Dear Ms XXXX

Responding to the post below:-

In the first instance, Shepherds take all complaints seriously and we are sorry you feel you experienced a poor service. However, to avoid defamation of our character, we would like to present the facts of events, as the account you have detailed is not correct by virtue of some important information being left out.

1. The property had been view by yourself, pre your agreement to take the property.
2. You negotiated a lower monthly rent, offering the discounted revised rent, in consideration of carrying out the recordation yourself. And in consideration of a list of things the landlord had agreed would be done. However, as you were advised, this is not a new property nor was it being offered on a refurbished or fully re-decorated basis. Hence the landlord was willing to take a lower rent.
3. Given these facts, of your own free will, you confirmed you were happy to proceed and your application was processed.
4. Thereafter, once the reference process was completed, we arranged a mutually agreed move-in date, pre-Christmas.
5. You then requested this be delayed until after Christmas.
a. As the landlord had selected to accept your application over others, as you could move quickly and had agreed the schedule, he was somewhat upset as he was out of pocket on rental income.
6. Post-Christmas, a mutually agreed 2nd for move-in date was confirmed.
7. Accordingly, we instructed the Inventory Company to attend the property to produce the Inventory report for your check-in.
8. You requested a further appointment to view the property before your contract signing appointment, which we were happy to accommodate.
9. It was at this late stage you made additional requests for extra work to be carried out. In particular, some of this included decorating work and the landlord had agreed to discount the rent in consideration of this, so it was somewhat confusing.
a. The blind that was aged and stained - The landlord had already included in the agreed work to have 2 new blinds installed at a much higher cost than £20 as they were not fit for purpose. As the blind you refer to was working, the landlord didn't want to supply a replacement at this time.
b. The cleaning - The property was fully cleaned pre-tenancy. According to the independent professional Inventory Company, who have been trading for 20 years, ‘the property was cleaned to a very satisfactory standard' albeit, they stated it would benefit from some redecoration, which was reflected in the re-negotiated rental price. We also accepted when talking with you about this, that everyone has different expectations and whilst it had been professionally cleaned and the inventory company reported it was clean, you may have differing views.
10. As these requests came in so late and so close to the contract signing time, we had to abort the inventory company for the scheduled check-in and re-book for a 3rd date, after the weekend.
11. It was at this stage that you confirmed you didn't want to take the property any longer as the landlord wasn't willing to respond to your further requests.
12. The inventory company was stood down again.

This left Shepherds in an awkward position having to advise the landlord that you were not deferring the move in again but had decided not to take it at all. The landlord will suffer the cost of the inventory, aborted check-in charge and potentially a re-clean, depending on when a suitable alternative tenant is found, along with the financial loss of income, since pre-Christmas. The landlord is out of pocket, through no fault of his own and we have to start the process again, after turning away other applicants at the time in consideration of yourself.

Not least, Shepherds have not LET the property, so have not earnt any letting management fee.

We are sorry that the matter hasn't ended well or satisfactorily for anyone but we did our best endeavours to accommodate you throughout the process, moving goal posts and move in dates several times in an attempt to assist your needs. We hope you have success in finding a property you will be happy in.