“Renting from Hunter & Bloomfield was one of the worst experiences ......”
1 Star Review
May 16,2017
By:
'Katie'
May 16,2017
Branch: London, Docklands Business Centre, 10- 16 Tiller Road
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: Yes
Postcode: E12
Branch: London, Docklands Business Centre, 10- 16 Tiller Road
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode: E12
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people found
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Renting from Hunter & Bloomfield was one of the worst experiences of my life. I was paying £675 a month for one room in a poorly maintained (glass in the front door replaced with MDF, everything needed a second coat of paint, kitchen window covered up with tape, no bathroom blind, very tatty shower curtain) flat with no living room and a kitchen that was so small the door wouldn't shut once the fridge was in, something that is sadly normal in London, but would be insane in the rest of the country, for the same amount I could rent a 3 bedroom detached house with a garden - although I realise this isn't Hunter & Bloomfield's fault, more that of the landlord and the entire private rented sector in London.
Part of the reason I chose the property I did was the reassurance that they had a maintenance team that would come out quickly and fix anything that needed fixing. When I moved in there were nails sticking out of a couple of my draws (not sure why, they weren't holding it together), they came the next working day to repair it, the same when the lock broke on the toilet door.
To begin with, I had quite a positive view of the letting agency, then more things started to break. The kitchen socket broke, exposing wires, when I reported it all they did was wrap tape around it and had no intention of properly fixing it until I complained again and threatened to go to the housing ombudsman - it took a total of weeks to properly fix it. The boiler was then due for a service, it took weeks of persistent emails and promises of a gas safety registered engineer turning up for the service to actually take place. We had no way of knowing if there was a problem with it, there was no carbon monoxide alarm so we had no way of knowing if our safety was at risk.Those weren't they only safety issues there were, I had the chest of draws in my room almost fall over, tipping everything on it onto me because they should have been fixed to the wall but hadn't been.
There were then other problems that weren't putting our safety at risk, but making life very very difficult. The shower just didn't work properly, the taps on it desperately needed replacing, a member of the maintenance team just suggested a very basic quick-fix (which would probably realistically last a couple of days) and the landlord came round a couple of weeks later and said there wasn't any problem with it and refused to do anything about it, there were days where the shower was so unusable we had to get showers at work/University. The landlord also refused to change my curtains - when attending the property to change radiator valve in my room I asked if it would be possible to have my curtains changed as they were very thin and pale so let in all the light keeping me awake from the light from streetlights and waking me up early in the morning. As a temporary fix I stuck tinfoil to my window to block out light, but this was only supposed to be temporary because it was difficult to put it up and take it down so it was just left up all the time meaning I never got any natural light - the landlord thought this was absolutely fine and I didn't need better curtains because tinfoil was doing the job. A landlord being tight is not the letting agency's fault, but they did choose to take a business of a borderline slum landlord.
When I left the flat early due to work commitments I was told that they would take rent from my deposit for the amount of time I wasn't there and they hadn't found a new tenant, which is fair enough, but they tried to take a 6 day void room charge from my deposit despite my rent actually being due the day after a new tenancy began - thankfully I got that back when I disputed it. They also to took a £90 professional cleaning fee from my deposit….I'd rented one small-ish room that needed a bit of a vacuum and a dust, taking half an hour at a maximum, I have no idea how a £90 figure came about.
If you're reading this and thinking about renting a property through Hunter & Bloomfield, please don't for the sake of your own well-being and sanity.
Comment on agent fees
Overcharged and charged ridiculous cleaning fees
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