“If I could give them no stars, that would be ......”
1 Star Review
Oct 04,2013
By:
'K8E'
Oct 04,2013
Branch: Edinburgh, 21-23 Church Hill Place
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: EH14
Branch: Edinburgh, 21-23 Church Hill Place
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode: EH14
1
people found
this helpful
If I could give them no stars, that would be more accurate...
Sure, when we set up viewings with them they were brilliant, wonderflly helpful and able to provide a wealth of information. When we signed the lease they were professional and helpful at every stage, they even arranged for the landlord to make a few adjstments to the property which we had asked for. We were delighted, FINALLY a letting agency who were professional and helpful... or so we thought.
On the day we were due to move in we went to the office, excited at the prospect of picking up the keys to our new flat. We signed the final documents and then got handed the keys and left the office to go to the flat. We arrived at the property and entered the downstairs door which a friendly neightbour held open for us as they were going out. We then climbed the stairs to the top floor to our flat and tried to unlock the door. Tried being the operative word - it soon became obvious that we had been given the wrong keys, and not those for our new flat. We phoned Alba, who kindly sent someone out to us with the correct keys, and we were finally in the new flat!
Only once we were inside the flat did we realise we had another problem. The flat - supposedly cleaned to the high standards Alba had detailed we must clean it to before moving out ourselves, was in short - disgusting. Dusty door frames, animal hairs ont he carpet and matress, greasy sticky and dusty cupboards in the kitchen, light shades covered in dust, and urine stains under the toilets seats to name but a few issues. Alba did offer to send out cleaners to us, but this was friday morning, and they couldn't get the cleaners to the property until monday afternoon - Both myself and my flatmate had to be out of our other flats by sunday at the latest, and still had to clean them... we didn't want to move our stuff into a dirty flat either. Int he end we told them we would clean the flat ourselves, and spend the next several hour cleaning it to a livable state.
I wish I could say that was where our problems ended - but sadly not. Since moving in we have had numberous maintenance issues, all reported straight away, and every time it has taken months to have anything done about them - with one exception - it only took Alba and the landlord 2 weeks to replace the fridge which was broken when we moved into the property - so we had 2 weeks of no means to keep any food cool.
As I write this review just now I am sitting in the flat at the end of my tether - waiting for contractors which Alba are sending out to have a look at the electric fire. Five weeks ago we smelt an electrical burning smell and contacted them immediately to ask them to come and have a look, we narrowed it down to the electric fire. The contractor was meant to be coming this morning, and I am still waiting, at 3pm. I have phoned and asked what is going on, and got no answers, only that they would get the contractor to contact me - so there's one of my precious days off work wasted by sitting around waiting for someone who I seriously doubt will turn up.
Alba has put me off renting from agencies ever again, from the day we moved in we have had nothing but problems, and not a single apology or acknowledgement of the inconveniences caused to us.
DO NOT RENT FROM ALBA!
What agent could do to change your mind?
Alba is disorganised, and unprofessional, you report urgent safety maintenance issues to them as they happen and it takes them over a month to organise a contractor to come to the property, a contractor who then fails to show up at the agreed time.
I don't think there is anything Alba could do to make me change my mind, short of closing down and reopening with a completely new staff completement and new approach to being a letting agency.
Attached Filesnbsp;
1
people found
this helpful
Was this helpful?
Yes