Conrad Fox

I cannot recommend strongly enough that people stay away from the agency. This review comes from the perspective of myself renting a property. I also rent out property via other agencies, so I'm away of property law and conduct. Please read fully to understand. Upon initial viewing of the property with Martin, I was very happy to take on the apartment on the verbal agreement that it would be cleaned prior to arrival. Either this did not happen, or the cleaners did an appalling job. Upon arrival the boiler did not function, making for a very unpleasant couple of days until it could be repaired. The fridge freezer very quickly ceased to function (its condition was discussed upon the initial viewing). It should have been obvious to the lettings agent and landlord that this was in need of replacing before my arrival. This was not done. A few weeks after moving in, the washing machine started having problems. Instead of having it immediately replaced, an insufficient repair job was done. This only delayed the inevitable necessary replacement of the machine, causing further inconvenience and disruption. The cleaning and arranging of repairs / replacements waisted a vast amount of my time. This was an unacceptable start to a tenancy. Especially considering that, at the end of my tenancy, the apartment was inspected properly, and work was done to meet the expectations of the new tenants. I'm extremely glad to see that this was done. It's a shame I was not provided was the same level of service. The majority of the time after this poor start to the tenancy was acceptable, and I thank Martin and Dianne for being communicative during this time. Unfortunately, I have to conclude this review negatively, in regards to the return of my deposit and Conrad Fox's unacceptable conduct and ignorance to the law. It must be understood that no tenant should, or ever will, be willing to lose any more of their deposit than is required by law. With the lack of an ingoing inventory, signed by the tenants, the landlord / agent is never going to be in a strong position in regards to withholding a portion of the deposit to cover repairs. Even though I had made it perfectly clear I was going to leave any disputes on the matter to the DPS, I was sent and invoice to cover substantial painting and cleaning costs to the apartment post vacating. The dishonesty from Dianne was completely unacceptable. It was claimed to me that the whole apartment has been redecorated prior to my moving in, which was clearly untrue. It must be mentioned that an undisclosed portion of the £400 in dispute was to cover to cost of cleaning the fridge and oven, which were in a worse state upon entry than when leaving. The dispute did end in my losing of £100 which I think is perfectly acceptable. The thorough report by the DPS adjudicator made it clear that a small contribution was all that could be fair to the costs of renovating an apartment which was quite obviously in need of it anyway. I hope this experience has been a good lesson learned by Conrad Fox on deposit law.