One star because no stars is not an option. Absolutely, unbelievably, the worst and most farcically incompetent agent I've ever had the misfortune of dealing with in almost a decade of renting. My partner and I have lived in a property managed by Kings in Walthamstow for nearly two years. First the contract, until pointed out by us, was set to begin on the 31st of September - a date which doesn't exist. This might sound minor, but this is a legal document. Then (after correcting the date) the agent seemed surprised that my partner and I actually wished to read the contract before signing it (again, legal document!) and attempted to hurry us. It should have been a warning sign, really. Then we moved in. Someone had changed the locks the day before, but not bothered to check that the new lock was aligned properly from the inside, meaning that the first time we locked the door from the inside (which they implied we should not have done, but we had opted to do since a: the outside door was broken meaning anyone could wander into the downstairs hallway - a fact that was hidden from us when we initially viewed the property and b: the inner door was flimsy and not particularly secure looking, potentially easily kicked down with just the flimsy Yale lock in place if someone decided to break in), we ended up trapped inside our first-floor flat. When we eventually managed to get through to someone from the repairs department the woman I initially spoke to told me I'd have to wait for a repair until the landlord returned from his holiday(!), after I'd told her that we were trapped in a first-floor flat. Only after I asked whether she was suggesting we jump out of the window did she agree to send someone round to fix the lock. An apology would have been nice, perhaps an explanation of how such an oversight occurred, but we heard nothing more from them. After several unanswered emails and phone calls where I was told that someone would get back to me (mysteriously never happened), my partner and I went into the branch to speak to someone in person. Instead of apologising, this person laughed at us as if it were somehow funny that their incompetence had left us each missing half a day of work with no notice whilst trapped in a first-floor flat (with what turned out to be a gas leak). We did not ever receive an apology or an acknowledgement of fault. At the time, there was also a fairly serious gas leak under the cooker (in the words of the engineer from the national grid That's dangerous, it's been fitted in a really strange manner, it has to go now) that Kings took almost a month to fix after we'd had the national grid come out to cut us off. So that's a month with no heating or hot water, no hobs, but still full rent, of course. Then we have the quarterly (I say quarterly because sometimes they don't come round for half a year, and on one occasion decided to do it twice in two months) inspection process. Kings send a letter, on one occasion with less than two days notice, informing us that they are coming round for an inspection (presumably to make sure we're not up to anything naughty in the flat - something I've never experienced elsewhere including in many years of renting student accommodation, but it's always nice to be treated like a disobedient child) and if we can't be there, in the middle of the day, with next to no notice, that we will be billed �50. They don't attempt to arrange a mutually convenient time, they never ask when we are available, they just inform us that they are coming and that we will be fined if we cannot be there. For the most recent inspection date, Kings called to cancel at 5PM the day before, after I had already arranged to work from home, at great inconvenience. When asked if the �50 bill applied the other way around we, surprise surprise, got laughed at. The latest issue began about a month ago. My partner was called in mid July and informed that we are in rental arrears totalling one month's rent. This was not the case, and he forwarded them bank statements as proof. Although he asked for confirmation that the matter had been dealt with, this was never received but the fact that we heard no more about it led us to, perhaps naively, assume that the matter had been dealt with. Wrong. Yesterday morning my partner received two missed calls from Kings whilst he was in a meeting. He informed me and I called them back during my lunch break. I was told that we are in rental arrears totalling one month's rent. I painstakingly sat going through my bank statements with someone from accounts, reading him every date of every payment (we pay by standing order on the same day of every month) until he realised that we could not possibly be in rental arrears - what had happened was somebody on their end had, for some unknown reason, invoiced us for September's rent a month and a half early, so our account appeared in one month's arrears. It took a month and both my partner and myself spending a huge amount of our own time on the phone to Kings, for anyone in their accounts department to realise what seems like a pretty ridiculous error. The person I spoke to assured me it would be rectified but admitted that he did not know how to rectify it himself, so I'm not massively hopeful that I won't have to deal with this again in the coming weeks. Obviously our greatest fear now is that they will pass our details to a debt collection agency and our credit rating will suffer because of their mistake. Additionally, the first person I spoke to on the phone yesterday initially mistook me for the landlord. Before realising that I was the tenant, she told me that my partner and I were unreliable, did not answer phone calls and ignored communication. This is not only incredibly insulting, it is also patently untrue. It is our emails to Kings which are unanswered, our phone calls which are unreturned. On the day in question, I was calling back in response to two missed calls made in the same morning during working hours. Clearly, if your tenants work full time, they may not always be able to instantly drop everything to spend the best part of an hour on the phone fixing what was a mistake on the part of Kings. As always, one of us called back as soon as we were available to do so, and it's bordering on slander to suggest, to our landlord no less, that we had been ignoring communication. I have now been assured over the phone that the accounts issue will be dealt with but I have asked for written confirmation that this is the case, as well as a written acknowledgement that any fault was on the part of Kings to be sent to both myself and the landlord. I have also requested details of their official complaints procedure. Unsurprisingly, this has been met with silence and I will be contacting the regulatory authority used by Kings (ARLA - http://www.arla.co.uk/ ) to investigate escalating the issue. I'm beginning to suspect that their reluctance to email me is because they'd rather I didn't have paper evidence of their incompetence. We're set to move out in a few weeks (thank God) although I foresee us having a very difficult time getting our deposit back, based on the agency's behaviour so far. I couldn't recommend strongly enough that if you are considering renting a property managed by this agency, don't. My partner and I have done everything right. We have paid our rent on time every month, kept the flat spotlessly clean and in good condition, and not caused any problems for the agency whatsoever but we have had nothing but problems since we handed over the deposit and have been treated like something scraped off somebody's shoe. This company should not be trading.