“These guys have literally ruined my life for the past ......”
1 Star Review
Nov 12,2016
By:
'D'
Nov 12,2016
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: M4
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode: M4
4
people found
this helpful
These guys have literally ruined my life for the past one year! I rented a flat in Manchester through Countrywide. The flat was brand new. Countrywide charged me £525 for admission, contract and inventory check fees, which is a lot of money for agency fees for a one bedroom flat. I've had so many problems for the past one year of living here. First of all, they did not give me the password to enter the main gate of the property and only gave me the key to the flat saying it was all I needed. So when I was trying to move in with my suitcases at about 6pm, noticed I needed a password to enter the property! It was raining and I could not call their office as they had already gone home. So that was my first great experience with them which resulted in me waiting in the rain with my suitcases for like half an hour until someone going in let me in. Then, there was no water coming out of the taps in the flat! 2 days later they came and fixed it. But then there was no hot water. Again a couple of days later boiler was fixed. Then the RCD kept tripping. It was end of November time and was really cold. I spent a weekend in the flat with no electricity. There is no gas in the flat and everything is electrical. So you can imagine, no heater, no lights on. It was again another of several great experiences that thanks to Countrywide I faced. The Problem with the RCD was fixed after the weekend by rewiring the whole thing but then during doing that the repairman assigned by Countrywide managed to blew off the booster. That was again another nightmare to get fixed. Please bear in mind one of those different things that Countrywide charged me for at the beginning was 'inventory check' which multiple times says on the papers 'all the items in good condition'! But of course, you get told by them that water is not part of inventory check, boiler is not part of it, RCD is not part of it, etc. I think that £100 inventory check fee was for them checking and confirming that there were walls, doors and windows in the flat, which obviously needs experts to evaluate them and is a very costly and challenging task! Countrywide said to me that I'd be entitled to receive a compensation from the landlord through them for the problems and the inconvenience I had experienced. I wrote a letter for that matter, and sent it to Countrywide. After a couple of months, I heard back from them saying the landlord would be happy to pay me £250 as compensation. Although I thought I was entitled to get a refund for at least my first month rent which was £775, I accepted the offer. I was really frustrated with the number of phone calls and emails that I had to make to chase the compensation. This is apart from the times that I had to chase people for repairing things in the flat, and the number of times that I had to take an afternoon off from work to be present in the flat. Incompetency of the people who were assigned to fix the problems resulted in other problems every time. After accepting the compensation offer, I only received £106 from the landlord. I emailed and rang Countrywide multiple times to understand why I only received £106 instead of £250, but no luck to be able to speak to them. How much time one person needs to spend to get things repaired in a brand new flat, and how much time one needs to spend to get the money for an agreed compensation? Countrywide don't even have the courtesy to acknowledge the receipt of my emails. They were very quick and responsive when they wanted to get the agency fees, deposit and first month rent but then they disappeared! I have already taken legal advice on this and I'm going chase this but please whoever is thinking of using these guys in future, avoid avoid avoid. You don't need all this stress!
Comment on agent fees
Too much money and absolutely no service. Just being ignored!
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