1/5
GoogleWe let with Smarta move for 18 months and during the tenancy, on the whole, we didn't have a bad experience, when quick fixes needed to happen they happened, inspections were periodic and friendly and respectful. Come to checking out, it is a different story, from the moment we tried to hand our notice in, we were met with nothing but brick walls and a property manager, who did nothing but throw out wild accusations and make immoral requests. When we moved in the property wasn't in the greatest of conditions, however we set ourselves on cleaning it and sorting it as we needed somewhere for us and our son to live. When we moved out, "Josh" the property manager attended the property, alone, took some photos and tried to charge us £300 for cleaning, and then £150 for some damages, we were asked to transfer them the money and then they would release our full deposit from the DPS. I immediately disputed the volume of works being quoted for and the cost of the quotes, and why I was being asked to pay the money outside of the deposit protection scheme. They would not budge on price to complete the work, and when I offered to do the work myself, I was told I would be charged daily rent from the end of the tenancy until I completed the works, deliberately making it more expensive than to use their contractors. At this point I stated to smarta move that I wanted to take some legal advice and i will come back to them, this is when the accusations began, they called me threatening and aggressive, for wanting legal advice. When I asked why we were being asked to pay the money outside of the Deposit Protection Service, i was told "other people have agreed figures with us and then disputed on DPS, we dont want to take that risk". I got some quotes for myself, including cleaners that were quoting over half the price that Smarta Moves cleaners were, even though i disagreed the property needed a full clean, I just wanted the business done, they told me to instruct a cleaner that can do it for that price, and when I came back asking for evidence of a professional clean prior to check in they became dismissive and started calling me a liar saying "You said you have a cleaner that will do it for £150, why can you not book them in? Is it because there isn’t a cleaner who will do it for that price as I know and you know, if so just be honest" After 5 days of arguments that just became petty and childish with this "professional" business i put a claim to the DPS for our deposit as Smarta Move was refusing to do this, They then submitted costs of £600 to complete works on the house, we had to go through a process of finding everything we had, photos, emails and submit this to the DPS, they lied on their claim stating that we said we would be deliberately spiteful and reject everything they are claiming for. Fortunately in the end the adjudicator saw sense, They awarded them a grand total of £82 to cover some costs which we did agree with, however it meant that we had to go without half of our deposit for nearly 2 months. So if your happy to deal with liars, fraudsters and just a damn right unproffessional letting service, Smarta move has got you covered
