My experience with Northwood was not particularly enjoyable and was surprised when I was asked to leave a review because when they get a 5 star review they get commissions etc. Initially the move in date was postponed due to the gas safety certificate not being carried out in the 4 weeks leading up to the move in date. We had to tell them we would need to pull out of the tenancy because we would soon be homeless and needed to find somewhere we could move into. The certificate passed about a day later which was positive. 2 weeks after the gas safety certificate was completed there was an unsafe gas leak in the fire apparently shut off fire place, although they were quick to blame the landlord about this when I questioned the legitimacy of the safety certificate. The pre tenancy inventory was fair and needed minimal additions on our part. Communication was varied. The telephone always answered politely by front of house staff, However, emails were not always answered even with a 'thank you for your email' which resulted in me having to waste more time following emails up. Fix-flo was always available to report on and the problems reported were followed up by relevant professionals. Again communication was somewhat of a question mark when reporting on fixflo because there was never an email from the actual agent to say they were actively dealing with the problem, again this was something I had to follow up myself. Particularly if problems were reported on a weekend. Donna did arrange for the problems to be fixed without the landlords input - something she often went of her way to remind me of (like I should be thankful that the pipe got fixed without the landlord permission), due to the landlords apparent poor communication skills with Northwood, I don't care about excuses of why things are taking time. The bath pipe leaked a year or so into the tenancy and dripped into the living room, the pipe was fixed and the plummer recommended that the wall in the living room should be redecorated because of water damage but this was never completed - but it was ok because we wouldn't be blamed for it because it was reported according to Northwood. I, and I'm sure other renters, do not want to live with water marks in the living room. There was an issue with the heating that went on for 6 months prior to leaving the property, which I appreciate was due to the landlord allegedly not responding to requests to have work carried out on the heating system. However, every time I contacted the agent about what was going to be done about it I had coincidentally contacted them on the very day they had sent another letter/call/email/text him. Every. Single.Time. At one point I spoke to Mary-Ann who exerted her power as manager onto the case, she reassured me she was doing her upmost to resolve the issue and I never heard from her again. I was continually told that due to getting some heat in the property there was nothing they could do.. I had the heating on at 35 degrees all the time and it was still only just warm. Upon handing our notice in, 6 weeks in advance for the 15th April, I heard nothing from the agents to confirm that they had received it until I called them up and was told verbally everything was fine. I then received a letter to say that the post tenancy inventory would be carried out on the 16th April. Fine because as far as I am concerned my end of tenancy will be the 15th. Not fine according to Northwood who tried to tell me that because they do not work on a Sunday I would have to pay an extra days rent. This was completely unacceptable and Donna told me over the phone that there was nothing I could do and I was legally bound to pay the extra day rent. Obviously this is not legally enforceable and when I went back with a direct quote from an adviser from Shelter/Citizens Advise the claim from Northwood was dropped and I did not have to pay the extra days rent. Upon departure of the property the inventory was carried out and fair comments were made about damages to the curtain rails and cleanliness of the cooker hood. We were refunded our entire deposit despite these discrepancies due to the issues we have had over the 2 years and that is literally the only reason why I have scored 3 stars and not 2 stars. When leaving Donna informed me that the landlord had not been in contact with them to say he acknowledges that we would be leaving and I said given all your problems with him I bet you are glad to get him off the books and she replied well not really, money is money. Which makes me question where the morals of Northwood staff lay. If I saw my dream house advertised by Northwood I would absolutely NOT follow it up.