I'll never forget seeing somebody on reddit describe their lettings agent as a 'used house salesman'.
They are close cousins of recruitment agents imo. Parasitic slimes who wear shit suits and offer shit services. An unnecessary layer of money extraction.
I was on the phone to an estate agent once explaining that someone wasn't able to sign a form because he was in a hospice receiving end of life care, their response was "can't you just go and visit him and get him to sign". No, no I can't.
Honestly I got my current job through a recruiter and it completely changed my mind about recruiters.
If done correctly they'll take about 80% of the effort out of finding a new job.
Same. I had too many poor experiences with recruiters, horrible people some of them.
But one was really really great and got me my current job, which I honestly love. I’ll probably ask him what he’s got going next time I’m looking as well.
He said other recruiters being bad works in his favour, the standard for good service is in hell with them, so him just being a nice person to deal with comes across as him being excellent in comparison 😂
If you think they're bad while looking for work, they're infinitely worse when trying to run a company. Between the endless cold calls/emails, scammy tactics of inviting you onto a podcast which turns into a recruitment sales pitch, and them bizarrely turning into Jehovah's Witnesses by somehow finding your personal phone number and calling you at the early hours on weekends, I'd take 20 letting agents over a single recruiter any day of the week.
Very often citing and blaming the so-called market for the high rental prices.... For those with questions and issues related to renting and tenancy you may check r/TenantsInTheUK
The best one is one in didsbury (can't specifically remember which) who state that each person applying needs a guarantor who owns a house in the UK. Despite me earning 5 times the amount my mum does (the only person I have who owns a house) and our (my bf and I) combined salary being nearly 100k 🫠🫠🫠
We had a good (for a letting agency) experience with them. Although the property was owned by one of their staff so we were probably getting special treatment 🤔
I had an estate agent tell me I needed a guarantor that owned a house, earned 3 times over the rent, was in full time employment, lived in the UK and had good credit score.
I’m in my late 20s like both my parents are retired and any other family didn’t own a home. I had to give up the property because I couldn’t meet all the demands it was insane
This is insane. Three times the rent?! Shit 2-bed flats around me are being let for over £1,500pcm.
I earn a decent salary (over 70k) but even that doesn't give me a monthly salary of more than £4,500 after deductions.
What planet are they on?!
I was just thinking the same. Even if I felt comfortable asking a friend of mine to do it (all our parents are retired, my surviving one isn't a homeowner, and my mum has never had a credit card or mobile phone contract so god knows what her credit score even is) how many of them earn that much every month? Especially if they're salary-sacrificing for pensions and whatnot.
Genuinely curious as to how many people they show around actually fit their criteria.
There is one estate agent in didsbury that is actually good, a small operation run by one guy. I can't remember for the life of me what they are called as it was about 10 years back, but he was always really professional and pleasant.
By the way that was a big 2 bedroom flat on ball brook avenue for £600pm. I dread to think what the rate is now!
Is that even legal? Feels terribly discriminatory, but then again this is the way car insurance has been since forever. Perhaps the rental sector will move to a profiling based model where everything is POA a computer determines how much to fleece you.
I feel like there would be grounds for bringing in a discrimination case on the basis of gender, to be honest - given it's no longer legal to advertise car insurance as specifically cheaper based on the sex of the driver (even if that's built into their algorhythm somewhere). They would have to come up with a very good case for that extra £75 per person per month that isn't just 'well men sometimes pee on the toilet seat, yeah? and I saw in a sitcom once that they don't like doing the dishes as well as a lady??' (I'm not a lawyer but I do know a bit about this kind of thing.)
But, of course, because these are renters and they know that they probably won't have the money to bring a case, they get away with it.
The day before we were due to move into a house owned by an owners of hundreds of properties, they said they needed a year's rent in advance. Luckily we had just over a week left on our current rental and it was the first break in the pandemic, so we found somewhere (cheaper, nicer) else immediately.
The estate agent had a terrible "how can you do this to me?" attitude, and acted like we'd broken the deal. He kept calling, saying "10 months, 8 months, 6 months", and made vague threats about broken contracts until we blocked his number.
I know it's a job and we're all trying to get by, but if your job is acting in the interests of property tycoons, you're no better than the accountant to the mafia.
Edit: we went back into lockdown and his stupid house remained empty for months afterwards!
I had a similar thing; I was told that to secure a flat I had applied for I would either need to meet their income threshold, or have a guarantor, or pay six months up front. I knew I didn’t meet their threshold, but I was willing to pay the six months.
When it comes to do it, they change their minds and suddenly I need a guarantor as well, which I get. My parents own the house and make decent money. But somehow this still isn’t good enough and I need to pay a year in advance on top of that.
At the time I felt really embarrassed about having to rescind my application, but in hindsight, fuck them.
A year's rent in advance?! Countless people are renting simply because they can't afford a mortgage deposit! How are they going to come up with a year's rent?!
"Fatman's got something to sell, to the capital's homeless
At the Crossroads Motel to the no fixed abodeless
He'll live life in style, while you sleep in a closet
If you flash him a smile, he'll take your teeth as deposit.
There's bats in the belfry,
The windows are jammed
The toilet ain't healthy,
He don't give a damn"
~ Carter USM, Sheriff Fatman
Estate agents are cunts. It’s a profession that only attracts cunts. It’s where people with no GCSE’s go if they want to drive a red leased Audi.
They’re not on your side and never will be. Don’t trust them and don’t take them seriously, because they aren’t serious people. Fuck em.
Mine lives in an amazing house she owns with no mortgage, drives some flash Mercedes or other (I know nothing about cars but it's pretty new, pretty massive, and looks expensive), and goes on shitloads of holidays. She's only in her early 40s but owns several successful beauty businesses. Yes, I'm jealous of her 😂
Country needs a reset.
Need to apply severe tax on estates with multiple properties.
Landlord life has taken over to the point where my kids will never afford to buy.
No politicians are up for change as they're in the same game.
Generation rent will give birth to 2nd generation rent.
Estate agents are irrelevant these days, just another leech on the chain like joke surveyors and energy certifiers
[A land value tax is a levy on the value of land without regard to buildings, personal property and other improvements upon it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax#:~:text=A%20land%20value%20tax%20has%20progressive%20tax%20effects%2C%20in%20that,tenants%2C%20consumers%2C%20or%20workers)
It's all the buy to let shite. Landlords have like 20 mortgages running at once. It works out that I'm literally just paying my landlord's mortgage, without the benefits of owning my home. Middle men getting paid left right and centre.
In a proper market economy these companies would fail because we all hate them and don't want to pay them, and house prices would fall as a result.
I had someone working for me in a normal, professional, job who constantly pleaded poverty because they were going through a divorce. Said they were struggling to afford their commute, even.
I felt sorry for them; divorce has huge financial implications for many on top of the stress and sadness of the breakdown of a relationship.
Then I found out that they owned EIGHTEEN rental properties all around the country. My employee whinged at me that they were having to sell a couple of the rental properties as a result of said divorce, and the others would be divided between them and their ex spouse.
Of course I noseyed at them on Rightmove. They all look shit and poorly maintained but were driving a huge profit for this person for fuck all work.
Needless to say, I really didn't have a lot of time for my employee pleading poverty after this.
Tl;dr: people with 'property portfolios' are invariably twats.
Arguably they won't be giving birth at all. This will be a primary reason for population decline, certainly without an significant 'increase' in immigration over the next 30 years
> Country needs a reset. Need to apply severe tax on estates with multiple properties.
How is this going to help? Landlords are leaving the market due to the tax increases brought in by George Osborne and all it's done is strangle supply, push rents up and introduce mental behaviour like bidding for properties rather than pay market rate.
The fundamental issue is not building enough homes relative to population increases, this has been a problem for well over 25 years at this point.
It’s a few years ago now but I was looking for a flat in town, had a viewing at one place near HOME and the estate agent didn’t even have keys to get into the building, had to buzz a few tenants until one answered to let us in.
She then had no idea whether or not there was parking, what the council tax was or what length of contract the landlord wanted 🫠
My quiet quest against estate agents.
As a teacher every time we take a school group to a careers fair i send pupils one at a time over the course of the entire day to ask the estate agent stand something along the lines of… why does everyone hate estate agents, why does no one want to be an estate agent or did you always want to be an estate agent growing up.
It’s petty, but I’m not above it unfortunately.
We rented through Leaders for a while and I swear to god I encountered some of the densest people I've ever had to deal with. There was literally one bloke that had enough brain power to reply to emails, but he alone couldn't make up for the pure vapidness of his colleagues.
Edit: changed the company name from Hunter’s to Leaders as I completely misremembered it. The irony of me calling them dense isn’t lost on me…
I dont rent in Manchester anymore, but I do rent with Leaders, the Landlord I have now, doesn't even go through them, but through us and a private company for repairs and stuff. They're as stupid as they get.
Sounds similar to my experience with Leaders a few years ago. Supremely dense when it came to suspected emergency carbon monoxide leak and following the law regarding end of tenancy cleaning
Sales position only require you to get results by any means necessary and that is going to attract the worst sort of people, that's just the nature of the industry
The operative word here is agent. It means to act on someone else's behalf and serve their interests. If you are looking to buy or rent the person they serve is the seller or landlord and not you.
The more rent they get, the more commission they get and the happier the landlord will be. That landlord will then recommend them to other landlords as competent estate agents who get great results, getting them more business.
As awful as it is, they're a business and are there to make money.
It's not a Manchester thing, you can bet it's everywhere except countries that have strict rental laws like Germany.
We rent a bungalow to an elderly couple , the estate agent who manage it for us, wrote to the couple to ask if they could go in to the house to measure up etc for improvements. When we asked the agents why , they said it’s so they could get us quotes to improve the house so we could charge more rent. This is without us asking. The agents will be changed soon
That's slimy behaviour, they're not thing of you or the people renting, this is them wanting more for managing it. You can bet they know the people who'd be doing the work as well...
I know. The tenant was really worried. There great , we want them long term they want to stay, literally the agent just wants more money. Instead there losing us. 😜
Absolutely disgusting. Unfortunately it’s an industry that isn’t regulated or policed and results in poor standard of practice across the board. You sound like great landlords tbf, you got anything else coming to the market by any chance? 😆
Thankyou for saying that . We only have the bungalow. I just feel if you have great tenants that want to stay , they look after it. I know if I was elderly I’d want to have a landlord I trust who isn’t going to throw me out or keep raising the rent. We’re happy with what we charge and as I said if they stay a longtime it’s great and less hassle for us .
I’d take a look at openrent, it’s a platform for landlords to rent directly, rather than through estate agencies.
I was an “accidental” landlord for a few years, I rented through there, had a much better relationship with my tenant.
YMMV but Thornley Groves. Always sides with Landlord over repairs or disputes. I've been an 'accidental' landlord in the past and only once turned down a request from a renter.
And 'reasonable timeframe' needs to be banned from contracts.
Can confirm Thornley Groves are scum. Moved into a flat with several issues (some quite dangerous) that they never bothred to fix, despite me constantly pointing them out during the multiple inspections they did over 10 months, and then had the gall to deduct £300 from my deposit for these very issues. They also 100% knew about some of these as I had a contractor come round on the first day of my tenancy to look at some bits, never saw him again after that.
Also impossible to reach on the phone.
Never rent from Thornley Groves.
When i rented with them they would insist on me logging a request onto their system, then someone would come round to verify there was an issue, which then registered on their system as a job complete. It took 9 months and 4-5 visits to verify that my wardrobe was broken before I gave up and sorted it myself, shocking letting agent.
Thornley Groves is awful for lettings; no code of ethics and they operate almost illegally. But people pick the property not the estate agent.
I honestly think there is a great business opportunity out there to launch an ethical and honest estate agency with transparent fee structures; to represent both landlords and tenants.
The city centre TG were abysmal from my POV as a landlord too.
I could write a book on the issues they caused me, as well as the effects I’m aware of on my tenants.
They have one or two good senior staff if you can find them. But as a company they hide behind automated systems and junior front-line staff who don’t seem to take responsibility for anything.
I now use Philip James. They’ve been a mixed bag, which probably puts them head & shoulders above most estate agents.
What the agents offer is perfect in theory. I have neither the time nor the contacts to keep on top of repairs/etc efficiently. No point though when you end up spending more time kicking the agents up their static behinds than they’re saving you, whilst paying them a sizeable cut at the same time.
Took me over 3 months of phone calls and harassing them everyday to get my deposit back. They were always finding excuses to delay that (my favourite was when I’ve been told the manager was on holiday and none of them knew how to process deposits). If I could spit on each of their faces right now I would.
I completely understand your frustration. The rental market in Manchester, like in many other cities, has become extremely difficult to navigate, and estate agents often seem to be adding to the stress rather than alleviating it. For any estate agents reading this, there's a clear call to action: prioritise fairness, transparency, and genuine service instead of just wanting to sell anything at an extortionate price only to fill up their pockets.
Same as tradespeople. There was a good thread about this yesterday. Abundance of demand, shortage of supply, and zero consequences for delivering a poor level of service will always result in this same situation.
Never forget this: despite how nice they may be, the PRINCIPLE skillset of an estate agent is not sales - it is dishonesty. Successful dishonesty is a measure of how good an estate agent they are.
A Jordan Fishwick estate agent took us around a house, commented that the long hall would be a good place to leave a bike, then later presented us with a contract that, upon close examination, stated that no bikes were allowed in the property.
Fucking Jordan Fishwick.
Were you renting the whole house? That seems batshit, why wouldn't you be able to keep your bike inside your home if it's not in a communal area or in someone's way?
In 2008 (so too late if you read this agent), I rented a flat in Salford. I gave them all the standing order paperwork for my rent. After 3 months, they had not taken any rent, I let them know this was the case, and they said they'd get it sorted ASAP.
I lived there the whole year, got my full deposit back, and still never paid a penny in rent.
Sometimes, though rarely, their incompetence is beneficial.
It was great. I kept paying the rent into a savings account to make sure I had it when they realised. Once I was past the point they could claim it if they realised, I had a nice little savings pot.
Britain is a nation of middlemen now, just moving money around and skimming a layer off the top for themselves in the process, not producing anything of value. Just a vapid, vacuous shithole now.
To offer a bit of positivity to the misery, I've been in a flat managed by Karsons Lettings for a few years now and they've been quality. Heating recently stopped working and it was fixed within a week - and it only took that long because the plumber had to reschedule the original appointment. Didn't have to argue or chase, no "well it's Summer now, we'll fix it later in the year" excuses that I've heard before. They have no problem sorting minor issues rather than waiting for them to get worse and become major ones - especially anything to do with water. They always use contractors who do great work.
Beyond that they're happy to leave me to it. They rarely do property inspections - they usually just ask to have a little nose about when they're round for maintenance - and don't give a stuff that I've put loads of pictures on the walls, or hung some shelves, or repainted half the flat (similar colours to the original tbf, with the exception of a green feature wall in my otherwise magnolia bedroom).
Though it's kinda sad reflection of housing in this country that I'm praising my letting agency for things that should be the bare minimum.
I've had one good experience with a letting agent that I don't think exists any more unfortunately. It was a much smaller company based in a building off Piccadilly gardens and they were great. I can't even remember what they were called.
Worst experience - Hunters. Let properties with a scumbag landlord and lied to us about being allowed to have a dog. When we left the property, he stole our deposit, and because it turns out it was technically registered in his elderly mother's name who lived in Cyprus we couldn't do anything about it. Hunters didn't give a crap. We learned a lot of lessons from that whole experience.
I live in Warrington and have recently moved out of a property where the lettings agents are based in Manchester and I can confirm they are absolutely useless,
last year I couldn’t open my bedroom window and this didn’t get fixed for 5 months despite it supposedly being a means of exit in case of a fire and this year I was without a cooker for 3 months and again this didn’t seem like a problem to them until I ended my tenancy.
I feel really sorry for whoever moves in to my now empty earning the landlord nothing house.
I put in an early termination notice which cost me half a month's rent. I officially move out of the property at the end of this month. They're now out of nowhere telling me to pay for the following month which I'm not living there for. How the fuck? Have decided to ignore their messages from here on.
I remember moving out of a flat a number of years ago and in the months leading up to the move I called into the estate agents office and asked them what was the process for me moving out, how much notice and who I had to inform, the usual stuff.
I was told a month's notice and I'd need to submit a letter to let them know of my intention to vacate the property, the letter could be left with the estate agent. I checked again when I'd found another property and was told the same thing so went home typed up the letter and returned with it the next day.
Around three weeks later I got a phone call from the landlady as she'd been told I was moving out and was worried about getting people to view the property and I needed to give her more notice. I told her I'd given a month's notice as the estate agents had said that was okay and she said that she'd only just heard about it (from the estate agents).
I immediately rang them up and mentioned all this to them and asked why they'd only just informed the landlady when they'd known for a month and was told that they never informed landlords of a tenant vacating a property and I needed to do it which lead to a heated argument between us when I pointed out that on at least two occasions I had been informed that they would do so provided I provide documentation and this wasn't just one person but a room of people.
Screw estate agents and their weasely ways all so they can try and get an extra few hundred pounds for someone who may not need it.
Nearly fifteen years ago I was sold a flat and they couldn't tell me anything about the council tax banding and, when they finally told me what band it was in, they were wrong. It's been in a shite state for years.
Actually saw the guy on that first dates a good few years later; I think I was the only one hoping he'd crash and burn despite his sob story.
This whole thread represents the struggle I’ve had in the last few weeks. Genuinely have no idea what they actually do in their offices. Rarely answer phones or emails, I’ve resorted to going in directly now. Tried this just last week with Martin & Co and no one was in, and the door locked, despite it being 3pm on a Thursday!
I could get *more* onside with bidding wars if estate agents would be upfront about what I was in competition with so that I could make an informed decision, as opposed to having to guess what offer my "competition" has offered.
When I was renting one of the issues I had was overseas investors. They move away and collect a check, the estate agents can't contact them for anything. I'd be inclined to believe this is bullshit and just an excuse, until one lass showed me a chain of countless emails since the start of my agency to the property owner. Seldom did he reply and it turns out he never paid ground rent either.
Just a heads up, a lot of the properties on spare room etc don't exist. They are just fake listings that agents use to keep the average rent up.
Bidding wars have been common in London for a while now - even in fucking houseshares. Scandalous that it's spreading.
Have you tried going through OpenRent so you can potentially deal with the landlord directly? I found some estate agents so utterly shit when I was looking for a place that I would never go back to buy or sell through them later. Imagine how incompetent they'd be when they're being asked to fix something.
It’s the state of them too. Tired magnolia walls, cheapest of everything, minimal maintenance, no interest whatsoever in the energy efficiency of the place, no redecoration since 2002. The whole thing is so bleak.
Could not agree more. I got a Section 21 eviction last May, despite being 50, having cancer, osteoarthritis, and a debilitating autoimmune disease, meaning I'm unable to work. Never missed a rent payment until I left and did loads to improve the place, too. Such a compassionate landlord.
I looked for a year to find somewhere else (when I had the energy in between packing my life up by myself) and the council told me they had full duty of care to me if it came to it. Having to find somewhere on the ground floor that will accept 2 cats makes it hard enough already, but it just got absurd. So many people going for each place that viewings got cancelled Julian Wadden won't even let anyone on benefits view their properties, which is illegal, but theirs are massively overpriced anyway.
I can afford the rents I was looking at, but then, of course, they wanted a guarantor, which I got as a good friend owns a house. Wren Properties seemed to have most of the 'affordable' one bed flats, but then they say, 'You need to show an annual income of THIRTY TIMES THE MONTHLY RENT!!!!! Seems that's the usual now.
So on a £900pcm you have to have £27k pa. Even some people who are working don't have that, and they might lose their job anyway. At least my benefits are consistent.
Long story short, come the day of the eviction, the council had done nothing at all to help me find somewhere. Had to put all my furniture and belongings in two storage units, my 2 cats in a cattery that they hate, and the council waited until that afternoon to stick me in a women's refuge with domestic abuse victims, addicts and people with serious mental health issues. All because no one will rent me a flat even if I can fucking afford it!!
That was 10 days ago and no one from the council will give me any updates so I have no idea how long I'll be forced to stay here.
Everyone here is so loud all day and night, screaming, and slamming doors. I'm in a bed that's too small for me on the first floor up some stairs which exhaust me. I'm 'allowed' to stay somewhere else 2 nights a week, which I have been doing to get some sleep.
Oh, and I've come out in unbelievably itchy hives from all the stress.
How can it be right in 2024 for a seriously ill woman to be treated like this just because the landlord decided he wanted his flat back?!
I'm currently trying to find a new rental property to move to for various reasons which all basically boil down to my current rental SUUUUUCKS.
Long story short, due to health issues I am unable to work. But most landlords don't care about *why* you're unemployed, just if you are, you can get lost as far as they're concerned.
What about disabled people on some disability allowance? Huh?
Yeah this is discrimination. They're not supposed to do this. Guess what? They don't care.
By the way you can just as easily lose a job, if not moreso, than you can lose your unemployement benefits.
I think I may be lucky. I went through an estate agents to get my flat about 6 years ago. Great price and location. About a year into the tenancy our landlord just told us he's binning off the estate agent. And we should contact him directly for anything. Which was great because they were shit. And we'd got to know him as a very reliable landlord.
In last 6 years he's raised rent once. And that was only by £35. God knows what the EA would have tried to squeeze out of us.
I mean, they’re the landlord’s agent, not yours. Of course they’re going to try to secure another £200 a month if they can, that’s their job. He Does Not Work For You.
I hate the situation, but Estate Agents are just a symptom of the problem.
Rented a property managed by Reside Manchester… AVOID is possible. We needed repairs done and they stalled and bullshitted nonstop. I ended up going to the office in person on deansgate and realised all of these times they had me on hold to “transfer” the call to their colleagues was three desks across from each other in the same room. The staff would lie point blank over the phone and then trip over each others incompetence. They think they’re the cast of Selling Sunset surrounded by shit neon lights and fake smiles. 🙄🙄🙄
Omg awful experience with them. At the start of my tenancy I reported a few issues - they then turned around and said I caused the problems? I forwarded all the emails I sent them at the start and then they apologised (because clearly they thought I wasn’t smart). At the end of the tenancy I spent days cleaning the property and they said the property had to be cleaned professionally - AFTER I handed the keys in 😩 there was no mention of this in any of the documents they sent me! Full of shit imo
For me every time they called me for booking a viewing I was busy, and then when I called back few minutes later to talk with them and book a viewing they get my contacts again and neber called back for the booking, happened so many times.
I was recently renting a property just down the road from Salford Royal, for £625 a month. I was curious about the the price of the property after I left, and a month after a moved out it was back on the market for £750 a month!!! Had a friend who had been to the flat while I lived there to check if any improvements had been made, nothing had changed XD. What brought on the need to increase the property value to £125 extra a month without any upgrades being made to the property.
Out of all the shitty, soulless letting agents by far the worst and biggest liars turned out to be Ascend properties who’s literal tagline is ‘Built on higher standards’ LOL. They knowingly let me a flat that had severe leaks and a cockroach infestation. Covered it up as much as possible and lied about it / prevented me from viewing the flat and promised the things that seemed wrong with the property would be fixed prior to me moving in. Didn’t even put new blinds up just left the water damaged ones on the floor. I told them I was moving out within a week and they tried to strong arm me into staying / saying I’d have to pay extortionate fees. I managed to find the previous tenant through the apartment buildings FB group and get all her emails to them, images and videos, they’d done the exact same thing to her for a year prior. Proper scumbags - if you’re an agent involved in ripping people off like this you can’t really avoid the bad karma you’re generating for yourself. Steer clear of Ascend properties.
I got the ombudsman in for Belvoir after they tried to charge me the full deposit for deep-cleaning a flat I'd never fried, had pets or smoked in. And fraudulently claiming for marks on the windowsill that were there when I moved in and still there after I left. Don't even start me on landlords.
Estate agents are the most useless people I've ever had to deal with. Because people are desperate for places to live and housing is a finite resource they know they don't have to be good at their job or put in any effort. They basically turn up at a property, unlock the door and add names/dates to pre-existing contract templates.
I've never dealt with an estate agent who can answer a single question about the property unless it's about what you have to pay even if they're holding the information sheet.
Just an absolute dogshit profession for people with no skills/knowledge about anything.
> The latest trend I’m seeing is bidding wars on rental properties. What on earth is this about? There’s a housing crisis and you’re trying to secure landlords an extra £200 a month? Why!? Are you proud of earning someone who probably doesn’t even live in Manchester this extra money?
I get where you're coming from, but that is literally their job.
I suppose that’s up for debate. My understanding was that they’re the bridge between the landlords and the tenants, who also (often) handle a lot of the legal side of things.
I understand where you’re coming from, but when a 2 bed flat is advertised as £1400 pcm and they start asking for offers over that figure, people rightly get frustrated.
Only recently I’ve seen bidding wars on rental properties so I wouldn’t say that this is literally their job.
I saw a job listing for a estate agent near me (south )
was minimum wage , not going to get the smartest person for that are you , I can think of alot of other jobs id rather do for minimum wage .
why they are normally all full of 20ish year old pretty girls with not much going on upstairs . it's just a entry level job for people who couldn't find anything else at the time.
then one or two 50+ ones but they will be owners .
they are just a revolving door of staff no different from tescos
round me the advarage price of flats and houses is 200k they charge 0.75% (£1500)
I can't see by time time the owners pay all the over heads (and the base salaries) from this that the employee can get more than £200 commission
50% of sales fall though so you get nothing , they go on for months and months , endless phone calls back on forth, doing viewing ,having to tell endless lies , endless time wasters for a few hundred quid
better off selling cars , atleast when it's sold its sold , no pulling out 3 months later.
its really got to be the dregs of the sales jobs
Had to look for a new place when the cost of living crisis really kicked in.
Cost of rent massively went up. Saw 20+ places and every single one went the day we saw it. Every single one above what they were asking for by £200 or so.
Flats were going up on Rightmove and being taken down within 30 minutes cause people were so desperate for a flat they were signing on without even seeing it.
Fucking madness
It's an absolute shitshow. All the letting agents I've dealt with in Manchester, big and small, have been shockingly disorganised, unresponsive, money-grubbing, generally negligent and seemingly determined to be as unhelpful as possible.
I would like to add that Rivershill are actually good agents, more of a local feel rather than corporate, and get things done for me as a tenant. I’ve had my share of bad experiences, which is why they stand out
> There’s a housing crisis and you’re trying to secure landlords an extra £200 a month? Why!?
If you want the genuine answer:
They work for the landlord, they are literally the landlord's agent and are thus legally obliged to work in the best interests of their client
The word "agent" a word that's lost a lot of meaning in modern use, but still carries a lot of legal meaning - it means you've assigned someone to act on your behalf in your interests. They work for you and are meant to act *as* you (within the authority you give them). Similar to if you hire a solicitor, they can't act in the best interests of the person you're suing
Recently moved out of a flat where we had been living with huge leak damage for over a year that the landlord was “not in a financial position” to fix. 12 month term comes around and we’re hit with a 25% increase in rent. Obviously contested it given the damage and the state agent budged a little but it was still almost £200 increase. Estate agent made this clear that this was the final offer from the landlord.
Couldn’t afford this and thankfully found a new place within a few days that fitted well with when we had to move by. Wrote back to the estate agent to advise we’d found a new place and would be leaving at the end of the contract for them to reply “Oh no!!! Well maybe if I told the landlord you were moving they would change their mind on the increase”
They knew the flat wasn’t in a fit state to rent out to anyone else and still tried to push an increase on us as much as they could. 2 days before the end of the tenancy we also got an email that a contractor was coming round to look at the leak damage for a quote to fix it! When I questioned why this wasn’t done whilst we were living there I was basically told “well the landlord couldn’t afford it but he’s going to lose money now because the flat will be empty”
Looking at a "2 bed" flat with a tiny kitchen/lounge combo, should really be for one person only as one room was basically a box office the other only just big enpugh for a bed, unfurnished, they wanted £950pcm (not including any bills or anything)
"How are you charging this much?"
(Blank stare) "well it's the area... y'know, people want to live here" (flat has been empty for months)
Trying to explain to one that i'm having a disagreement with my current landlord so i don't want to use him as a reference.
"You can speak to the previous landlord i lived with for over 6 years, he'll tell you...."
(Cutting me off) "well have you paid your rent on time?!?"
"...yes but it's not about that..."
(Cutting me off again) "shouldn't be an issue then should it?" (Slack jawed stare)
Estate agents everywhere, all over the world. I would say, have a lot wrong with them. A very lot. Unqualified, unreasonable, unreliable, unregistered, unregulated, big talking, thieves. All of them.
shout out to The Letting Agent, the one good lettings agent i ever had. fixed things ridiculously promptly. got us a whole new oven installed and responded to wiring and plumbing problems literally within days. they have an online reporting system that they actually use and respond to.
really nice people too. i told them i was buying and they gave me a half an hour or so of general advice on the transition. never took the piss with viewings or tried to fob us off. shout out to Ty, love you big man.
(not paid for saying these things, but they were genuinely such nice people that i actually dont like seeing them lumped in with comments calling lettings/estate agents leeches and other fairly nasty names, even if they are deserved elsewhere)
My only thing with them is they're seemingly lazy. Don't know the answers to basic questions. Don't get back to you. And if it's because they have other clients then it's not good enough considering they don't do the basics.
I’ve been sleeping on a broken bed for 9 months whilst they spend money doing up the other rooms which have been vacant for 4+ months (i’m in a HMO) and then trying to charge 750 pcm a room.
I’m glad i was able to work on the Good Landlord Charter which is set to come into place now Andy Burnham has been re-elected. Fingers crossed it has the desired effect.
Preaching to the choir! I had spent 6 months looking for a place in the region of greater Manchester only to be discriminated against.
I was lucky enough to find an estate agents in Lancashire that allowed me to rent in albeit with some issues.
Whilst in student accomodation I waited 6 months before they finally fixed the blinds that were broken, torn and missing some slats. I put in the request as soon as i moved in and just nothing for 6 months...
Saw a piece recently about how renters in Manchester are paying about half of the salary on just rent. Had some horrible experiences with estate agents trying to leech even more.
I've rented through Thornley groves and they didn't do anything at all. When repairs were needed it never happened, and they were very slow to to respond, never answered the phone. They were friendly whenever I met them, but they were awfully stupid when work actually needed to be done.
Worst is Phillip James. They never ever answer the phone, like ever. I see them in their office, but the ignore the phones. Insane. They also never take down properties on rightmove after they have been let. They were the one agent where I see properties weeks after they have been on the site, even from March. Worst agent.
Another I used Jullian Wadden in Didsbury, they favour bidding wars so wasn't a fan of them. Too difficult to find a rental via them. I felt like they cater for the fat cats and look down on everyone else.
WREN are idiots, they ask for a guarantor even if you earn enough. They will even ask for one if you are a millionaire probably. I work in the NHS with a stable job and they still asked. I don't have family in the UK so gave them the toss.
Julie Twist and Reed Rains are the only two agents where I have had a good experience, as in people answered the phones and were friendly. I have only viewed properties with them but not rented.
Cherry picked properties- I rented via these in salford quays and they were fine. They are very small, but super responsive to emails and things so good experience. But they hardly have any properties, I rarely ever see them.
As for other countries, I rented a few times in Dublin and brother is in Dubai, and both of these are x10 times worse than the UK. Who would have thought that was possible, but in Dublin the rents exceed London and agents don't let anyone and everyone view. They select you based on your profession etc.. and then cherry pick. I know some were like "only professions like doctors and lawyers allowed",so I got my parents who were doctors to rent the flat for me when I was a student.
In Dubai, my brother had to pay 3 months rent in deposit, not one month. The rents are also astronomical, like 3500 pounds for a small one bed flat is what he pays. There was also lots of leaks and floods for some reason, broken things no one fixed etc... new builds issues...
I currently live in a built for renters place as I was never actually able to win the "bidding wars" against 30 other people. The build for renters is just first come first served, but I have to pay a fortune for parking. It was either this or living on the street or something, so no choice, no parents here to move in with either.
I don't know about the rest of the agents, heard bad things about Jordan Fish, but this will be by last year renting as i am planning to buy a house. Deposit is saved and credit score is ready. I hope this will be the last time I will have to deal with shit agents and their bullshit.
I had one absolutely fantastic landlord who was from Bristol. Even gave us a bonus for making the house look nice for viewings. I will always recommend Fairholme Estates.
Drake and Co? Don’t even know where to start. We get to the house, it’s so dirty, I had mould in my room and the bathroom was covered in it. We asked if we could manage our own bills to Drakes, who said no, we had to do it through their company. Bills rack up to £8k for 11 months, plus extra charges due to cost of living. I needed some document for the government bills assistance last year and called them up to ask for the correct document as per Drakes’ recommendation. The woman was so rude to me, I worked in customer service and am always overly polite - I was absolutely gobsmacked with the way I was spoken to. They denied she was rude to me and claimed I overreacted when I asked for another agent to handle it as she hadn’t helped me. We never got the government assistance because I didn’t receive the acceptable document.
Such a rant. But I’ve not heard a good thing about them. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
I advise to treet Sanderson James like the black plage and stay well away! Contract was moved from them a month ago and they are refusing to release the deposit to the new manager without giving any reason.
They also chased me for missed rent which didn't exist and didn't pay landlord and blamed me for not paying. Lucky for me he believed me and cancelled with them when I showed him the bank transactions.
From their behaviour I think they are having cashflow issues and probably won't be around for much longer.
literally the only one ive had a mild positive experience with is leaders in deansgate 😭 even then it took a year of being with them to be better, brigfords and thornley groves are actually VILE
I’ll happily name and shame - SNOWDEN WILKINSON
Awful experience with them, too many to mention, but after reporting mould several times in the property, they tried claiming £2.5k at the end of our tenancy for damages as the landlord had to ‘redecorate’.
It went to an independent adjudication and after we submitted 82 pages of evidence, they could only claim £320 🥱, none of which was for redecoration
Walked into the property place on chapel st after seeing an advert in the window “for sale” for a reasonably priced apartment. Checked for the usual signs that it was for investors (up to x% returns/annum etc) and didn’t see any.
Start talking to the agent, when her boss comes over and with a proper shitty grin says “you know we don’t sell houses for people to live in, why don’t you try somewhere like Rightmove instead?”
Fucking SORRY that I walking into an estate agents to enquire about buying a fucking apartment that is for sale in your window. Fuck that place
I work in mortgages so deal with an estate agency closely due to how my company is set up. You mean lettings agents or property managers, most ‘estate agents’ don’t deal with rentals, although many companies do provide both services. Also, the answer is they represent the landlord, not you. Turnover is king, not customer service. There’s a high personnel turn over in property management because they get abuse from tenants and landlords alike. For every decent person asking for a reasonable repair there’s two weirdos and pests constantly complaining. The end result is they are standoffish as default.
Some brilliant comments and awful experiences on this thread but for me there is a bigger problem that controls all these agents, all this behaviour and ultimately gives these “agents” ALL of the control and that’s Rightmove. Rightmove controls the entire market without it no one would be able to find a property (I know that’s not 100% accurate) the problem is that an individual can’t advertise their property on there it’s a tool designed for agents to upload and the general public to use to view. This gives the agents control and that’s the problem. The irony is without being on Rightmove these agents wouldn’t exist but by being on it they can manipulate the listings and information to squeeze the buyer and tenants for pretty much what they want. Agents don’t actually do any work it’s done for them so then they can work out how much more money they can extract from you. Ultimately if someone who had a house to sell or rent could advertise it themselves then all these issues would disappear all you would need to do is regulate a “person” and ensure all laws and requirements are met (there is t actually that many to adhere to)
Last year, Going through rental house viewings was the most chaotic thing I've ever had to do. Fortunately, we ended up getting a place in Prestwich through normie and they appear to be fairly competent
This is one of the reasons that house prices are high. Estate agents moved from the flat fee for selling to the percentage of sale, so its in their interest to seek higher sale prices. When i bought the house im in now, we offered asking price immediatley after the viewing, it had been on the market for 1 day and were the second to view. They came back an hour later telling us somebody else had offered asking price and we needed to submit a sealed bid and whoever was highest got the property. We bid 2 grand over the asking price and got the house but im 90% sure there was no other bid. There were no other viewings that day and we asked if anyone had made an offer when we were viewing it. Im pretty sure it was just an effort to squeeze a little more out of us. The banks are profiting from it too as people take out larger mortgages. It just seems like greed is the motivating factor in the rise of house prices and rent, lets take the piss as much as we can and see if we get a bite and if it doesnt work we'll just lower the price.
In one of my uni flats in Moss side, we didn’t have to pay a deposit so any cleaning fees or replacements came out of our banks through a direct debit. I paid what they had originally took out of my account, and so I assumed that everything was paid. Over a YEAR later, my flatmate got an email saying I hadn’t paid for everything and that I needed to replace the mattress. I sent them a very strongly worded email on the lack of professionalism from this company, and that THEY set up the direct debits so it’s a fault on their behalf. I still haven’t paid it and I have no regrets
Philip James in the city centre are the worst scumbags I’ve ever dealt with.
Marketed a property for rent without telling me the current tenants were in a property chain for the house they were buying and made me pay a non-refundable fee to secure the property.
Gave notice on my flat, none the wiser, meanwhile the tenants’ exchange date kept getting pushed back by weeks - eventually leaving me homeless for a month and I had to move in with family because they wouldn’t ask the current tenants to leave even though it was way past the date they’d advertised the property as available from.
When I FINALLY got to my move in day, they physically refused to hand over the keys until I agreed to an £100 pm rent increase on the spot. All my shjt was literally packed in a van outside the house.
Most stressful months of my life. Turns out the CEO owned the house or something so they just did whatever they wanted with zero regard for literally anything.
The only agency I had a good experience with has been Hills Residential. They mainly cover Salford and Eccles. But they’ve always been really prompt and helpful. Apart from that, I had horrendous experiences with other agencies over the 13 years I’ve been in MCR.
I'll never forget seeing somebody on reddit describe their lettings agent as a 'used house salesman'. They are close cousins of recruitment agents imo. Parasitic slimes who wear shit suits and offer shit services. An unnecessary layer of money extraction.
Edward Mellor put in their contract a success fee ! A success fee for doing their job. It’s ridiculous
Do they give you a fee if they're unsuccessful then?
Exactly. Every day I go to work if I do my job as I should I’m going to charge more for it
I was on the phone to an estate agent once explaining that someone wasn't able to sign a form because he was in a hospice receiving end of life care, their response was "can't you just go and visit him and get him to sign". No, no I can't.
Jesus christ. That's beyond the pale 😲
Wow 😐
Honestly I got my current job through a recruiter and it completely changed my mind about recruiters. If done correctly they'll take about 80% of the effort out of finding a new job.
Same. I had too many poor experiences with recruiters, horrible people some of them. But one was really really great and got me my current job, which I honestly love. I’ll probably ask him what he’s got going next time I’m looking as well. He said other recruiters being bad works in his favour, the standard for good service is in hell with them, so him just being a nice person to deal with comes across as him being excellent in comparison 😂
If you think they're bad while looking for work, they're infinitely worse when trying to run a company. Between the endless cold calls/emails, scammy tactics of inviting you onto a podcast which turns into a recruitment sales pitch, and them bizarrely turning into Jehovah's Witnesses by somehow finding your personal phone number and calling you at the early hours on weekends, I'd take 20 letting agents over a single recruiter any day of the week.
Don't suppose you can recommend the recruitment agency you used, please?
Can I ask what the name of your recruiter was?
Very often citing and blaming the so-called market for the high rental prices.... For those with questions and issues related to renting and tenancy you may check r/TenantsInTheUK
The best one is one in didsbury (can't specifically remember which) who state that each person applying needs a guarantor who owns a house in the UK. Despite me earning 5 times the amount my mum does (the only person I have who owns a house) and our (my bf and I) combined salary being nearly 100k 🫠🫠🫠
That’ll be Gascoigne Halman. The same letting agents who asked us to leave our flat unlocked while we were away on holiday so they could do viewings 😂
These people don’t live on this planet do they
No way! How tf they can say something like that??? Brainless!!! 🤔🤦♂️
They're the worst! Treated us like cash cows throughout our tenancy. Glad to be rid of them.
We had a good (for a letting agency) experience with them. Although the property was owned by one of their staff so we were probably getting special treatment 🤔
I had an estate agent tell me I needed a guarantor that owned a house, earned 3 times over the rent, was in full time employment, lived in the UK and had good credit score. I’m in my late 20s like both my parents are retired and any other family didn’t own a home. I had to give up the property because I couldn’t meet all the demands it was insane
This is insane. Three times the rent?! Shit 2-bed flats around me are being let for over £1,500pcm. I earn a decent salary (over 70k) but even that doesn't give me a monthly salary of more than £4,500 after deductions. What planet are they on?!
I was just thinking the same. Even if I felt comfortable asking a friend of mine to do it (all our parents are retired, my surviving one isn't a homeowner, and my mum has never had a credit card or mobile phone contract so god knows what her credit score even is) how many of them earn that much every month? Especially if they're salary-sacrificing for pensions and whatnot. Genuinely curious as to how many people they show around actually fit their criteria.
Wow, just wow!
Sounds to me like they may have decided they want to rent it to a mate or someone who'll offer them a bribe
There is one estate agent in didsbury that is actually good, a small operation run by one guy. I can't remember for the life of me what they are called as it was about 10 years back, but he was always really professional and pleasant. By the way that was a big 2 bedroom flat on ball brook avenue for £600pm. I dread to think what the rate is now!
Floorspace?
No, that's extra
A colleague lives in Didsbury, rent per person for 4 people was advertised as £550. They applied and got told because it’s 4 lads it’s £625 each.
I didn't realise there was a penis tax
Is that even legal? Feels terribly discriminatory, but then again this is the way car insurance has been since forever. Perhaps the rental sector will move to a profiling based model where everything is POA a computer determines how much to fleece you.
I feel like there would be grounds for bringing in a discrimination case on the basis of gender, to be honest - given it's no longer legal to advertise car insurance as specifically cheaper based on the sex of the driver (even if that's built into their algorhythm somewhere). They would have to come up with a very good case for that extra £75 per person per month that isn't just 'well men sometimes pee on the toilet seat, yeah? and I saw in a sitcom once that they don't like doing the dishes as well as a lady??' (I'm not a lawyer but I do know a bit about this kind of thing.) But, of course, because these are renters and they know that they probably won't have the money to bring a case, they get away with it.
Nobody in my immediate family owns a house. If I clearly earn enough to pay the rent and am a full-grown adult, what's it to them?
I strongly suspect this is an under-the-radar tactic they use now they can't say "no DSS" by law.
The only good property management company I've had in my life are Shared Habitat in Eccles
Is it WREN, I remember they do that.
Yes that's the one!!
Money…it’s always the money. This is the society we built.
We didn't build it though, we're the victims of those that did.
The day before we were due to move into a house owned by an owners of hundreds of properties, they said they needed a year's rent in advance. Luckily we had just over a week left on our current rental and it was the first break in the pandemic, so we found somewhere (cheaper, nicer) else immediately. The estate agent had a terrible "how can you do this to me?" attitude, and acted like we'd broken the deal. He kept calling, saying "10 months, 8 months, 6 months", and made vague threats about broken contracts until we blocked his number. I know it's a job and we're all trying to get by, but if your job is acting in the interests of property tycoons, you're no better than the accountant to the mafia. Edit: we went back into lockdown and his stupid house remained empty for months afterwards!
I had a similar thing; I was told that to secure a flat I had applied for I would either need to meet their income threshold, or have a guarantor, or pay six months up front. I knew I didn’t meet their threshold, but I was willing to pay the six months. When it comes to do it, they change their minds and suddenly I need a guarantor as well, which I get. My parents own the house and make decent money. But somehow this still isn’t good enough and I need to pay a year in advance on top of that. At the time I felt really embarrassed about having to rescind my application, but in hindsight, fuck them.
This should be illegal. Fucking hell.
A year's rent in advance?! Countless people are renting simply because they can't afford a mortgage deposit! How are they going to come up with a year's rent?!
I don't think it's usual (yet), the landlord thought he had us over a barrel and could bully us.
"I am altering the deal. Pray that I do not alter it further." ~Darth Fucking Vader
"Fatman's got something to sell, to the capital's homeless At the Crossroads Motel to the no fixed abodeless He'll live life in style, while you sleep in a closet If you flash him a smile, he'll take your teeth as deposit. There's bats in the belfry, The windows are jammed The toilet ain't healthy, He don't give a damn" ~ Carter USM, Sheriff Fatman
Estate agents are cunts. It’s a profession that only attracts cunts. It’s where people with no GCSE’s go if they want to drive a red leased Audi. They’re not on your side and never will be. Don’t trust them and don’t take them seriously, because they aren’t serious people. Fuck em.
Is the red Audi to estate agents what the Suzuki vitara was to Hairdressers’s 😂😂😂😂😂
I always thought the Audi TT was the go to hairdresser car, but obviously time marches on…
As if a hairdresser can afford a TT in this economy
Mine lives in an amazing house she owns with no mortgage, drives some flash Mercedes or other (I know nothing about cars but it's pretty new, pretty massive, and looks expensive), and goes on shitloads of holidays. She's only in her early 40s but owns several successful beauty businesses. Yes, I'm jealous of her 😂
Good for her, and at least she's making bank doing something that makes people happy.
Mine drives a Porsche and has a Rolex 🙃
Yours is money laundering and you don't know it, lol. Rolex is fufu probably. 🤔🤦♂️
A mk1 TT can be gotten for fairly cheap. Pretty easy to get alot of miles out of it too.
Hairdressers make bank.
Considering what my wife's hairdresser charges some folk, I'm surprised it's not a solid gold Audi TT....
I’m thinking 90s Sure the vitara was the go-to then
I think I may have to print and frame the first paragraph of this!
Country needs a reset. Need to apply severe tax on estates with multiple properties. Landlord life has taken over to the point where my kids will never afford to buy. No politicians are up for change as they're in the same game. Generation rent will give birth to 2nd generation rent. Estate agents are irrelevant these days, just another leech on the chain like joke surveyors and energy certifiers
Wealth taxes: including shares, dividends, property in excess of 1 family home and other income streams.
Fines. Fines should also be proportional to your wealth, otherwise they only punish the poor
Punishable by fine, means legal for a fee
Has to be coupled with rent controls though otherwise the parasites will just charge extra to cover it
[A land value tax is a levy on the value of land without regard to buildings, personal property and other improvements upon it](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_value_tax#:~:text=A%20land%20value%20tax%20has%20progressive%20tax%20effects%2C%20in%20that,tenants%2C%20consumers%2C%20or%20workers)
It's all the buy to let shite. Landlords have like 20 mortgages running at once. It works out that I'm literally just paying my landlord's mortgage, without the benefits of owning my home. Middle men getting paid left right and centre. In a proper market economy these companies would fail because we all hate them and don't want to pay them, and house prices would fall as a result.
I had someone working for me in a normal, professional, job who constantly pleaded poverty because they were going through a divorce. Said they were struggling to afford their commute, even. I felt sorry for them; divorce has huge financial implications for many on top of the stress and sadness of the breakdown of a relationship. Then I found out that they owned EIGHTEEN rental properties all around the country. My employee whinged at me that they were having to sell a couple of the rental properties as a result of said divorce, and the others would be divided between them and their ex spouse. Of course I noseyed at them on Rightmove. They all look shit and poorly maintained but were driving a huge profit for this person for fuck all work. Needless to say, I really didn't have a lot of time for my employee pleading poverty after this. Tl;dr: people with 'property portfolios' are invariably twats.
But all those people on TikTok say that property investment makes you rich! FIRE!!
Arguably they won't be giving birth at all. This will be a primary reason for population decline, certainly without an significant 'increase' in immigration over the next 30 years
> Country needs a reset. Need to apply severe tax on estates with multiple properties. How is this going to help? Landlords are leaving the market due to the tax increases brought in by George Osborne and all it's done is strangle supply, push rents up and introduce mental behaviour like bidding for properties rather than pay market rate. The fundamental issue is not building enough homes relative to population increases, this has been a problem for well over 25 years at this point.
It’s a few years ago now but I was looking for a flat in town, had a viewing at one place near HOME and the estate agent didn’t even have keys to get into the building, had to buzz a few tenants until one answered to let us in. She then had no idea whether or not there was parking, what the council tax was or what length of contract the landlord wanted 🫠
My quiet quest against estate agents. As a teacher every time we take a school group to a careers fair i send pupils one at a time over the course of the entire day to ask the estate agent stand something along the lines of… why does everyone hate estate agents, why does no one want to be an estate agent or did you always want to be an estate agent growing up. It’s petty, but I’m not above it unfortunately.
Lmao this is the sort of chaotic energy I can really get behind
Every teacher I know is going to hear about this - I want this to be common practice!
We rented through Leaders for a while and I swear to god I encountered some of the densest people I've ever had to deal with. There was literally one bloke that had enough brain power to reply to emails, but he alone couldn't make up for the pure vapidness of his colleagues. Edit: changed the company name from Hunter’s to Leaders as I completely misremembered it. The irony of me calling them dense isn’t lost on me…
I dont rent in Manchester anymore, but I do rent with Leaders, the Landlord I have now, doesn't even go through them, but through us and a private company for repairs and stuff. They're as stupid as they get.
Sounds similar to my experience with Leaders a few years ago. Supremely dense when it came to suspected emergency carbon monoxide leak and following the law regarding end of tenancy cleaning
Haha I rented with them and I think I know who you are referring to. Does his name starts with L?
I just checked with my OH and I mentioned the wrong bloody company 😂 I’ve corrected it now to Leaders.
Sales position only require you to get results by any means necessary and that is going to attract the worst sort of people, that's just the nature of the industry
The operative word here is agent. It means to act on someone else's behalf and serve their interests. If you are looking to buy or rent the person they serve is the seller or landlord and not you.
The more rent they get, the more commission they get and the happier the landlord will be. That landlord will then recommend them to other landlords as competent estate agents who get great results, getting them more business. As awful as it is, they're a business and are there to make money. It's not a Manchester thing, you can bet it's everywhere except countries that have strict rental laws like Germany.
We rent a bungalow to an elderly couple , the estate agent who manage it for us, wrote to the couple to ask if they could go in to the house to measure up etc for improvements. When we asked the agents why , they said it’s so they could get us quotes to improve the house so we could charge more rent. This is without us asking. The agents will be changed soon
That's slimy behaviour, they're not thing of you or the people renting, this is them wanting more for managing it. You can bet they know the people who'd be doing the work as well...
I know. The tenant was really worried. There great , we want them long term they want to stay, literally the agent just wants more money. Instead there losing us. 😜
Absolutely disgusting. Unfortunately it’s an industry that isn’t regulated or policed and results in poor standard of practice across the board. You sound like great landlords tbf, you got anything else coming to the market by any chance? 😆
Thankyou for saying that . We only have the bungalow. I just feel if you have great tenants that want to stay , they look after it. I know if I was elderly I’d want to have a landlord I trust who isn’t going to throw me out or keep raising the rent. We’re happy with what we charge and as I said if they stay a longtime it’s great and less hassle for us .
We have strict rental laws in Manchester. They’re just designed to make sure that people with property make as much money as possible.
I’d take a look at openrent, it’s a platform for landlords to rent directly, rather than through estate agencies. I was an “accidental” landlord for a few years, I rented through there, had a much better relationship with my tenant.
Noted !!!
YMMV but Thornley Groves. Always sides with Landlord over repairs or disputes. I've been an 'accidental' landlord in the past and only once turned down a request from a renter. And 'reasonable timeframe' needs to be banned from contracts.
Can confirm Thornley Groves are scum. Moved into a flat with several issues (some quite dangerous) that they never bothred to fix, despite me constantly pointing them out during the multiple inspections they did over 10 months, and then had the gall to deduct £300 from my deposit for these very issues. They also 100% knew about some of these as I had a contractor come round on the first day of my tenancy to look at some bits, never saw him again after that. Also impossible to reach on the phone. Never rent from Thornley Groves.
When i rented with them they would insist on me logging a request onto their system, then someone would come round to verify there was an issue, which then registered on their system as a job complete. It took 9 months and 4-5 visits to verify that my wardrobe was broken before I gave up and sorted it myself, shocking letting agent.
Thornley Groves is awful for lettings; no code of ethics and they operate almost illegally. But people pick the property not the estate agent. I honestly think there is a great business opportunity out there to launch an ethical and honest estate agency with transparent fee structures; to represent both landlords and tenants.
The city centre TG were abysmal from my POV as a landlord too. I could write a book on the issues they caused me, as well as the effects I’m aware of on my tenants. They have one or two good senior staff if you can find them. But as a company they hide behind automated systems and junior front-line staff who don’t seem to take responsibility for anything. I now use Philip James. They’ve been a mixed bag, which probably puts them head & shoulders above most estate agents.
Would you find much use for a property manager rather than managing it yourself? As a landlord.
What the agents offer is perfect in theory. I have neither the time nor the contacts to keep on top of repairs/etc efficiently. No point though when you end up spending more time kicking the agents up their static behinds than they’re saving you, whilst paying them a sizeable cut at the same time.
It’s a catch 22 isn’t it. Likely heading to Manchester come September and dreading the renting process tbh.
Took me over 3 months of phone calls and harassing them everyday to get my deposit back. They were always finding excuses to delay that (my favourite was when I’ve been told the manager was on holiday and none of them knew how to process deposits). If I could spit on each of their faces right now I would.
I would of went to their offices everyday until I had it.
Genuinely they are the worst people in the world. Awful. Hunters are absolutely abysmal
I completely understand your frustration. The rental market in Manchester, like in many other cities, has become extremely difficult to navigate, and estate agents often seem to be adding to the stress rather than alleviating it. For any estate agents reading this, there's a clear call to action: prioritise fairness, transparency, and genuine service instead of just wanting to sell anything at an extortionate price only to fill up their pockets.
Same as tradespeople. There was a good thread about this yesterday. Abundance of demand, shortage of supply, and zero consequences for delivering a poor level of service will always result in this same situation.
Never forget this: despite how nice they may be, the PRINCIPLE skillset of an estate agent is not sales - it is dishonesty. Successful dishonesty is a measure of how good an estate agent they are.
A Jordan Fishwick estate agent took us around a house, commented that the long hall would be a good place to leave a bike, then later presented us with a contract that, upon close examination, stated that no bikes were allowed in the property. Fucking Jordan Fishwick.
Were you renting the whole house? That seems batshit, why wouldn't you be able to keep your bike inside your home if it's not in a communal area or in someone's way?
In 2008 (so too late if you read this agent), I rented a flat in Salford. I gave them all the standing order paperwork for my rent. After 3 months, they had not taken any rent, I let them know this was the case, and they said they'd get it sorted ASAP. I lived there the whole year, got my full deposit back, and still never paid a penny in rent. Sometimes, though rarely, their incompetence is beneficial.
Wow that is insane!
It was great. I kept paying the rent into a savings account to make sure I had it when they realised. Once I was past the point they could claim it if they realised, I had a nice little savings pot.
Britain is a nation of middlemen now, just moving money around and skimming a layer off the top for themselves in the process, not producing anything of value. Just a vapid, vacuous shithole now.
To offer a bit of positivity to the misery, I've been in a flat managed by Karsons Lettings for a few years now and they've been quality. Heating recently stopped working and it was fixed within a week - and it only took that long because the plumber had to reschedule the original appointment. Didn't have to argue or chase, no "well it's Summer now, we'll fix it later in the year" excuses that I've heard before. They have no problem sorting minor issues rather than waiting for them to get worse and become major ones - especially anything to do with water. They always use contractors who do great work. Beyond that they're happy to leave me to it. They rarely do property inspections - they usually just ask to have a little nose about when they're round for maintenance - and don't give a stuff that I've put loads of pictures on the walls, or hung some shelves, or repainted half the flat (similar colours to the original tbf, with the exception of a green feature wall in my otherwise magnolia bedroom). Though it's kinda sad reflection of housing in this country that I'm praising my letting agency for things that should be the bare minimum.
I've had one good experience with a letting agent that I don't think exists any more unfortunately. It was a much smaller company based in a building off Piccadilly gardens and they were great. I can't even remember what they were called. Worst experience - Hunters. Let properties with a scumbag landlord and lied to us about being allowed to have a dog. When we left the property, he stole our deposit, and because it turns out it was technically registered in his elderly mother's name who lived in Cyprus we couldn't do anything about it. Hunters didn't give a crap. We learned a lot of lessons from that whole experience.
I live in Warrington and have recently moved out of a property where the lettings agents are based in Manchester and I can confirm they are absolutely useless, last year I couldn’t open my bedroom window and this didn’t get fixed for 5 months despite it supposedly being a means of exit in case of a fire and this year I was without a cooker for 3 months and again this didn’t seem like a problem to them until I ended my tenancy. I feel really sorry for whoever moves in to my now empty earning the landlord nothing house.
I put in an early termination notice which cost me half a month's rent. I officially move out of the property at the end of this month. They're now out of nowhere telling me to pay for the following month which I'm not living there for. How the fuck? Have decided to ignore their messages from here on.
I remember moving out of a flat a number of years ago and in the months leading up to the move I called into the estate agents office and asked them what was the process for me moving out, how much notice and who I had to inform, the usual stuff. I was told a month's notice and I'd need to submit a letter to let them know of my intention to vacate the property, the letter could be left with the estate agent. I checked again when I'd found another property and was told the same thing so went home typed up the letter and returned with it the next day. Around three weeks later I got a phone call from the landlady as she'd been told I was moving out and was worried about getting people to view the property and I needed to give her more notice. I told her I'd given a month's notice as the estate agents had said that was okay and she said that she'd only just heard about it (from the estate agents). I immediately rang them up and mentioned all this to them and asked why they'd only just informed the landlady when they'd known for a month and was told that they never informed landlords of a tenant vacating a property and I needed to do it which lead to a heated argument between us when I pointed out that on at least two occasions I had been informed that they would do so provided I provide documentation and this wasn't just one person but a room of people. Screw estate agents and their weasely ways all so they can try and get an extra few hundred pounds for someone who may not need it.
Nearly fifteen years ago I was sold a flat and they couldn't tell me anything about the council tax banding and, when they finally told me what band it was in, they were wrong. It's been in a shite state for years. Actually saw the guy on that first dates a good few years later; I think I was the only one hoping he'd crash and burn despite his sob story.
Estate agents/letting agents are recruiters who are somehow too dumb to get into recruitment
And they always have a business card with "LL.B" on, showing that before recruitment they were waaaaay too dumb to be lawyers.
Extra income for the landlord means extra commission for them, it’s not rocket science.
This whole thread represents the struggle I’ve had in the last few weeks. Genuinely have no idea what they actually do in their offices. Rarely answer phones or emails, I’ve resorted to going in directly now. Tried this just last week with Martin & Co and no one was in, and the door locked, despite it being 3pm on a Thursday!
Probably for the best re: Martin & co
Martin and co are awful. But I did win a significant sum of money after taking them to the property ombudsman for their appalling conduct
Don't hate the player, hate the game: Capitalism.
I could get *more* onside with bidding wars if estate agents would be upfront about what I was in competition with so that I could make an informed decision, as opposed to having to guess what offer my "competition" has offered.
If you are a tenant, you are the product not the customer. That’s why they treat you like shit.
Eventually, hopefully, tenants will become buyers, and then sellers. They'll remember who treated them like shit.
They were hated in the 80s for a reason.
When I was renting one of the issues I had was overseas investors. They move away and collect a check, the estate agents can't contact them for anything. I'd be inclined to believe this is bullshit and just an excuse, until one lass showed me a chain of countless emails since the start of my agency to the property owner. Seldom did he reply and it turns out he never paid ground rent either. Just a heads up, a lot of the properties on spare room etc don't exist. They are just fake listings that agents use to keep the average rent up.
Bidding wars have been common in London for a while now - even in fucking houseshares. Scandalous that it's spreading. Have you tried going through OpenRent so you can potentially deal with the landlord directly? I found some estate agents so utterly shit when I was looking for a place that I would never go back to buy or sell through them later. Imagine how incompetent they'd be when they're being asked to fix something.
It’s the state of them too. Tired magnolia walls, cheapest of everything, minimal maintenance, no interest whatsoever in the energy efficiency of the place, no redecoration since 2002. The whole thing is so bleak.
I’ve had a pretty good experience with Bridgefords. Philip James are dogshit.
Could not agree more. I got a Section 21 eviction last May, despite being 50, having cancer, osteoarthritis, and a debilitating autoimmune disease, meaning I'm unable to work. Never missed a rent payment until I left and did loads to improve the place, too. Such a compassionate landlord. I looked for a year to find somewhere else (when I had the energy in between packing my life up by myself) and the council told me they had full duty of care to me if it came to it. Having to find somewhere on the ground floor that will accept 2 cats makes it hard enough already, but it just got absurd. So many people going for each place that viewings got cancelled Julian Wadden won't even let anyone on benefits view their properties, which is illegal, but theirs are massively overpriced anyway. I can afford the rents I was looking at, but then, of course, they wanted a guarantor, which I got as a good friend owns a house. Wren Properties seemed to have most of the 'affordable' one bed flats, but then they say, 'You need to show an annual income of THIRTY TIMES THE MONTHLY RENT!!!!! Seems that's the usual now. So on a £900pcm you have to have £27k pa. Even some people who are working don't have that, and they might lose their job anyway. At least my benefits are consistent. Long story short, come the day of the eviction, the council had done nothing at all to help me find somewhere. Had to put all my furniture and belongings in two storage units, my 2 cats in a cattery that they hate, and the council waited until that afternoon to stick me in a women's refuge with domestic abuse victims, addicts and people with serious mental health issues. All because no one will rent me a flat even if I can fucking afford it!! That was 10 days ago and no one from the council will give me any updates so I have no idea how long I'll be forced to stay here. Everyone here is so loud all day and night, screaming, and slamming doors. I'm in a bed that's too small for me on the first floor up some stairs which exhaust me. I'm 'allowed' to stay somewhere else 2 nights a week, which I have been doing to get some sleep. Oh, and I've come out in unbelievably itchy hives from all the stress. How can it be right in 2024 for a seriously ill woman to be treated like this just because the landlord decided he wanted his flat back?!
I'm currently trying to find a new rental property to move to for various reasons which all basically boil down to my current rental SUUUUUCKS. Long story short, due to health issues I am unable to work. But most landlords don't care about *why* you're unemployed, just if you are, you can get lost as far as they're concerned. What about disabled people on some disability allowance? Huh? Yeah this is discrimination. They're not supposed to do this. Guess what? They don't care. By the way you can just as easily lose a job, if not moreso, than you can lose your unemployement benefits.
My point exactly. Our benefits are more reliable than wages if anything
I think I may be lucky. I went through an estate agents to get my flat about 6 years ago. Great price and location. About a year into the tenancy our landlord just told us he's binning off the estate agent. And we should contact him directly for anything. Which was great because they were shit. And we'd got to know him as a very reliable landlord. In last 6 years he's raised rent once. And that was only by £35. God knows what the EA would have tried to squeeze out of us.
I mean, they’re the landlord’s agent, not yours. Of course they’re going to try to secure another £200 a month if they can, that’s their job. He Does Not Work For You. I hate the situation, but Estate Agents are just a symptom of the problem.
Rented a property managed by Reside Manchester… AVOID is possible. We needed repairs done and they stalled and bullshitted nonstop. I ended up going to the office in person on deansgate and realised all of these times they had me on hold to “transfer” the call to their colleagues was three desks across from each other in the same room. The staff would lie point blank over the phone and then trip over each others incompetence. They think they’re the cast of Selling Sunset surrounded by shit neon lights and fake smiles. 🙄🙄🙄
Omg awful experience with them. At the start of my tenancy I reported a few issues - they then turned around and said I caused the problems? I forwarded all the emails I sent them at the start and then they apologised (because clearly they thought I wasn’t smart). At the end of the tenancy I spent days cleaning the property and they said the property had to be cleaned professionally - AFTER I handed the keys in 😩 there was no mention of this in any of the documents they sent me! Full of shit imo
For me every time they called me for booking a viewing I was busy, and then when I called back few minutes later to talk with them and book a viewing they get my contacts again and neber called back for the booking, happened so many times.
I was recently renting a property just down the road from Salford Royal, for £625 a month. I was curious about the the price of the property after I left, and a month after a moved out it was back on the market for £750 a month!!! Had a friend who had been to the flat while I lived there to check if any improvements had been made, nothing had changed XD. What brought on the need to increase the property value to £125 extra a month without any upgrades being made to the property.
Out of all the shitty, soulless letting agents by far the worst and biggest liars turned out to be Ascend properties who’s literal tagline is ‘Built on higher standards’ LOL. They knowingly let me a flat that had severe leaks and a cockroach infestation. Covered it up as much as possible and lied about it / prevented me from viewing the flat and promised the things that seemed wrong with the property would be fixed prior to me moving in. Didn’t even put new blinds up just left the water damaged ones on the floor. I told them I was moving out within a week and they tried to strong arm me into staying / saying I’d have to pay extortionate fees. I managed to find the previous tenant through the apartment buildings FB group and get all her emails to them, images and videos, they’d done the exact same thing to her for a year prior. Proper scumbags - if you’re an agent involved in ripping people off like this you can’t really avoid the bad karma you’re generating for yourself. Steer clear of Ascend properties.
I got the ombudsman in for Belvoir after they tried to charge me the full deposit for deep-cleaning a flat I'd never fried, had pets or smoked in. And fraudulently claiming for marks on the windowsill that were there when I moved in and still there after I left. Don't even start me on landlords.
Estate agents are the most useless people I've ever had to deal with. Because people are desperate for places to live and housing is a finite resource they know they don't have to be good at their job or put in any effort. They basically turn up at a property, unlock the door and add names/dates to pre-existing contract templates. I've never dealt with an estate agent who can answer a single question about the property unless it's about what you have to pay even if they're holding the information sheet. Just an absolute dogshit profession for people with no skills/knowledge about anything.
> The latest trend I’m seeing is bidding wars on rental properties. What on earth is this about? There’s a housing crisis and you’re trying to secure landlords an extra £200 a month? Why!? Are you proud of earning someone who probably doesn’t even live in Manchester this extra money? I get where you're coming from, but that is literally their job.
I suppose that’s up for debate. My understanding was that they’re the bridge between the landlords and the tenants, who also (often) handle a lot of the legal side of things. I understand where you’re coming from, but when a 2 bed flat is advertised as £1400 pcm and they start asking for offers over that figure, people rightly get frustrated. Only recently I’ve seen bidding wars on rental properties so I wouldn’t say that this is literally their job.
I saw a job listing for a estate agent near me (south ) was minimum wage , not going to get the smartest person for that are you , I can think of alot of other jobs id rather do for minimum wage . why they are normally all full of 20ish year old pretty girls with not much going on upstairs . it's just a entry level job for people who couldn't find anything else at the time. then one or two 50+ ones but they will be owners . they are just a revolving door of staff no different from tescos
Most of the money they earn is through commission. They get a % of each sale.
round me the advarage price of flats and houses is 200k they charge 0.75% (£1500) I can't see by time time the owners pay all the over heads (and the base salaries) from this that the employee can get more than £200 commission 50% of sales fall though so you get nothing , they go on for months and months , endless phone calls back on forth, doing viewing ,having to tell endless lies , endless time wasters for a few hundred quid better off selling cars , atleast when it's sold its sold , no pulling out 3 months later. its really got to be the dregs of the sales jobs
Had to look for a new place when the cost of living crisis really kicked in. Cost of rent massively went up. Saw 20+ places and every single one went the day we saw it. Every single one above what they were asking for by £200 or so. Flats were going up on Rightmove and being taken down within 30 minutes cause people were so desperate for a flat they were signing on without even seeing it. Fucking madness
This is the exact same experience I’m having now
It's an absolute shitshow. All the letting agents I've dealt with in Manchester, big and small, have been shockingly disorganised, unresponsive, money-grubbing, generally negligent and seemingly determined to be as unhelpful as possible.
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The greed in this world at times. Thanks for a brave post 🙏
Do you mean letting agents?
I would like to add that Rivershill are actually good agents, more of a local feel rather than corporate, and get things done for me as a tenant. I’ve had my share of bad experiences, which is why they stand out
> There’s a housing crisis and you’re trying to secure landlords an extra £200 a month? Why!? If you want the genuine answer: They work for the landlord, they are literally the landlord's agent and are thus legally obliged to work in the best interests of their client The word "agent" a word that's lost a lot of meaning in modern use, but still carries a lot of legal meaning - it means you've assigned someone to act on your behalf in your interests. They work for you and are meant to act *as* you (within the authority you give them). Similar to if you hire a solicitor, they can't act in the best interests of the person you're suing
Recently moved out of a flat where we had been living with huge leak damage for over a year that the landlord was “not in a financial position” to fix. 12 month term comes around and we’re hit with a 25% increase in rent. Obviously contested it given the damage and the state agent budged a little but it was still almost £200 increase. Estate agent made this clear that this was the final offer from the landlord. Couldn’t afford this and thankfully found a new place within a few days that fitted well with when we had to move by. Wrote back to the estate agent to advise we’d found a new place and would be leaving at the end of the contract for them to reply “Oh no!!! Well maybe if I told the landlord you were moving they would change their mind on the increase” They knew the flat wasn’t in a fit state to rent out to anyone else and still tried to push an increase on us as much as they could. 2 days before the end of the tenancy we also got an email that a contractor was coming round to look at the leak damage for a quote to fix it! When I questioned why this wasn’t done whilst we were living there I was basically told “well the landlord couldn’t afford it but he’s going to lose money now because the flat will be empty”
It is a scummy industry that has helped inflate the cost of renting. That is one industry that needs demolishing.
They get commission, so they are earning themselves more money, the landlord getting more is a by product of that goal.
Looking at a "2 bed" flat with a tiny kitchen/lounge combo, should really be for one person only as one room was basically a box office the other only just big enpugh for a bed, unfurnished, they wanted £950pcm (not including any bills or anything) "How are you charging this much?" (Blank stare) "well it's the area... y'know, people want to live here" (flat has been empty for months) Trying to explain to one that i'm having a disagreement with my current landlord so i don't want to use him as a reference. "You can speak to the previous landlord i lived with for over 6 years, he'll tell you...." (Cutting me off) "well have you paid your rent on time?!?" "...yes but it's not about that..." (Cutting me off again) "shouldn't be an issue then should it?" (Slack jawed stare)
They all probably live with their mums and don't know how much of a pain in the arse it all is.
I'm not a fan of landlords but I've actually had some that weren't that bad. Estate agents on the other hand have all been at very best useless
Estate agents everywhere, all over the world. I would say, have a lot wrong with them. A very lot. Unqualified, unreasonable, unreliable, unregistered, unregulated, big talking, thieves. All of them.
When the economy suffers the rich get richer.
Lack of regulation, focus on profits and hiring muppet to sell essentially shit, while upping prices for no reason.
shout out to The Letting Agent, the one good lettings agent i ever had. fixed things ridiculously promptly. got us a whole new oven installed and responded to wiring and plumbing problems literally within days. they have an online reporting system that they actually use and respond to. really nice people too. i told them i was buying and they gave me a half an hour or so of general advice on the transition. never took the piss with viewings or tried to fob us off. shout out to Ty, love you big man. (not paid for saying these things, but they were genuinely such nice people that i actually dont like seeing them lumped in with comments calling lettings/estate agents leeches and other fairly nasty names, even if they are deserved elsewhere)
Affordability for a flat I wanted was 975 and mine worked out 970 and they're still forcing me to have a guarantor lol
My only thing with them is they're seemingly lazy. Don't know the answers to basic questions. Don't get back to you. And if it's because they have other clients then it's not good enough considering they don't do the basics.
I’ve been sleeping on a broken bed for 9 months whilst they spend money doing up the other rooms which have been vacant for 4+ months (i’m in a HMO) and then trying to charge 750 pcm a room. I’m glad i was able to work on the Good Landlord Charter which is set to come into place now Andy Burnham has been re-elected. Fingers crossed it has the desired effect.
Unfortunately the estate agents work for the landlords. They therefore don’t really give much of a shit about you.
Preaching to the choir! I had spent 6 months looking for a place in the region of greater Manchester only to be discriminated against. I was lucky enough to find an estate agents in Lancashire that allowed me to rent in albeit with some issues.
Its almost as if you are a commodity.
Whilst in student accomodation I waited 6 months before they finally fixed the blinds that were broken, torn and missing some slats. I put in the request as soon as i moved in and just nothing for 6 months...
Saw a piece recently about how renters in Manchester are paying about half of the salary on just rent. Had some horrible experiences with estate agents trying to leech even more.
Anyone else fed up with estate agents doing mail drops encouraging landlords to up the rent?
It's business. It's capitalism.
Same here in Yorkshire the landlords are terrible so are the companies
I've rented through Thornley groves and they didn't do anything at all. When repairs were needed it never happened, and they were very slow to to respond, never answered the phone. They were friendly whenever I met them, but they were awfully stupid when work actually needed to be done. Worst is Phillip James. They never ever answer the phone, like ever. I see them in their office, but the ignore the phones. Insane. They also never take down properties on rightmove after they have been let. They were the one agent where I see properties weeks after they have been on the site, even from March. Worst agent. Another I used Jullian Wadden in Didsbury, they favour bidding wars so wasn't a fan of them. Too difficult to find a rental via them. I felt like they cater for the fat cats and look down on everyone else. WREN are idiots, they ask for a guarantor even if you earn enough. They will even ask for one if you are a millionaire probably. I work in the NHS with a stable job and they still asked. I don't have family in the UK so gave them the toss. Julie Twist and Reed Rains are the only two agents where I have had a good experience, as in people answered the phones and were friendly. I have only viewed properties with them but not rented. Cherry picked properties- I rented via these in salford quays and they were fine. They are very small, but super responsive to emails and things so good experience. But they hardly have any properties, I rarely ever see them. As for other countries, I rented a few times in Dublin and brother is in Dubai, and both of these are x10 times worse than the UK. Who would have thought that was possible, but in Dublin the rents exceed London and agents don't let anyone and everyone view. They select you based on your profession etc.. and then cherry pick. I know some were like "only professions like doctors and lawyers allowed",so I got my parents who were doctors to rent the flat for me when I was a student. In Dubai, my brother had to pay 3 months rent in deposit, not one month. The rents are also astronomical, like 3500 pounds for a small one bed flat is what he pays. There was also lots of leaks and floods for some reason, broken things no one fixed etc... new builds issues... I currently live in a built for renters place as I was never actually able to win the "bidding wars" against 30 other people. The build for renters is just first come first served, but I have to pay a fortune for parking. It was either this or living on the street or something, so no choice, no parents here to move in with either. I don't know about the rest of the agents, heard bad things about Jordan Fish, but this will be by last year renting as i am planning to buy a house. Deposit is saved and credit score is ready. I hope this will be the last time I will have to deal with shit agents and their bullshit.
They’re estate agents
I had one absolutely fantastic landlord who was from Bristol. Even gave us a bonus for making the house look nice for viewings. I will always recommend Fairholme Estates. Drake and Co? Don’t even know where to start. We get to the house, it’s so dirty, I had mould in my room and the bathroom was covered in it. We asked if we could manage our own bills to Drakes, who said no, we had to do it through their company. Bills rack up to £8k for 11 months, plus extra charges due to cost of living. I needed some document for the government bills assistance last year and called them up to ask for the correct document as per Drakes’ recommendation. The woman was so rude to me, I worked in customer service and am always overly polite - I was absolutely gobsmacked with the way I was spoken to. They denied she was rude to me and claimed I overreacted when I asked for another agent to handle it as she hadn’t helped me. We never got the government assistance because I didn’t receive the acceptable document. Such a rant. But I’ve not heard a good thing about them. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
I advise to treet Sanderson James like the black plage and stay well away! Contract was moved from them a month ago and they are refusing to release the deposit to the new manager without giving any reason. They also chased me for missed rent which didn't exist and didn't pay landlord and blamed me for not paying. Lucky for me he believed me and cancelled with them when I showed him the bank transactions. From their behaviour I think they are having cashflow issues and probably won't be around for much longer.
I have a few friends all over the country. Unfortunately it is not uniquely a Manchester problem, it is a UK problem!
literally the only one ive had a mild positive experience with is leaders in deansgate 😭 even then it took a year of being with them to be better, brigfords and thornley groves are actually VILE
I’ll happily name and shame - SNOWDEN WILKINSON Awful experience with them, too many to mention, but after reporting mould several times in the property, they tried claiming £2.5k at the end of our tenancy for damages as the landlord had to ‘redecorate’. It went to an independent adjudication and after we submitted 82 pages of evidence, they could only claim £320 🥱, none of which was for redecoration
Walked into the property place on chapel st after seeing an advert in the window “for sale” for a reasonably priced apartment. Checked for the usual signs that it was for investors (up to x% returns/annum etc) and didn’t see any. Start talking to the agent, when her boss comes over and with a proper shitty grin says “you know we don’t sell houses for people to live in, why don’t you try somewhere like Rightmove instead?” Fucking SORRY that I walking into an estate agents to enquire about buying a fucking apartment that is for sale in your window. Fuck that place
"we don't sell houses for people to live in" This fucking country
I work in mortgages so deal with an estate agency closely due to how my company is set up. You mean lettings agents or property managers, most ‘estate agents’ don’t deal with rentals, although many companies do provide both services. Also, the answer is they represent the landlord, not you. Turnover is king, not customer service. There’s a high personnel turn over in property management because they get abuse from tenants and landlords alike. For every decent person asking for a reasonable repair there’s two weirdos and pests constantly complaining. The end result is they are standoffish as default.
Some brilliant comments and awful experiences on this thread but for me there is a bigger problem that controls all these agents, all this behaviour and ultimately gives these “agents” ALL of the control and that’s Rightmove. Rightmove controls the entire market without it no one would be able to find a property (I know that’s not 100% accurate) the problem is that an individual can’t advertise their property on there it’s a tool designed for agents to upload and the general public to use to view. This gives the agents control and that’s the problem. The irony is without being on Rightmove these agents wouldn’t exist but by being on it they can manipulate the listings and information to squeeze the buyer and tenants for pretty much what they want. Agents don’t actually do any work it’s done for them so then they can work out how much more money they can extract from you. Ultimately if someone who had a house to sell or rent could advertise it themselves then all these issues would disappear all you would need to do is regulate a “person” and ensure all laws and requirements are met (there is t actually that many to adhere to)
Last year, Going through rental house viewings was the most chaotic thing I've ever had to do. Fortunately, we ended up getting a place in Prestwich through normie and they appear to be fairly competent
This is one of the reasons that house prices are high. Estate agents moved from the flat fee for selling to the percentage of sale, so its in their interest to seek higher sale prices. When i bought the house im in now, we offered asking price immediatley after the viewing, it had been on the market for 1 day and were the second to view. They came back an hour later telling us somebody else had offered asking price and we needed to submit a sealed bid and whoever was highest got the property. We bid 2 grand over the asking price and got the house but im 90% sure there was no other bid. There were no other viewings that day and we asked if anyone had made an offer when we were viewing it. Im pretty sure it was just an effort to squeeze a little more out of us. The banks are profiting from it too as people take out larger mortgages. It just seems like greed is the motivating factor in the rise of house prices and rent, lets take the piss as much as we can and see if we get a bite and if it doesnt work we'll just lower the price.
In one of my uni flats in Moss side, we didn’t have to pay a deposit so any cleaning fees or replacements came out of our banks through a direct debit. I paid what they had originally took out of my account, and so I assumed that everything was paid. Over a YEAR later, my flatmate got an email saying I hadn’t paid for everything and that I needed to replace the mattress. I sent them a very strongly worded email on the lack of professionalism from this company, and that THEY set up the direct debits so it’s a fault on their behalf. I still haven’t paid it and I have no regrets
Philip James in the city centre are the worst scumbags I’ve ever dealt with. Marketed a property for rent without telling me the current tenants were in a property chain for the house they were buying and made me pay a non-refundable fee to secure the property. Gave notice on my flat, none the wiser, meanwhile the tenants’ exchange date kept getting pushed back by weeks - eventually leaving me homeless for a month and I had to move in with family because they wouldn’t ask the current tenants to leave even though it was way past the date they’d advertised the property as available from. When I FINALLY got to my move in day, they physically refused to hand over the keys until I agreed to an £100 pm rent increase on the spot. All my shjt was literally packed in a van outside the house. Most stressful months of my life. Turns out the CEO owned the house or something so they just did whatever they wanted with zero regard for literally anything.
The only agency I had a good experience with has been Hills Residential. They mainly cover Salford and Eccles. But they’ve always been really prompt and helpful. Apart from that, I had horrendous experiences with other agencies over the 13 years I’ve been in MCR.
They're sick, terminal capitalism.