5/5
Harry has helped us find a property and he was brilliant in getting us moved in quickly. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Harry and his team
Trusted Agent profile · Torbay
★★★★★
1,835 reviews across 3 platforms
115 Union Street, Torquay, TQ1 3DW, Torbay, TQ1 3DW
Connells's office in Torbay, at 115 Union Street, is rated 2.2 out of 5 across 1,835 reviews on three platforms, including 190 Google reviews rated 4.1.
Every review we hold for the Torbay office, from every platform, shown as written. First names only.
5/5
Harry has helped us find a property and he was brilliant in getting us moved in quickly. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend Harry and his team
5/5
I have used Connells Torquay for a couple of years now. They are excellent and their willingness to help goes over and above most estate agents especially on the renting side. When my properties becomes empty they are right on it making sure its rented asap, so I do not loose any income. They are helpful and friendly and are really good at their job, their manager makes sure everything runs smoothly. I would highly recommend them.
1/5
Skipton North Yorkshire Under valuing property trying to drive down house prices
Our business buys old run down properties, refurbishes the whole property then sells at the average value given from 3 local estate agents. Connell's were commissioned by the buyer to carry out a valuation and full survey. The survey came back with no problems but the surveyor then decided to undervalue the property by 40k. When we asked him to explain why, even though next door had sold for a higher price and had not been refurbished he would not discuss it with us and simply said its none of your business even though he had put an end to a 360k purchase. So if you have a Mr JOHN BENTLEY booked to come to your property to Survey / value your house then I suggest you cancel and ask for another company to carry out the valuation (which by law you are entitled to do) or you may as well wave goodbye to the sale. Its got to the point that if local estate agents hear he's been appointed by the lender then they cancel his appointment and ask Connells to appoint a different surveyor. Connells by law have no option but to appoint another surveyor from another company at the sellers request or buyers.
1/5
What an unprofessional conversation today with the manager called BEN Peeg. His customer service is shocking...and disgrace to all Connells branches too..when I asked a copy of the property's covenants so I can look for restrictions that apply to this one property- he refused it. He said he never heard anyone in 20 years of experience asking for one. And he won't give me one. I told him it's my consumer rights to get all the information I need before the viewings or committing myself in buying it- he told me to deal with the solicitor, its not up to them to supply me with the information of what they are selling.I spoke to my solicitor and I was informed that it's in breaching the law agaist consumer rights. . . So here we are- how does that sound for selling your house with them? Especially when other branches are ok with providing the copy of the document in the same company...is it just Torquay incompetent staff and the Manager mr Peeg ? And no manners in dealing with a difficulty in answering to the questions.. straight away switching their bullying mode and refusal..talking over, trying to piss you of so you get frustrated, can't deal with the situation in a calm and respectful manners..i think he should not work in such a sector - where you need to have some knowledge of the laws and have some respect to others.
1/5
After receiving a fantastic sales pitch to advertise our property up for sale with Connells we decided we should go ahead and sell through them. BIG MISTAKE. The advert was promised and promised but was over a week late going up. The premium photographer we paid alot of money for missed a couple of appointments and then the photos were not atall that special. When the advert did make it online it didn't really sell the property. The description was very poor and littered with spelling mistakes. We had ALOT of comments on how poor the advert actually was. After no viewings and poor service we made a complaint and took our property off the market with connells and went across the road, Advertising it with somebody other than connells gave our property the advert it deserved and We soon had people viewing and bids placed. We have now completed.
1/5
Caution should be taken if you end up in Connells
This review is based on my experience with the Weymouth branch. They are only interested in taking your money, nothing more nothing less! I have to say - and it's not often I name names - Tara in the lettings department is an outright liar and deceitful person. Unecessarily causes friction through lying and telling both parties two different stories to up her sales figures. A real shame because at the time she came across as a pleasant and knowledgeable young lady, she turned out to be quite nasty and underhanded in the way she manipulated all concerned. I wouldn't recommend connells to anybody, as a landlord or tenant. Seek your rental properties elsewhere because it will cost you stupid amounts and you will pay premium prices for rentals. Steer particularly clear of the Weymouth branch, not even worth walking through the door
1/5
Connells Letting Agents
DO NOT use this company. Their referencing process is poor and minimal. In my experience, they lack knowledge and training around landlord/tenancy law and seem to have little capacity to access professional advice about these issues. Their focus is to ensure a steady stream of income rather than offering an expected level of professional integrity. As a result, mistakes are made. As a landlord, this has caused me a good deal of emotional and material distress. There are some good letting agents out there and I reiterate, AVOID this organisation at all costs.
1/5
Connells waste of space
If I could give a lower score I would. They give it all the big potatoes that they are better then anyone else when in fact they just want to take your money and run for the hills hiding behind emails and answer phones. I have reported a problem in the property we are renting and todate nothing, we have no water in the property and are getting no help at all from connells so called support services. If you are reading this think twice before parting with your money totall useless waste of time happy to allow people to struggle and suffer
1/5
Avoid at all cost.
This company is the worse you could deal with. They would never stick to what they say. To get your deposit back even after your land lord has released it, it will take you ages. I am here calling them everyday to get my deposit back for past 2 weeks I been given lies after lies. Unprofessional service. The management on the top level is the worst. This company hasn't got a long road given the reviews it seems it's not only the bedford branch, they don't care nationwide once they have your money and tries to get away with it. Day light Robers. Please avoid dealing with this rubbish people altogether to save you from big stress in the future.
1/5
Such a terrible experience
Such a terrible experience! Had no choice but to use them as we were buyers not sellers. Told us if we didn't take a mortgage with them they would tell the vendor not to sell with us! The vendor realised this was wrong and sold to us anyway but Connells repeatedly tried to sabotage our sale causing huge amounts of stress and money loss. Took them to the ombudsman but hard to prove as all their threats were verbal. Estate agents are mostly awful but these guys are a whole new level!
1/5
travelled 1 1/2 hours to viewing and no agent to be seen....
I never have thought that an estate agent would simply not bother to turn up at a viewing . The owner was in when arrived and was invited in after 30 minutes of waiting outside, but kindly refused thier hospitality as it was awkward for both parties, and also not appropriate that the owner feels they should have to invite the viewer inside to have a look around the property without an accompanying agent. Travelling from another county taking 1 1/2 hours travelling time to get to the viewing appointment after work,... tired and then to be let down,....... no communication from the agent to at least make contact if there was a problem at any point,...and not to mention the time and money wasted to get there. The next working day made a call to the agent's and knew nothing of the appointment so was told that the agent who made the appointment would be in the next following day, and was told that they would make contact and said it appeared thier was some kind of mix up. The next day, still no contact from them. As a cash buyer,... the owner of the property may have a different perspective on who to market thier property....
1/5
Unprofessional letting agency
Absolutely useless people. Such an unprofessional letting agency. They agreed with the new tenant when he is going to move in which was by the way overlapping our contract as we payed for the whole month, and they have not even notified us about this. After realising that they messed this up these two people tried to force us to move out within 2 days. No communication, no response and 1 month later they still owe us money. I definitely take this case to the court. Not recommended!!!
1/5
CONNELLS LEAVESDEN....DO NOT GO WITH THEM!!!!!!
My partner and I made the unfortunate decision to try and sell our property with Connells Leavesden (another branch in watford). First we were sent their evaluator Bee....he assured us he could EASILY sell our property for the amount we were going to put the property on the market for. We signed the contract with nothing being explained (we are amateurs as we do not have the first clue about selling a property), not knowing we were tied in for 6 months with them as sole agent. Initially we had plenty of viewings but then they slowed down alot.....we reduced the price several times at the advice of connells and still nothing. Major issues we had were that we were told by Bee that he would be dealing with this and never heard from him since signing a contract, Shorab a member of staff also did a viewing one day and left our front door unlocked and expensive blinds trapped in our balcony door. When I came back home to this after being out all day I tried to call connells but because they were closed I resulted to emailing the branch manager Max and all he did was send an email apologising....no phone call. We eventually met with Max to discuss all our issues and he agreed that he would have been unhappy with the service if he had experienced what we had and agreed to reduce the FIXED fee to 1000 less. I don't think that they wanted to get us the best price as they were getting a fixed fee and I think they knew that they were ripping us off. We then decided to give our notice....no attempt was made by Max to try and keep us and he agreed but we had to stick to the 4 weeks, we have requested as a gesture of goodwill that he allow us to leave earlier but I suspect because this is a new branch with people who don't seem to know what they are doing they will say no. BOTTOM LINE DON'T GO WITH CONNELLS LEAVESDEN IN WATFORD, STAFF LEAVE THE DOOR UNLOCKED AND DON'T CARE ABOUT SELLING FOR THE PRICE THEY QUOTED.
5/5
Do it once and do it right
Great professional and friendly service. Steph and Steve managed the whole transaction for me. Dealt with all the other parties and achieved a very good price. I have extensive experience of estate agents and property transactions and can honestly say that Connells in Horley provided me with first class service from start thru finish. Yes, I could have used someone like purple bricks or one of the other online agencies and could probably have done it cheaper, but I would have had to do a lot of the work. Connells room all the pain away and I just left them to it. If you want to take a risk and do it on the cheap, use one of the online companies. If you want it done right, use Connells in Horley. I would have no hesitation in recommending them.
2/5
Was told if we were to use there …
Was told if we were to use there mortgage advisor and there services we would get a buyers incentive of £1000. So we did but near the end we lost the property on the survey saying steel construction and not mortgageable fair enough just look again. Found another house and put in a bid on the assumption we would get the buyers incentive like we were told and we even asked before we put the bid in then was told the property owners haven't signed up to this so we wouldn't get the incentive. We were told from the start if we use there services we would get it but what they didn't say was you only get if if the seller signs up to it. Think they have been misleading in not telling us this and getting to sign up to use there advisor. So we might lose the next house now.
1/5
£1000 Buyers Incentive
I've just been bought through connells. Unknown to them we had met the vendor. We put in an offer, and got a phone call from the vendor. He had been passed on the offermminus £1000. He contacted them find out why....very interesting explanation. (We weren't going to use in-house solicitors and had our own mortgage broker. Why on earth would I take their offer of £1000 Off when I would pay their broker more than mine? )Anyway, buyers incentive goes like this, according to vendor. I haven t seen the paperwork, so don't know for sure. If we accept in house broker and solicitor we get £1000 off the asking price. And give connells full control and sight of all our correeponce too...... BUT as we didn't do that they then increase their fee to the vendor by £1000 ostensibly as it's takes much more effort to check our finances and identity as we are not using their in house companies.....So it's a rubbish deal for the vendor and buyer. I also got told they couldn't accept an AIP from my bank! As The EA didn't understand the document and needed us to go through their broker. That's their job, isn't it?So anyone looking to sell their house, read the small print, buyers incentive makes your property less attractjve.
1/5
Connells Southville: a buch of friendly but incompetent people
I wanted to sell my flat in Bristol. Connells found me a buyer pretty quickly. So far so good. But although I asked them councel if/when I should give notice to my tenant, I was told that to proceed further, the buyer wanted to know the end of the tenancy. So I gave notice, the buyer bailed out and I found myself in deep S... Connells said they would find another tenant in no time and still look for another buyer... 2 months later I decided to stop working with them, as nothing since had happened. Bad counselling, poor communication, inefficiency: just to avoid.
1/5
Poor, Lazy, misinformation **AVOID USING THIS COMPANY**
I recently paid for a top end survey to be completed on a house I wanted to by in February (the top survey you can get)I received my report and decided to go ahead with the purchase, however upon entering the property I could instantly tell that the survey had not been completed to a high standard (there are 4 floors and I was advised by the previous owner the surveyor spent less then 30 minutes there)On my report it advised that the property had a combination boiler, no hot water tanks with instant hot water.Upon entering I found that it was NOT a combination boiler, the hot water tank was less then 3 foot away from the boiler itself, the boiler was in a dangerous location (right next to the shower)I was also advised that he had checked for damp with a machine, however upon entering the property I found evidence of damp, the area manager came around to check this and advised it is where there was damp but it now looks like it has been fixed and is purely decorative, a couple of weeks later my decorator came in and advised it most certainly was not just decorative and needed fixing urgentyThey advised that ALL windows had been checked and other then misting on one window and the fact that some of the locks were a little stiff and needed loosening.When I arrived I found several locks were actually broken and windows had dropped meaning they could not be opened, the area manager wouldn't test any of the others because in his own words "he was worried the locks would fall off and wouldn't be able to close again" (so rather then being "stiff" they were indeed nothing of the sort.I paid £495 ON TOP of what my mortgage lender already paid them to complete a top end survey but it seems the surveyor just stood in the middle of each room for 5-10 minutes chatting to the previous owner and then left saying everything was ok.At the end of each section of the survey they put a "disclaimer" saying "we are not qualified gas boiler/damp/whatever the issue is engineer, we advise you to get a qualified engineer if you wish to have more detail"I can appreciate they are not qualified engineers but not seeing this such a massive 5 foot water tank in front of their eyes and presenting false information is going a bit far and because they put this disclaimer on everything you can not pursue any of the complaints via the ombudsmen
1/5
Just an awful experience
Just an awful experience. Senior surveyor Mr Andrew Spalding turned up to my home which was his first appointment after a bank holiday weekend. Stayed for no longer than five minutes, stank of stale booze, and the result was a very inaccurate valuation. Undervalued property over twenty thousand pounds. Stated we had made no improvements on the report despite the fact we have spent over 50k on the house! This was just a man who had no interest whatsoever. Disgusted.
1/5
Useless in every way!
When it comes to rent out propeties they only know to cash the money and that's about it.I have a anonymous neighbour complaining to Connells on a numerous occasions on fake basis and they did call me every time (as for my annoyance) to enquire about it.False company who cannot defend the interests of the customers !!!I better burn my money than to send them another penny!Avoid or you'll end up paying a lot for nothing!You've been warned!Now I am looking for the complaint procedure!
1/5
Shocking -Purchased through Connells on last …
Purchased through Connells on last property and service was appalling lack of effective communication and both myself and seller were given different information - thereby delaying sale and day of sale I was chasing the keys and property was left unsure, with delay in obtaining keys from seller for 5 hours after exchange and completion. On attempting to sell current property we stupidly asked Connells to do a valuation - they overpriced by ridiculous amount clearly in order to try and obtain the marketing and offered to use previous pictures despite wanting to charge us the same price They were scathing of other agents and their more realistic valuation. Connells also said they had their own solicitor and quoted us an inflated price as we used same solicitor through another agent and they were not just 'Connells' solicitors. When trying to purchase we. Saw properties marketed through Connells and were unimpressed with the pictures or description of many of their properties - we also had problems with sales staff not returning calls when we wished to view or in one case did not know the property was been marketed with them as were unaware that it has a sales board up as they had no details - I had to chase this numerous times in an attempt to view the property. I also had call to remind me I had not attended an appointment with their financial advisor - I had not requested an appointment and did not require a mortgage. I requested viewing on property which I was unaware had been sold and asked if it return to market could they let me know - it did return to market and they did not inform me - as it was marketed with a second agent who did contact me I viewed and had offer accepted through them.I would never never sell with Connells and it's unfortunate that some properties I wished to view were marketed with them.
1/5
BEWARE of Connells and NEVER use their Recommended Solicitors!
Just sold my flat with Connells. An absolute horrendous experience and would never use them again. I paid for high quality brochures to be given to potential buyers when holding an open day. I was told this would be the best motive but the brochures were not ready for 3 weeks after the open day and once the flat was sold, due to a continous, already known problem with the printers they contract! Connells did not think that this was there error even though they charged me for the service and did not deliver. A slight annoyance to say the least. The biggest problem was using Black Solicitors their 'recommended' solicitors. It took 8 months for them to conclude the sale. My buyers used Shoesmiths another recommended solicitors by Blacks. Both solicitors did everything in their power to try and and ensure that this would cost me hugely and were hell bent on not working together to progress the sale. Example being that even though this property had share of the freehold they wanted a DOV to include the balcony in the demise. I could understand this if this was a lease hold property. Anyhow, I agreed to do it and Blacks wanted to charge me £1500 which I feel is outrageous. I refused to pay and instructed another solicitors who charged my less than £500. I complained to Connells about their 'recommended' solicitors who were not acting in my best interests at all. I also felt that Connells seemed to be acting more in the buyers interests than mine. Constantly not telling me the hole picture and it transpires that my buyers did not have the funds available to buy the property. In the end I flipped out, and told them they had two weeks to exchange or I was putting the property back on the market with another agent. Suddenly after 8 months we got somewhere. Connells are unprofessional, and really should rethink who their 'recommend' solicitors are as they are not fit for purpose. They have totally put me off using and estate agents in the future and I can now see why Purple bricks do so well. Thats exactly where I will be going next time. Charging me lots of money and not being honest with me, fobbing me off and trying to stitch me up with solicitors. You should be a shamed of the way you conduct yourselves. The fact it took you 8 months to sell my flat and you think you did a good job is deplorable.
2/5
No communication skills
So myself and my partner put our property on the market with Connells at the orbital, swindon in February. They were on the ball and very motivated.... for the first week! I had viewings before we'd even signed up with them however this attitude changed shortly afterwards: the wrong information was put up about our property, we had agreed an open house a few weeks after signing up to allow is to finish some decorating etc however the week before the open house was due I noticed that it wasn't actually advertised on their website, I called immediately and spoke to a member of staff who had no idea our property was even arranged for an open house, although he had been the one organising most of the viewings!!. So after 2 phonecalls the same day after being told they would call me back within the hour (4 hours later) I called again and got told it was on their website but for some reason wasn't showing on Zoopla or rightmove as we had paid for it to be displayed, once again I spent half the day chasing them as I wasn't contacted when I was told i would be ( by a senior member of staff) so we had our open house after eventually getting all the issues sorted, for me to then find out later that day that the reason we had only 3 people attend was because the particular member of staff calling out to registered interest had decided to do so at 6pm on a Friday for a Saturday morning viewing. This lack of communication went on for a number of weeks with different things, until the biggest issue occurred on Saturday ( if I hadn't already given them notice on selling my property I definately would be now!!) So I arrived back from a night away to an estate agent and an interested buyer on my doorstep that I had no knowledge of exactly why they were there!! Considering a week before I had spoken to a member of staff and asked them to postpone any further viewings until I told them otherwise, however despite this they had been calling me all that week to arrange viewings leaving a number of voicemails that unfortunately due to my job and working 12 he shifts I was unable to respond to these during office hours. So despite having no contact with myself a member of Connells staff still took it upon himself to send an estate agent and the interested buyer to my home!! When I called Connells understandably quite angry that this had happened without my knowledge I was told ' that's weird he wouldn't of just booked in a viewing as confirmed without speaking to someone!' Well I can assure them thats exactly what he did, not only that but he also ignored the instruction given the week before to postpone all viewings. I was then told while on the phone that this would be looked into yesterday (Monday morning) and I would receive a phonecall back, I had to contact Connells myself to discuss this at 5pm yesterday- giving them all day to contact me, I made it clear to them that I expected an apology from the person involved and was told he would call me as soon as he came off the phone and that the next person in line would contact me today which he did however he wasn't in the office when I was able to call him back and I was advised they would get him to call me between half 3 and 4pm when he was back and I was on my break from work, once again I have heard nothing from either of the two people I was told would contact me today I wouldn't recommend Connells to anyone anymore, estate agents are supposed to be there to.take the stress out of moving all they have done is created me more!
1/5
Underhand, inefficient and rude. They give estate agents a bad name
Connells made buying a house extremely difficult. They refused to accept our offer unless we used their mortgage services which they charged at £600 and did not offer the best rates on the market at the time. Trying to discuss this with them was impossible, one member of staff became very rude and hostile towards us. We were lied to and told the seller was ready to move and had found a place when she had not. The whole experience dampened our interest in the property so we ended up withdrawing our offer.
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