Rate Haart

I have been very disappointed with FJ Lord (Haart company for London). I used them for renting a "fully-furnished" one-bed flat. I visited the flat while it was being "refurbished" or so I was told it would be. A month later when I moved into the flat (I signed the contract before checking the flat as I was moving back from abroad and had nowhere else to go to), the only thing that had been done had been painting of the whole apartment (it smelled very strongly for over a month), the carpets had not been changed (there were massive stains, from the boiler blowing up, I subsequently learnt) and there were no curtains. Windows were stained and water pipes and bathroom ventilator all very worn out and noisy. So much for the newly-refurbished flat I had put in an offer for... When I started asking for things to be done, I was asked to speak to various other people - they weren't sure which office or which department was supposed to be dealing with me... After speaking to about 10 people, I finally started withholding rent to get things repaired. Six months later, two weeks ago, everything was finally repaired. Last week, I got a notice that the landlord wanted to regain possession. I am glad I am leaving but will never use FJ Lord again. They misled me into putting an offer for a "newly-refurbished" flat, lied to me about the carpets being changed and were completely incompetent to get things repaired once I was in the property - the property managers had never even set foot in the flat and couldn't even tell me where the meters were! As an agency, they have various standard forms which are very much to the advantage of the landlords, so please beware before you sign anything with this agent.