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1 Star Review
Mar 13,2018
By:
'Phi'
Mar 13,2018
Branch: Hove, 27 Western Road
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Rent PCM: £1600
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: BN3
Branch: Hove, 27 Western Road
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Rent PCM: £1600
Postcode: BN3
17
people found
this helpful
Some reviews on Google state that bad reviews have no backup/evidence, so here are some of my personal experiences with NGB:
1. About a month before moving in, Rachel (extremely rude and unpleasant lady who we mostly deal with, unfortunately) told me the only pets that are NOT allowed are cats and dogs (I remember her saying if they could ruin the floor, they're not allowed), meaning it was fine for me to bring my two caged rodents, which we laughed about on the phone. Under a week before actually moving (everything had already been paid and organised) I called up to confirm my pets were going to be fine there, and Rachel had completely changed her mind without ever informing/emailing me; saying she never said I was allowed to have my pets and I had to get rid of them, leaving me with a horrible decision. I had no evidence she had ever told me it was okay to have them so I could not hold her to this or do anything about it. I completely respect any agency's decisions against animals but if they had told me they were all disallowed from the start, I would have found somewhere else to live.
2. Our bungalow & its blueprints were registered to the council as having 2 bedrooms (lots of proof of this online). It has 4. We are paying £1600 a month for a tiny 4 bedroom flat which was intended to be for two people. The man who built our house blamed everything breaking/going wrong (e.g CONSTANT toilet blockages) on this fact but no one has offered us a permanent rent reduction. NGB have neglected to tell the council, water and electric companies, that there's more than two people living here, meaning when we try to pay our bills we can't as we have to confirm there are 2 bedrooms and less people, which would be lying. We aren't even sure if our home has proper planning permission or is 100% legal.
3. NGB, without our consent, put one of my flatmates down as the âmain tenantâ to be the ONLY one who is emailed and sent letters regarding anything to do with the bungalow (even bills etc) even though we have a completely joint tenancy and we all pay the same amount. They said they couldn't send emails to all of us because there supposedly has to be a main tenant... In a JOINT TENANCY?
4. We had no hot water for almost three weeks after moving in (due to NGB's uselessness at conducting repairs) meaning our new home was barely habitable/useable, even though we moved in over a week after our set moving date (NGB refused to negotiate our moving date & wanted us to move in ASAP). Supposedly, our electric boiler had safety checks done before we moved in to ensure everything was safe & working correctly. However, these checks were very clearly never done and NGB lied again as my dad (who is certainly not an electrician but figured this out quicker than all the idiots NGB sent over did) discovered that THE BOILER WAS NEVER CONNECTED TO THE MAINS. The hot water had never been tested. There were wires in the boiler room which just hung loose as they were never even hooked up to the rest of the house. NGB had sent multiple different âelectriciansâ to come and look at the boiler before this and NONE of them noticed what was actually wrong until my dad pointed it out.
5. Once the boiler was fixed, we continued to have issues with it that NGB would tell us they would come over and sort out the same day, then turn up 2/3 days later (which is not allowed as landlords must give 24 hours notice before coming over). Only about 3 or so people employed by NGB can speak fluent english, making it extremely difficult to report any problems as most of their staff cannot respond properly, and instead all just tell you lies to shut you up e.g âa repairman will arrive in an hour/tomorrowâ. During this period, I went into the agency and told Rachel that her repairmen didn't have a clue how to fix the boiler, and her response was (and I quote) âmy handymen aren't r*tardsâ - an extremely unprofessional thing to say.
6. Rachel constantly told us that NGB were in the middle of sorting out our water/electric bills and council tax, and after 6 months of our contract we have only received one water bill and nothing else. Rachel and all other staff from NGB take multiple days to reply or just altogether ignore any emails regarding these matters, and will often answer a phone call query by telling you that they'll call you back later (which they never do). They also don't communicate properly with the repairmen - multiple times they told us they'd sent one straight over but no one turned up for hours so they had to call their repairman and ask where he was.
7. Our bungalow was newly built but NGB neglected to register the address with the royal mail until after we had moved in so we couldn't receive mail for quite some time. We also never received a number sign, and still have no black or green bins for our house. To enter our bungalow we have to cut through a long alleyway/garage area which belongs to NGB and was previously lit by lights that were plugged into OUR plugs. NGB told us we have no ownership over the garage area and cannot store things there/put up our own lights, so why would we have to pay for the electricity for their lights? We had to unplug these so they didn't rack up our electricity bill (they were on 24/7 and we're not sure if NGB had EVER paid for them to be run) so the alleyway has been dark for 5 months, NGB have known this the whole time and have yet to do anything about it even though they own the garage and often visit to use it for storage.
8. We were promised off-road parking on the advertisement - on moving in we realised the spaces actually belonged to our neighbours (and they had paid for them). NGB had asked our neighbours if we could have them, but never actually got permission or offered to pay for them. They never said NGB could utilise those spaces for the new tenants, yet they were advertised online with the bungalow.
9. The bungalow is built terribly; walls aren't at 90 degree angles, water drains much worse than a normal bungalow, there are skylights which don't open and have no blinds throughout the house which other people's windows can see into, there's a skylight ABOVE THE TOILET. The âadded inâ walls are paper thin, painting is shoddy, bathroom is unfinished & stupidly designed so that water gets in small places and creates mould, we didn't have a shower curtain or pole for one until about a week ago. The back gate in our garden has a bolt, but nothing for the bolt to slide into, so it can't shut, leaving our patio doors (leading to bedrooms) completely visible from our neighbours' back gardens.
10. We experienced a boiling water flood, NGB arrived over an hour after they were called (the fire brigade arrived before them) even though it was an emergency (the agency is a 5 min drive away) and none of them knew what to do when they did arrive. They all just stood awkwardly or tried to get small amounts of water out the house using either their hands or a dustpan. My flatmate who is 19 years old had to direct this group of grown adults and tell them how to remove the water more efficiently. NGB have no plans to reimburse us for the flood or for all the items that got ruined except by reducing this month's rent by a week's worth, which has been made back up in the huge water bill we have received anyway.
11. The toilet drainage issues caused the bath to occasionally fill up with sewage when the toilet was flushed. NGB didn't attempt to fix this straight away (even though it was disgusting and definitely a health and safety issue) but instead over the course of 2 weeks sent a bunch of different repairmen over, telling us the same âa repairman will come over todayâ lie almost every day until one actually turned up, and eventually fixed it (after coming back multiple times).
12. NGB keep telling us that our landlord is the man that built the house but HE told us recently that our landlords are NGB because our contract is with them, meaning we don't really know who our landlord is nor who to contact in an emergency. Tenants have a legal right to know their landlord's name and address but NGB won't even tell us who our landlord really is.
13. If you start a contract with NGB, there is NO WAY OUT. Their contracts are written painfully badly with poor use of English, bad spelling and grammar. This was a warning sign at first but the bungalow seemed nice and was good/cheap enough for us as students so we persevered. Every document we have received from NGB looks nothing but fake and unprofessional. After reading through our contract we discovered that the only way to be able to move out of an NGB rented place is by paying full rent until the contract is over and losing your entire deposit. I am sure it is similar with many other letting agencies, but when I phoned NGB and explained that we all wanted to move out because lots has gone wrong and many sentimental belongings were ruined in the flood (which has upset us deeply), the response I received from a man working at NGB was disgusting. He gave me absolutely no sympathy or solution to the situation, basically said (in a nutshell) âtough, you owe us moneyâ and instead started speaking to me (I'd honestly go as far to say that he was threatening me) about tenancy rules which WE have supposedly broken, ignoring the fact that NGB have done an endless amount of illegal things since we moved in. He told me they will take us to court if we attempt to move out without paying the rest of our rent/losing our deposit, however NGB completely ignore all tenant rights which state that we can break the lease early without repercussions if the landlord fails to maintain fit and habitable premises, (i.e not performing repairs on time, not having bins, not having hot water, sewage in the bath) or arrives at our home without proper notice, all of which are things NGB have caused or done. The man I phoned spoke to me in a very disgusting and disrespectful manner, bearing in mind he is an adult man working for a âprofessionalâ student letting agency and speaking to an 18 year old girl. Fortunately, we have lots of support from a family friend Barrister so if they do decide to take the situation further all of us are more than happy to comply. If any of us had known how horrible this experience would have been (as young students who have never rented a house before) we certainly WOULD NOT have ever signed a lease with this abhorrent company. Almost all the positive reviews on Google are from people who work at NGB or their relatives, their accounts all have ONE review and that is NGB. Don't be fooled and DO NOT go anywhere near these scammers.
Comment on agent fees
Agent fees are not too expensive as the agency is aimed at students, but I have seen that many people have had their deposits stolen and kept by NGB for no reason.
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