0% lettings valuation accuracy
0% lettings fee satisfaction
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Jul 19,2022
Jul 19,2022
1
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Don't work with Dexters - tenant or landlord.
Having finally got back my full deposit and a £300 settlement from the ombudsman, I finally feel comfortable publishing my experience with Dexters.
To start at the start, I was shown around the property by a member of Dexters staff (Autumn Bailey) in early 2020. I noted that despite the property being unoccupied, there was a wardrobe full of rubbish, and commented to Autumn that I hoped it would be gone by the time I moved in. I also saw a few other small issues but they didn't seem too serious and I was assured a refurbishment would take place before I moved in.
On my move in day, the cupboard was still full of trash, the refurbishment hadn't been cleaned up (there were dust and paint flakes everywhere), the water mains hadn't been run to clear the pipes or as a legionnaire's disease check, and when I started actually packing things away the wardrobes were falling apart. We called Dexters, noted that these weren't mentioned at all on the statement of condition, and they vowed to fix it. Weeks go by, a completely broken wardrobe is eventually replaced but the cupboard is still full of rubbish. This included upwards of a dozen paint cans and personal belongings of previous tenants (including a picture album), and sharp broken ceramic pieces. Eventually, I was asked to pour the paint down the drain and bag up the rest of it. After explaining that I wasn't going to further ruin my already quite dodgy drainage, they told me to move the whole lot out of the property (down two flights of stairs) to be picked up the next day. I did this over 4 trips and the next day they were still there. I called again and they were eventually removed. At this point I was over a month into the tenancy. I bring up the terrible drainage in the property and the fact that there had been no legionnaire's check, and they claimed they'd not been able to get any staff into the property to view it before I moved in due to covid. Despite me being in there, with a staff member, about a month before moving in, during peak covid times. I was asked to buy drain unblocker and pour it down the sink once a month (no offer was made to remove this cost from my rent).
Some months later, I was unable to turn my oven on. Dexters refused to sent a tradesman round to look at it, and told the owner of the flat that the oven was broken, causing him to buy a new oven (which I believe was in excess of £600). When the tradesmen came to replace the oven, they were able to actually fix the existing one (I wouldn't have been able to fix it myself but it was easy for them). Unfortunately due to Dexters property management's decisions, the old oven had to be scrapped and replaced.
Not long after this, my hob stopped working. I emailed and called Dexters immediately as this was a big issue for me as I prepared all my meals on the hob, and continued to call or email at least once a week. After a month of this, I decided to withhold just over a third of my rent £550 to get their attention. This eventually did, and after 6 weeks the hob was repaired. No attempt or offer was made to reimburse me for not having a working kitchen appliance for 6 weeks until I further withheld the £550, at which point they offered a £250 John Lewis voucher, which I declined. I then had to go through their entire internal complaints procedure in order to make my complaint valid for an ombudsman decision - of course Dexters have made their internal complaints procedure a multiple-step process with each step taking at least a month to get a reply and allow me to progress to the next step.
When I eventually raised these complaints with the ombudsman, they ruled in my favour against Dexters. On the same day, Dexters tried to claim almost £100 off my deposit - £31 of this was to "bring the clean up to a professional standard". I had had the property professionally cleaned prior to moving out, and even using the exact company recommended by Dexters. Another £14 of the deposit was to be removed to clean up a stain in a room that had had the carpets steam cleaned (no image was provided) and the last £40 was to replace curtains which we had been told to throw out because they were torn and burnt from being incorrectly washed prior to my moving in. When I got the cleaning company in personal contact with Dexters and provided the receipt, suddenly the full deposit was returned. I was never given any actual evidence or even definition for the cleaning charge.
Over the course of my tenancy, I amassed at least 9 emails for Dexters staff, all in similar or the same positions, because the staff turnover rate there is so high. I eventually stopped picking up the phone from them and demanded all correspondence over email because of their propensity for lying.
My parents are both landlords in my home town and so I know how tenants should be treated, and frankly what I saw from Dexters was embarrassing. They took zero pride in their work, cut every corner they could and downright refused to take responsibility when they were unable to fulfil even the basic requirements of their position. They also cost the landlord himself an untold sum in unnecessary fees through their refusal to get anything fixed in a timely manner, and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so.
To summarise - if you're a tenant, not only will they refuse to fix anything but they will actually ask you to pay out of pocket to keep things running. If you're a landlord, they will make you pay to replace utilities which they could have fixed.
Attached is a pdf of one of many emails I sent - I was only able to attach one image but it begins to show the state of the property as it was on the day I moved in.
Having finally got back my full deposit and a £300 settlement from the ombudsman, I finally feel comfortable publishing my experience with Dexters.
To start at the start, I was shown around the property by a member of Dexters staff (Autumn Bailey) in early 2020. I noted that despite the property being unoccupied, there was a wardrobe full of rubbish, and commented to Autumn that I hoped it would be gone by the time I moved in. I also saw a few other small issues but they didn't seem too serious and I was assured a refurbishment would take place before I moved in.
On my move in day, the cupboard was still full of trash, the refurbishment hadn't been cleaned up (there were dust and paint flakes everywhere), the water mains hadn't been run to clear the pipes or as a legionnaire's disease check, and when I started actually packing things away the wardrobes were falling apart. We called Dexters, noted that these weren't mentioned at all on the statement of condition, and they vowed to fix it. Weeks go by, a completely broken wardrobe is eventually replaced but the cupboard is still full of rubbish. This included upwards of a dozen paint cans and personal belongings of previous tenants (including a picture album), and sharp broken ceramic pieces. Eventually, I was asked to pour the paint down the drain and bag up the rest of it. After explaining that I wasn't going to further ruin my already quite dodgy drainage, they told me to move the whole lot out of the property (down two flights of stairs) to be picked up the next day. I did this over 4 trips and the next day they were still there. I called again and they were eventually removed. At this point I was over a month into the tenancy. I bring up the terrible drainage in the property and the fact that there had been no legionnaire's check, and they claimed they'd not been able to get any staff into the property to view it before I moved in due to covid. Despite me being in there, with a staff member, about a month before moving in, during peak covid times. I was asked to buy drain unblocker and pour it down the sink once a month (no offer was made to remove this cost from my rent).
Some months later, I was unable to turn my oven on. Dexters refused to sent a tradesman round to look at it, and told the owner of the flat that the oven was broken, causing him to buy a new oven (which I believe was in excess of £600). When the tradesmen came to replace the oven, they were able to actually fix the existing one (I wouldn't have been able to fix it myself but it was easy for them). Unfortunately due to Dexters property management's decisions, the old oven had to be scrapped and replaced.
Not long after this, my hob stopped working. I emailed and called Dexters immediately as this was a big issue for me as I prepared all my meals on the hob, and continued to call or email at least once a week. After a month of this, I decided to withhold just over a third of my rent £550 to get their attention. This eventually did, and after 6 weeks the hob was repaired. No attempt or offer was made to reimburse me for not having a working kitchen appliance for 6 weeks until I further withheld the £550, at which point they offered a £250 John Lewis voucher, which I declined. I then had to go through their entire internal complaints procedure in order to make my complaint valid for an ombudsman decision - of course Dexters have made their internal complaints procedure a multiple-step process with each step taking at least a month to get a reply and allow me to progress to the next step.
When I eventually raised these complaints with the ombudsman, they ruled in my favour against Dexters. On the same day, Dexters tried to claim almost £100 off my deposit - £31 of this was to "bring the clean up to a professional standard". I had had the property professionally cleaned prior to moving out, and even using the exact company recommended by Dexters. Another £14 of the deposit was to be removed to clean up a stain in a room that had had the carpets steam cleaned (no image was provided) and the last £40 was to replace curtains which we had been told to throw out because they were torn and burnt from being incorrectly washed prior to my moving in. When I got the cleaning company in personal contact with Dexters and provided the receipt, suddenly the full deposit was returned. I was never given any actual evidence or even definition for the cleaning charge.
Over the course of my tenancy, I amassed at least 9 emails for Dexters staff, all in similar or the same positions, because the staff turnover rate there is so high. I eventually stopped picking up the phone from them and demanded all correspondence over email because of their propensity for lying.
My parents are both landlords in my home town and so I know how tenants should be treated, and frankly what I saw from Dexters was embarrassing. They took zero pride in their work, cut every corner they could and downright refused to take responsibility when they were unable to fulfil even the basic requirements of their position. They also cost the landlord himself an untold sum in unnecessary fees through their refusal to get anything fixed in a timely manner, and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so.
To summarise - if you're a tenant, not only will they refuse to fix anything but they will actually ask you to pay out of pocket to keep things running. If you're a landlord, they will make you pay to replace utilities which they could have fixed.
Attached is a pdf of one of many emails I sent - I was only able to attach one image but it begins to show the state of the property as it was on the day I moved in.
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Aug 11, 2022
Dear Micheal, I am sorry your experience with us was not as we would have expected. As you have mentioned the Property Ombudsman have closed this case. Thank you. Kind regards, Ria Burton, Customer Relations Team
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Opening Hours
Address
Dexters
9 Cavendish Parade
Clapham,London
Greater London
SW4 9DP
020 8675 0675, 020 8675 6750
Performance statistics
| Services | Valuation Accuracy | Fees Satisfaction | Min Price of property reviewed | Max Price of property reviewed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lettings | 0% | 0% | £1,500 | £1,550 |
Review statistics
| From Landlords | From Tenants | From Vendors | From Buyers | Other | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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Jul 19,2022
Jul 19,2022
1
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Don't work with Dexters - tenant or landlord.
Having finally got back my full deposit and a £300 settlement from the ombudsman, I finally feel comfortable publishing my experience with Dexters.
To start at the start, I was shown around the property by a member of ...
read full review
read full review
Was this helpful?
Yes
Yes
Aug 11, 2022
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(1)
Dear Micheal, I am sorry your experience with us was not as we would have expected. As you have mentioned the Property Ombudsman have closed this case. Thank you. Kind regards, Ria Burton, Customer Relations Team ...
Feb 18,2020
Feb 18,2020
0
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Prepare yourself to deal with the slowest and most incompetent company currently operating in the UK. In the one year that I let a property from Dexter's I dealt with no fewer than 8 different employees each more apathetic than the last. Every piece of paperwork ...
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Aug 22,2014
Aug 22,2014
163
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Dexters has been the worst agency I've ever worked with.
They were pushing us to make an offer higher than the add as "apparently" the landlord had many but we liked the flat and we'd decided to do it.
After thousands of problems started. The ...
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Comment on agent fees
their fees ended being higher than FOXTONS with a normal/low service which for us was unbelievable.
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Aug 26, 2014
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(1)
Hello,
I am really sorry to hear that you have been unhappy with the service provided by our Clapham South Branch. I am head of Customer Services at their Group office and I wondered if I could be of any further assistance.
If you could e-mail further details to me at [email protected], I can investigate the situation and try and resolve any outstanding issues for you.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Marilyn ...
May 21,2013
May 21,2013
0
people found
this helpful
this helpful
Dexters were extremely efficient, polite and professional. They found great tenants quickly and they managed the whole letting process superbly. They often went above and beyond what they were contracted to do to sort a problem for us. We couldn't fault them and would happily ...
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May 08,2013
May 08,2013
0
people found
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I decided to let my one bedroom flat in SW4 and spoke to several of the estate agents surrounding my property. Out of all of them I chose Dexters because I felt that they gave me an honest valuation rather than an inflated one to ...
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May 08,2013
May 08,2013
91
people found
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The service I have received from Dexters has been far below was is acceptable.
First, they locked me in their contract that is very advantageous to them. They told me verbally things that ended up the opposite to what the contract was (that I could ...
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No fees information available
Kindly note that legally, letting agents need to publish information about their tenancy fees, government-approved redress schemes and client money protection schemes on their website and on third party websites (on which agents are listed). For properties to lease/rent in England, agents need to keep this information up to date and precise on allAgents or specify within the property description.
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