Haart

Reviewed by theehm on 24th June 2009

Services: Lettings (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: 9JV.9ER.JV3.9JE

I would not recommend any one to ever use Haart to find any rental properties.

We had found a lovely new build apartment in Southgate right opposite the Haart estate agents in Southgate. We were due to move in on the 30th of May. We had a 3:30pm appointment to go through the inventory and then sign the least. I went in at noon just to confirm everything is all set for 3:30pm and I was told everything would be fine. Got there are 3:30pm and was told that I then inventory has already been done. I kindly requested to see the place one last time before signing the least, just to ensure it matches up with the inventory. The lady became very rude and told me the only way I was ever going to see that place again is if I sign the lease. Despite the property being right across the street, she completely refused to show me the place to cross check with the inventory list. How are you expected to move into a place and sign for an inventory list which you did not take part in.

I called her up the next day to ask her when I can come back to collect my £300 pound deposit. She told me I have forfeited my deposit as I pulled out of the deal. I made it clear that it was not me who pulled out and she was being unreasonable as she refused to show me the property. They still have my security deposit and will follow up with this matter as far as I can.

I should have read these reviews sooner and should have known better than to step into any Haart office. I wonder if the landlord knows this is how they are treating potential customers. I will ensure she does.

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Reviewed by Mr Pilchard on 2nd June 2009

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: 9FR.ERX.JXQ.9EQ

House was valued initially in Dec at 160k, we put it on market in Feb at £152k and 2% commission. In March we were "advised" to revalue on a scale between £145k and £155k. This I did reluctantly. In May we were advised to lower to £140k which I have refused to do. The property has been on the market for 4 months now and we have had 11 viewers, 6 of which were not really intrested in our property at all. There have been several heated phone calls between myself and Haart but unfortunately I only seem to get to speak to the office girl Friday. The sales person only came to our house after the house had been on the market for 10 weeks. How can they sell something based purely on a (initially incorrect) brochure which many of our viewers never received. Our contract terminates soon and we have already gone with another agent. I would never again use or recomend Haart to anybody. I am a cash cow, not a customer.

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Reviewed by SarahB on 28th May 2009

Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  Yes
IP address: 9QF.EJV.EIV.9IB

I had been on with another agent for 9 months on a modern development in Fleet. They had been contacting me more then my previous agent while i was on the market which at the start i was annoyed with. I thought i would give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance. They sold it within 4 days at just under the asking price so i cant complain. I do know the new manager there which did help them win the buisness but really cant fault them bar once leaving the bathroom light on after a vieiwng.

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Reviewed by Helen on 13th May 2009

Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: S9M.SUM.ULN.U7D

When we first moved in to the property it really smelt due to the old carpet which had been in when we camew to view I can only assume. We have had so many problems with the actual house itself that we just got used to people constantly coming around to look at things and fix things up. Now everything seems to be finished but we are having "inspections" from them at least once a month, sometimes two and when we ask them to re-arrange because we won't be in they tell us they can't change the date or time and will use their own key. Considering we are supposed to be able to call this place our "home" we have no privacy what so ever. I am in the middle of my exams and instead of leaving the inspections until after they are finished, which is only a month away, they are coming twice in that month!! It's absolutely ridiculas. I would most definately NOT recommend them unless you like having the company of your estate agents because believe me, you will get to know them very well.

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Reviewed by ellie_q on 6th May 2009

Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: SMT.STD.UNZ.UZL

I say they 'sold' a property - actually they are currently failing to sell it.

We chose them because we were impressed with the valuer (and liked his valuation) but asked him to please be realistic and list for what he thought it might go for as we didn't want to have to reduce.

Three weeks on, and having had no viewings (and no communications) for over a week, we have been advised to reduce the price. The stroppy little madam I spoke to says this happens 'all the time' as no-one knows what places will go for. She couldn't then explain to me why I'm paying TWO PER CENT for their 'expertise'...

No board up, or offered. No feedback when we were told it'd be within 24 hours. Three viewers didn't turn up, but I only found out because I phoned late the next day - no-one bothered to tell me. No sale. No viewings. Inflated price to get us to sign.

I am counting the days till we can get shot of these jokers.

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Reviewed by SouthgateBoy on 20th April 2009

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: S9M.U7N.S7G.UM7

I was just checking on the Internet to see if this company was going bust yet, and I was amused to see this thread.

Having bought and sold many properties in my time, I have to confirm that these are easily the worst Estate Agents that I have ever worked with.

My issue revolves around two issues when I was looking to buy two houses last summer.

Firstly, we put an offer in on a place in Southgate after being assured that it was chain-free. This was important because I had exchanged and was committed to a sale on a particular date.

After my offer was accepted, the negotiator told me that the vendor wanted 8 weeks to find a place... I obviously withdrew my offer as the place was not chain-free as promised, and then bought another place (genuinely chain-free!) moving in a few weeks later.

Afterwards, it turns out that the property that I bought was also on Haart's books, but had never been marketed to me by them. Their fault, not mine.

When looking for the second house a few weeks later, I met again with negotiator who had shown me the first house. He was fine, but ended the viewings by asking why I hadn't bought the first house from them.

"Because you didn't market it to me, or tell me it was on your books?"

Anyway, I had an offer accepted on the second house and was waiting for things to progress. I had a slightly problematic buyer who was a cash-buyer, but first-time and was really, really dragging her heels.

Some weeks later, the negotiator's boss called me up with a rather surly tone asking me what was going on and why I wasn't progressing. I explained that I was waiting for things to progress with my sale and that I'd move ahead as soon as I was happy that my sale was progressing.

Some minutes later, I had an irate call from the branch manager accusing me of 'mucking them around' having bought a house on their books from another agent.

To this day, I still don't understand exactly what the purpose of his call was, or what his point was meant to be, but so appalled was I with his behaviour that I withdrew my offer.

Ironically, my Mortgage Offer for that property arrived the morning that he called me to abuse me.

I feel sorry for the vendor; if this property had been on another agent's books, I would be living there now.

Having worked with close to 20 agents around North London, there is no doubt that these are the worst.

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Reviewed by jt on 12th February 2009

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: JFI.9FV.9EJ.9XQ

They overpriced the property, didn't market it until asked why not by me, now they can't even get the property off HOT PROPERTY, after a year.
If using these agent be on top of them

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Reviewed by Gareth McConnell on 10th February 2009

Services: Lettings (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: SL9.S9M.TTM.U7L

I'm going through a miserable time with these people at the minute. First of all I had to give my debit card details to hold a flat I wanted to let on the understanding nothing would be taken from my account, they contact me a few days later to tell me the flat's been secured and is mine, when I'm jumping around congratulating myself and thinking 'YES GARETH YOU ROCK STAR!!!'', they tell me there's an invoice being emailed to confirm the flat is mine, a day later I realise they took a whack of money out of my account without asking, my annoyance is only just overshadowed by the fact I have secured the flat but I'm still angry they raped my account without asking.

Next I go into their office with my forms and ID only to be met by the senior manager who's a complete airhead and is in fact the woman who shafted my account and discover she wouldn't inspire confidence in a spell your own name competition, so she goes on to say the photocopier's not working and would I scan my passport and email it to her and I'm thinking, you really know how to treat your customers, I'm paying a fortune for services and you just make me feel DIRTY.

But what happens next really takes the biscuit... next they call to say the tenants aren't moving out and the flat has been taken off the market. CAN YOU IMAGINE - I'm talking shower and scrubbing brush here, skin red raw, doctors analysing what I'm saying and self-help books for the rest of my life!!!! I'm still waiting on my refund and will let people know if they can get that right... Haart???? HEARTLESS!

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Reviewed by lawbob on 23rd January 2009

Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: S9U.UNG.UZZ.TN9

I would recommend everyone NEVER to use Haart, based on my experience as a tenant. The staff and especially branch manager are completely imcompetent, and the manager is really not a nice man.
Haart held on to one months rent claiming never to have received it, threatening eviction and the like, while two months later, after pursuing a bank trace, they find the money is in Haart's account all along. I complained but I didn't even get an acknowledgement of the letter, let alone an actual reply. Ongoing problems in the property - i.e. stuff doesn't work! They don't seem to care and take AGES to sort anything out. Many issues are still unsorted. My experience with Haart has been the worst ever with an estate agent. Never again.

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Reviewed by Peetie on 7th October 2008

Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: EJ3.J3J.JEF.93J

I am not surprised I'm not the only one who has had a lousy experience with Haart.

They sold our property last year having given me all the stuff about having a 'huge database of people wanting just my sort of house in just my area' and wonderful virtual tours and floorplans on the Internet. We were being pressed by the seller of our next property and went with Haarts for the 'hassle-free' service they promised, despite the higher-than-average fees. We thought we'd get what we paid for.

What we actually got was a service which was lacklustre, inaccurate, slapdash and definitely very average. I had to send the brochure details back three times before they were correct - well actually they still weren't quite correct in a couple of very minor details, but as I said we were short of time. It took 3 weeks to get the floorplan done - and then only because I phoned and complained for the third time and the manager came out and did it himself. The picture in the first and largest newspaper advert was awful and they refused to put in another large ad to compensate, despite getting no viewings at all from it. We had to chase important information that Haart should have been bringing to us. Etc, etc that's just a sample.

In the end, we were so appalled by the service that we put in a formal complaint and were offered a derisory amount off the bill in compensation, which we refused.

Instead, we paid a proportion of their fee which we considered was reasonable - about 2/3 - and which was an average of local estate agent and Internet fees at the time.

Haart are now taking us to court for the balance, saying that we breached the contract by not paying the full amount. There are two sides to every contract and they certainly did not uphold their obligations. If they had done as they promised we would have paid in full with thanks. Who committed a breach of contract? Not us.

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Reviewed by mad on 8th August 2008

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: S9Z.T7N.UZ7.TTM

I'm glad I read those reviews.

I am considering putting my house on the market with them but after reading these I will probably go with someone else. My problem is their fee structure, we were quoted 2% and they don't want to negotiate at all on that - which is a shame as other agents are more relaxed about this (and their fees a low lower).

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Reviewed by RoygBiv on 3rd July 2008

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: S9N.UMZ.S7G.TU9

We placed our property on the market with Haart when we were buying a property also on with them at the start of the year (Farnborough Branch). We had heard on the grapevine that where we were was not their backyard, but they assured us this would not make a difference.

At the start they seemed a little incompetent - spelling mistakes and completely incorrect errors on our sales literature and a couple of meetings where they did not turn up.

They were also reluctant to suggest an asking price for our property and placed the emphasis on me to suggest one. In the end they took what I guessed at price and the property went on the market.

It appeared online promptly but took a while longer to appear in the papers and their window.
Viewings were generally professional at the start - feedback was given within a day or so, but we had to chase sometimes. It also became apparent quite quickly that their policy was to get as many people through the door as possible - we therefore had people no interested who view for reasons that were obvious (i.e. no garage - the literature said this, so why did Haart push them to view?).

An offer was made, for below the asking price, which we negotiated via Haart to a figure we accepted. One of the reasons we accepted was that we were told the buyer was a cash buyer and in a position to move. This was confirmed in a letter from the Branch Manager. Imagine our surprise a week or so later when we were told that actually they had a property to sell first!
Nevertheless we pressed on, found a property and placed an offer ourselves, warning the vendor that it could be a while before we were ready to move due to our buyer.

A week or so after the offer, we were informed by the vendors estate agents (not Haart), that their client had been contacted by Haart direct, warning them that our sale was not likely to go through because of the position of the person offering on ours, and proposing that they rejected our offer and placed their property on the market with Haart. Needless to say, they rejected, but it left us in a sticky situation. In addition, the Haart Manager would not confirm (nor deny) that he had had this conversation.

Communication went quiet from Haart for a bit after this and in order to expedite a sale we placed our property on the market with a second Agent, which generated a bit more interest. In the meantime, the Haart Manager at the branch was replaced and we were pressured into contemplating reducing our price due to the market pressures. In several instances I was (indirectly) blamed for our property not being sold as the asking price had been my idea - despite the fact Haart would not suggest one.

We held firm as we are in no hurry to move and supposedly still had a tentative offer. However, Haart seemed to have no detailed knowledge of this offer towards the end of our agreement and we reached an empase.

The final straw was a viewing that occurred without us confirming with Haart that it was ok - the first we found was when they rung attempting to give feedback. When we queried why there was a viewing they ummm'd and erred and blamed it on a clerical error.

We have now taken our property of the market completely and will wait a year or so to see how the housing market pans out. However, when we attempt to sell again Haart won't be top of our list.

In conclusion, I would say Haart are run of the mill for estate agents in my experience - they want to sell your house, but want the sale quickly, rather than perhaps the word of mouth that can generate repeat business. In a sector where there can be little to separate one company from another, Haart has done enough (or not) with us to be viewed in a worse light that others we have dealt with.

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Reviewed by grundy on 18th June 2008

Services: Sales (as a Buyer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: 9QR.J3I.ERI.9VV

I unfortunately purchased a property which was misdescribed. When legal action was taken against the Seller, it transpired that they had been 100% open with Haart but Haart had been economical with the truth to say the least! Needless to say the Seller is now pursuing Haart.

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Reviewed by Jeff on 16th June 2008

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: EJ3.9BR.J3E.9QX

If you are looking to sell your house I would urge you to look elsewhere. These guys a FRIGHTENINGLY stupid and unhelpful. Their latest viewing of the day occurs while most people are still at work, and they just don't seem very interested in selling houses. Add to that the fact that, when I asked for 3 bed houses with a garden and a garage they sent me adverts for 2 bed flats with neither, and I can't imagine you get much luck selling your house with these jokers.

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Reviewed by Winger on 16th June 2008

Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: EJV.JIE.EVQ.9VI

Well, we put our property on the market with Haart 8 months ago, at a fixed fee of 1.25%. Now they are pressurising us into reducing our asking price (which we agree with actually) but they won't reduce their fixed fee accordingly. They want it to stay based on the ORIGINAL asking price!

All we want to do is move to 1.25% variable fee rather than 1.25% fixed, but they claim their Head Office won't let them do that. Instead, they claim that Head Office have INCREASED fees to 1.6%!

So what was the outcome? They have asked us to leave if we won't reduce the price, even though we said we would if they make that minor change to their commission!

And they only phoned again yesterday asking when we would be leaving because 'their Head Office is giving them stick for not reducing the price of our (and other) properties!"

Steer well clear, they are selling for themselves, not for their clients.

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Reviewed by jamesp on 17th May 2008

Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  Yes
IP address: SMT.SDG.S5G.U7G

I recently sold through haart in Burnham and found them to be nothing less than EXCELLENT. I am dismayed at some of the comments on here about haart as their staff seemed to be well educated and trained and were professional at all times!

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Reviewed by Steamerpoint on 5th March 2008

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: 9QF.EBJ.JXQ.93R

Haart are a joke. I had to type Prospective Customer because I am unable to select Employee. I worked as a manager for Haart for a few months before quitting as soon as my pay arrived in my bank account.

They rip customers off with their fees charging fees on a sliding scale. What they do is over value a property to win the business. Lets say they tell the owner the house is worth £210,000, but really it is worth £190,000. They then pull out a table and along the £210,000 line it says £4725 (Equivilent to 2.25% for example) they write this figure on the agreement and the owner agrees to pay this plus VAT on completion. Of course the house doesn't sell for £210,000. The vendor is pushed into dropping the selling price until they eventually sell for £190,000. The vendor is then asked to pay £4725, which is now equivilent to nearly 2.5% plus VAT. Had they put the owner on a fee of 2.25% the owner would have paid less commission and probably wouldn't have agreed to pay 2.5% on day one if he knew that this would be the eventual fee!

They treat staff very badly, moving them between offices 30 miles away with a few hours notice. Staff are unfamiliar with the area, branch and are completely ineffective. They are disorganised, heavily paperbased and spend more time completing stats sheets on how many viewings they have booked each day than concentrating of getting houses sold.

Staff worry about getting the wrong people around houses just to get their figures up. Moral was very low while I was there and people were leaving after only a few months of abuse. This left little local knowledge in any one office, yet staff were told to wing it and pretend they knew the area, often making big mistakes as they went.

They sponsor football teams in an effort to appeal to the local community, but it is more about advertising their name behind the goal nets for the TV cameras.

They are a nasty company and when they start putting their staff and customers first, before their huge profits, then maybe I could say a good word about them.

Their sharp practices were enough for me to quit estate agency when I left them and I returned to an office management job working with happy people where I was allowed to manage, rather than manage in name only. Avoid.

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Reviewed by Barbara on 7th February 2008

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: T00.T00.00M.7L2

Hadleigh branch in Essex and especially some upstart manager called Steve Kelly....truly awful agent.....overly pushy and very un-professional attitude when valuing my home... I don't usually bother giving feedback but I felt I had to warn people off this agency.

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Reviewed by timothy on 21st December 2007

Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  Yes
IP address: RBC.DRM.ERB.CDR

awful

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Reviewed by roseandchan on 4th November 2007

Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: 0D7.504.P8M.047

I used Haart's Thetford branch. Sold throught them but they never knew what was going on. In the end we delt with buyer on the phone. Their conveyancing goes to some big office up north, who also never know whats going on! Sale did go through but no thanks to this agent. Manageress has bad attitude!!

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Reviewed by Ahsan on 11th October 2007

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: 0M7.040.M70.4X5

Booked an appointment with Haart to view a property, went to their office at given time. The guy who was supposed to take me to the property was not there. After a long wait another guy told me that he will let him know that I visited... in other way, buzz off.

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Reviewed by AW on 23rd August 2007

Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  Yes
IP address: 0S0.4P0.5SB.SBN

Helpful face to face. Leave "sold" properties on their website (and hence rightmove) when they are long gone.

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Reviewed by jethro on 9th August 2007

Services: Sales (as a Buyer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  Yes
IP address: 95R.M0D.95R.M0D

The team pulled out all the stops when there was a problem with my purchase and sale. I was in a long chain and there were many complications including a person that had a sharia mortgage. The team at Haarts Arnold Nottingham were very efficient and informative.

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Reviewed by Jo on 24th March 2007

Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: 9D6.NE8.50B.45C

Reviewed by Netti on 5th October 2006

Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?  No
IP address: 45R.RBB.4HD.S5T

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.

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