Montgomery & McCleery

I moved to Derry in September 2014 with my partner but we actually privately rented the property in question @ (Conars Court Complex) 3 months earlier in order to secure the property as we were both working. Initially M & Mc appeared very professional and completed our 12 month lease without a problem. Up to March/April of this year we had no major complaints. Our problems started happening when Conars Court Complex had its gas switched off by Health & Safety NI. All residents were left without hot water, access to cooking facilities and heating. The Gas was switched off on either a Monday or a Tuesday of the week and I personally went to the office of M & Mc to advise them of the issues on the Friday following. Originally I thought that the gas problem at the complex would only be temporary but in fact it was not reinstated until about 3 weeks ago (early November 2016). On the Monday following the Friday when I called to the office of M & Mc I still had not heard from them as regards what was going to be done for me so I once again called to their office to find out what was happening. I learned that they had not made any attempt to contact the landlord in question and I then told them that I would remain in their office until they made contact with him. An attempt was made to call the landlord while I was in the office but he wasn't able to be contacted. The Office Manager then came out to me and shouted What did I expect them to do for me & Propety Manager has advised that you were offered the same facilities as every other resident at Conars Court. I was absolutely shocked and disgusted that this person thought she had the right to shout at me during a very stressful time for me (at this stage I had been living without hot water, heating & cooking facilities for a week and without anyone to turn to). Even more annoying was the fact that I had not been offered anything at all by anyone so the information which the Property Manager had passed onto her was totally incorrect. It was at this point that I lost all confidence in M & Mc. But this was only the beginning of the nightmare. About 2 weeks into the situation the landlord finally agreed to provide an electric hob & a hot water geyser to us which resolved our hot water & cooking problems but we were still without heating. These facilities were only provided after a local Councillor rang the offices of M & Mc and threatened them with legal action if they didn't do something for us. M & Mc had made no contact with me as regards what was being offered by the landlord until this call was made. One of the staff members of M & Mc admitted to me during one of the many conversations I had with him about the situation that M & Mc had never had to deal with a situation like this before and were out of their depths as regards how to deal with it. With respect, I feel as rental agents, it is in their best interest to learn how to deal with these kind of situations if they don't know how. Again, this led to a further loss of confidence in M & Mc. During all this time neither M & Mc nor the Property Management company made any communication to us about the situation or when it would be resolved. However, all Habinteg (social housing tenants) were regularly updated on the situation. We called on several occasions to the offices of M & Mc to find out when our heating would be reinstated and were fobbed off on each occasion. No temporary heating was provided to us in the meantime even when the temperature dropped towards the end of the year. I think I should mention here that we continued to pay our full rent of �563 a month during all this time and were not offered a reduction in rent to make up for the loss of heating despite requesting same months ago. In fact we never even got a response to this request. A further loss of confidence in M & Mc. Finally, we moved out about 3 weeks ago leaving the apartment in good condition but were accused of having left a bad stain on the kitchen carpet (�70 was retained to clean this alleged stain). Whilst an agents have the right to withhold funds from a deposit, this stain was not caused by us and I will be pursuing this with a Solicitor. I am raging about this as we left the apartment in the same condition as we got it in. To any tenant thinking of dealing with Montgomery & McCleery, I say there are other agents in Derry. For your own peace of mind, stay well away from this one.