Massive rant alert!!Letting agents

snuggles09

Really need to get this off my chest or I'll explode

We are looking to move and the amount of letting agents that don't get back to us is getting ridiculous..I rang 2 last week to ask about viewing 2 seperate houses, that was last Monday and was told I would be called back within an hour, neither had called back by Thursday so I called again and as told I'd have a call back within the hour..here I am now on Tuesday of the following week and still no one has called me or my husband back

I'm bloody furious over it..Another one in particular is really starting to annoy me as I called them a few weeks previous and asked to arrange a viewing of a property and was told yes no problem, made an appointment and turns out after getting my hopes up the property was gone but the girl i spoke with didn't realise and it was never taken off their website

The houses they have up, a lot of them aren't available anymore but still on their site as to let and still on Daft also

The whole thing is really pi**ing me off now at this stage i'm getting so frustrated with it all

In ye're experience who are the best to deal with? As in, the ones who have the courtesy to even bother calling you back?

PS: Least I have 50 Shades to distract me from all this:D

abouttobebanned

I agree. Nothing more ignorant then people not getting back to you, or ignoring you altogether.

cartell_best

I've used Hutchinson's for a long time. They've been nothing more than accomodating (if you'll excuse the pun). There are a couple of agents who i'd love to name and shame. One particular "agent" was the sole management for a complex I was living in off Bridge street and a fire broke out which spread fairly quickly. The only emergency exits on that side of the building had chain locks on them! From recollection, the firemen were not in the least impressed!

For as long as I'll rent I'll go through Hutchinson's everytime.

Jason Todd

Yes, very frustrating, and you would have thought that nowadays they would go above and beyond the call of duty to secure new customers.

As for recommendations, I'm not sure, I've let from:

Whitford Properties (Very nice to deal with, never had issues, apartment never had faults, no problem getting deposit back)

Book-A-Room (Girls in office are lovely to deal with but near impossible to get deposit back. Slow in getting things fixed etc and the random checks were very annoying)

E.P. Properties (Very slow in dealings and had to fight to get half our deposit back despite leaving the place in better condition than we got it, it was filthy when we viewed it and were assured it would be clean by the time moved in... it wasn't.)

Whitford was the best experience I've had, but I've seen people post negative reviews of them on Boards before, so I wouldn't like to recommend anybody in particular, they all seem to have their pros and cons.

merlante

Some classic middle-man behaviour, where joe/jane soap deals with an agent to deal with landlords, employers or whatever. First, it's the other side of the transaction (those who pay) that the agents want to keep sweet, not you. Secondly, they feel free to advertise accommodation, jobs, etc., that don't exist, just to get people on to their sites.

I feel sorry for people who don't realise this and think that there are all sorts of fantastic properties on the web and they'll be sorted out quickly. Sometimes there aren't, and agents will try to ship something inferior. Also remember that you tire quickly. One tactic is to show you something crap and then show you something that is better in comparison (but still worse than what you wanted) and you take it due to fatigue. I'm not saying how prevalent this is in Waterford, but it is something that happens out there in the world, and in general, things move far more quickly when you have direct access to landlords, employers, etc., whereas middlemen can often get in the way.

In the case of rental agents, however, sometimes they have their uses. Some landlords can't cope with the business of renting and cause strife with tenants and take accidental damage personally, etc. Letting agents know how renting works and will often provide a better interface. You can't trust them to be on your side though.

michellie

snuggles09 wrote: »

PS: Least I have 50 Shades to distract me from all this:D

Phew ;)

pawrick

I hear you, after 10+ years renting I've nothing good to say about any agents. They're up there with politicians in my books.

snuggles09

thanks all

still majorly annoyed though, i'm giving them until tomorrow to get back to me and then...................and then what you see? what am i really gonna do..feck all:p

anyone on here want to rent me a house?:p

sam34

I lived in Waterford years ago and found bookaroom to be an absolute nightmare to deal with. I think there's another thread on this forum where I posted all the details about what happened, but I would not recommend them to my worst enemy. they were so incompetent that I still post about it years later, even tho I no longer live in Waterford and no longer rent. I still feel so strongly about their shambles of a service that I let people know and warn them off.

I found one stop properties to be helpful and pleasant and prompt. never had an issue with them.

wellboytoo

Reminds me of trying to buy a car five years ago, better chance of Saddam returning your call! It probably shows how much business there is in the rental market at the moment that they do not have to follow every lead.
I had the misfortune to go visiting a few places with a friend of mine a while ago with a view to renting , I was shocked at the condition of some of the properties.
1 That a tenant would leave them in that condition and
2 That an agent/landlord would try and let them.
One property was so bad the lady showing blushed the whole way through the showing.

ex_infantry man

we rented our place through palmers auctioneers had no issues at all with them, pop down and have a chat to warren tomorrow he might have something for ya

dashboard_hula

I had nothing but a nightmare with Bookaroom from beginning to end - I actually wouldn't have gone near them in the first place but for my ex was dealing with them when we moved in together.

We moved onto Hutchinsons, who know their stuff inside out. I actually got caught on the hop myself once where I was insisting on something completely wrong and they were right to stick to their guns. I would doubt it was them you were dealing with about calls not being returned, hope not anyway. I'd recommend them to anyone - fair enough they can be a bit...brusque but to be fair I'm okay with that as long as it's also turned on fussy property owners and slow tradesmen.

I'm currently renting from a private landlord who is without a doubt the nicest and most accomodating I've ever met. He goes out of his way to make sure that I'm looked after. I think he must have taken a course on it or something, nobodys that thorough!

spankmemunkey

cartell_best wrote: »

I've used Hutchinson's for a long time. They've been nothing more than accomodating (if you'll excuse the pun). There are a couple of agents who i'd love to name and shame. One particular "agent" was the sole management for a complex I was living in off Bridge street and a fire broke out which spread fairly quickly. The only emergency exits on that side of the building had chain locks on them! From recollection, the firemen were not in the least impressed!

For as long as I'll rent I'll go through Hutchinson's everytime.

Hutchinsons are a complete load of [EMAIL="B@=l'x"]B@=l'x[/EMAIL]

Had a complete nigtmare with them, I travelled from Kilkenny everyday to see a woman called Janey that never seemed to be there, never called me back this all with a small child in our arms everyday the woman in there with red curly hair really messed us about I was so frustrated we explained our circumstances that we were literally homeless and she sat there in her chair everyday like Little Britain Computer Says No!

Never ever again and i hope they get their cummupance cos they really fooked us over!

We made an offer on a house that was being let for 900 a month we offered like 800 i said i see you have that for rent for ages now we were looking online as we were living abroad(this was over the phone) I dont think they were impressed that i had the audacity to make them the all powerful letting agent an offer below their asking price. so they gave me the run around after that, but the thing that go me was they told me to come back and maybe we can get you to see this person but every day i was told no shes not here, I was later told the the girl i was dealing with was the girl i spoke to over the phone, some kinda personal vendetta? I know that sounds dramatic, ended up going to castle estates got a house the same day after a week of being messed about by hutchinson.

We later met and became friends with the owners of the lovely bungalow we tried to rent who had it on the market for over a year and when we told them we offered 800 a month instead of 900 a month they were so furious with Hutchinson's for losing an income for them over a number of years as this house was empty for ages

To this day i still get a really bad feeling when i pass there or see that woman in question that was about 6 years ago when they were all powerful

rasper

havent dealt with a letting agent in years and dont know anyone that works in one, but most businesses these days are severelly under pressure, this has led to severe staff shortages with reduced hours and hence the staff working can have an impossible workload.
Don't know if this is the case in these circumstances , but know that this is whats happening from a first hand experience , just because theres a lot less money being spent does not mean the workload has been reduced even though operating on half the staff numbers.
Just my observations

Petey89

im with bookaroom at the min, lived in the flat last 2 years no mayjor problems with them they have a bad name but i didnt realise this till after i moved in, they got everything fixed that broke and the dropped the price of the rent when we asked so not too bad. i have heard they are terrible when giving the deposit back hopefuly i wont have that problem next year as the flat is now cleaner than it was when i moved it. on viewing it it was dirty and was told it would have been cleaned but it wasnt had to do it myself was angry about that alright. and they can be slow at ringing ya back. so they are not good but they arent the worst iv come across.

caroline456

rasper wrote: »

havent dealt with a letting agent in years and dont know anyone that works in one, but most businesses these days are severelly under pressure, this has led to severe staff shortages with reduced hours and hence the staff working can have an impossible workload.
Don't know if this is the case in these circumstances , but know that this is whats happening from a first hand experience , just because theres a lot less money being spent does not mean the workload has been reduced even though operating on half the staff numbers.
Just my observations

well, they are lucky to still have their job aren't they? it is happenning everywhere in the country that the staff's hours are being cut and the amount of work doubles that shouldn't be excuse for someone treating you badly. it should be in their interest to rent the property asap shouldn't it? I do know some of the letting agents working over the weekend no problem where others have difficulties to return your call. I think that the market should eliminate those who, for some reason, don't have any respect for tenants.

caroline456

snuggles09 wrote: »

Really need to get this off my chest or I'll explode

We are looking to move and the amount of letting agents that don't get back to us is getting ridiculous..I rang 2 last week to ask about viewing 2 seperate houses, that was last Monday and was told I would be called back within an hour, neither had called back by Thursday so I called again and as told I'd have a call back within the hour..here I am now on Tuesday of the following week and still no one has called me or my husband back

I'm bloody furious over it..Another one in particular is really starting to annoy me as I called them a few weeks previous and asked to arrange a viewing of a property and was told yes no problem, made an appointment and turns out after getting my hopes up the property was gone but the girl i spoke with didn't realise and it was never taken off their website

The houses they have up, a lot of them aren't available anymore but still on their site as to let and still on Daft also

The whole thing is really pi**ing me off now at this stage i'm getting so frustrated with it all

In ye're experience who are the best to deal with? As in, the ones who have the courtesy to even bother calling you back?

PS: Least I have 50 Shades to distract me from all this:D

could you please be more specific? which agencies were the ones you're talking about? because i'm quite annoyed myself and it would help other people to stay away from them too

rasper

caroline456 wrote: »

rasper wrote: »

havent dealt with a letting agent in years and dont know anyone that works in one, but most businesses these days are severelly under pressure, this has led to severe staff shortages with reduced hours and hence the staff working can have an impossible workload.
Don't know if this is the case in these circumstances , but know that this is whats happening from a first hand experience , just because theres a lot less money being spent does not mean the workload has been reduced even though operating on half the staff numbers.
Just my observations

well, they are lucky to still have their job aren't they? it is happenning everywhere in the country that the staff's hours are being cut and the amount of work doubles that shouldn't be excuse for someone treating you badly. it should be in their interest to rent the property asap shouldn't it? I do know some of the letting agents working over the weekend no problem where others have difficulties to return your call. I think that the market should eliminate those who, for some reason, don't have any respect for tenants.

Not saying it's an excuse for bad behavior or poor etiquette , however these situations are not always black and white and people and companies should not be abused as in this thread while having no chance to defend themselves.
And the new ibec mantra if "you re lucky enough to have a job " doesn't help

nicolaed

spankmemunkey wrote: »

Hutchinsons are a complete load of B@=l'x

Had a complete nigtmare with them, I travelled from Kilkenny everyday to see a woman called Janey that never seemed to be there, never called me back this all with a small child in our arms everyday the woman in there with red curly hair really messed us about I was so frustrated we explained our circumstances that we were literally homeless and she sat there in her chair everyday like Little Britain Computer Says No!

Never ever again and i hope they get their cummupance cos they really fooked us over!

We made an offer on a house that was being let for 900 a month we offered like 800 i said i see you have that for rent for ages now we were looking online as we were living abroad(this was over the phone) I dont think they were impressed that i had the audacity to make them the all powerful letting agent an offer below their asking price. so they gave me the run around after that, but the thing that go me was they told me to come back and maybe we can get you to see this person but every day i was told no shes not here, I was later told the the girl i was dealing with was the girl i spoke to over the phone, some kinda personal vendetta? I know that sounds dramatic, ended up going to castle estates got a house the same day after a week of being messed about by hutchinson.

We later met and became friends with the owners of the lovely bungalow we tried to rent who had it on the market for over a year and when we told them we offered 800 a month instead of 900 a month they were so furious with Hutchinson's for losing an income for them over a number of years as this house was empty for ages

To this day i still get a really bad feeling when i pass there or see that woman in question that was about 6 years ago when they were all powerful

100 % agree, Hutchinson auctioneers agency is nightmare!

cbl593h

Billy MacCarthy wheels out Georgina Mangan to give "impartial advice" (broadcast a free ad !) every now and again so its definitely Book-A-Room for me.

cartell_best

spankmemunkey wrote: »

Hutchinsons are a complete load of B@=l'x

Had a complete nigtmare with them, I travelled from Kilkenny everyday to see a woman called Janey that never seemed to be there, never called me back this all with a small child in our arms everyday the woman in there with red curly hair really messed us about I was so frustrated we explained our circumstances that we were literally homeless and she sat there in her chair everyday like Little Britain Computer Says No!

Never ever again and i hope they get their cummupance cos they really fooked us over!

We all have our own experiences with letting agents and will without doubt, end with our own conclusions. I have dealt with Manor properties, bookaroom and agree with some posters that the service provided is horrendous to say the least. Fact of life, we'll all experience different things with service providers.

spankmemunkey

nicolaed wrote: »

100 % agree, Hutchinson auctioneers agency is nightmare!

Thanks, I still see that woman in town and she dare not look at me cos she can remember me, and knows she did one on me and my family people think ah yeah but its just a property but this woman went out of her way to do us over!

Again Hutchinson complete NIGHTMARE!

cartell_best

spankmemunkey wrote: »

she did one on me and my family people think ah yeah but its just a property but this woman went out of her way to do us over!

Wow!

spankmemunkey

cartell_best wrote: »

Wow!

Thats the truth, She told me to come back every day to see Joanie, and low and behold i found out later that she was Joanie, everytime i rang she said oh no shes out of the office, try popping in or ring back again,

Then she had the cheek to sit there and look at me and my partner and baby in arms and lie to us, come in tomorrow, she'd say. We were determined to get one house in particular you see and nobody else had it advertised, it was a house in the country, This was around 2005 when the boom was full swing and they were in the height of their power! Ive always sworn that id get her back, I since got in touch with the owners of the house they refused to rent to us which was empty for a good year or so after that thanks to her, loosing her client alot of money.

cartell_best

spankmemunkey wrote: »

Thats the truth, She told me to come back every day to see Joanie, and low and behold i found out later that she was Joanie, everytime i rang she said oh no shes out of the office, try popping in or ring back again,

Then she had the cheek to sit there and look at me and my partner and baby in arms and lie to us, come in tomorrow, she'd say. We were determined to get one house in particular you see and nobody else had it advertised, it was a house in the country, This was around 2005 when the boom was full swing and they were in the height of their power! Ive always sworn that id get her back, I since got in touch with the owners of the house they refused to rent to us which was empty for a good year or so after that thanks to her, loosing her client alot of money.

Sir, even though this is an open forum does not automatically omit somebody from statements that would be regarded as in the least bit malicious with intent to say the least, direct! Estate/letting agents have to act within the contraints of certain structure and for a dispute to erupt should take no direction than for a party to take action on a civil basis for mis-representation. I would suggest that you do not broadcast your grievance and personally name individuals but undertake a more civil action and approach to a disagreement in order to resolve any issue with a professional organisation.

spankmemunkey

cartell_best wrote: »

Sir, even though this is an open forum does not automatically omit somebody from statements that would be regarded as in the least bit malicious with intent to say the least, direct! Estate/letting agents have to act within the contraints of certain structure and for a dispute to erupt should take no direction than for a party to take action on a civil basis for mis-representation. I would suggest that you do not broadcast your grievance and personally name individuals but undertake a more civil action and approach to a disagreement in order to resolve any issue with a professional organisation.

Sir? what makes you think im a Sir?

If you read back in the posts, the persons name was mentioned before as was the agents as was other peoples grievences towards this particular organisation under a topic related to bad experiences with letting agents where names were mentioned before. To take a civil matter it usally involves alot of time and maybe even money. My response was to go to the nearest letting agent and take whateve place i could get as i needed to, my week was wasted on this particular company giving me the run around, I decided not to go back and notch this upto experience and tell anybody i could not to go there as is my right as a customer who had a very bad experience.

cartell_best

spankmemunkey wrote: »

Sir? what makes you think im a Sir?

If you read back in the posts, the persons name was mentioned before as was the agents as was other peoples grievences towards this particular organisation under a topic related to bad experiences with letting agents where names were mentioned before. To take a civil matter it usally involves alot of time and maybe even money. My response was to go to the nearest letting agent and take whateve place i could get as i needed to, my week was wasted on this particular company giving me the run around, I decided not to go back and notch this upto experience and tell anybody i could not to go there as is my right as a customer who had a very bad experience.

It is you're right as a "consumer" to state your opinion and such I agree. However, we delve into an aspect, that I am sure you will understand, that to engage in a conversation that directly "names" a particular individual within an organisation with nothing more than a single and personal experience, that may involve a third party through a means of unsubstantiated means.

There is, sir! a thing called liable. As much as the planet wishes the internet was anonymous, however, such is not possible through its current means. We should not, under any circumstance, engage in what can be "misunderstood" as a malicious attack rather than a constructive criticism on a general scale, but without doubt does not place a direct assault on a particular character or person(s)!

spankmemunkey

Dont know where your getting sir from, and if it was liabel im sure the post would be taken down as boards wouldnt have it.

Sounds like its a bit close to the bone this, Its not a one off instance as there were other posters to agree with me they were badly treated by Hutchinsons.