Shaw & Co

The estate agent/landlord (brothers - lack of impartiality) has not held true to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme that he is registered with and uses as a marketing tool (displayed in his window) to lure trusting tenants. As tenants we were threatened (in writing) that if we lodged a dispute with the TDS it would be bypassed and we would be taken to court anyway. No part (even the undisputed part) of our deposit has ever been returned to us since 2013. The estate agent does not respect tenants's rights to live in their property without harassment (Philip Shaw thinks he can let himself in with his own set of keys when access has been denied him in writing.) Even when the court encourages us to settle out of court Shaw and Co. insist on taking everybody to court making the process as drawn out and disruptive as possible. They did not make good on reported (in writing) faults with the patio door - slugs and ants coming in alternately each season. Lovely. Would not allow us to open the skylight kitchen window for ventilation then had the cheek to charge us for molding mastic produced through a lack of ventilation (again all in writing...) Above all else there is an absolute lack of transparency with the agency, we did not have the landlord's contact details (they were apparently the same as the estate agency's business address), were not present at the landlords inspection even after requesting to be and there was never any open discussion between all parties. We were not even offered to sign off the estate agent's inspection because the 'real' inspection would happen with the landlord, but like I say this inspection either happened in secret or not at all. Make no mistake in the ten years I have been renting property this has been my worst experience of a landlord and particularly an estate agent. In my opinion Shaw & Co have absolutely no respect for their tenants as people, or their legal rights as tenants. If you want to have a nightmare leaving a property and be sure to not have any part of your deposit returned (whether or not you have the house professionally cleaned and photographically document everything) then Shaw and Co are the estate agents to approach. Wish us luck for the court date.