“Our overall experience with leaders was quite bad.On the ......”
2 Star Review
Jun 05,2013
By:
'SS'
Jun 05,2013
Branch: London, 17 Lewis Grove
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: SE8
Branch: London, 17 Lewis Grove
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode: SE8
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people found
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Our overall experience with leaders was quite bad.
On the first day of move in, it turned out we didn't have a bed while our property was listed as fully furnished! I had to sleep on the floor for two nights. But it was sorted very quickly on Monday and the staff was very polite and apologetic. I didn't make a fuss about it and even thought they were a good agency.
Then their quarterly inspections begun.
For one of the inspection, they told me they couldn't open the door and asked me if I have changed the locks. I said no I didn't. I remember very clearly I almost laughed when the staff said ¢â‚¬Å“the inspector has over 10 years of experience ...¢â‚¬Â I was like so she still couldn't open a door? I had to drop our keys to their office because they couldn't do inspection on weekends when we could be at home. I did and the staff in the office confirmed the keys they got were the same as ours. I wasn't very happy but didn't get any apologies.
We then got letters saying we are not keeping our flat up to a good standard. They listed the marks/damages on our windows/walls/bathroom etc which were on our initial inventory reports, which meant the damages/marks were there before we moved in. They even commented on the cleanliness of our flat, e.g., grease marks on the hob. They also said there was evidence of smoking in the flat but we don't smoke and I still have no idea what their evidence was. They also said they would get in touch with the landlord and see his instructions. I got quite upset because I was being cooperative for letting them getting into our flat while we were working, and they come in and make subjective/inaccurate statements and send to the landlord who has no idea what the flat is really like.
So I wrote a letter to both the landlord and agency, listed everything they mentioned and compared to the initial inventory report, trying to explain the situation from our side. Then the agency said they would do another inspection. I said no problem. They did and came back to me saying everything was ok. Again, I didn't get any apologies.
Later they also sent some painters to repaint the flat due to a leakage from upstairs. It was a studio flat so we asked them only to paint the kitchen and toilet but they still painted the whole flat. Our flat smelled like paint for a few days and we had to stay at our friends in order to sleep.
By that time we finally decided to move out to get rid of this agency. I hired the agency recommended cleaning firm which were far more expensive that others (£145 vs £75) just so they couldn't charge me more on cleaning from my deposit. At the end they returned my full deposit. So I couldn't stop wondering why they made bad inspection reports and then it turned out we didn't damaged the property at all.
I understand that is probably just one branch of Leaders but since then I have been avoiding Leaders agency for renting and buying our new home.
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