Castle Estates
Customer Reviews
Reviewed by Cov1 on 25th April 2008
Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
My list of complaints about Pettifer (Castle Estates Coventry) is endless....They constantly made mistakes, LOST the rent on 2 occasions, accused my tenant of not paying and made her pay twice when THEY had lost the money. Forgetting to pay me, paying me in Euros (!!!!), not notifying me when they spend large amounts of money on repairs. In 2 years, there has rarely been a month when I haven't had a problem. Not only do they constantly make mistakes but they never even pick up on them until we point them out. I feel I have been paying them a lot of money to do absolutely nothing. They seem to have forgotten that they have to provide both myself and my tenant with a service rather than just raking in their share of the profit and sitting back.
They have just had the nerve to say that we bother them too much with problems - I had to point out that I am also sick to death of bothering them about the problems, which are in themselves indicative of the non-existent service they are providing. I have actually paid to get out of the contract with them now, and am using another agent.
Would NEVER consider dealing with them again. If you want to pay for the priviledge of being stressed out by a company who are clearly more concerned by their profit margin than with providing you with any of the services that they supposedly offer, then Pettifers are for you!
Reviewed by sooze on 3rd January 2008
Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
Absolutely brilliant, best letting agent I have every used. They know what they are talking about, don't overcharge landlords and just as important don't overcharge tenants.
Commented by el lobo on the 12th January 2008
are we still refering to Salisbury in Wiltshire, as these are all franchises and I am sure there are some very good ones out there
Commented by el lobo on the 12th January 2008
you do not say where you rented out, this is important as they are franchises, my experience was with Salisbury
Reviewed by lizziehug on 3rd January 2008
Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
I used Castle Estates in Exeter and would recommend them to anyone. They took on a lot of additional work in getting rid of a very troublesome tenant and didn't charge me a single extra penny! Long may they reign.
Reviewed by Ravi on 17th November 2007
Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
Lived for 6 months in a Nottingham Flat. Horrible service. Did not have basic services when I moved in fully furnished flat like vaccum cleaner, duvets pillows although was supposed to be there according to iternary.
I was blackmailed to pay more rent when I moved in than previously agreed as I signed papers on the day of moving. Broken furnitures were not replaced for 5 months despite reporting.
They even charged me from deposit to clean carpets, kitchen, etc when I left the flat in a near normal state. Please please never deal with Castle Estates.
Ravi T P
Commented by EL LOBO on the 29th November 2007
I agree with Ravi they are a disgrace.personal experience.
Commented by Jay Johnston on the 6th December 2007
Yeah. They (Bristol) put my rent up as well: £420 to £450 and when I left the flat I cleaned it thoroughly and they expect me to pay for it to be cleaned again! Cheeky f .....
Reviewed by Rob Hall on 29th August 2007
Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
I rented out my bungalow through Castle Estates' Salisbury branch for 6 years of which the agent received a very good commission, but gradually towards the end he let the bungalow go into decline. The crux of the matter is that at the end of the contract, he has refused to pay me the money owed, ie rent damages and costs incurred amounting to over 1 thousand pounds. He refuses to contact me and has absolutely closed the door on us even though he had two solicitors letters which he also ignored. This is over 18 months ago and we are still waiting. We complained to head office and they passed us over to another agent in Southampton, who was most unhelpful. He threatened us to take no further action.
There is a lot more to this tale, whether you are interested remains to be seen. As far as I am concerned Joe O Neill is a liar and a fraudster.
Sponsored Links
Estate Agent Information
Castle Estates
Castle Estates are a respected and well-established force in the Residential Property Management market.
Offices / Branches
- Aylesbury (Buckinghamshire)
- Barnet (London)
- Bath (Somerset)
- Battle (East Sussex)
- Bletchley (Buckinghamshire)
- Buckingham (Buckinghamshire)
- Chipping Ongar (Essex)
- Clifton (Bristol)
- Coggeshall (Essex)
- Coventry (Warwickshire)
- Dartford (Kent)
- Derby (Derbyshire)
- Dronfield (Derbyshire)
- Eastbourne (East Sussex)
- Exeter (Devon)
- Gillingham (Kent)
- Glastonbury (Somerset)
- Greenock (Inverclyde)
- Groes Faen (Cardiff)
- Hounslow (London)
- Liverpool (Merseyside)
- Lytham St Annes (Lancashire)
- Middlewich (Cheshire)
- Norwich (Norfolk)
- Nottingham (Nottinghamshire)
- Penistone (South Yorkshire)
- Pocklington (East Yorkshire)
- Salisbury (Wiltshire)
- Solihull (West Midlands)
- Southend on Sea (Essex)
- Stafford (Staffordshire)
- Stockport (Cheshire)
- Stony Stratford (Buckinghamshire)
- Sunbury-On-Thames (Surrey)
- Tamworth (Staffordshire)
- Taunton (Somerset)
- Usk (Monmouthshire)
- Wakefield (West Yorkshire)
- Wandsworth (London)
- West Malling (Kent)
- Windsor (Berkshire)
- Woking (Surrey)
- York (North Yorkshire)
Services
- Sales
- Lettings
Professional Membership
Commented by Roadrunner 2 on the 14th June 2008
We had the same problems, too quick to spend our money without consultation. Once they spent £500 on repairing a 26 year old boiler without asking us, we would have replaced it, also £90 on repairing a tap washer in the kitchen. We also found that the guy in Salisbury (O Neil) did not return the tenants deposit or pay us for the agreed damages by the tenant, and in 2 years never inspected the property. The outgoing tenant said it was filthy when he moved in and had to get a cleaner.
We also now have an excellent agent I would be happy to recomend to anyone in the Salisbury area.
Commented by Castle-Estates on the 24th June 2008
I am unsure who this landlord is as I do not recognise the situation and he/she has hidden behind anonymity and not had the courage to sign their name.
This webite is managed by Mr Dravecky, who tells me the website is based in Slovakia, outside the jurisdiction of British courts.
Therefore anybody can say what they want about an agent anonymously and it may be true or it may not be. Mr Dravecky knows nobody can chase him or his site because it is a fair bet Slovakia does not have the same laws as the UK. So, there is little possibility of any comeback against Mr Dravecky.
I doubt if Mr Dravecky checks the facts of any of the comments made on his website and if he doesn't then he should do, otherwise he is in danger of breaking the British libel laws.
Ftom time to time things go wrong with tenancies and most agents will do their best to put them right, but what landlords often don't recognise is if tenants don't pay the rent, then they cannot be paid money the agent does not have.
If arrears build up, the agent can send letters to the tenant, but if he/she does not pay, then unless the landlord has an insurnace policy for rent arrears, there is little the agent can do because the laws allow tenants to stay in a house until eviction notices are obtained and this can take several months.
We have done one eviction in 12 years and because we had a gurantor the landlord is getting the rent arrears each month, although it will take afew years fro it all to be paid off.
That is not a bad record.
Regards
Paul Crisford of Pettifer
Commented by J Dravecky on the 24th June 2008
To Mr Crisford:
I can't see anything wrong with a Slovakian web company expanding their business abroad, same as there is nothing wrong with Ebay.co.uk being registered in Luxemburg, Amazon in the USA, etc.
Slovakia is a part of the European Union and the European law applies there, too.
All reviewers must confirm their email address when they exprees their opinion. We promise to never give their personal details to third parties - that includes estate agents; the data protection act applies to Slovakia as well.
Everyone is entitled to an opinion and everyone has a right to express it, no matter if you, Mr Crisford, like it or not.
As I told you, we double checked all reviews of your company and deleted one which we suspected wasn't genuine. We will not remove the others, sorry.
Any firther conversation on this subject will be deleted. This is not the right place. You are welcome to comment on reviews though.
Add your comment