Horible service. Was so disapointed. A lot off confusion.
Avoid ! Scammers ! Awful customer service. They take money out of your deposit without your approval . I logged a complain against them , will get a refund but had to get the solicitors involved. Full time scammers!!!!! Avoid!
I'm not really able to comment on their services as I do not use them but I am a neighbour to a property they manage I thought property owners looking for someone to manage their properties might be interested to know that Northwood will allow tenants to smoke copious amounts of weed within the property. Even after being informed several times that it is happening. I dread to think what all that smoke is doing to the curtains, carpets and walls.
Sadly, I had a really terrible experience trying to rent a house through Northwood. First when I looked around the house, I was shown around by two people from Northwood, who told me that as the first person viewing the house, it was very likely that if I put in an offer by calling the office as soon as the viewing was over, I would get the place. I was told specifically there was no need to send an email. So I did just this and called the Northwood office and registered my interest in renting the property. I was met with a friendly "yes, that's fine. I'll register your interest with the landlord and get back to you." I asked whether I should send an email to back up the offer and provide some evidence, but the agent said "there was no need." I received a missed call later that day from Northwood at 4pm, but when I returned the call 15 minutes later I was told that the colleague looking after the property had finished for the day, and to ring back tomorrow. When I rung back at 10am the following day, I was told that the landlord had gone with someone else. When I asked why, the agent said that "it's because the landlord received a nice email from a more suitable couple." When I stated that we were the first to submit interest (as was confirmed the previous day) and I was told twice, explicitly, that sending an email wasn't necessary, the agent just said "sorry, the landlord has chosen to go with someone else." Overall, this was an incredibly frustrating experience that not only showed me that these estate agents aren't professional, they're perhaps incompetent too. Wouldn't recommend.
Please landlords if you care at all about your tenants do not use Northwood's guaranteed rent scheme. It gives them total power to evict tenants and find new ones every time the fixed term contract ends as then they get a new set of agency fees. Surely you want tenants who will make your house a home and treat it well rather than new people coming in every six months and ruining the place. We moved in to a guaranteed let property and when we arrived Northwood had left all of the carpets soaking wet so that the whole property smelled bad. There were no exctractor fans anywhere so the property was very damp. Holes in the walls where vents should have been led to mice which Northwood refused to deal with even though pest control was stated as their responsibility in the contract. After a year in the property 2 housemates wanted to move out and the remaining 2 found people to replace them. Northwood were going to charge £600 to update the contract with the new names. When I simply asked for a breakdown of what this was paying for (I work in housing so I know that this would be a 5 minute job) they began to reel off made up fees while speaking in a baby voice. I asked to speak to a manager as I was so upset at this point, at which point Northwood hung up on me before calling back five minutes later to state that the landlord required the property back as he was not happy with the state of the property during the last inspection. Unbeknownst to Northwood we had the landlord's phone number as he had stopped by unannounced. We rang him and he was on holiday in Spain, had never seen the results of any inspection and had no idea we were being evicted. After all this Northwood tried to take £1000 from our deposit for a professional clean of the house even though we had left it cleaner than we found it and the contract did not require a professional cleaning service. Luckily I had taken photos of the house before and after and could prove they were lying so we were successful in getting the full deposit back, but only after we went to the deposit protection service. This was the most degrading and cruel agency I have ever had the misfortune of encountering. They are both vindictive and money grabbing and do not care at all about basic human decency. In response to your response- I would not call forcefully evicting someone from their home a 'check out' - we were nearly left homeless by your appalling and abusive staff. Have you stopped charging £600 to change a name on a contract now? Most of your reviews are from landlords, who I'm sure are unaware of how awfully you treat your tenants.
In 2015 one of the agents came to inspect the smoke alarm in the property I’m renting. She poked the thing a couple of times with a stick and said it was fine. Yesterday I was made aware that that same smoke alarm was due to be replaced by 2012. And that’s only the tip of the iceberg as I could go on and on will all the other nonsense they’ve put me through.
A bunch of idiots! Twice in a month breached the contract entering the property without notice (“sorry miscommunication of our team”) and giving the key to a builder that entered the property without letting me know and trashed the flat(“sorry we forgot to let you know”). Once they called to double check if I paid the rent when for the past 8 years I’m paying direct debit so money goes out automatically (“sorry mistake from our end”), another time they tried to bill me 50£ fees coz agent didn’t manage to gain access to the property for inspection (“sorry keyfob didn’t work so need to pay a fee for the agent to come again”) I was at home waiting for them and I’m pretty sure the agent went to the wrong address or had wrong set of keys as the next time the keyfob was working fine! And I could go on... What services are we talking about? Since signing the contract in 2010 I only heard from you every 6 months for the inspections ( I don’t even know if you are coming for those inspections coz you don’t bother to leave a note or to let me know that an agent visited the property!). Every single year after the contract expires it’s me that I have to call to request a new contract. In 8 years I called twice. Once requesting a plumber as after coming back from a holiday there was mess coming out from the toilet and your response was “ put some towels on the floor”! and the second time when the heating stopped working in winter and your response was “ buy electric heating”. In 8 years no one carried out any maintenance in the flat whatsoever and I never complained about that. On one occasion one of your agent came for inspection with a trainee and started to pick on the furniture “ oh there is a chip on the washing machine! “ The washing machine is mine as the rest of the furniture, the flat was rented out unfurnished! I mean...c’mon! If anyone is reading this comments please note that there was no meeting so they are lying about this as well.
Please landlords if you care at all about your tenants do not use Northwood's guaranteed rent scheme. It gives them total power to evict tenants and find new ones every time the fixed term contract ends as then they get a new set of agency fees. Surely you want tenants who will make your house a home and treat it well rather than new people coming in every six months and ruining the place. We moved in to a guaranteed let property and when we arrived Northwood had left all of the carpets soaking wet so that the whole property smelled bad. There were no exctractor fans anywhere so the property was very damp. Holes in the walls where vents should have been led to mice which Northwood refused to deal with even though pest control was stated as their responsibility in the contract. After a year in the property 2 housemates wanted to move out and the remaining 2 found people to replace them. Northwood were going to charge £600 to update the contract with the new names. When I simply asked for a breakdown of what this was paying for (I work in housing so I know that this would be a 5 minute job) they began to reel off made up fees while speaking in a baby voice. I asked to speak to a manager as I was so upset at this point, at which point Northwood hung up on me before calling back five minutes later to state that the landlord required the property back as he was not happy with the state of the property during the last inspection. Unbeknownst to Northwood we had the landlord's phone number as he had stopped by unannounced. We rang him and he was on holiday in Spain, had never seen the results of any inspection and had no idea we were being evicted. After all this Northwood tried to take £1000 from our deposit for a professional clean of the house even though we had left it cleaner than we found it and the contract did not require a professional cleaning service. Luckily I had taken photos of the house before and after and could prove they were lying so we were successful in getting the full deposit back, but only after we went to the deposit protection service. This was the most degrading and cruel agency I have ever had the misfortune of encountering. They are both vindictive and money grabbing and do not care at all about basic human decency. In response to your response- I would not call forcefully evicting someone from their home a 'check out' - we were nearly left homeless by your appalling and abusive staff. Have you stopped charging £600 to change a name on a contract now? Most of your reviews are from landlords, who I'm sure are unaware of how awfully you treat your tenants.
The worst agency in Bristol. They let me an apartment with everything completely broken inside. Nothing was working. Avoid them
Agents don't get more morally bankrupt than this! I have had the displeasure of dealing with this company as a tenant. If you are a landlord and you care about the fair treatment of human beings, go elsewhere! We were renting a property and requested to change 2 tenants, who we had found ourselves, due to 2 people moving out. They wanted £600 to change 2 names on a contract. When I asked what these charges were for, I received patronising and inadequate answers. Realising that we going to stand up for ourselves, they claimed that the Landlord wanted us evicted due to the recent inspection report, and served an eviction notice. However, said report DID NOT EXIST (there was only an email with 5 bullet points (nowhere near the thorough report we had seen after the first inspection)), and I later spoke to the landlord WHO WAS ON HOLIDAY IN SPAIN AND HAD NOT SEEN ANY REPORT NOR WAS AWARE THAT WE WERE BEING EVICTED. Northwood Bristol are corporate parasites and professional liars. They fed their profit from our misery, after we had kept the property in good condition (as evidenced by the full deposit being returned to us after the tenancy) and we had paid rent on time every month.
271 North Street, Bristol, BS3 1JN, UK
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http://northwooduk.comLooking to sell or let your Bristol home? Our friendly team of experts is here to guide you through the process from valuation to marketing, delivering award-winning service to help you get the most out of your property. Our office of letting and estate agents in Bristol offers a wide range of services including Residential Sales & Lettings, Property Management, and our unique Northwood Guaranteed Rent service
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