Anna said about Goldschmidt & Howland

Services : Letting( As a Tenant )Date: 11th Mar 2015

The agency was OK up to the point when move out notice was given. We have given a 2 months notice as contractually obliged. We ordered a professional house clean and also did carpet cleaning. Then only 10 working days after moving out date the agency got back to us that they are planning to do some deductions from the deposit. They didn't really indicate the total amount of deductions and clarify for what for. Initially they wanted to clam money for a carpet cleaning of a stain which was left by their subcontractor doing maintenance work, then they also claimed they want to charge us for paining window frames. Fortunately I have made many pictures of the state of the house when moved in and reported the carpet stain once it was made, so these claims were given up (about £200). Then they still persisted that we have to pay for another cleaning £70+ VAT (justifying that there is a little lime scale at the end of the tab in the bathroom, which was not in the check in inventory etc) and £15+VAT for taking out ironing board. The communications were very slow and agent was going silent for weeks. Only 7 weeks after the end of the tenancy they have informed us what is the final amount of their claim they want to deduct. It took another 6-7 weeks to get non disputable amount (over 3 months after the end of the tenancy in total). We had to apply to TDS. In reply to our TDS claim they emailed complete nonsense which contradicted check out inventory, thus TDS adjudicated they don't get any money for the cleaning. Overall the situation was handled very unprofessionally, I would not recommend to use them and certainly won't be looking at properties they offer. They charge a lot of money for inventories and contract, reference check etc but also want to do maintenance work on moving out tenant's account.

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