★★★★★ 1/5
AllAgentsTerrible and stressful
I rented through Belvoir/Goodchilds for almost 9 years, & as I have now bought the property I was renting I am so glad to be free of them! I had a terrible experience with them, & the service & responses I received from them during this period (2012-2021) was extremely poor. When I first started renting with them in August 2012, I thought they would be efficient & ‘on the ball’, as they had strict requirements to become a tenant. I recall, that despite my finance being fine, & passing a credit check, I also had to put 3 months’ rent up front (almost £1,200), their only other stipulation was a guarantor, which of course you shouldn’t need if your finance is fine, & most people wouldn’t have access to anyway. How wrong I was! In July 2014, I had been on a periodic tenancy for almost 18 months, when I was offered the chance to sign an extended 12 month tenancy agreement. This cost me £150.00, but I paid it, because I wanted the security & stability. When I mentioned this to my Landlady, she knew nothing about it at all. Despite me telling Belvoir about this, they basically called her a liar, & said she most definitely knew about it, & had given permission. I had text message screenshots from the Landlady stating she knew nothing about this, which she gave me permission to use, when I went to the Property Ombudsman with this issue. They eventually ruled in my favour, & I was refunded £50.00.The property I was renting is an ex-local authority flat which was originally built in 1976. It still had the original bathroom with ¾ size bath, toilet, sink etc. No shower. I had to put a stick on the taps shower you get from Argos! When I moved in, the bathroom was already 36 years old. The toilet flush handle had always been loose, & appeared to be the wrong size; I did inform them of this, when I moved in. Eventually it snapped in January 2016, so I bought a replacement handle & paid out of my own pocket for next day delivery, but because the cistern fittings were so old and worn, & the handle I needed was long discontinued, the handle wouldn’t line-up with the cistern correctly so the toilet wouldn’t flush. Property Management were absolutely useless & just kept accusing me of breaking the toilet & were very happy to leave me without a flushing toilet. It was only at the very last minute, when I threatened to take action, did Michael step in, but he would only state that someone would come round to ascertain whether I had broken the flush. When someone did come round, it transpired, the parts were no longer available (surprise surprise), so they had to order in a new cistern & fittings, that would fit the handle I had bought myself for £15, out of my own pocket. Whilst waiting for the parts to arrive, I was left without a flushing toilet for three days. In July 2018, after a Property Inspection, I contacted Belvoir on the recommendation of Jon who had carried out the inspection. This was to inform them how worn & old the bathroom was now looking. The bathroom was wallpapered & was coming away from the walls. I also informed them that when the hot water ran for so long, the pipes (flat is in a council block of 4 flats) made a loud noise. This led me to having to turn the tap on & off, to avoid this. I also enquired whether the Landlady would be willing to split the cost of installing a shower with me. I would’ve been willing to purchase the shower. I also pointed out as I had been a tenant for almost 6 years, I just wanted a bit more home comfort in the bathroom & that most similar properties in the area, for the same price, had both a shower & a more modern bathroom. The initial brief response I got back was a shower is not needed, because the tenant has a bath, with no mention of the noisy pipe issue. I again pointed out the bath wasn’t full size, only 4ft 7” & even me being only 5ft 10” I couldn’t fit into the bath comfortably. I did get a reply to get quotes, but there was no guarantee, & again no attempt to solve the noisy pipe issue. So, I gave up at this point. In the latter part of September 2019, I had another issue with Property Management with arranging another Property Inspection. They would only give me a vague time such as 1pm-4pm. Because of working full time & being a non-driver, & all my annual leave being booked up, the best I could do was go in work early & finish at 3.30pm. I explained this to Belvoir but they weren’t very helpful & gave me a lot of unnecessary stress. I asked if I could be the last inspection which would be 3.30pm-4pm. They finally agreed to this. So you can imagine my surprise when Jon arrived at 1.20pm on the day of the inspection. I was still at work, so had a number of withheld missed calls & a voicemail from him.
At the time I phoned the office & explained, & asked if he could go back later that afternoon, as agreed. I was told this wasn’t possible, & someone would email me back with a new date. No-one did. When I eventually spoke to Penny again, she went back to her original stance that it had to be between 1-4pm. This was getting past a joke at this point. I agreed for this time slot, purely because I’d had enough, & the Property Inspection was now set for mid-October, because of their incompetence. I did manage to get her to put a note down saying it needed to be the last inspection of the afternoon. In the meantime, she sent a letter to me confirming the date of the inspection, but she put the wrong date down so she had to send me another letter. When I finally met with Jon on the day of the inspection, & explained what had happened & prior to this, he told me there was no issue whatsoever in specifying a specific time slot! He even said he would’ve been able to return on the previous visit, if they had asked him to. So, this just proves how unaccommodating Property Management were. It was after this Property Inspection on October 15th 2019, that things really went from bad to worse. By this stage, the wallpaper was still peeling off the bathroom walls, the toilet didn’t flush properly again, the carpet on the bathroom floor was looking very old/worn, the toilet seat was loose (with old fittings) & the bath now had rust on it. The noisy pipe issue whenever you ran the hot water tap still hadn’t been rectified. Jonathan saw all this & witnessed the noisy pipes; he took photos & made voice recordings stating this. He told me to my face the bathroom needed a refurb, I know his pictures & voice recordings backed this up. He left me with the impression the bathroom was going to be refurbished, & told me to chase this up with Rob in a few weeks’ time. As I was on Holiday the following week & busy at work, I left it for a while, but when almost 5 weeks had passed, I emailed Property Management to find out what was happening. You can imagine my shock and disbelief when Penny replied stating the following: I can see on our system the property inspection report and our clerk has only noted that the bath has started to corrode and yourself has requested for a bathroom suite. There is no report regarding the noisy pipes and it states that the water supply is in good order. When the clerk is back in the office, I will speak to the clerk for more information. In regards, to the toilet seat loose, as the toilet seat was not loose when you moved in, can you tightened or screw the toilet seat? When you moved in to the property, you was aware of the bathroom layout and that there only was bath in the property. I sent an email back explaining how disappointed/angry I was. I said I was shocked Belvoir hadn’t done anything and was unhappy with the response. I also stated, that whilst it was true, I told Jon I was unhappy with the bathroom, he did on several occasions say to my face & to the inspection voice recordings, that the bathroom needed a refurb. It was his recommendation, one which I strongly agreed with & I didn’t like being called a liar. I went on to say Iron corrodes over time and that is the reason the 40 year old bath had rust on it. I questioned whether they would rent a property bathroom out with rust& again pointed out the bath wasn’t full size. I also said, Jon most definitely heard the noisy pipes & witnessed me filling up the sink with cold water almost overflowing to get the noise to stop. I also witnessed him doing a voice recording talking about the noisy pipes. To say the water supply was in good order was absolutely ridiculous! I pointed out I had notified Belvoir about this twice the previous year, & that the workmen who replaced the stop cock in 2016 had also witnessed this. I asked Penny to speak to Jon. I also stated that Jon asked me to follow this up with Rob, why would he ask me to do that, if he hadn’t recommended the bathroom refurb. I explained the toilet seat wasn’t loose when I moved in 7 years ago, & as the toilet/fixings were so old, the only way to re-fit or replace this (access from the back of the toilet which I couldn’t get to), was to take the toilet off, which I was unable to do, as I am not a plumber. If it was a straight forward modern design I would’ve been able to do it myself. I reiterated I was aware of the bathroom layout when I moved into the property but that was over 7 years ago. The bathroom was very old back then & had been deteriorating rapidly since. It was over 40 years old and was in urgent need of a refurb/re-fit, as recommended by Jon. Finally, I said I enjoyed living here, but the bathroom was really getting me down, & after paying out around £35,000 in rent since 2012, I should be able to expect a reasonable level of comfort in the bathroom, which I definitely hadn’t got. Furthermore, the service /response I’d received from Belvoir were making me consider handing in notice of the tenancy & finding somewhere else to live. I didn’t really want to do this, but I felt they were forcing my hand. I honestly felt like Belvoir couldn’t care less. I told Penny, I believed, if I vacated the property, they would be unable to rent it out again until the bathroom had been refurbished. This was not through anything I’d done-it was purely down to the fact the bathroom was so old/worn. I said I hoped this could be resolved, and would be messaging the Landlady myself, so she was aware of what was going on, &how unhappy I was. This was the reply I received from Penny; Good evening, the landlady is aware of what is going and the landlady came in the office Saturday and spoke to me. Every email that you have sent me, you have included the landlady in the emails. The landlady can see everything you have sent across to me. As discussed with the landlady Saturday, if you are not happy, you are more than happy to vacant the property. The landlady is not going to refurbish a bathroom suite, the bathroom is in working condition, you have hot running water. The clerk John takes photos of the property to send across to the landlady, the landlady has the photos herself that was sent by john. I loved living at the flat but I felt I had no choice but to complain in writing to Belvoir & start looking for somewhere else to live. I viewed another property with another estate agent, and was on the verge of taking it, when Jon phoned me. He apologised for what had happened, & said that he had spoken to the Landlady & she didn’t want me to move out, as I was a good tenant. She didn’t have the funds to refurbish the bathroom, & he can only recommend a refurb. He also apologised for Penny’s comments saying she was new. Although I wasn’t happy, I agreed to stay there, as it was so close to Christmas, & I really didn’t want to move. Then Covid hit the world, & things got put on hold. I was contacted in March 2021 by Belvoir who stated I had to have another property inspection, despite me having had a virtual one in Dec 2020. I agreed to this inspection for April 1st, although we were technically still in lockdown. I was therefore surprised to see another guy come round to do the supposed inspection; it wasn’t Jon who normally did them. In fact, he didn’t even know who Jon was at first. This rang alarm bells. I thought it strange he didn’t take any photos or recordings, or write anything down. It was only when I was contacted on April 9th by Liam, who informed me that my Landlady had decided to sell the property, that I realised I had been lied to again. The guy who came round, had come round to value the property, not carry out a tenancy property inspection, like I was told. This to me is further proof that Belvoir lie, & treat tenants poorly. I decided to buy the property, as I loved living there, & wanted to be free from the stress of renting with Belvoir, then I could finally do some maintenance to the property to make it my own. In the 9 years I rented, the property received no real refurbishment, except for a new front door & fireplace & this was only because the council (flat is leasehold) had insisted on it. We agreed on a price, & I hoped the buying process would be smooth, but it wasn’t. This was mainly due to Belvoir’s massively inflated incorrect valuation of the property. I myself, being a 1st time buyer mistakenly trusted them & was very naïve in believing their valuation, instead of doing more research &looking at sold prices etc. The 1st problem came when my mortgage lender’s valuer said the property had no value because it was an ex-local authority flat & refused to lend on it. Belvoir told the Landlady this was because the EICR inspection hadn’t been updated. I know this is untrue, because it may only affect to buy to let mortgages. She also thought the mortgage declined because of my finance, which was completely untrue. I went with another mortgage lender & again passed the finance fine. The 2nd problem came when my mortgage lender’s valuer valued the property at £17,500-£20,000 under Belvoir’s valuation. This was partly due to the property having had no real refurbishment since 1976. A fact I had pointed out to Belvoir on numerous occasions. Naturally, this upset my Landlady; because at this point I was the only one trying to explain to her what was going on, when it needed to come from Belvoir. You can understand how someone would feel being told their property is worth £85,000 to £90,000 and then them receiving the news it’s only worth £70,000! I was willing to pay a bit more than the reduced valuation, as I didn’t want to move-I really liked living there, however, I was limited in how much more I could pay, due to the deposit amount I had. I also didn’t want to be paying way over the odds for a property. I offered £5,000 over the valuation, which I thought was more than reasonable. The Landlady also sent in another estate agent to value the property, who I hoped would be more honest with their valuation, than Belvoir had been. You can then imagine how completely shocked I was, when I then received a phone call from Liam at Belvoir saying I was being evicted. When I asked him for what reason, he couldn’t give me one. When he called me back he said the Landlady had decided not to sell, because she didn’t think she could get the money she thought it was worth, but was going to do something with the flat so I was being served notice. And she was even going to wait a few days until June 1st, as the Covid notice then changed from 6 months’ notice to 4 months’ notice. Eventually the Landlady changed her mind, & we did agree a price, and the sale finally completed in early August. I was so pleased when the sale finally went through; however, the problems I faced with Belvoir were not quite over yet. On the morning of completion, naturally, keen to tie up any loose ends, I emailed Liam & Heidi, to ask when the property keys would be dropped off to me. I also asked about when I would receive my deposit back, & if I was entitled to a part rent refund, as my final rent payment was made a week before completion. Liam replied to confirm the keys were at the Queen Square branch, ready for me to collect, at my convenience, & that Property Management would answer my questions. I asked if the keys could be dropped off to me-Liam said he would also pass this onto Property Management. I received a call from Jess the next day, but the line was so muffled, all I could really understand was my deposit would be returned within 7-10 days, and Belvoir would have to chase up the Landlady for my rent refund. I did ask Jess what time the office was open till on Friday evening, for me to collect the keys, she confirmed 6pm. To make sure all this was clear, I emailed Jess asking if she could please confirm the value of my deposit, which would be returned to me within 7-10 days. I also asked her to advise how much rent would be refunded to me, how this is calculated, and when I would receive it. I also confirmed I would collect the keys either Friday evening before 6pm or Saturday morning. She replied to say she was waiting for accounts to confirm how much they needed to reclaim & would advise me. So, I went to the Queen Square branch that Friday at 5.30pm. I spoke to Jack, who to be fair tried his best to help me, but it didn’t start well when he said the system said that the sale hadn’t even been completed. He then said Sales was on Holiday, so that may be why it hadn’t been updated. He looked everywhere for the keys, in the drawers, phoned someone, went upstairs but couldn’t find them. He even questioned whether the Landlady had actually returned them, I told him she had, that both Liam and Jess were aware of this, & Liam had even confirmed they were ready for collection. After asking if I was able to return the next day, which at this point I wasn’t, he offered to get someone to drop them off. I did explain I had asked for this originally, but this was never dealt with at the time. Whilst I was at the office, I asked another colleague if he could check on my deposit/rent refund, but he said there was no update on the system since Wednesday. So, I had had a wasted journey, and went home feeling concerned. I did email Jack on the Friday evening to list out what had happened, & to ask if he could arrange for the keys to be dropped off to me, & also chase up the information I needed on my deposit/rent refund. I also informed him that I had found out from the Landlady, she had pushed the keys through the Queen Square branch door in an envelope with my address on, the previous Saturday. In the email, I mentioned what Jess had said about chasing up the Landlady for the rent, but that she had since told me she hadn’t even heard from Belvoir, & that I felt the rent refund should come from them. I shouldn’t be kept waiting in any query between Belvoir & the Landlady. I only wanted what was legally mine. At Midday the next day the keys were pushed through my letter box. Unfortunately, there was no front door key amongst them, nor a working communal door fob. There were two window keys, a cupboard key, & the old rear communal door key which was replaced about 5 years ago. There was also a key for the old front door which was replaced in 2013, but no key for the existing front door, & an old communal door fob, which was also replaced a few years back. I had to contact the Landlady about this and she eventually dropped off two front door keys to me two days later. I then felt I had no choice but to complain in writing again. I still hadn’t received confirmation of my deposit amount/ rent refund amount, or how this would be calculated. There was also the issue of the key discrepancy & the poor service I had received yet again. So, I put a letter in writing to Jon, as he had told me I could always contact him with any issue. This was received by Belvoir on August 11th. A complaint is supposed to be acknowledged within 3 working days, but I received no response to the letter, so I emailed Michael twice before I got a reply on August 19th.It took until September 8th for me to finally get an explanation about the key discrepancy & how the rent refund was calculated. At this point, I had already received the refund, before the calculation was explained to me. Michael didn’t address any of the points I raised with regards to the poor service. I only received a very brief half-hearted apology because I kept on mentioning it. To summarize, I was a good tenant for almost 9 years. I never missed any rent or bill payment. I looked after the property as best I could & the property received no refurbishment in that time. I estimate I paid about £50,000 in rent. Belvoir’s customer service & the way they treated me as a tenant was appalling. The majority of their team have no customer service skills, and their lack of knowledge is also worrying. Their poor response times coupled with inept replies only make for a terrible & very stressful experience. They clearly don’t care about their tenants at all, or I wouldn’t have encountered so many problems, & the issues I did face, some could’ve been sorted out so easily. They will never apologise for their errors, & they will never support you when it’s clear there is a problem the Landlord needs to resolve. All they are interested in is keeping the Landlord happy. I honestly don’t know how they get away with it. I genuinely feel sorry for those who have no choice but to rent through them, like I did. I am just so glad that I was able to buy & no longer have to deal with Belvoir.
Cjm · 27 September 2021
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