“These people about ruined my life, I was very close ......”
1 Star Review
Mar 04,2014
By:
'PuzzledMummy'
Mar 04,2014
Branch: Derby, 8a Market Place
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: DE21
Branch: Derby, 8a Market Place
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode: DE21
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people found
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These people about ruined my life, I was very close to an emotional break down.
I moved into the property and at first everything seemed ok.
That soon changed. Until winter set, the windows were wooden and so old they were beginning to crumble. It was so cold in that house you could see your own breath. The kitchen cupboard doors kept falling off as the kitchen was so old and slugs started to come through the back door at night when it got really damp.
Mentioned it so many times to the Estate Agents Frank Innes but they were never interested. 10 months past and my partner left me. I then became a single parent living on full benefits.
I called Frank Innes and told them I'd need to take my ex off of the tenancy, they were happy to oblige but they wanted £185 to re credit check me, even though that had already been done and £60 for a copy of the new tenancy agreement. I could never afford this but I needed it to be done so housing benefit had proof that my ex was off of the tenancy agreement. My Dad leant me the money in the end. He was also my guarantor for the house. They also asked for 2 letters to be written by myself and my ex partner to say that we both no longer wanted me on the tenancy; which we also did.
So I jumped through all of their hoops to get the proccess moving and all seemed ok. They told me that they would send me a letter telling me that the landlord had agreed to the tenancy change even though I'd already paid all that money.
In this time my rent wasn't being paid as I had no updated tenancy, I kept calling Frank Innes to find out what was going on, they'd then tell me to call Country wide then Country Wide would tell me to call Frank Innes again. Until one day I got really cross over the phone. So they told me that no request for a tenancy change was on the system and the money I paid must have gone into cyber space.
The next day I received an eviction notice because while they were wasting time and laughing all the way to the bank with my money, I was racking up rent arrears because the council didn't want to pay my rent until they saw the update tenancy agreement.
Finally I got through to the council when Country wide gave me an eviction notice and they paid all my arrears off in full. The council then spoke to Country Wide and asked them not to evict me but the said they had to carry on with the eviction or the Landlord would have lost some sort of insurance.
The next issue I had was that the council would only rehouse me if i stayed in the property until Country Wide had been through all the correct proceedings an I had been served a bailiff warrant. During this process however I am made liable for the court charges to which I then end up falling into rent arrears again because I have to use the housing benefit to pay the court fees.
When all this was over I then set up a payment plan to pay off my arrears because I still wanted the landlord to get his money! It wasn't his nor my fault that i was evicted or that i ended up in arrears again.
However, here is where I am stumped. I set up a payment plan to which some weeks i missed payments. They used to chase me if I ever missed one day. But just before Christmas I missed a whole month of payment. So after Christmas I emailed them to explain why I hadn't paid and told them when I'd be paying again. I never received any responce to that email.
Next when I called them to pay again and every time from then on, they seem to be almost baffled when I speak to them and tell me my account is closed but still happy to take the money from me. A couple of times I have missed payments since and again; never chased me. Then the other day I found my old house, re advertised for rent however the labdlord is now with a new estate agent.
Now I'm worried that my landlord has just got fed up with it, because I imagin while they were trying to rip me off and mess me about they were probably doing the same to him too.
However I am worried that if he has abandoned ship, they me paying this back is not getting to the landlord any more, that they're just keeping a few extra pounds in their pockets each week. The way they are with money and ripping people off, I can not imagine country wide saying...
"Ok, you leave and here is a hand full of money - don't worry we'l make her pay us instead." Can't see it happening.
So part of me does not want to carry on paying the arrears in case it's not the landlord getting my money! I would happily try and track the landlord down and pay him his owed money directly. But I be grudge paying Country Wide especially if the debt isn't theirs to collect any more.
Stay away from this company, unless you have money to burn and don't care about your kids being shifted around all sorts of emergency accomidation.
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