It pains me to have to spend the time writing this review but I was disgusted, continually shocked and frankly appalled at the level of ‘service' provided to my partner and I before, during and after our tenancy. I will start at the beginning. We viewed a property in April 2012 and wished to take it; we were required to put £1,000 down to make an offer, which if accepted we could not get back, if we were to pull out of the deal. This is the highest ‘offer deposit' I have ever had to put down but we did as we wanted the flat. We did however request items inserted to our AST. When it came to moving in there were issues with getting the keys and when we eventually did we found that most of the things requested in our AST had not been honoured. Our flat had not been cleaned to the extent that there was cigarette ash everywhere and the carpets had not been cleaned despite us stressing that we would only take the flat if they were to be professionally cleaned (they were stained badly and stank of stale smoke). Moreover the internal door handles were broken, something we requested be fixed, they were not fixed and for the whole duration of our tenancy we could not lock our bathroom door or even close it from the outside. The toilet seat was broken; for about the first 12 months of our tenancy we did not have a toilet seat that we could sit on. We stopped having guests to visit as they could not use the toilet; we only could because we learned to live with it. This was not a cheap flat in my opinion, it was in excess of £1,500 pcm for a 2 bedroom flat. We spent the first 6 months of our tenancy chasing all of the above problems but it was pointless. We were told we needed to speak to the agents, who told us to speak to maintenance. We would speak to maintenance who would say someone else was dealing with our account. That person would say someone else was dealing with it. We were told that despite us requesting the carpets to be professionally cleaned this would not be honoured unless the money to pay for this came from the previous tenant's deposit. Eventually the money was deducted from the previous tenants deposit and we were then told that the carpets would not be cleaned as the flat had all our belongings in it and ‘logistically' it was not now feasible to clean the carpets. Can you believe it? The door handles were never fixed meaning we could never close and open internal doors. After 12 months of hounding we eventually had a toilet seat that we could sit on. These items are just the tip of the iceberg, the ones that have stuck in my memory more than most. What is the point of the AST if it is something that we as tenants must honour, but estate agents and landlords do not? A one-way agreement? I asked for clauses to be inserted to our contract, under the ‘individually negotiated clauses' section. I was categorically told that this could not happen (what then is the point in this section) and that our AST requirements would be honoured. I was lied to. Time and time again I was lied to. Our mind was made up a couple of weeks after we moved in that we would leave at the end of our tenancy. I did not however expect our 18 month tenancy to be quite so full of such appalling service as it was. Our tenancy came to and end and we vacated the property, leaving it in an unrecognisable state of cleanliness compared to how we found it. 3 weeks after the end of our tenancy we were informed deductions would be made from our deposit, did I expect anything less? And guess what, deductions were being made for all sorts of things that we had spent 18 months attempting to get fixed. It was another 5 weeks before we had any money returned. So about 8 weeks after we left the property we had 70% of our deposit returned with the remaining 30% still being withheld. I spent more hours calling and emailing the offices of Spicerhaart and FJ Lord. I was fobbed off and told contradicting things from different people on a daily basis. After 10 weeks I became more urgent, aware that we only had 3 months from the end of our tenancy to raise disputes with the TDS. Finally most of our deposit was returned but about 5% was deducted (the deduction being to fix something that was broken when we moved in). In the end we gave up. I spent 2 years almost constantly calling and sending emails to Spicerhaart and FJ Lord for things that I should not have needed to. I wouldn't have minded if we had been poor tenants. However our rent was always paid in full and on time, we kept the property spotlessly clean and in a far superior state than it had been left for us. I had to continually battle for things that were just simply not honoured and for money that belonged to us and was owed to us. I have rented in London for 8/9 years now and used 4/5 different agencies, all of the others have good and bad points but I would use them all again except FJ Lord and Spicerhaart. I would advise anyone to absolutely avoid this company at all costs!!!!