Out of the eight properties I have rented over the years, James Pendleton have hands down been the worst lettings agent I have had the misfortune of dealing with. Buying a house was a breeze compared to dealing with these muppets. JP were well aware of the urgency with which we needed to find a new place, and pressured us to offer a higher rent and move in earlier than we needed. Then, just after we signed our tenancy agreement and before we moved in, the living room ceiling fell through. Due to the mess and ongoing building works, we were unable to move in, yet JP refused to refund us the full amount of rent covering this period. Once the flat was finally habitable, despite the tenancy agreement stating the flat would be professionally cleaned, the place was disgusting. We spent hours cleaning plaster from the living room and disinfecting the bathroom where the builders had not bothered cleaning up after themselves. We then discovered that the boiler was broken. This took several months to get fixed. On New Year’s Day, the boiler broke alltogether. We rang the ‘emergency’ helpline, and Suzan Salih suggested we go without hot water over the new year period, when the weather was freezing cold. It took a lot of arguing for them to finally agree to send an engineer over. I managed to get in contact with the previous tenants and found out that the boiler had also been broken during their tenancy! JP refused to get this fixed during their stay and then lied to us and pretended the flat was fine so that they could take our money. In total it took SIX MONTHS for them to fix the boiler! Before we moved in, we asked for a new bed. The one provided was only big enough for a small child, not two adults. Furthermore, the mattress was in fact a lump of foam, with no legally required fire safety label. James Smith set his precedent of spending his time giving excuses rather than doing any actual work. After a lot of arguing, they finally removed the bed. We decided to buy our own bed, and James Smith had the audacity to ask if we could leave it for the landlord for free at the end of the tenancy; there was not even the offer of any money, despite us paying sky-high rent. At the end of the tenancy, they clearly realised they had caused themselves issues as there would be no bed for the new tenants. We watched in disbelief as they lied to prospective tenants that OUR bed would be provided, and were happy to take the new tenants’ deposit before asking us who actually owned the bed. These are just a few examples of the inability of JP to effectively manage a property; the list goes on. We did not have one conversation with JP which proved that they were anything other than money-grabbing, lazy and incompetent. Despite all of these incidents, JP then had the cheek to increase our rent during a cost-of-living crisis! We were trying to find a place of our own and they took advantage of this, knowing it would be impossible for us to find a short-term rental. We paid more rent but saw no return, with no maintenance ever carried out on the flat. At the end of our tenancy, the icing on the cake was having to raise a dispute with DPS to get our deposit back. Please avoid these cowboys. They do not care about tenants and only exist to steal your money.