“It's now six weeks since I moved out of the ......”
1 Star Review
Jul 26,2017
By:
'David'
Jul 26,2017
Branch: London, 4 - 8 Westow Street
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Rent PCM: £1400
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: SE19
Branch: London, 4 - 8 Westow Street
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Rent PCM: £1400
Postcode: SE19
6
people found
this helpful
It's now six weeks since I moved out of the house in question, and Streets Ahead are still refusing to return my deposit or overpaid rent.
Streets Ahead have offered no explanation, and refuse to respond to emails or answer questions. Their only apparent justification is that they intend to deduct £160 from my deposit, for a 'professional clean', which I dispute, because I don't believe the house had been professionally cleaned before we moved in, because £160 is clearly excessive for the 3 minor points they have identified, and because we left the house in an excellent state, quite as clean as we found it.
Obviously, regardless of this dispute over £160, Streets Ahead were required to refund the rest of the deposit weeks ago, and even agreed to do so on June 29, but since then nothing has happened. They've simply ignored my correspondence for almost a month, until yesterday, when one of the staff emailed to say only that he'd been on annual leave, offering no other information, explanation or apology.
By way of context, I should explain that this is not the first problem I've had with Streets Ahead. When I moved into the house, their numerous failings resulted in all my fees being refunded. Throughout the tenancy, the problems continued. Streets Ahead had organised for new laminate flooring to be laid - within months numerous gaps had appeared; they promised to replace the bathroom cabinet before we moved in - but instead after 3-4 disruptive and futile visits during the tenancy the only one they managed to provide was the wrong size, so we gave up; they promised to fix the leaky shower screen - after 5+ visits from various workmen this was never fixed, so again we gave up. This is the first time I've dealt with Streets Ahead in 20 years of renting privately, and they have been by far the worst agents I have ever come across. And we had all these problems despite having a good relationship with the landlord himself. The landlord assures me that he has been instructing Streets Ahead for weeks to return what we are owed, and I believe him, so I can only assume that they are acting unilaterally.
Finally, when you see good reviews for Streets Ahead here and elsewhere, I'd take them with a pinch of salt. While I was still waiting for numerous problems to be resolved, the agent put pressure on me to give her a good online review, so clearly at least some of the reviews are coerced.
6
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