Thank you for providing feedback. Unfortunately, I am unable to respond with any context without knowing your name or the nature of our relationship with you. I can however assure you that we not only abide by the law but as qualified members of The Association of Residential Lettings Agents (ARLA) we go beyond this and adhere to their strict code of conduct. The lettings industry is heavily ladened with legislation and our staff receive regular training to keep up to date with this, it is not in our interest to bamboozle anyone. I am sorry that you do feel confused by the process, and I am sure your comments are borne out of frustration rather than evidence based. If you genuinely believe that you have been lied to or we have broken the law in any way, then please click on the link on our website for our complaints policy. Should you not be happy with our response then you can refer your complaint to The Property Ombudsman (TPO) who will provide free impartial adjudication. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me. Tel 01326 697696 or email jon.sampson@martinco.com.

Thank you for providing feedback Claire. I have gone through our archives and can see that we did manage a property of yours in 2019. I believe it was me that dealt with your complaint back then and not James. I am afraid that much of your latest review is inaccurate with the exception of the accidental water leak. I wrote to you on the 2nd of August 2019 with a clear timeline of events, highlighting that we were not at fault but assisted as best we could, while being mindful of your tenants right to allowing access. The fact that your tenant was in receipt of benefits had no bearing on the accident and we as an agency will never discriminate against anyone that may need assistance with benefits. In my letter to you I provided the contact details for the Property Ombudsman, who could provide independent, impartial free mediation should you not be happy with my response. You chose not to contact them then, but if you would like another copy of the letter now please just drop me an email (jon.sampson@martinco.com) and I will resend it. Kind regards Jon

Thank you for leaving a review, JonyBeam. We appreciate all feedback, but it is quite difficult to respond without the Tenant’s name or address of the property. That said whether you were a tenant with us or not there are some points I feel I should respond to. Rarely Return Calls, contradictions, and miscommunication… Unlike many of our competitors our office is open 6 days a week and we have an emergency number that is accessible 24 hours a day, on top of this all tenants are given 24-hour access to an online portal they can log non- emergency issues. All calls are recorded, and recordings can be provided. Deposit Withheld for weeks… All of our deposits are logged with the Deposit Protection Scheme (DPS) at the start of every tenancy and all tenants are provided with the DPS T&Cs. We cannot withhold a deposit, but we do need to follow the correct procedures if there is a deposit dispute. Ultimately, should a dispute not be resolved, the DPS will independently adjudicate. They will charge for just about anything… The Tenant Fee Act 2019 prohibited landlords and Agents from charging tenants and since that law was introduced, we have not charged tenants any fees. If a tenant leaves a property unclean or with damages, above and beyond fair wear and tear, we will seek to recover these costs for landlords and the DPS will support these claims provided with the correct evidence. I suggest to you at Martin & Co that you all have a good long hard look at yourselves… We are not perfect but do continuously look to see how we can help more. Constructive feedback is one of the best ways to learn and adapt. Most of the points raised appear to be around communication. Communication is a two-way thing and, having re-read your review, I don’t think we should be taking advice from you. Finally, if you genuinely feel that you have reason for complaint, please click on the link below: complaints policy. You will see from here that if you aren’t in agreement following our response to a complaint you can refer it to The Property Ombudsman, and they will provide independent, impartial, free advice. Jon Sampson Director

Tenancy Reference Number 2525 – We are disappointed to read your review. We treat all of our tenants with respect and honesty whether a residential or a multiple-occupancy tenancy. When we were informed that the boiler was not working properly we had the experts visit immediately and BlueFlame confirmed that the boiler was fully functional and there were no gas leaks. We informed the Tenants that they should contact their Gas Supplier if they felt there may be something wrong with the meter as this is the correct process however, so as to assist you, we contacted the supplier on your behalf to obtain the information as to what the problem was. We were informed by British Gas that there was nothing wrong with the meter and that the issue is that not enough money has been added to the meter to pay for the gas consumed. British Gas informed us that in January only £20 was added to the meter. At this property you arrange your own utility suppliers and you need to speak to these suppliers directly if you feel your funds are being mis-allocated.

Tenancy Reference Number 2525 – We are disappointed that you feel that any member of the Martin and Co Team have been unhelpful, have had an attitude or have not carried out thorough inspections. When the tenancy started the Landlord himself offered to show you all how the boiler and other appliances in the property worked however this offer was declined as one of you had lived in the property previously. You yourself confirmed to Tom from Martin and Co that you had not informed the office of the maintenance issues and assured him you would do this so that we could get the jobs looked into. We never received the information. A 121 page initial inventory report was carried out in July 2021 and signed as approved by the Tenants. Two further inspection reports have been carried out on 29th September and 3rd December (11 and 12 pages respectively) and Tenants are invited to be present at each inspection to inform us of any issues. As mentioned when responding to Mr Angelov’s review we have listened to all our telephone recordings and re-read all emails between the Martin and Co team and the Tenants and have not found any rude, hostile or ‘belittling’ responses to the Tenants to any request what-so-ever.

Tenancy Reference Number 2525 – We believe you are sending this review in relation to this tenancy although you are not a Tenant at the property. You have suggested that the gas bills for this property are high and the boiler needs replacing. We at Martin and Co rely on the experts and we therefore arranged Blue Flame to check the boiler when it was reported to us that it was faulty. They confirmed that the boiler was fully functional and there were no gas leaks. We informed the Tenants that they should contact their Gas Supplier if they felt there may be something wrong with the meter as this is the correct process however we did contact the supplier on the Tenants behalf to obtain the information as to what the problem was. We were informed by British Gas that there was nothing wrong with the meter and that the issue is that not enough money has been added to the meter to pay for the gas consumed. British Gas informed us that in January only £20 was added to the meter and not £100 as you have voiced in your review. Tenants at this property arrange their own utility suppliers and they need to speak to these suppliers directly if they feel their funds are being mis-allocated.

Tenancy Reference Number 2525. We are disappointed that you feel that there has been a lack of communication between us and the Landlord. One of the Tenants has recently confirmed that a number of maintenance issues have not been passed on to our office and obviously if we are not informed of these issues we are not able to deal with them. We have listened to all of our telephone recordings and re-read through our emails and at no point have me or my team been rude or ‘hostile’ towards any of you. I do however have a telephone recording where one of the tenants was screaming swear words at a member of my team and can provide this if you wish. Hopefully we can get this relationship back to where it should be and get any maintenance issues dealt with once you report them.