Belvoir Lettings

Dreadful company. Would never use again & will tell everyone (including ombudsman) about awful service and bad, lying staff and rude owners ( Cockermouth / Whitehaven ), Cumbria.

Catalogue of errors - travelled 3 hours to see 4 properties - only shown 2 because 'keys weren't in office' - appointment was arranged 5 working days previously. Daily calls over 2 weeks to ensure application going through - confirmed everything ok. 2 days before move informed still hadn't recieved reference fr husbands employer - after 1 full day of chasing found out staff had e-mailed wrong address & faxed wrong no. (written on application correctly).

Moved into 3 bedroom house - 1 room had mould on wall but was to be used as office so not a major problem so long as it was dealt with quickly. Not even wiped clean prior to entering property. After chasing, sent 'cleaner' out who wiped mould spores from wall onto goods stored underneath & was told to wait to see if it grew back! Grew back within 3 weeks & son's bedroom now affected by same problem - blackspot. Reported.

Reported still no gas safety certificate after 1 month - plumber came out & condemned gas fire (thank god we didn't use it prior to seeing certificate!). Heating on top floor (where both damp bedrooms were) broke down - in January! Down for 2 weeks (spent chasing problem) - finally fixed after getting enviromental health out to chase them. Son had to move into our bedroom as dampmeter from enviromental health was off the scale, literally. After heating was fixed he couldn't move back into room as no plaster on wall (it had blown from the damp) and any heat was being absorbed into wall. Called back after heating fixed after hearing nothing about damp problem to be told by Belvoir! it should clear up now heating was fixed! - don't know how because problem was there before it broke down!!!

Enviromental Health called me because they had called Belvoir to chase damp problem only to be told we were withholding rent - ENTIRELY UNTRUE - we were paying for a 3 bedroom house & had only 1 usable bedroom with my husband & I in and now my 11 year old son (for final 6 weeks of tenancy!). This bedroom was now being affected & the plaster was coming off the wall as it was under my son's room. When I had asked for a rent reduction in Jan was told "that won't be happening" but despite getting legal advice to reduce the rent accordingly we continued to pay in full as we had signed a contract!

Called them to question the lies they were telling to local council about us not paying rent only to be informed the person who had told them was unavailable for 3 days! When I asked who I was speaking to because they were so rude, I was told 'the owner of Belvoir!'. When I asked their name I was told " I'm not going to tell you because you wouldnt be able to spell it" Again entirely untrue, Ms Schure!!!

After speaking to other staff, they finally agreed to contact landlord to release us early from 6 month contract then asked us to get out within 3 weeks! Was told on NUMEROUS occasions this was sent out in writing - twice - still waiting (7 weeks ago!). Arranged to vacate property in writing by end of Feb - handed in keys 02/03/09 - someone finally went out to inspect ( spotless ) property 18/03/09 again after chasing numerous times and being given 3 different dates this would be done. AND CHARGED