Property agents: Can't live with 'em, can't legally kill 'em. (Estate Agents in general)

Member Name: low_rider

Product:	Estate Agents in general
Date:	15/02/09 (102 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Nothing. Literally.

Disadvantages: Soooooo much

No one likes estate agents. Not even estate agents like estate agents. Seriously, I knew a pair who got married, and they were divorced within two years, citing irreconcilable differences.

As a student, I have had several chances to deal with estate agents. I have never owned but am in my third rented accomodation, and each one so far has been that much worse.

My first estate agent was my university - obviously in Halls of Residence you deal with the uni. For £90 a week I got a room that, if I stood in the middle and stretched my arms out, I could almost touch both walls. My room was meant to be one of the "posh" rooms that was ensuite - what this meant, in practice, was that I got a tiny closet with a toilet in and a shower above the toilet. I also got a share in a kitchen shared with 7 other students, but only one, small, fridge-freezer between us, and an oven that we were told was one breakdown away from being condemned. If it was condemned, we were told, there "wasn't the budget" to replace it, and we would not be given a new one.

Perhaps to top it all off was the day that the university, having decided that the rooms needed redecorating, had contracted out a firm to put up some fresh wallpaper. Anyone who rents will know that the landlord needs to give you 24 hours notice before he, or someone on his behalf, is allowed into your home. My notice was ridiculously early in the morning (alright, 8:30, but to a fresher that equates to 4 am for all you normal people out in the real world), when I was bundled out of the room. When I came back that night, I found that, in order to do their work, they had taken all of my possessions out of the room, and piled them up - you guessed it - in the tiny shower cubicle. The shower leaked. They put hundreds of pounds worth of course books and delicate electronic equipment including a laptop and printer in a leaky shower. I complained and demanded compensation - the uni told me to take it to the contractors, the contractors refused to pay without an original receipt to prove the worth. I am not someone who files backyears of receipts, so I ended up with a pile of damaged books and a broken printer.

For my second year, I moved out into a new housing estate (Barratt homes or something similar) on the outskirts of York. The company I used was York Property Company. We booked a viewing session to see the house in December. On a cold, snowy night we walked the three miles from university to the estate. When we got there, we were greeted at the house by a very surprised couple who had no idea we were turning up and didn't let us come in and view. Apparently the property company hadn't been able to get hold of them to let them know we were coming, but didn't have the decency to call us to cancel. When we finally did view, the couple told us that they had rang the company about it, who then lied, and said that there was no record of us booking a viewing and we shouldn't turn up - even though I still had the original viewing confirmation note on me.

Being a new house there weren't any problems with the property, but big problems with our security deposits. Apparently being unaware of the fact that the deposits had to legally be placed with an approved agency, they messed it up, and then insisted we came in to sort it out - blaming us for a job they should have known how to do.

For our final year, my fiancee and I moved into a small newly developed flat near the uni. We used Countrywide Lettings for this, a nationwide company twinned with Rentons. I make this heartfelt plea: Please, never use them. I have never known such incompetence. They had no record of our viewing appointment, leaving us standing in the rain for half an hour, they had no idea when we wanted to move in, despite telling them three times and they managed to delay our move-in date through incompetence - my parents were acting as our guarantors. My father is a doctor so there was no problem with his security. Nevertheless, when the necessary forms didn't turn up (they had been faxed across, so I guess Countrywide must have lost them), they left it until the last possible minute to inform us of this.

They then insisted ona 48hr waiting period once they got the forms for them to send them to their head office elsewhere to check them. We had booked the move-in for a Monday, and they pushed us back until Tuesday. We had furniture deliveries booked for 9am on the Tuesday, and I had taken Monday off work and off uni to move in the rest of our possessions. By leaving it until the last minute to tell us that we couldn't yet move in (they rang at 9:30 on Monday morning, just as we were leaving to pick up the keys), it meant we couldn't rearrange our delivery times. All in all, it was a nightmare, and when I wrote a letter of complaint, the reply I received essentially told me to get over it, and stop wasting their time.

And, of course, they skimmed us for fees top and bottom - "Key transfer fee". What does that even mean?! We went to the office to pick up the keys, so apparently it costs them £60 to walk over to the key cupboard and select the appropriate set. A five metre walk there and back, so that works out at £12 per metre. That makes them more valuable than a race horse.

I am sure everyone has bad experiences with property agencies and I am sure that my experiences pale in comparison to some. Still, I would like something good to come out of it all, so here is a bit of advice:
1. Get EVERYTHING in writing.
2. Know your rights.
3. Be prepared to make a fuss.
4. Just accept that it is a complete rip-off, an outdated system that should be done away with, but until the revolution (which I hope I shall lead) there is nothing you can do about that.

Summary: A necessary, but horrible, evil.