Audsley Moore

We moved into a property managed by Audsley Moore in 2019 (moving less than a year later). The flat on first look was lovely. But upon moving in and on closer inspection you could tell that the decorations were of cheap quality. The paint job was patchy, a light bulb blew whilst we were signing the contract, a window wouldn’t close properly and the handle fell off of the cupboard after a few weeks. All of these things could be forgiven if the property agent (Rick) was responsive. Rick takes a lot of time to respond to emails and will, wherever possible, avoid having to do any work. A second lightbulb blew whilst we were living at the property, but this time it literally blew up, it popped out of its socket as we switched on the light and the bulb itself was black. We sent pictures of this to Rick, his response was not to send an electrician, or to apologise for clearly not installing the correct bulbs, it was to tell us to buy new bulbs. That was all. The boiler stopped working just before winter kicked in, which we reported to Rick. His advice was that he would send an engineer and in the mean time to switch it off and switch it back on again. We complied believing that an engineer would be sent quickly, however no engineer was despatched, despite the boiler breaking again. A couple of months after this we were notified that we were having a gas safety inspection. We were not home at the time but there was no evidence that anyone had been there and when I asked Rick if someone had attended, his response was that he ‘thought so’. We were never given a gas safety certificate or proof that a safety inspection was completed. This was not the only time Rick didn’t comply with safety rules. His response to our low battery smoke alarm was to replace the batteries. Seems reasonable until we informed him (why didn’t he know as he is the property manager) that the smoke alarm was not a battery operated one. His response was that he would replace it. We were never given a new one. All this can be forgiven perhaps, but Rick’s behaviour after we moved out cannot. Communication, already very slow, came to a halt and we had to contact him multiple times just to receive a leave report from him. After we finally received the report (almost a month later), where only slight wear and tear was noted, we had to chase Rick for information about when we would get our deposit back. We were notified by Rick that his painter had decided that the entire flat needed to be repainted and therefore he would be charging us £550. The leave report didn’t note any of this, no pictures nor quote was provided. We entered into several weeks of negotiation with Rick, where we had to contact him several times before we would get a response, most of the time ignoring what we had asked in the first place. In the end we had enough of such terrible service and so agreed on a price that was far too high. We are currently in the process of raising an official complaint. Also note that Rick does not keep your deposit with a TDP service but instead registers it himself, and offered no explanation about what that means. If you find yourself with no other option but to rent from Audsley Moore, take extensive pictures when you move in, note everything including bad work even if you only notice after you have moved in and make sure to make Rick aware of the defects as soon as possible. Also take extensive photos when leaving the property. The best you could do however is to find a different agent.