Giraffe Lettings

I have had the worst experience with Giraffe Lets. My partner and I thought we had found a perfect place to move into. We went to the viewing and stated we could move in at the end of August when our current tenancy ended on our current rental property. This meant that we had been upfront and honest on two occasions informing our preferred move on date. There was no issue flagged up on the phone or at the viewing and the estate agent suggested we would be the ideal tenant. After viewing the property, we went straight to Giraffe Lets to fill out application forms and shortly after put the holding deposit down the following day. We completed all tenancy tests and everything seemed to be fine. The holding deposit means absolutely nothing and I cannot state this enough - it holds nothing. A few days later, we received a call stating that unless we could move in on August 1st, we would lose the property. We received notice of this at 4:30PM which is 1 hour before Giraffe Lets closed and just 30 minutes before our current estate agent closed up for the day. Also, I told the estate agent who I spoke to that it was my grandfathers funeral the following morning but I was told that regardless (and with absolutely no sympathy) that we needed to sort it by tomorrow morning. If we had moved in then we would be paying rent on two properties at once. As this was so close to closing, we immediately contacted with our current estate agent (Your Move - who have been faultless and the perfect estate agent) to request to end the tenancy early, they accepted and told they would write it up for the following day. We had this all sorted and rang back. After all of the stress and hassle this caused, it did appear that we would be able to move in on 1st August as had been requested by the landlord and estate agent. However, upon calling Giraffe Let’s to confirm, we were to be told that now the landlord wanted us to move in mid-July as there has been lots of interest on the property. They told us that we should have a “cross over period” to move from our current property to the new one. This cross over period would cost us in excess of £350 (whilst also paying rent on our current property!). The stress on top of having a funeral the following day of a close loved one was awful - I was in tears and my partner was incredibly frustrated seeing me so upset over something that we had worked hard to sort out. The estate agent provided no support or help to us as tenants. We received a call the following morning at 9am to apologise from the manager. This was appreciated but again I did not feel there was a willingness listen to some of the concerns I raised. For example, I reported how I felt some staff lacked compassion not only for the circumstances surrounding the funeral but also, due to the fact that we had to arrange to end our current tenancy agreement early. This would mean that we would be without a property 4 weeks than we had otherwise intended to do so upon the advice and instruction of Giraffe Lets. There we also remarks such as ‘I think a lot of bridges had been burned between you and members of staff’ seeming to suggest that it was our fault for the current situation and therefore, it was best that we did not proceed with the tenancy. This was despite having paid the holding deposit, being able to pay the remaining deposit and upfront rent immediately and lastly, also satisfying the estate agent and landlord by moving our move in date forward three weeks. The phone call also came on the morning of my grandads funeral - and the estate agent requested to speak with me so the holding deposit could be released back to us, on the morning of the funeral! We are now sticking with our current more reliable, kinder estate agent, and regret ever stepping foot in Giraffe Lets. Do not bother commenting to tell me to contact via email - I never want anything to do with this company again but wanted to share my experience to warn others!