William H Brown Cromer reviews

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

I would not recommend William H Brown

I would not recommend William H Brown. There is a complete lack of organisation between contractors and William H Brown, meaning there are long delays everytime there is a problem with the house. If you don't continually call the office they seem to end up forgetting the problem.A few problems we have had:1. Promised a removal of a bunkbed before moving in- took 6 weeks once moving in to change to single. William H Brown never removed the old bunk bed- so now we have an old mattress and wooden remains in our house.2. We were left without heating when it was snowing for 5 days. Clearly no sense of urgency from William H Brown (even after many calls)3. Monthly emails detailing that we haven't paid the rent. Every month we call and there is an error. They promise to remove this error on a monthly basis. They have not removed this error after 6 months.

Bethany · 30 March 2021

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Shocking service full of lies and incompetence

William H Brown, MildenhallBuying this house should had been straight forward, especially as the seller was purchasing an empty house themselves. However this being in September 2020 we all thought this would be complete by December 2020, how wrong were we!Recently I finally pulled out of my purchase after 6 months of constant lies, no call backs, no updates, various stories from the agent.In their own words (and this is word for word from Becky that works there) "we only advertise and hold the keys, we just leave the solicitors to it"Wow, for an industry that involves commission you would think it would be the estate agents best interest to make sure the property they are selling all goes through?!?!?!Many occasions I was told I would receive an update, however several times over a week went by before I would have to chase myself.Daryl asked for my solicitors details after 5 months into the purchase, even though he had an email trail with my solicitor....Recently I asked the question if the resident would move into a family members house or rented while the sale progressed, I was told by Daryl that he had no family nearby and renting was out the question as the owner had a child. However, a week later I instructed my solicitor to pull out and in less than 24 hours Ben (the manager) called and advised the owner would move into a family members house or would I let him rent the property from me. Somehow suddenly the owner had family locally, a lie has been told somewhere there.Ben then also made me aware that there were works taking place at the buyers house they were purchasing, this was news to me and I questioned why has this only been brought up etc, I received the reply "it doesn't matter". Absolutely shocking answer to receive!Other examples of incompetence, passing my details to the wrong solicitor twice! I had already gave my details and the purchase was underway, however 3 months later the same incorrect solicitor got in touch with me, my details had been passed over twice by William H Brown.Daryl informed me that some document had been sent twice in December to my solicitor, this was 100% untrue as the documents eventually come mid January and were in fact signed and dated January.I would never recommend this estate agent to purchase through, I wouldn't dare sell through them as it would mean paying for their 'service'.Furthermore I was purchasing this property to let out, surely the estate agent would want to give a good impression so that I would consider (not that I would) using them as a management company. On another recent occasion I asked to view an additional property for myself and my fiance. I called Daryl on the Friday who said viewings were taking place on the Saturday, however he would arrange something for me.On the Saturday my fiance called and spoke to Tom, he was only capable of taking details and message as Daryl was currently at the viewings.Wednesday came and neither of us had received a call to which my fiance called and spoke to Daryl. Apparently Daryl had no details given and no apology was given as to why she wasn't called. On the same call she was then told an offer had been accepted!As for myself, I called on the Thurs/Fri and asked Daryl when my viewing would be. Daryl seemed to had forgotten I wanted a viewing and informed me an offer had been accepted.Right there you see 2 people called for a viewing and neither were called back, 1 was told an offer had been accepted while the other had to find out 2 days later even though they had called first.Again this is clearly an example of "we just advertise and hold the keys"

Daniel · 26 March 2021

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Mildenhall office

Wanted to view a property as first time buyers, had the money to spend.. even would of gone over the asking price but the so called agent ( Daryl ) did everything possible to not let us view the property until we had spoken to “Their” broker. When we said no as already have it sorted then we was told we have to show an AIP just to VIEW the property! Which is completely false information !! I honestly thought this kind of pressure selling tactics and anything to up their commission died in the 80s along with there cut throat slimy image. Complaint has been made with head office but I don’t hold any hope of them changing ! No wonder the properties they represent in mildenhall have been up for sale for an extremely long time causing the vendors they so call look after to reduce asking prices. But this won’t make any difference if agents are blocking genuine buyers from just viewings !! Agents need to be re educated and dragged into 2021 !!

Mr · 24 March 2021

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Swaffham Branch

Cannot fault the team who handled our sale.Special shout out to Bradly and Tony.Very pleasant and professional service from start to finish.From Natasha who valued the property who convinced me our house was worth more than I thought.They sold our house to the first buyer in the door within 2 hrs of it going on the market :-)They also acted as a buying agent for us for our ongoing purchase (without charging more) negotiating on our behalf and achieving a discount and taking away a lot of the stress.Through to the property progression team who always kept us informed along the way.We were in a pretty stressful chain that unfortunately collapsed at one point due to someone in the chain pulling out at the last hour before completion, but Bradly was fantastic, speaking to the people in chain and getting everyone to take some breathing space whilst the chain was linked up again, which fortunately happened a week later.I really cannot fault the level of service that we received and would not hesitate to use them.Thank You William H Brown Swaffham

Matt · 10 March 2021

★★★★★ 5/5

Yell

Commendation of Cromer team

I would like to recommend the professional and courteous attitude of the Cromer branch unreservedly. In particular,Jason Minns-Ruddy has offered a positive hopefulness in my quest to find my home in a very uncertain time for us all with Covid etc. This is in contrast to my experiences within this industry and it energises me with renewed hope to achieve my goal and would like to take this opportunity to thank Jason in his efforts to take an honest view of my situation and aim to achieve the result needed. I have no hesitation in recommending the Cromer office for their help and understanding in my specific situation. Michael Straker

MichaelS-1769 · 9 March 2021

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

William H Brown Dinnington

From start to finish they provided a fast efficient professional service. We dealt with Jane and Elle and both were excellent. Our buyer was constantly contacting them with questions (daily at some points) and they handled this excellently, kept us informed and our buyer happy making the process as smooth as possible. If the other estate agents in the chain had been as good we would have had a stress free sale and purchase. Cannot recommend them highly enough. Would happily use again

Richard · 22 February 2021

★★★★★ 5/5

Google

Against all odds, the sale of my late stepfather finally went the full distance. Carina Pelikan and her colleague, Miranda Blyth, went above and beyond to help me. The situation was always going to be very difficult and it was near impossible at times. I cannot thank them enough and will always remember them.

Celia · 11 October 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Worse estate agent I have ever used and…

Worse estate agent I have ever used and I have used a lot. No communication or selling skills.The Valuer was great Jennifer and then she went off on maternity leave. The rest were useless.

Talenteyed · 8 December 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Would Never Reccomend

Agency was very difficult to communicate with. The person handling our case was never available and messages to them were never passed on. Our landlord told them to release our deposit in full straight away and it took them 5 weeks to get it to us. This was with many phone calls and emails inbetween which received little response. Our landlord actually moved to a different agent part way through the year because of how difficult they were to deal with. Many friends have had negtive experiences with W H Brown too so I am aware that this is not a one off. Would never reccomend.

Abi · 17 October 2020

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

I have been searching for rental…

I have been searching for rental property in Essex for weeks now and have found the whole process frustrating and very irritating. Many estate agents seem very unprofessional and don’t even have the decency to call you back or let you know you didn’t successfully get the property. In my experience, It appears there is so much demand they have become complacent and lazy, developed poor people skills and don’t deserve the easy business they close. As a guy with a 20 year sales/ management background I have found many of them well below par. However, Harry was a likeable, friendly and helpful guy who couldn’t do enough to help me with my property enquiries. His communication was on point and he always got back to me. I cannot recommend him or his company highly enough. Thank you for all your help Harry. I got there in the end !

Mark · 15 October 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

William H Brown in howden.

William H Brown in howden.I went to view a flat to rent in August, all was well, I put an application through and waited. Eager I called everyday asking if there was any news, until the 2nd of September. Which is when o got a call from the MANAGER of William H Brown telling me I had been accepted. (Baring in mind I was crying down the phone of happiness, thanking this man for the help so he could obviously see how happy I was I THOUGHT I’d got it.) Everyday after that I called asking what and when would be the next steps (again baring in mind I was asking things like when corporate do get in touch with me how long will it be until I can move in and the people at William h brown would say every time they would give me the same answer “ Corporate is now dealing with this so you will have to wait for them to call” . Until Monday the 7th when I finally called and said right this is abit silly now who is corporate and how do I get in touch with them.They then told me it goes through corporate then to a company called savilles. Savilles who where a much more professional agency then told me what was really going on and they told me I hadn’t been accepted for this flat just my application. I then called the MANAGER of William H Brown howden and he was VERY VERY RUDE! I called saying I wanted to complain as I had been lied to he rudely replied “no you haven’t cause I was the one who told you JUST your APPLICATION had been accepted if you’ve misinterpreted that that’s on you”. HE NEVER told me any information he and his team had many times to say to me “hang on you haven’t been accepted for the flat just your application” I then got angry and swore ONCE he then again was so rude and began shouting down the phone “DO YOU WANT ME TO CLOSE YOUR APPLICATION!?” Repetitively until I had to listen and say “well do you want to cancel my application because at this point it seems that’s what you want to do!!” I said to him “if you were in my position you would be acting the same way” he then rudely stopped me talking again and said “ NO YOU DONT KNOW ME SO DONT YOU COMPARE YOURSELF TO ME” as this whole conversation is going on he then again rudely stops me to SWEAR at his own staff presumably because they heard all the shouting and stopped working. This man to say he is a MANAGER was so very unprofessional! I’ve never come across such a rude, not bothered Agency ever! He also told me if I complained about him it would slow my process down to getting a flat which was a big lie!!! The only time I got any information was when I actually kicked off! And that’s only because the top company Savilles had heard of what this manager had said and they didn’t want him to represent them like that. So they took over my application and have been a massive help and very kind ever since. I CANT STRESS ENOUGH HOW RUDE THE MANAGER OF THE HOWDEN STORE WAS! He did NOT deal with the situation professionally at all! I felt I dealt with it better and I’m 23! I also had another agent from there ignore me completely as he gave me his work whatsapp contact number and just ignored me!! Very unprofessional.

RUDEHOWDENMANAGER · 10 September 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

I’ll let my review speak for itself.

Ensured the house we were viewing was of a certain standard, clean and hospitable. “Doesn’t need new carpets or to be painted, just a quick clean”. photos of different property on the listing. They called us the day before viewing and said that there was other people interested so that we would pay the holding deposit as they knew we were desperate to find somewhere. House was vile, rotten doors, dog urine on carpet, stunk and just generally in a bad state of repair. I called the next day to ask for the deposit back. They hadn’t even seen the property in 6 months. Took about 25 minutes of them trying to make me accept the property until they finally said they would refund after I threatened court action. I’m pretty sure what they did was illegal. If not then just extremely unethical. Oh and now I’m being bombarded with numerous emails, phone calls and texts a day about the property everyday. Avoid this company.

Mr · 1 July 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Worst estate agency in England

Dear friends, AVOID. AVOID AVOIDI wanted to buy a property in Askern DN6 .I went to view a property they never told me they had an offer and advertise it at £120k and after viewing I placed n offer and now they say I need to bid over £120k if I want to buy that property . So I bid £125 and my offer is accepted . Now comes the trap .They want me to pay £1200 and use their own mortgage advisor Julie Haigh and I told them I have my own mortgage advisor and as he charges no fee from me and gets commission from the Lender I won’t loose any money because if Miss Julie haighs lender denie me a mortgage deal they won’t refund me their fees and I’m stuck with William h brown .Now as soon as I say I have my own mortgage advisor they try to scare me like “ I’ll loose the property nd will never get a mortgage from my mortgage advisor. I doubted them and checked there reviews and to my shock they have 71%. 1 star And 24% 5 star rating That tells it all.I know people will still fall in there trap like I would have but I would only tell them that please change your way of practice.Most of us work hard for money but I think most of William H Brown employees tell lies nd take peoples hard earned money . Just be honest and don’t lie to ur landlords nd customers, sellers , buyers or tenants then u won’t have a single negative review..I think the people who have given them 5 stars are there friends Untill they change the way they practise AVOID Avoid Avoi Thank uNarender

Narender · 12 December 2024

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

I recently bought a house from William…

I recently bought a house from William h brown through the corona virus period I dealt with Shelby who works there.From start to finish she was absolutely amazing and helped me and kept me up to date with the whole progress even when she wasn’t working. I can’t thank her enough for everything she did for us. I will defo be using them in the future for buying and selling any properties we have. Thank you again Shelby X

Sammy · 16 June 2020

★★★★★ 5/5

Google

Good reception and happy people Catherine is very responsible and positive always

Rajini · 9 May 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

William H Brown took over the letting…

William H Brown took over the letting and estate agency I was using to rent my late parents flat.Beware, they have a Rent and Legal Protection option on their lettings contract, but if you then decide you no longer want them to manage the let for you this policy is 'non-transferable' .When I queried why this was not explained I got this response:-'All of the insurance products we sell are on a non-advised basis'so they do not want to know.To add insult to injury their 'complaints procedure' email has BLOCKED my complaint email 3 times with the following messageYour message to Customerrelations has been blocked. See technical details below for more information. The response from the remote server was:550 5.4.1 Recipient address rejected: Access denied [AM5EUR03FT003.eop-EUR03.prod.protection.outlook.com] so delaying tactics meaning I have to send it recorded delivery snail mail.A typical big company attitude, have now found out they are a subsidiary of Sequence Homes so part of the Connells group.

Lavender · 22 November 2019

★★★★★ 5/5

Google

Lizzie is a joy to work with. Still looking for our forever home but confident that we will find it.

Clare · 12 November 2023

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

After recently dealing the Broxboune

After recently dealing the Broxboune, Hertfordshire branch for my Son’s first mortgage with Ricky and the purchase of his first property, my Son & I are both very happy with the level of service and Ricky’s attention to detail was second to none. He certainly went above & beyond!Ricky was extremely helpful, as not only did he explain the entire mortgage process to my Son but he gave his time and expertise to secure my Son’s purchase. I would highly recommend his services to anyone and my Son will be highly recommending him to his friends.

Vickie · 7 October 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Google

If you can use any other estate agent, do. I sold my property through William H Brown and made a terrible mistake of using their in house solicitors as David informed me this would make everything run much smoother and aid in communication. It only came into light how much of an error this was about 3 weeks after we had an offer accepted and was called by the estate agent we had purchased through to say that we haven't been assigned an solicitor I said this must be a mistake because I've spoken to them and I've been told they're on the case, it turns out I was assigned a solicitor only to my sale and not my purchase, through a terrible lack of communication and excuse it took a further 2 weeks to be assigned a solicitor through a totally different company because it would allegedly be quicker, during this whole time I was told my purchase would fall through because of lack of progress and we weren't serious. We finally managed to complete with a day before deadline, with 100% from anyone at the Cromer branch. No one offered a single apology, even when dropping the keys off. Their lack care and professionalism nearly cost us the purchase of our dream home. It seemed they were single handedly out to sabotage the whole thing. Avoid, avoid, avoid.

Corey · 12 November 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Google

Booked two viewings and was also talked into booking a meeting with a mortgage advisor the same day, prior to the viewings. I wished to cancel the mortgage meetings but was then prevented from viewing the properties. I was informed that the vendors required a meeting with a William H. Brown mortgage advisor before they'd allow viewings, which sounds highly spurious. Despite the fact I already had an AIP from another lender, they still insisted I saw an advisor before being allowed to view the properties to ensure I was a suitable buyer. I'm sorry, I don't care how nice a house is, how bad the market is for buyers or how desperate I am to buy, I'm not going to be bullied into speaking to their in house mortgage advisor as some kind of pre-cursor to being treated as a serious buyer.NegativeProfessionalism

Max · 12 November 2022

★★★★★ 5/5

Google

Jason, thank you for all your help with selling Allanbay. Although we encountered many delays and problems along the way - none of which was due to our end of the small chain - we finally got there. All the help and calls you made to help smooth the way and bring the sale to completion was very much appreciated. Your attitude to us and your positivity when we had hold ups and your belief of ‘we will get there’ helped us when we were pulling our hair out, as we are sure you were at times. Our solicitors had no encountered problems like this for over two years and were just as exasperated. Our buyers seem quite happy and settled in. Once again many thanks for all your help and hard work. With best wishes. Christine.

Christine · 12 November 2022

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Absolutely diabolical!!!

Absolutely diabolical!!!Where do I start?! The attitude and general way William H Brown deal with customers is disgusting! I pay ‘full management fee’s’ for them to manage my flat for me and they had no idea the tenant hadn’t paid any bills since living in the property for over 9 months!!!Then they lied about potential tenants in another property claiming the references had ‘passed with flying colours’ Which is an outright lie as they failed! Not only that, the guarantors failed as well!! They wanted us to agree over the phone and not even sign any paperwork....that’s how desperate and unprofessional they are.And the complaints procedure is even more of a joke....being fobbed of in the hopes we’ll just give up.DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!!!

Natalie · 13 August 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Appalling costumer service.

Irang to try to book a viewing but all they were interested in was to offer me a broker and to get my email address. They said they will get in touch with the owner to arrange the viewing and will call me back. Nobody rang me so I called them again after two days and it was the same they said will sort out the viewing and call me back. Another two days have past and still no one got in touch about my inquiry. Appalling customer services.

Gabriel · 7 November 2024

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

We made a cheeky offer on s property…

We made a cheeky offer on s property marketed with WH Brown which was accepted. One day before we were to exchange they call to say they have had a significantly higher offer. We pulled out as were not going to be bullied into paying more. The next day they call and say the buyer has pulled out. Completely underhand and dishonest. Where has this mystery buyer come from? We were lucky enough to be moving into my parents in the short term, however i feel they were hoping we would panic on the basis we would have no where to live. We were effectively in a no chain situation. The house has only now completed 6 months after this all arose, for a £1000 more than our accepted offer. Worth waiting for. Why were they accepting apparent offers so late in the chain and showing people the property when it had a buyer. Do not use. They go against every code of conduct for estate agents. Corrupt as they come.

Belle · 1 April 2019