t have even known that they’d contacted us.
David · 14 June 2019
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
I have already responded to your partners review, not sure you both needed to write about your issues. I have now had a full update from my lettings team; Unfortunately, You left the property in a poor condition. Your deposit is being reviewed independently by the DPS (Deposit protection scheme). We submit photographs and a full inventory of the the property which you signed and agreed with. I can assure you the decision that is made by the DPS will be correct by law. I feel very sorry for our landlord in these situations.
★★★★★ 1/5
GooglePOTENTIAL TENANTS BEWARE: I can prove that I was a tenant of Ben Siggins for 2 years. Be aware that the 5 star reviews could relate to their sales team or be fake. So far they have;
1) suggested we wait till ‘it happens again’ when we reported electric faults
2) Refuse to email us with information 3) misinformed us several times regarding our tenancy agreements via phone.
4) Stated that ‘there is nothing to protect their tenants from mistreatment by their landlord or agents’ via phone
5) Has submitted exaggerated claims on our deposits (which we only knew about because we checked per chance)
6) Refuse to respond to our deposit claim. (Possibly dragging their heels to make our lives difficult)
7) When we said we knew our rights, David threatened that he and his brother were lawyers... -_-?
8) Finally our landlord took around 2 months to repair faults; their reasoning was that it was bought 2 years ago. It didn’t seem that way as it was faulty when we moved in.
Happy to provide proof if necessary.
Mandy · 14 June 2019
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
I have now had a full update from my lettings team; Unfortunately, You left the property in a poor condition. Your deposit is being reviewed independently by the DPS (Deposit protection scheme). We submit photographs and a full inventory of the the property which you signed and agreed with. I can assure you the decision that is made by the DPS will be correct by law. I feel very sorry for our landlord in these situations.
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleIt has been a long hard road to get too exchange ! Happy to say with the help from the excellent staff at Ben Siggins we are now able to start packing for our new home. We have to say a special thanks to Sandra Taylor whom with complete professionalism got the process where it needed to be!
Thank You.
Robin & Sue Excell
Ryan · 14 June 2019
★★★★★ 3/5
GoogleBen Siggins sold my house in Tudor Avenue. A house that I thought could probably sell itself. I would described the service from Ben Siggins once I’d decided to use them as mediocre. Lots of lovely sales pitch. Not a lot of work with viewing or trying to get the buyers to raise their offer. I took a drop on the price because I didn’t want to lose the house I was buying. However, I would like to mention the solicitor I used was excellent- Apex Law. Rainham
Diane · 14 June 2019
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Diane, Firstly I would like to thank you for selling your house through Ben Siggins. I am sorry to hear that you felt the service wasn't up to your expectations; however, I am slightly confused. The price we achieved for your property was the highest price achieved for any three-bed semi-detached property that has been sold in a 1/4 mile radius of your address in the last 12 months. I am more than happy to provide you with any evidence of this from Rightmove or Zoopla. This price was achieved after we negotiated a £10,000 increase from your buyer's original offer. I always welcome feedback to help me improve the business that I run, if you can give me some specifics around the lack of work regarding viewings I will gladly investigate this and look to turn this around going forward.
★★★★★ 4/5
GoogleStaff were helpful and kept us up to date regularly, returning calls the majority of the time. Jasmine and Amy were particularly efficient, with Amy being instrumental in finding a resolution to getting contracts exchanged. Thank you.
Family · 16 September 2023
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleA very professional estate agent. Mathew Groves was very quick to get everything up and running. The pictures were great quality and a very personal service. Thank you.
Al · 13 June 2020
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Good afternoon Al and thanks for the review. I am extremely glad to hear that the Maidstone team and in particular Matthew provided the service you expected. Thanks again, Ben
★★★★★ 1/5
GoogleI rented from Ben Siggins.
They didn't do a risk assessment or inventory before we moved in, and we were living in disrepair - I went to the Local Authority before they would sort it out. Council served an improvement notice.
We were unauthorised tenants - the landlord didn't have the right to let the property - Ben Siggins didn't do the necessary checks - accepted his word.
Ben Siggins expected us to pay our neighbour's electricity bill and told our neighbour to give us £20 - our neighbour was growing plants and had a jacuzzi on 24/7.
The Landlord and Ben Siggins (managing agent) kept making up laws to justify their behaviour - clearly knew nothing about property management.
Got it all in writing and willing to prove it if necessary - awful company - avoid like the plague...could not be worse
Following the answer from Ben Siggins, I would like to say
- you could have checked the Land Registry to check we weren't unauthorised tenants - we were.
- you could have let us know when we were signing up on one property that we were signing up to several properties' electrical services, and you could have helped us with our situation by contacting OFGEM and the Landlord and telling him that having us pay electric bills for a separate dwelling wasn't in accordance with the law (not a joint tenancy).
- You could have had a look at the property prior to me moving in and checked there were no Category 1 & Category 2 hazards, but you didn't come round until months after I reported it and it was the same day the environmental health officers came round and condemned the place.
- You should of and could have realised that when new people move in and simultaneously sign a new tenancy agreement and provide a deposit, that the deposit doesn't act retrospectively across prior tenancy agreements at the same property.
- You could have been more proactive in defending your tenants but instead you had minimum involvement and were happy for us to pay our neighbours' bills and to give the deposit to our landlord to cover prior tenancies.
- And you told us the landlord wanted vacant possession to sell...but after we moved out you informed us that you gave notice due to the way the landlord behaved..bad practice to not be straight up with people
Your agents were a farce!
Mike · 14 June 2018
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Mike,
Is it possible to let me know what else we could have done or can do to try and help you?
We do take the lettings part of our business extremely seriously. If not done correctly we can get ourselves into serious trouble. I would like you to understand that we tried to work with the landlord to correct the issues you had, we had zero success in trying to achieve that. Consequently, we gave the landlord notice and removed ourselves from managing the property.
I do take all aspects of running my business very seriously as it has every impact on me and my family. If you are serious and think that I personally can do anything at all to assist you or other tenants with the points you have issues with I am more than happy to meet up with you to look at this and try and fix the problems. If you would like to do this then send me a private message and I will give you my mobile number.
Please do bear in mind though that I only have control over a number of things as a managing agent, and there are a lot of things that are well outside of my control as a managing agent, and I obviously cannot change the law.
If you would like to speak to me I am happy to discuss everything you have raised.
Finally, could I ask that any other negative reviews that are left in relation to this are left by people that entered into this tenancy and therefore had personal dealings with my company? Rather than just other people you know. I only think that's fair, as I have no way of trying to rectify complaints with people we have never dealt with.
Hopefully, I will hear from you soon.
★★★★★ 1/5
GoogleOne Star for One Word - Avoid!
I can't speak from a seller's point of view, but if you are thinking of buying a property from Ben Siggins - don't! No property is worth having to deal with them. I'm pretty sure a job description with this company would include criteria of 'dishonest' and 'rude'.
I first called up to view a property a few months ago and was told by a male member of staff "Can't you call back next week? I don't have the diary infront of me right now, and it's a staff training day tomorrow, so we can't do anything for you" - great first impression.
I then found another property up for sale with Ben Siggins just a few weeks ago - I had the (dis)pleasure of dealing with Dan Wells and Beth from the Maidstone branch, and it was a complete joke from the beginning. My first viewing was booked for this property for a weekday afternoon. No sooner had I got in my car to go to said viewing I got a call from Ben Siggins telling me that the agent could no longer make that time, and could I do later. We pushed this appointment back by 15 minutes, and Beth the agent was still late. However, I loved the house so booked a second viewing for my partner's benefit. This 'viewing' - I use that term loosely - was with Dan Wells. Dan turned up late, with another family in tow, said "this viewing won't really be yours, sorry guys", ushered the other family into the house and ignored us for the rest of the appointment!
Our highest offer, which was head and shoulders above all the others on the table (which we were tricked into making by Beth), was rejected by the vendor, but it was TWO WORKING DAYS before anyone got back to us about our offer, and even that was after me calling them and pushing them for a verdict. Ben Siggins also asked us to send them pictures of our accounts prior to our offer even being put to the vendor - this has NEVER happened to us before when we have purchased a property and was presumably to see just how much more money they could try and squeeze out of us.
Nobody in the office communicates with each other either - I called up and made an offer with a female agent from BS, and had a call from Dan 1 hour later asking for feedback on the property - he had no clue we'd made the offer. Also, never bother leaving a message for any of the staff to pick up, they never get them, or get back to you.
Surprise surprise, the property in question is still on the market. I wonder why when it had had "so much interest".
Lucille · 14 June 2018
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Lucille, thank you for expressing your concerns. We have tried to contact you to clarify some of the points you have raised. As the owner of the company I am very disappointed to hear about your experience and would like to get this sorted as quickly as possible.
With regards to the offer you made I can answer that here for you as we record notes on our system and all telephone calls are noted on the system automatically. You have said that your highest offer was head and shoulders above the rest, but it was still a lot lower than the asking price. Accepting an offer or not is not down to us as the agent, it is up to the owner of the property. We had said to you that we would try and do what we can for you, but as your offer was considerably lower than the asking price it would be unlikely to be accepted. This, in the end, turned out to be the case. Please bear in mind here, that we only ever get paid by the owner if we SELL their home, so our interest is with getting a deal done, we would have no interest in NOT trying to get your offer accepted.
We ask for proof of funds from buyers to ensure that you can proceed with your offer, it would be against the law to use this information to enable an increase in your offer. This is good practice and forms part of the estate agency ombudsman "best practice guide". Your offer amount and the amount of money you have do not have any correlation in deciding what you pay. Your offer is based on what you think the property is worth and not what you can afford. The proof of funds, however, do not need to be asked for until we have an offer accepted on the property so I need to speak with you to find out when this was asked for.
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleVery helpful and responsive team - especially David, who has been very active in finding solutions for any issues we have come across.PositiveProfessionalism
Gary · 13 June 2021
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Brilliant review Gary, many thanks. David will be over the moon to know that he was helpful and responsive. Best wishes, Ben
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleBen Siggins
Ben Siggins
Maidstone
"Having dealt with many estate agents over the last 2 months that have either constantly let me down or be extremely pushy and patronising, I have to give some recognition to a member of staff called Beth. She amazed me from the get go with how professional but friendly she was. She kept me updated, I never had to chase her and I felt she treated me as an inidivual as apposed to just someone wanting to buy. She really did go the extra mile. Beth deserves praise for the exceptional service I have received from her. Out of all the estate agents I have dealt with she really does stand out like a sore thumb. I also fed this back by email to the branch manager Matthew and he acknowledged my email and thanked me for my feedback. Should I be looking for a property again anytime soon BenSiggins will definately be my first port of call. In the meantime, I will happily recommend them to family and friends."
CeCe · 14 June 2017
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Thank you very much for taking the time out to write your feelings about our service. I know Beth will be very very happy to receive praise for all the effort she puts in to trying to give her clients the best possible service. 😀 …
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleI would certainly recommend Ben Siggins to anyone looking to sell their property in Kent. I found all the staff to be professional, helpful and supportive throughout the entire process. They always went above and beyond to ensure that the sale went ahead as quickly as possible. In addition the experience and knowledge of the team was really evident during key milestones of the sales process. Their caring and individual approach definitely helped to relieve the stress of buying and selling a property.
Bronwyn · 14 June 2017
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
I am really pleased to hear of your positive experience with us. We work really hard to provide everybody with the best service possible to differentiate between ourselves and internet only estate agents. Thank you very much for your kind words. Good luck with your next venture.
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleBrilliant group of people highly recommend David, Ben and the rest of the team are great!
Ferne · 13 June 2022
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Hi Ferne. Many thanks for the 5* review. Great to read that the team are brilliant!!!!! Happy New Year, Kevin
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleJody and the rest of the team at Ben Siggins worked really hard to help us through the purchase of our first home. We were very glad to have Jody at the end of the phone who worked tirelessly to push our purchase forward and make sure everything was dealt with and we were always kept informed of what was going on! Thank you!
Jamie · 13 June 2022
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Many thanks Jamie, we got there in the end! Delighted to know that Jody was always there to keep you informed and help to get the purchase over the line. Good luck in your new home, best wishes, Kevin
★★★★★ 1/5
GoogleI booked in to view a property on Week Street with this agent a week ago. The viewing was at 4.15pm. I was standing outside of the flat entrance on time. The office called to say they would be 2 minutes. 10 minutes later still no sign. The agent then called to say someone was outside. I described where I was. The office said they would tell the person looking for us. 5 minutes later I get a call to say the person looking for us couldn't find us and has gone back to the office and could we just come back to the office to look at the plans. Having booked this day off to view the property I am not happy with the service that has been provided. I will not be viewing with this company again.
Alex · 14 June 2016
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Good afternoon, Mr West. I am reaching out to you, five years on, to see if there is anything I can do to try and change your opinion about my company. I really would appreciate your thoughts and comments to be emailed to me at ben@bensiggins.co.uk so that I can try and help to rectify this. I did try to contact you at the time, hopefully, I can help.
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleThank you Ben, Daniel and Harriet.
Absolutely wonderful first class service!!!!!
Had been with another Estate Agent which was really disappointing and then decided to try Ben Siggins. I have had no regrets and I just wished I had gone with them in the first place.
Excellent communication has been the key to a successful sale.
Highly recommend this individual company which gives over and above personal service.
There are many well established agents in Maidstone, who boast about what they can bring to the table in promises, but please if you are looking to sell or buy or rent consider visiting Ben Siggins.
Nicola
Susan · 15 June 2015
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Thank you very much for your kind words. It is always really pleasing to hear positive comments about the work we do. The team were very very happy to hear your comments. It has been a pleasure working with you throughout the sales process. Good luck in your future quests.
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleAlex Makey from Ben siggins was by far the most helpful estate agent I have ever met, he went out of he’s way to keep me informed of potential houses that he thought would suit us and was always on the end of the phone if I needed anything.
I would recommend Ben siggins to anyone looking to sell or buy a property.
Robert · 13 June 2022
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Hi Robert, thank you so much for your 5-star review. It is always great to get feedback, and to hear that you had such a positive experience has made our day. Especially Alex who was so happy to read your comments.
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleExcellent from start to finish. I have always enjoyed the service from Ben Siggins. This is the second time I have used them to sale a property. Highly recommended.
J · 18 October 2024
Agent replied · 24 October 2024
Thank you for your feedback!
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleExtremely helpful , knowledgeable and efficient. Charlie and Mike made our experience very easy and without any hiccups. I can highly recommend
Tracey · 13 May 2024
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleHave to give a big thumbs up to Ben Siggins Estate Agents especially to Amy who has been a big help through the process with her great personality and communication skills and also to Ben who help start this process in the most friendliest and welcoming way. Great work
Mark · 16 September 2023
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Thanks for your kind words and your big thumbs up! It's fantastic to know that Amy's exceptional personality and communication skills have been a valuable asset throughout the process. Ben's warm and friendly approach at the start is something we're proud of. Thank you for recognising our team's great work and for choosing Ben Siggins Estate Agents!"
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleJust completed a sale with Ben Siggins, a good responsive team and we appreciate their help - thanks to Jody too!
Alan · 13 June 2021
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Excellent review Alan, many thanks. Great to see that the team were responsive and helpful. Jody will be delighted. Best wishes, Kevin
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleA pleasure to deal with - we were purchasing through Ben Siggins and the communication was brilliant. Thank you to Lindsey and team for making this a very non-stressful process.
Rhonda · 14 June 2016
Agent replied · 12 June 2024
Thank you Rhonda for your review. It is really helpful to our business. I'm sure Lindsey wil be really happy with the feedback. Glad you are in in time to enjoy the summer in such a beautiful garden.
★★★★★ 5/5
GoogleGreat service and a really pleasant team to deal with especially Amy she was very professional and knowledgable.
Would highly recommend to family and friends.
Many thanks guys for all your help.
Bill · 16 September 2023
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.
