Sam Wall
1/5
Rented a three bedroom property from this agency, well to sum it up the whole experience was a nightmare from start to end.
Here's the story in brief:
Start of problems.
Day 1: collect keys from office! Yes that's right they don't use industry recognised procedure and do the handover at the property.
So off I go with the keys. To my horror when I went into the property, I found one of the bedroom carpets saturated with urine, and the ammonia smell was really overpowering.
Rang Northwood straight away. Was told they would call back. This never happened. After a week of continuous phone calls trying to get them to come out we emailed them. 2 weeks later after several emails of complaints (so 3 weeks in and a bedroom we could not use) we get an email of a timelime of events of when we apparently contacted them, if that wasn't bad enough the accusation from Northwood that they concluded the event happened sometime after we got the keys and we had urinated on the carpet, so was going to be charged for a new carpet.
Our response was to send copies of our phone bills showing calls to and from Northwood (very few) and copies of texts between myself and partner.
We moved in at the end of October 2018, the carpet eventually got replaced in the December!
Second problem: when we moved into the property we found the loft hatch was damaged and not very secure, within a few days this decided to fall down. Thankfully no one was walking underneath it at the time. This took several weeks to repair!
Third problem, downstairs toilet door began to come off the hinge, as the wood on the door was spilt. We had pointed this out at the 3 month inspection. Eventually door started to fall off. This was a safety issue as there was a toddler in the house! We was told just to keep the door shut and don't use the toilet. After numerous emails the door was eventually replaced, very reluctantly.
Fourth issue: there was a lot of strong winds that had damaged the garden fence. This was reported to them, but still remained damaged when we moved out of the property at the end of May 2019.
Fifth problem: prior to moving out we went into the garage and the garage door collapsed on us. This was reported and they wasn't as you have probably gathered by now fourth coming about fixing it. More than a week went by, and eventually it got to moving day. Sent them an email and said we needed this fixing urgently before then as it was a safety issue for the removal company. Response eventually said they will be out to fix it. This was the same day as we was moving out, so told them no.
Garage door remained unfixed when we handed the keys back 2 weeks later. (property had been empty for 2 weeks.)
Sixth problem: early on in the tenancy the downstairs toilet light bulb blew. When I went to change this I decided not to, this was because the light fitting was insecure on and not fitting correctly. It was loose and I wasn't about to have it fall and be charged for repair. So this was reported to them.
This remained unrepaired when we ended the tenancy.
Because of all the issues we had from the start we requested that we was present at their final check out. This we was told would not be possible as that's not how they work. They wanted the keys returning to the office.
After airing my concerns about them inspecting the property without the presence of witnesses, they said we could be there but was only there to observe. That I agreed to, but we took along a independent witness, (someone from a government background).
On inspection they tried very hard to withhold our deposit. But we did succeed in getting our full deposit back.
My recommendation to anyone looking to rent with Northwood, do not have verbal communication with them after you take the property, make all your communication written, and keep it for future reference.
Take a copy of any interim inspections.
Take photo's/video's on the day you get the keys, and the day you leave. If you can tell them you want to witness the check out inspection, and take an independent witness.
