Avant-Garde Lettings

Where do I start with these so called letting agents! Firstly, I should have checked this company out before even signing a contract with them but they have taught me a valuable lesson... always check out the letting agent you are dealing with and cheapest does not always mean the best, you do actually get what you pay for. The main issue I had with this company was missing rental payments and I don't mean once or twice but 3 times and on the last occasion a straight 3 months of rental payments unaccounted for so as you can image with mortgage payments going out it was really distressing and worrying to the point where I felt physically sick. I emailed this company on a number of occasions (just for the record it's best to get their mobile phone numbers as there is never anyone at the office with no voicemail setup and they very rarely respond to emails) and when I eventually got a response I was assured each time that rental payments will not be missed again and some BS about the standing order was not setup properly which were blatant. Now this is a very serious issue as missed mortgage payments will have very bad consequences but these clueless agents don't seem to understand this basic principle. The next issue was when the tenants moved out... all I can say that the place was left in such filth that any landlord would be fuming and thinking what have I actually been paying for which in my case was meant to be a fully managed let but I realised straight away that my flat wasn't inspected even once during the long let and therefore the damage and filth went unnoticed. I was assured that the cost to sort out the damage and filth would be deducted from the tenants initial deposit but this was never done and I ended paying for the whole lot... and I was very very angry about this!!! After numerous calls, emails, voice messages to this agency regarding all the issues I had and missed rental payments which were held by them even after the tenants had left... I finally decided to call them from another number and guess what they answered straight away so their customer service is terrible and they avoid issues despite knowing full well the seriousness of what's going on, they simply don't care. After what felt like banging your head against the wall with these cowboys I finally got part of my outstanding rental back NOT the full amount so was left out of pocket big time and in serious financial worries but again these people are about getting there commission and that's when everything goes down hill. After all of the above and thinking this was the last of dealing with this company I got a letter through the post stating the the council tax had not been paid for my property and that I had to appear in court to deal with this issue, at this point I lost the plot as I had notified this company earlier about contacting the council and informing them that the property was tenanted but this was not done. I then went onto the same circle with trying to contact this agency without any response and finally called again from a different number to which they answered straight away. My experience with this company is genuine and although it may sound like a nightmare this actually happened. I'm hoping that the UK government will regulate this industry, with mandatory qualifications and strict regulations that if breached will carry stiff penalties as the landlords should not be suffering in any way due to the clear negligence of estate agencies, I'm sure this would weed out dodgy agents such as this agency. If you still want to use this agency after reading the above... well good luck, you will need a lot of it!!!