“If you want to rent a flat, do yourself a ......”
1 Star Review
Oct 05,2017
By:
'Antonio'
Oct 05,2017
Branch: Manchester, 289-291 Deansgate
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: M3
Branch: Manchester, 289-291 Deansgate
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode: M3
7
people found
this helpful
If you want to rent a flat, do yourself a favor and steer away from this office. I have been renting flats and houses for more than 12 years, 6 of those in the UK and the experience with this branch is definitely the worse of all. This is a long read, but will give you an idea of what to expect with them.
It all starts 2 and a half years ago when I move in with my girlfriend, who had been living in their own flat for at least 5 years, right in the moment that Leaders buys the agency she used to deal with.
At that moment it took them more than 1 month to amend the contract to include me (after paying massive fees for that) and the contract that they give to us was full of incorrections, from spelling wrongly our names (which we gave them in writing), previous living address and even the quantity of the monthly payments! We inform of all that and they correct them with the exception of the rent amount (which was 25£ cheaper than previous years) stating to us that bit was ok. After one month with the new contract they get back to us with threats due to "outstanding balance" in the monthly payments telling us that our contract (which they signed) "was wrong" and therefore we had to pay the remaining balance. Thankfully at that time we had good direct relationship with the landlord, we explained the situation and we were ok fixing the rent amount but the first month would be Leaders' fault due to their incompetency and they have to pay for that.
After a year, our landlords inform that they would like to get the flat back for their daughter, who is coming back to the UK after several years abroad. No hard feelings on that as they explain us in person before notifying the agency. At the same time it happens that the flat next door, which is much bigger than the one we had, becomes available, with the inconvenience that the agency letting it is Leaders as well.
We finally take it and right after we pay the fees and start the letting process (and before we even move in), we find out that Leaders puts the flat on sale, hides that fact from us, avoids our calls with always the same excuse "person X who deals with it is not available now, we'll call you back" and refuses to give us any kind of explanation on what that would mean to us until we go in person to the office which is the moment in which they admit they put the flat on sale but always claiming that was a landlord only decision and they had no idea.
We know we are not an exception on cases like the one above so we move on. The main consequence now is that we need to allow visits to the flat, for what we have the right of 24 hours notice. We find out that Leaders is making visits without letting us know, then they start calling us pre-visit on the same day and after we repeat to them several times that it has to be agreed with 24 hours notice they change to only send us an email, right 24 hours before they scheduled visit.
After a year we changed our contract to a rolling one but me and my partner decide to split and she will be moving to a different flat. When asking Leaders to give references for her and modify the contract so I would be alone in the flat they begun again with the lies. You should know that this case is perfectly covered by the law and whoever wants to remain in the flat, it has the right to remain providing the landlord agrees. They refused to contact the landlord at any moment and said that it not possible (like legally not possible) to amend a joint tenancy when one of the tenants leaves, which is a lie. They also started to pressure us on giving the notice, saying that was the only way they would give good references for my partner. When challenged with the fact the tenant rights are right the opposite of what they say they stop answering the phone or emails and go back to their old habit of "the person X is not in the office at the moment".
I finally decided to leave, I wasn't that attached to the flat and I already had found a good one and just waving out goodbye to that bunch.
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