Don't work with Dexters - tenant or landlord. Having finally got back my full deposit and a £300 settlement from the ombudsman, I finally feel comfortable publishing my experience with Dexters. To start at the start, I was shown around the property by a member of Dexters staff (Autumn Bailey) in early 2020. I noted that despite the property being unoccupied, there was a wardrobe full of rubbish, and commented to Autumn that I hoped it would be gone by the time I moved in. I also saw a few other small issues but they didn't seem too serious and I was assured a refurbishment would take place before I moved in. On my move in day, the cupboard was still full of trash, the refurbishment hadn't been cleaned up (there were dust and paint flakes everywhere), the water mains hadn't been run to clear the pipes or as a legionnaire's disease check, and when I started actually packing things away the wardrobes were falling apart. We called Dexters, noted that these weren't mentioned at all on the statement of condition, and they vowed to fix it. Weeks go by, a completely broken wardrobe is eventually replaced but the cupboard is still full of rubbish. This included upwards of a dozen paint cans and personal belongings of previous tenants (including a picture album), and sharp broken ceramic pieces. Eventually, I was asked to pour the paint down the drain and bag up the rest of it. After explaining that I wasn't going to further ruin my already quite dodgy drainage, they told me to move the whole lot out of the property (down two flights of stairs) to be picked up the next day. I did this over 4 trips and the next day they were still there. I called again and they were eventually removed. At this point I was over a month into the tenancy. I bring up the terrible drainage in the property and the fact that there had been no legionnaire's check, and they claimed they'd not been able to get any staff into the property to view it before I moved in due to covid. Despite me being in there, with a staff member, about a month before moving in, during peak covid times. I was asked to buy drain unblocker and pour it down the sink once a month (no offer was made to remove this cost from my rent). Some months later, I was unable to turn my oven on. Dexters refused to sent a tradesman round to look at it, and told the owner of the flat that the oven was broken, causing him to buy a new oven (which I believe was in excess of £600). When the tradesmen came to replace the oven, they were able to actually fix the existing one (I wouldn't have been able to fix it myself but it was easy for them). Unfortunately due to Dexters property management's decisions, the old oven had to be scrapped and replaced. Not long after this, my hob stopped working. I emailed and called Dexters immediately as this was a big issue for me as I prepared all my meals on the hob, and continued to call or email at least once a week. After a month of this, I decided to withhold just over a third of my rent £550 to get their attention. This eventually did, and after 6 weeks the hob was repaired. No attempt or offer was made to reimburse me for not having a working kitchen appliance for 6 weeks until I further withheld the £550, at which point they offered a £250 John Lewis voucher, which I declined. I then had to go through their entire internal complaints procedure in order to make my complaint valid for an ombudsman decision - of course Dexters have made their internal complaints procedure a multiple-step process with each step taking at least a month to get a reply and allow me to progress to the next step. When I eventually raised these complaints with the ombudsman, they ruled in my favour against Dexters. On the same day, Dexters tried to claim almost £100 off my deposit - £31 of this was to "bring the clean up to a professional standard". I had had the property professionally cleaned prior to moving out, and even using the exact company recommended by Dexters. Another £14 of the deposit was to be removed to clean up a stain in a room that had had the carpets steam cleaned (no image was provided) and the last £40 was to replace curtains which we had been told to throw out because they were torn and burnt from being incorrectly washed prior to my moving in. When I got the cleaning company in personal contact with Dexters and provided the receipt, suddenly the full deposit was returned. I was never given any actual evidence or even definition for the cleaning charge. Over the course of my tenancy, I amassed at least 9 emails for Dexters staff, all in similar or the same positions, because the staff turnover rate there is so high. I eventually stopped picking up the phone from them and demanded all correspondence over email because of their propensity for lying. My parents are both landlords in my home town and so I know how tenants should be treated, and frankly what I saw from Dexters was embarrassing. They took zero pride in their work, cut every corner they could and downright refused to take responsibility when they were unable to fulfil even the basic requirements of their position. They also cost the landlord himself an untold sum in unnecessary fees through their refusal to get anything fixed in a timely manner, and I have no doubt that they will continue to do so. To summarise - if you're a tenant, not only will they refuse to fix anything but they will actually ask you to pay out of pocket to keep things running. If you're a landlord, they will make you pay to replace utilities which they could have fixed. Attached is a pdf of one of many emails I sent - I was only able to attach one image but it begins to show the state of the property as it was on the day I moved in.

Attached Files