Romans
Customer Reviews
Reviewed by stripeyrache on 25th June 2009
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: UZD.ULT.UGN.U79
This specifically relates to Romans in Bracknell. They continue to advertise properties for ages after they've had offers accepted or even been sold, they don't mention anywhere that it is Sold STC like other agents in the area do. When looking to buy I phoned up about three properties all of which I was told were gone.
Although they took all of my details they didn't contact me about new instructions. When we did see a house that we really liked we put in an offer. In the end the vendor went with another offer over ours, Romans didn't think to call us and let us know. When my partner eventually called and spoke to the branch manager, he was bluntly (and rather rudely!) told that "you obviously didn't offer enough money, did you?". We had offered the asking price.
Reviewed by TOpcat on 15th June 2009
Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: WAH.A1Y.ASP.3BW
Reviewed by UNHAPPY CAMPER on 28th May 2009
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 9QF.EJV.EIV.9IB
Was on with them for months and couldn't sell, kept saying drop the price drop the price and was then rude when i picked the keys up to give it to another agent. To top it all off left my front door unlcoked. STEER CLEAR.
Reviewed by tasha4340 on 12th May 2009
Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 9FJ.JRF.JXB.9VB
My first dealings with Romans was when I informed the estate agents that I would be vacating my rented property. 3 weeks later I was advised that I needed to be at the property at a certain time as they had a viewing and did't have keys to get in. I spent the whole morning cleaning the house whilst trying to occupy my 5 month old son and when the time came no one turned up nor did anyone have the corteusy to ring and let me know that the viewing was taking place. This happened once again the day before I was due to move out needless to say no one turned up yet again. I was then advised in a letter to be at the property on the 26th may at 12pm to do the check out and that if I didn't attend I would be charged. Again nobody turned up. I then rung Romans the following day to find out what was happening and was told that they don't work on a sunday so that was the reason for no one showing up. After checking their records I was told that the letter did indeed say the 26th but was not offered an apology. This all may seem like little things but Roman's certainly didn't do their jobs properly and could have dealt with the situation alot better.
I found that they were very poor comunicators which sureley shouldn't be the case in their field of bussiness and they show absolutley no remorse when things go wrong. I will never use Romans again and strongly advise anyone else to think otherwise before seeking advice, letting or buying from Romans. They're supposed to be the top dogs but service is v.v.v poor.
Reviewed by Baggy on 7th May 2009
Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: SMG.UTN.SUT.TDG
There's no real point to go over the details - so many people here seem to have had the same experience with this crowd over and over again.
They don't care about you. They don't care about your property and they don't care about your tenant (or what kind of tenant you have). They just want your money.
Please - take a wide berth and find someone else that doesn't have a wallpaper roll long list of people who have complaints about their service.
....and be careful of who you go to...there's some others in this area that are no better than Romans, especially when it comes to property letting.
Reviewed by another_romans_victim on 22nd April 2009
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: UZ7.SMT.TGT.UTM
This review is for the Sandhurst branch (I should think it'll be all the same for others).
They have been bugging me for months trying to get me to go with them but their 2% +VAT fees were way too high. They were in no mood to reduce their fees (which I can understand in the current climate), and there was no chance in the world I would pay that amount either. Anyway further negotiations resulted in no conclusion so I decided to approach another agent which were far more pleasant (unlike Romans arrogant attitude) and were happy to negotiate a good fee, until Romans found out about it and somehow interveaned with the other agent resulting in my agreed fee to be dropped.
I have heard bad things about Romans from people who have used them before (all they want is your money) which is why I was'nt keen on them in the first place, now I can fully understand what a bunch of cowboys they are, just because then can't get my business they trying other ways to ruin it for me.
I recommend to other not to use them, just because there're big in business does'nt mean there the best, the smaller outlets are much better customer focused so I'm sticking with them instead.
I will never touch Romans again even if they are the cheapest.
They don't even deserve a rating of 1 star, if I could give them zero then I would.
Reviewed by Orlando on 14th April 2009
Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: S9M.UGL.SDG.T7D
After leaving University I have rented a number of properties through numerous agents and Romans were by far the worst of them all.
During my time in the property managed by Romans my deposit had numerous deductions taken from it without any notification whatsoever, moreover after paying in excess of £100 for administrative costs involved with a lease renewal in which the only amendment to the document was to the dates, I was almost immediately served a s.21 notice to vacate the property. My request for a landlord reference was followed by further administrative costs involved with the writing of the same.
It has been 3 months since I vacated the property and the balance of my deposit has still not been returned. This is contrary to their promise to return all deposits within 21 days. My attempts to speak to their accounts department have been futile as my emails and telephone calls have not been answered.
They are by far the worst of all agents I have dealt with and I strongly urge anyone considering using them to look elsewhere.
Reviewed by Little miss sunshine on 6th April 2009
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: S9N.TTD.SU7.UNL
If you would like someone to be rude and obnoxious to you over the phone I would recommend phoning Romans! I don't think any of them know what good customer service is.
Reviewed by Raju on 18th March 2009
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: UZG.UTZ.SM9.UGZ
Very unethical company, did not remove the property off the market when accepting our offer (for over 6 weeks) now they tell me they have a better offer.... Seemed dubios from the start and just kept us hanging.
Reviewed by VG on 17th March 2009
Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: WHH.WPS.31P.3BK
Reviewed by jenb on 20th February 2009
Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: UT7.UM9.UDG.UGU
WHERE DO I START!!! This estate agent prioritises making money for Romans over looking after the customer and their property.
I used them for 18months before transferring to Village Properties who have been EXCELLENT.
I have had to seek compensation twice from Romans for (1) not complying their their agreement, and (2) carrying out substandard maintenance. Let me clarify....
The first tenant we got in the property was recommended by Romans as the 'best option' out of a list of tenants. They gave him keys to our property before the deposit had cleared [against their terms] and subsequently the deposit cheque bounced. The tenant then did not pay rent for 12 months and there was nothing we could do to get them out, until we finally took it to court (had to pay for this ourselves, despite it being Romans' fault). So it cost us 12 months rent + GBP5000 court fees to get him out of the property (although court said he had to pay he just disappeared into thin air and has never paid us). Romans were absolutely useless throughout the process and to be honest, they really didn't care about our situation as it wasn't making them any money.
The next tenant they got in paid 12 months up front - GREAT, I thought, thinking this one would be trouble free. However, our neighbours said there were all sorts of activities going on in the property. Romans are supposed to do property checks every 6 months, but they didn't do this and at the end of the tenancy, we were told the property was in good order. We then flew back to UK and went to stay in our property for xmas, only to open the door and see the house i a COMPLETE STATE.... I'm talking blood on walls; our brand news carpets absolutely ruined (didn't even get clean after professional cleaning), our security fence at the back of the property hacked down and much more. We were devastated - particularly as Romans had told us the property was in good condition!! They actually put it back on the market like this - no wonder it hadn't been snapped up straight away: they'd actually told us to reduce the rental price saying that the market was just quieter!!! NOT quieter, just that people looking around would have thought it was a squat - certainly not the state a 4 bed detached property at GBP1350/month should be in!
We spent our family xmas visit to UK, getting the property straight again; and got Romans to fix the fence at the back. We were back in Sydney by the time they fixed the fenced and when we got the confirmation from Romans that it was completed, I asked them was it in as good order as it was in the beginning. 'Yes' they said. B ut with previous experiences I still had trouble trusting them, so I got a friend to go to the house and check it out. The next day I get a phone call from our friend saying the job was diabolical - they'd used the wrong size fences poles; different wood and - wait for it - CHICKEN WIRE to fill in the fence!! He sent me photos and I was gobsmacked - it looked like a 5 year old had done it (actually I'm sure my son would have done a better job). They hadn't even concreted in the poles, so they wobbled around - hardly secure!
Romans promised to get it fixed again. That was 18months ago and they still haven't done it. So now I'm having to pay for it myself. ANOTHER cost for me because of Romans' incompetence.
My advice: STAY WELL AWAY FROM ROMANS, READING & TILEHURST - they're too big to care about the individual; they only care about their money.
Who would I recommend? Village Properties of Tilehurst - an absolute DREAM agent in stark contrast to Romans.
NB: having spoken to friends about Romans Estate Agents, I've since found out that I'm not alone - in fact not one of my friends has heard anything positive about them (on the lettings side at least). So please do watch out and look for an agent that will care for your property as if it's their own.
Reviewed by KateJS on 16th February 2009
Services: Lettings (as a Landlord)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 9QE.9EJ.9XQ.9V3
My tenant mistakenly sent his notice to Romans in Tilehurst instead of to me (I only had them for tenant-finding). Not only did they not phone me to tell me that they had received it, but when challenged about it they lied about the date it came, to try to conceal the fact that they had been sitting on it for 10 days. And they had told my tenants that they had to switch elec/gas to a particular supplier, with no reference to me! I suspect that they are getting backhanders for this - can't think why else they'd do it.
Commented by EC on the 4th June 2009
Hmm sounds the same as us!! they were charging us from two different electric companies!!
Reviewed by Brucetta on 9th December 2008
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: SZN.TUD.S5T.U79
Useless! No communication, unhelpful and many staff rude, obviously they dont need sales! Would never consider buying from again.
Reviewed by happyhousehunter on 11th October 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: 9QE.9JI.EBQ.9QB
Delighted with the sandhurst office, sold my house in a very tough market by offering the right advise on price and sale by open house which in all my years of buying and selling hadnever been offered before. Will use them again.
Commented by Concerned Romans Customer on the 26th November 2008
Looks like another review for Romans that is too good to be true (probably because the Agent has done it themselves... again).
Commented by Never again Romans customer on the 20th February 2009
I agree with Concerned Romans Customer - VERY gard to believe this is genuine review. They are horrendous.
Commented by razor on the 3rd March 2009
A Romans agent wrote that review. They are awful.
Commented by One of the many Romans has let down on the 20th March 2009
"sold my house in a very tough market" -- as if a real customer would have written that. That's estate agent speak. I agree with the other commenters: def a Romans agent typing here. HOW SAD. Shame they spend their time doing this rather than actually looking after their customers. Romans are truly AWFUL. Stay well away!
Commented by A Real Estate Agent on the 20th April 2009
Ha Ha, Google the coded IP Address of Happy House Hunter & you get a terrible review of Richard Worth that then compliments Romans. Great Stuff Mr Romans member of staff !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Reviewed by cubicle2 on 29th September 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: S9T.STM.TNM.U7M
I sold two properties now through Romans Estate Agents in Fleet and found the service extemely helpful. Jonathan in particular was a great help throughout my sales and will be recommending them.
Reviewed by Lorraine on 29th September 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: UMG.T77.SMG.UTT
Fab! We have used Roman's twice, when buying and selling our first house and buying our current house. The guys there are all so helpful and can't do enough for you, they didn't push us to make decisions, they only showed us houses that were applicable to us and matched our top 5 criteria. We also used the conveyancing, as first time buyers this was a wise choice! We had courtesy calls on a weekly basis and were kept in the loop at all levels of the sale. Would definitly recommend and use them again!!!
Commented by daxcat on the 18th January 2009
Romans, not pushy? Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!!!
Commented by jenb on the 20th February 2009
Can't believe this review would be about Romans in Reading or Tilehurst as they are ABSOLUTELY USELESS and caused me a LOT of pain: which Romans office did you deal with?
Reviewed by Neil on 29th September 2008
Services: Sales (as a Buyer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: UZD.SGG.UTZ.UDN
I brought my first property using Romans and I was very impressed with the whole service. I also used their conveyancing service which I found excellent. At every stage of the process I received email and text updates and I felt confident that they were following up for me. The sale completed very quickly thanks to dealing with professional people at every stage. I would highly recommend them.
Reviewed by sarah on 26th September 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: 93Q.JB3.9VB.9B3
I have bought and sold several houses over the last few years and have been more than happy with romans, i will use them in the future , and will continue to reccomend them to others.
Reviewed by Adam on 5th September 2008
Services: Sales (as a Buyer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: 9Q3.9QV.JFQ.9FQ
Had more for sale than anyone else and were very polite and helpful certainly thebest in the area we were looking
Reviewed by James on 14th July 2008
Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: S9M.UG7.S7Z.T7L
Absolutely disgraceful tenancy charges!! We had two seperate viewings in the Reading area and on both occasions the agent, knew next to nothing about the properties! The landlord of the second property did all the work for the agent.
The real killer though was being told that we had to pay 12 days as an admin fee (tenancy cost) which on a £1,500/month property plus VAT comes in at around £700+!!!! I see no justification for this whatsoever.
When questioned, Romans said this was for references, credit checks and drawing up of the contracts - most other agencies at most charged around £100 for this. Roman's would not give us a breakdown of this cost and were unable to explain why it had a direct relationship with the rental cost.
Avoid!!!
Commented by topcat on the 15th June 2009
Agree with this comment on the charges. We had 12 days too and it comes to a lot of cash for doing checks that they happily informed me were completed by Monday lunchtime (following my signature on Saturday 3pm)! There is an outrageous fee for extending the tenancy too of over £100. In my experience this usually involves a date change and a photocopy of the previous agreement. What a swiz.
Reviewed by CB on 30th June 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: TUG.UGL.STG.TUN
Romans do nothing to change the bad impression that many people have of estate agents.
They employ dubious tactics in order to win the work initially, talking up their services and being overly optimistic on pricing and selling strategy, only to recommend substantial (10%) recommendations for a price reduction within weeks of the property going on the market, and again just a few weeks later. OK, it's a difficult market at the moment, but they're supposed to be the experts so how can they get it so wrong in such a short space of time.
They fail to keep you informed of progress (or lack of!) and don't even bother to notify you for almost a month when your contact leaves the branch.
Propsective viewers are allowed to simply disappear, whereas I would expect them to keep chasing in order to maintain a good level of interest from buyers.
We are now taking our business elsewhere.
Reviewed by SD on 27th June 2008
Services: Sales (as a Buyer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: JVB.JBX.9CF.9E3
Wouldn't use them again, they seemed completely lazy and very rude.
Reviewed by PK on 27th June 2008
Services: Sales (as a Buyer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: JVB.JBX.9CF.9E3
Truly appalling, found them arrogant and unprofessional.
Commented by vizzi on the 12th February 2009
same IP address as above mmm another agent i think with too much time, try getting on the phones and selling some houses.
Reviewed by Caversham on 7th June 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 3PK.AWW.AWW.3BS
Reviewed by Happyone on 18th April 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: 9FR.ERJ.9VX.9BQ
Got me a buyer where other agents had failed. Price was okay.
Reviewed by Bung1e on 16th April 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: S9U.S9M.SMM.UMZ
I have had my house on the market with Romans for 2 weeks within the the 1st week they wanted me to drop the price buy over £30,000, which they said was the market being really bad!!!!!! I said no since then the agent still takes people around my house and they spend no more than 5 mins in my house. I am stuck in a 15 week contract trying very hard to get out of it. Oh for the record my house is only £189,950 so as you can tell £30,000 is a hell of alot. I will tell people not to use these cowboys, I can not believe I fell for their nice so call honest attitude.
Reviewed by Loopie-Lou on 26th January 2008
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: NDD.WB5.NDI.NI8
We have had our house on the market with Romans twice - first time gave us a very good story but they were total crap. They contacted us later on and asked for another chance to market the house - we were very clear what we expected to see improve service/marketing wise from them but, surprise, surprise, it was just the same as before, if not worse!
Would not recommend them at all - zero pro-activity, no contact or updates, don't follow up on viewings and don't provide feedback. Just completely rubbish.
Reviewed by Jokes on 17th January 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 9DU.577.5JE.RDC
Very very unproffesional. Their skills! Well what skills! Joke, they should really try n get a job they are good at!
Reviewed by samjay on 12th January 2008
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 70C.90E.70C.RMD
We tried selling our house through the Basingstoke branch of Romans. They begged for us to give them a chance and claimed that they could sell our house within a month, that was in Oct '07. We have just given them notice to come off their books Jan'08.
Be careful, they misinform you, 5 weeks into their trap they tell you that you have to reduce your asking price. They say that they accompany all viewings, but they don't infact it is policy for the vendor to do the viewings. The staff are rude and care only about the NVQ's that they have because this makes them fantastic.
I would NEVER recommend them nor would I purchase a property through them.
They are not estate agents but useless, lazy and rude individuals who expect to do nothing for thei commission but sitting on their backsides.
Commented by AngryfromHampshire on the 28th November 2008
Glad it's not just us.
In our opinion we found the Basingstoke office rude and unprofessional too. Suspect the problem is rife from the top down.
Reviewed by Paul West on 12th January 2008
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: W0I.NS5.7R0.5XB
Fantastic valuer, kept everything simple, suggested a higher price than I expected and it sold at that price to, very proactive, very refreshing having previously dealt with another firm in Bracknell starting with P which was disapointing by comparison.
Reviewed by Thanks romans on 8th January 2008
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: RM0.4U7.0DC.047
What can I say, after being on the market for months with another agent I went to Romans and sold straight away.
Commented by ShaunMD on the 17th January 2008
Agent, try and get some real reviews! If you spent more time training then you might just be good enough burgars to ethiopians!!
Commented by Lucy on the 17th January 2008
to true, scum of the industry!!!!!!!!
Reviewed by nevermore on 1st November 2007
Services: Lettings (as a Tennant)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 45X.50C.D05.B4H
I always have to chase them and they don't reply to my emails, don't return phone calls. I'd expect a much better service for £500 admin fees that we've paid.
Reviewed by sg1974 on 7th August 2007
Services: Sales (as a Buyer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 76L.21K.76L.21K
I TRIED to buy a property using them.....
I made an offer of 98% of the asking price on a house which was "refused". Another offer of 99% was also turned down. I declined to offer the requested 100% as I was already stretching.
Months later I successfully bought another smaller house on the same street. I bumped into the owner of the first house one day and the subject of his house sale came up. Turns out that he had not received details of my offers from Romans and would have accepted 98%.
We've both instructed lawyers.
PS - This is also the company prosecuted a couple of years ago for placing "SOLD" signs outside the properties of employees and friends.
Reviewed by Not Happy on 2nd August 2007
Services: Sales (as a Vendor)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 4DR.M0W.WEC.00U
Shame there isn't a section called "Sales- I tried to sell a property using them" because this is exactly what I did. Had a standard 16 week contract, they produced about 6 viewings for the entire contract, one of whom was an employee of the group! After the inital 5/6 weeks were up they basically gave up, kept pusing me to reduce the price drastically and failed to actively market the property - they were only interested if someone actually walked through the door and asked to view my property.
One person wanted a second viewing, initial appoinment cancelled and romans failed to make another appointment.
Also full of excuses - market very slow, lots of properties available etc etc etc.
Would not touch them with a bargepole ever again!
Reviewed by John on 3rd July 2007
Services: Sales (Prospective customer)
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
No
IP address: 9DM.47B.0P3.MDR
Awful.
More like a marketing company than true estate agent. Only interested in numbers and figures and building a chain. If you are on the market with a different agent they won't touch you, meaning missing out on a property that is ideal.
Don't seem to care if they upset people, as so many fall in to the trap of seeing a lot of their boards and thinking they are the best... they are the exact opposite and i have heard countless other stories about them upsetting people.
Reviewed by aj on 2nd May 2007
Services: Conveyancing
Property: Residential
Experience: Would you use the agent again?
Yes
IP address: 09L.LFY.8DC.09L
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Estate Agent Information
Romans
Romans Estate Agents Limited is a leading Berkshire estate agency offering a wide range of services.
Offices / Branches
- Basingstoke (Hampshire)
- Bracknell (Berkshire)
- Camberley (Surrey)
- Crowthorne (Berkshire)
- Farnborough (Hampshire)
- Fleet (Hampshire)
- Reading (Berkshire)
- Sandhurst (Berkshire)
- Wokingham (Berkshire)
- Yateley (Hampshire)
Services
- Sales
- Lettings
- Surveys
- Cenveyancing
Commented by Brucetta on the 18th March 2009
sounds familiar! They did exactly the same to me.
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