Beals Independent Letting Agents

Reviewed by Very Unhappy Landlord on 21st February 2009

Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: TU9.TUD.SU7.TNZ

Using Beals is a decision I regret making. Their incompetence has been staggering and their working practices questionable. Here is a summary of SOME of the issues.

Beals failed to notice or act upon rent arrears until the tenant was two months in arrears, and then only acted when I called. Their action was poor and required constant prompting from me. The tenant left owing 3 months rent. Beals claimed that the 2 month delay in them taking action did not affect the outcome. They blamed the issue on the account being “set up incorrectly” in their computer system. They later claimed that it was the computer system’s fault and not the person who set up the account.

Beals let the house with to tenants with pets against my instructions. They then took so long to contact the tenants about it (to have a pet clause added to the tenancy agreement) that the tenants now had four pets.

Beals rented to high risk tenants without my authorisation. I gave conditions in writing that I would only accept the tenants if the rent was collected by Direct Debit and always remain 3 months ahead. They only told me that the conditions were not possible after the tenants had moved it. The tenancy was therefore unauthorised. These were the tenants who lefty with 3 months arrears.

Beals lost their office copy of several of my house keys and I had to pay for new copies to be made. They also allowed the front door lock to be changed without informing me or giving me a key. They could provide no explanation for either incident.

Beals deducted money from the rent to pay a 14 month old invoice that had already been paid from a previous tenant’s deposit. I had to provide proof of this before they would refund. They then refunded less than they had taken and it took months to eventually get the rest back, and only then after a ridiculous number of emails and phone calls and escalation to a senior partner.

Beals engaged a contractor to remove furniture that the tenant didn’t want despite my specific instructions that I would only allow the tenants to reduce the furniture if it did not incur any expense to me. (I even said that they could sell it and keep the proceeds). Beals initially apologised and agreed to cover the cost but 14 months later denied this and deducted the amount from the rent. They have refused to refund it despite the substantial evidence I have provided. As an overseas landlord I do not have easy access to the small claims court and Beals is aware of this.

Beals renewed a tenancy for 6 months when I have given them written instructions to go to a standard rolling month by month agreement. They claimed to correct it but then 6 months later tried to charge me for yet another 6 month renewal.

The local council wrote to Beals regarding council tax for a period when the property was empty. Beals didn’t respond to them or even bother informing me. This resulted in the council taking court action against me. A simple email from Beals to alert me is all that was needed.

On most occasions when I have asked for documentation I have had to ask again several times before I actually got it. The staff frequently do not return calls. Beals does not appear to have a formal process for dealing with complaints and will not accept responsibility for their many, many mistakes. I very much regret not dropping Beals as a prospective agent when I discovered that their initial engagement letter contained misleading and untrue information.

I have now sacked Beals. Their contract terms meant that I had no choice but to end the tenancy. Beals would have charged a huge fee (6 weeks rent plus VAT) for the tenant to stay. The entire engagement has been very stressful and unpleasant and I will be very relieved when the tenancy ends in just under a month. I have made a formal complaint to the ARLA and would encourage other landlords who have suffered at the hands of Beals to do the same.

Comment on this review

Reviewed by What do you expect from a trade? on 10th February 2009

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: SL9.U7Z.UMM.UUD

The staff's knowledge and attitude were terrible. They seemed to hire mostly on extreme youth and looks, certainly not on intelligence. Every question we asked was answered with a slightly-manic giggle and "Oh, I don't know that". No embarrassment at not being prepared and no offer to find out. This was from THREE of their staff....

Comment on this review

Reviewed by Sam on 26th November 2008

Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  Yes
IP address: S9U.U7N.STD.UDD

Reviewed by Red Renter on 9th November 2008

Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: EJ3.9BB.EIV.9IB

Appaling agent . Messages were rarely passed on , and repairs seldom carried out . Inspections to the property were booked ,but they sometimes failed to show, meaning I had wasted a day
I never recieved an inventory and they are claiming part of my deposit .
I won't say too much , as I am taking them to court , as part of the flat was potentially lethal .

Comment on this review

Reviewed by js on 4th September 2008

Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: ERE.9V3.9FX.9JJ

Our experience with Beals was terrible. They were meant to be providing a fully managed service but we felt we were doing it all ourselves. Delayed messages were given to us, incorrect info on maintenance problems and no clear contact to resolve these. Things went wrong at the start with an incorrect inventory which we could never get corrected. Errors on our statements, slopy shoulders from the staff as to whos problem it was to resolve. We tried to get rid of them after 6 months but discovered their huge exit charges with a sitting tenant. Eventually we managed to get rid of them when the tenant left (who was also fed up with them). Formal complaint to a partner at the company just resulted in excusses. They did not send us inspection reports without asking and the ones we got we think were made up months after the event. The list goes on and on. In the space of 1 year I have a spread sheet of issues, phone calls and emails that is over 150 lines long. We are glad to be rid of them.

Comment on this review

Reviewed by Rob on 2nd April 2008

Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: 9QQ.JRQ.JJR.9XR

I had a two bed house to Rent out in Hedge End Southampton. So I used Beal's who found me a Tenant very quickly.

Unfortunately they did not manage the Tenant very well and allowed the tenant to pay cash every month and not via Standing order as was explained to me. To keep a very long story short I had this tenant in my house for two years and some months I would get the rent and some months I wouldn't. The longest I went was three months without rent. Then I got the rent in one go.

Eventually I push Beal's out and the tenant paid me direct. Beal's were taking their full management fees!! I would not let through them again or sell a house. I would reluctantly buy a house through them. I can only hope for Beal's they no longer employ the same staff.

Comment on this review

Reviewed by TallPaul73 on 9th October 2006

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: R0N.NW0.IN1.YB4

It is said that moving house is the most stressful thing you will ever do and after 12 weeks of Beals "attempting" to sell my flat I'd have to agree that this is the case.

My story starts just after Christmas 2004. We had recently found out that my girlfriend was pregnant and decided that we should attempt to move before the baby was born. We were then living in a two bedroom flat in a nice part of town but decided that we needed a garden, more space and to be closer to our parents. Since we've been living there we had been inundated with flyers from estate agents in the area claiming that they had people queuing up to move into the area and they could sell our flat in an instant. Bearing this in mind we contacted a few of the agents that had posted flyers through our door. They all seemed convinced they could find a buyer in a matter of days, (naive I know) so we narrowed it down to two who impressed us the most, they were Beals and Saltmarsh. Their valuations were around 10 thousand pounds apart but as they were both impressive we decided to go with the highest price (greedy I know but who isn't?) and that was Beals.

This is where the first problem was. Their advertising promised a huge reduction in fees, which was one of the things that tempted us. The problem is that their original fee was so high that after the reduction was still slightly more than other estate agents (as we found out later). This aside we were still very happy with the service they proposed and signed the contract. About an hour after this we received a phone call to arrange a viewing. We were stunned that this had happened so quickly and assumed these were the first of the "queue" of people that had lined up. Anyway they came and went. They seemed impressed but later told the estate agent that is wasn't quite what they were looking for which we thought was fair enough and waited for the rest of the people to turn up. But that was it! For the next 3 or 4 weeks not a single viewing. I'm not blaming Beals for this as they cannot show people round if there is no interest. What annoyed me was the lack of communication and contact. We were potentially paying them a lot of money and they couldn't even be bothered to pick up the phone to let us know what was going on and why they thought there was non interest!!! Another disappointment was the advertising. The flat was advertised on their website but with a very basic description and no pictures of the interior which we thought was strange but they were the "experts" so we didn't argue. They just didn't seem to be trying hard to sell it.

After about 6 weeks we did eventually get a phone call, not from the agent we were told would deal with our sale but from one of his colleagues who didn't know anything about our flat or us. She suggested that we drop the price (REALLY?!!) but made no indication of what we should drop the price to so we just knocked £5000 off. We hoped that would do the trick but still no viewings and by this time the baby was getting closer (as we had explained to them time and time again!!). Still no feedback either so we gave up looking for somewhere ourselves and became resigned to still being there when the baby came. Then to put the icing on the cake a flat in the next block was advertised with Beals for a lot cheaper and made to sound a lot better, even though it was nearly identical!!!!

When the contract was close to running out we got another potential buyer but no offer, then 2 days after the contract ran out another buyer came out of the woodwork but still no offer. Then we read the contract and realised that we had to give 2 weeks notice after the contract had ended which effectively made the length 14 weeks! We wrote the letter and decided to advertise with Saltmarsh for £10000 less than the original price. Saltmarsh were everything that Beals were not. We had a call every couple of days and they were honest enough to explain how we could get a quick sale but still get a good price and we sold a few weeks after putting the flat on the market with them.

Now maybe I'm being too harsh on them and as this was our first time selling I have nothing other than Saltmarsh (who were exceptional) to compare it to but I really feel that the level of service and client care was terrible. I'm sure this was a one off and not all branches of Beals treat their customers this way but even so I would advise people to ask other peoples opinions before selling their property through any estate agents (especially Beals).

Comment on this review