This Review is intended to give people an idea of what it is like renting out a property with Belvior. This is not meant to directly cause issues to them personally and I have no malice towards them. This is for information and have included all corespondents with Belvoir, so a reply is not necessary from Belvoir as it is all here. Whilst I may be completely wrong and miss informed, the point is.... If you are going to rent out your property, this could happen to you. The message string starts in March when I got the property back, the infestation of fleas and the faulty boiler did not become apparent until I had spent a bit of time in the property. I had a happy time renting my house out via Belvoir for a 3 year period (I paid them to manage it). I was happy to pay all of the money they requested to bring the property up to their standard. When I sought to take my property back Belvoir requested that I let the tenants have an extra month whilst they got sorted, again which I was happy to do. Unfortunately the last months rent did not come through. I requested information on what was happening and the agent said they would look into it. After a couple of weeks and lots of phone calls I was told that the tenants have done what a small percentage do, which is not pay the rent so that the money gets taken out of their deposit and escape paying any deposit towards damage. Belvoir made no attempt to retrieve the money from the tenants, and I had to wait until after they left the property for the money to come out of their deposit. Please see email trail of what I found.... (Read from bottom to top) From: Richard Baker <richard.baker@belvoirlettings.com> Date: 12 July 2012 14:39:48 GMT+01:00 To: < Cc: < Subject: Fw: Thanks for the email. I'm not in this week, but Sophie has forwarded to me to respond. You raise some serious issues, and I'm pleased to respond to each in turn. Gas I'm not a gas engineer, and neither are you. My responsibility as an agent is to use someone who is GAS SAFE registered, and I've done this. Not only this, but a different GAS SAFE engineer has been back some months later and issued a safety test on the property - as such if your guy is correct, potentially 2 engineers have got it wrong. Alternatively, this could be a case of one contractor walking into a property and criticising the work of the contractor who was in there previously – I have 7 years experience of this too. Irrespective, it's an important issue. I assume your contractor is GAS SAFE registered or he wouldn't be working on the boiler in the first place. As such there is a mechanism for him to report the substandard work of another contractor to their regulatory body if he considers this necessary. I would suggest that he does exactly this if he feels the situation is that bad – gas safety is one of the most serious issues we deal with as lettings agents. Visit Reports I can go through the archives and create some of these if you really want, but I'm not sure what it will achieve. I'm conscious that our terms with you (as with all landlords) do not state that we'll provide written reports, although they do state we will inspect, and clearly I have notes on file. These will show that the tenant clearly had pets (not disputed), although we never saw 4 cats at any one time and as such we wouldn't be able to confirm or deny how many there were. At check out, we didn't note any damage that might relate to the presence of large numbers of cats, and we haven't heard anything from you on this issue until now – 3 months after the property was returned to you. Is there a particular reason why it's an issue? Shed Again, we didn't note a missing roof on our check out report – are we suggesting the tenant has taken it? However 3 months after the event it's very hard to do anything about this. I'm also acutely aware that as the tenant didn't pay the last months rent, the overwhelming majority of tenancy deposit went to you as rent. As such there was nothing left to rectify issues such as these, had they existed, and your only option would have been to take legal action against your tenant. Please come back to me in the event of any queries. Richard Baker Belvoir! The Lettings Specialist 01604 621621 (Northampton) or 01788 579456 (Rugby) richard.baker@belvoirlettings.com http://uk.linkedin.com/in/bakerrl From: Belvoir Northampton Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 3:23 PM To: Richard Baker Subject: FW: 20 Sophie Coleman Belvoir! The Lettings Specialist ________________________________________ From: Sent: 11 July 2012 15:21 To: Belvoir Northampton; Subject: RE: Dear Mick / Richard I could not await a response any longer. Please can you confirm that you received the message below. I have since had a gas engineer in who has confirmed the following. 1) The heating sensor was faulty due to the incorrect one being fitted, which you charged me for in Aug 2011. The correct part should have been brass in colour, where as the one actually fitted was a silver colour. 2) The hand full of toilet tissue found in the boiler was a major fire risk that could have killed people. I am not taking this matter very lightly as it is a very serious situation. The engineer is happy to write a report outlining the severity of this situation, in which I will also seek advice as to what should be done regarding this situation when peoples lives were being put at risk. The 3rd and final point I would like to make is that despite several requests that have been ignored, I require ALL inspection data to be passed over now, as an inspection should have been carried out every 6 months. I would like to see the reports contents that shows how there was no sign of the 4 cats living in the property, and how 3 years worth of wear and tear that ended up with the shed roof missing was never reported to me with an aim to keep it in good working order. Please can someone urgently respond with your comments, the reports and a full explanation as to why I paid you in excess of £2000 to risk the tenants and the neighbours lives. This is regrettable situation and in some parts against the law. Regards ________________________________________ Subject: Re: From: Date: Thu, 31 May 2012 20:38:25 +0100 To: northampton@belvoirlettings.com Hi Mick, That's great thanks!! Can you tell me if the sensor work carried any kind of warranty?! The number 7 light was flashing and heating wouldn't come on. Instructions say it was a water sensor fault. Also, the front cover wasn't attached properly. I have refitted it, but need to urgently know if I should remove the hand full of toilet roll should be removed from inside the boiler. It's obviously there to check for a leak repair and looks like a fire hazard. As I am not Corgi registered I am not allowed to touch it. Let me know. And thanks again On 31 May 2012, at 12:24, Belvoir Northampton <northampton@belvoirlettings.com> wrote: Hi Invoices attached as requested. Kind regards Mick Hampson for Belvoir! The Lettings Specialist T. 01604 621 621 F. 0844 824 8776 landlord's protection, we are a member of www.safeagents.co.uk ________________________________________ From: To: Belvoir Northampton Subject: RE: Hi Mick, That would be great, I think there was only 2 times it was looked at. Regards ________________________________________ From: northampton@belvoirlettings.com To: Date: Wed, 30 May 2012 13:22:07 +0100 Subject: RE: We'll obtain a copy from our contractor and forward it onto you. Mick Hampson for Belvoir! The Lettings Specialist ________________________________________ FromSent: 29 May 2012 12:57 To: Belvoir Northampton Subject: RE: Hi Sophie, Please are you able to supply a copy of invoices for the work carried out on the boiler. I believe that there was 1 time where the tenants complained about a leak and your maintenance arranged for the repair. ________________________________________ Subject: Re: From: Date: Tue, 3 Apr 2012 15:28:05 +0100 To: northampton@belvoirlettings.com Hi Sophie, My mother in law will be along tomorrow sometime to collect the keys and gas card Let me know if this is a problem. Regards On 30 Mar 2012, at 16:34, Belvoir Northampton <northampton@belvoirlettings.com> wrote: Hi The full deposit will be paid out to you on Tuesday so this should be in your account on Wednesday. Kind regards Sophie Coleman Belvoir! The Lettings Specialist T. 01604 621 621 F. 01604 621 062 ________________________________________ From: Sent: 30 March 2012 11:06 To: Belvoir Northampton Subject: Re: Hi Sophie, Thanks for the information. Are you able to advise when the deposit will be released to me ref rent arrears and status of property. Regards On 29 Mar 2012, at 11:14, Belvoir Northampton <northampton@belvoirlettings.com> wrote: Hi, All utilities and the Council have now been advised. Kind regards Sophie Coleman Belvoir! The Lettings Specialist T. 01604 621 621 F. 01604 621 062 ________________________________________ From: Sent: 28 March 2012 18:37 To: Belvoir Northampton Subject: Re: Hi Mick/ Richard I have contacted the energy suppliers, council and Anglian water. Non of them will let me setup a new account or take over as they have said they all need evidence that the tenants have left. They have also confirmed that this has not been done by the tenants or Bevoir. Please can you urgently advise regarding this as my mortgage company also need evidence that I have taken the property back. Regards