this agency is actually ridiculous. i paid a holding deposit…read moreon a flat and was told a gurantor of 31k would be needed, i provided that- and was then told it was incorrect and a gurantor of 37k would be needed OR two months rent would need to be paid upfront. i then provided a gurantor of 47k- and was then told i'd also need to pay 2 months rent upfront (+ deposit)....for a flat that costs 2100/month in bethnal green. bffr because of this back and forth and ridiculous change of terms i've backed out and now the agent (Nadeem) is refusing to refund my holding deposit..claiming it's out of his control and is no longer replying to my messages. They further breached the holding deposit contract right at the beginning- by putting the property back on the market AFTER i had paid the holding deposit to remove it from the market- thinking we didn't notice- and are now stating because of the contracts they cannot refund. make it make sense. stay. away. y'all have been warned

Total charlatans. Lied about the facilities of the flat, lied about lying about the flat. Never…read morefixed anything they said they would. Patrick in particular is one of the worst human beings you will ever encounter.

There are thieves! Don't trust them! They promised me a…read morestunning room with a living room and 2 bathrooms. The result was something completely different: - No hot water in the whole flat, except in the shower which had an electric machine to heat it - One bathroom didn't work - No living room - The room smelled vomit - I couldn't open the window of my room - There was a generator on the other side of the window making noise, it was so annoying I couldn't stay in the room - The agent blocked me on whatsapp since I got the keys (I am sure he knew the room was rubbish) - The other agents were really rude and didn't answer my emails and I had to come back in person to the agency 3 times All the flatmates were moving out because of all these things and they told me it has been 3 months that the bathroom hasn't worked and even if they told the agency, nothing was repaired. The agency doesn't want to give me my money back, even if all of this is not their fault, not mine! I have lost more than 700 pounds! There are plenty of agencies in London, don't take the risk to deal with them!

THIS IS A SCAM. AVOID AT ALL COSTS…read more Do not rent with either Smart Move Flatshare, LondonFox Club, LondonFox Lettings or PMC Management and Collections Ltd. It's a complete scam. They pry on naive international students who do not always understand the implications of their T&Cs. I have two French airbnb guests who are currently flat hunting and fell upon these people earlier today. Thankfully they asked me to review the contract they had signed before paying the full deposit/membership fee and have only lost 200 GBP of "reservation booking". Whatever that means. I have decided to give you the rundown here below, in the hope that this can help avoid other people from falling for the scam as well... They advertise on Spareroom and once you go and meet them it turns out the property you were looking at is no longer available. They then proceed by showing a flat, selling you the dream. The terms supposedly set out that you are a 'member' who is part of this club and can change properties at any time seamlessly. The contract clearly says that even after having paid your deposit, your membership fee and monthly contribution that you are not officially a member until your application is accepted by management. Clause 4, of their next steps states: "payment of the joining fee, membership fee and first monthly contribution fee are required before signing the Payment Agreement". It also states that "acceptance of the membership fee does not imply a membership will be created. A membership will only be created when this application had been accepted by the club management and the membership and payment agreement have been signed by all parties." My guests were pressured to sign as soon as possible as "his boss" was calling and other people were putting down an offer. He basically didn't let them read the contract. Complete scoundrel. I will be pressing charges and filing a lawsuit on their behalf.

I rented a lovely property through Arlington Estates for 3+ years whilst living in Islington. The…read moreteam were incredibly helpful and efficient, always on hand for any question or query. The property was a great location and superbly maintained. Would highly recommend to anyone!

Really smooth experience from start to finish. The team was friendly, quick to respond, and super…read morehelpful throughout the whole process. Would definitely recommend!

It might sound anomalous given the straight-laced reputation of most estate agents, but Peach…read moreProperties is probably the quirkiest real estate agency in the neighbourhood, being housed in an ex-public toilet at the Shoreditch end of Bethnal Green Road. I rented my first Shoreditch flat through this relatively small but efficient and knowledgeable real estate agency and would definitely use Peach again. The staff have generally either lived in the area or do so at present and are particularly knowledgeable about Shoreditch's Victorian built Boundary Estate where many local residents rent one and two bed properties. All in all a charming little real estate agency that goes some way to dispelling the myth that all real estate agents are cowboys.

Finally, an honest estate agent who didn't laugh at my budget and try to coerce me in to spending…read moremore money on ugly apartments in Hackney. The two men that work at Peach are so helpful and a complete breath of fresh air, after dealing with local agencies such as Foxtons up in Old Street. It is a small, local estate agent that knows the surrounding areas extremely well. I would thoroughly recommend using them, or at least speaking to them before renting a property in the area, as they gave us a fair bit of useful information.

This is the worst Estate Agent anyone can let from. The company and its staff members are so…read moreterrible that it feels appalling to start to describe my experience with them. I let a property through them for 21 months and it was a terrible experience from the word go. There was an incident where their staff member started to record my partner in the property while she was sleeping and not properly clothed without our consent or knowledge. I reported this and I was told the pictures didn't have any face in it. We were constantly harassed for viewing via calls, messages, Whatsapp by several people at different times after we requested to leave the property. All maintenance complains were discarded and nothing was ever done except blame us for any issues. I have dealt with a lot of EAs and I can tell you Foxton was and is the worst of them all. If I can take back my 1 star I would without blinking.

I would not recommend letting a flat via Foxtons Islington…read more After a hurried ten-minute inspection I was approved and moved into a basement flat with a faulty boiler, broken light switches, broken kitchen cabinets, missing window locks, missing appliances (dishwasher) and a number of other issues. When I raised these with the landlord after moving in he informed me that none would be addressed other than the boiler, which would have a service (required under law). The landlord also admitted in writing that previous tenants had also complained about the other maintenance issues, but that they would not be seen to. Foxtons facilitated a false transaction, knowing of the defects in the property and then stood back, silent. Now I am stuck. I should have inspected every nook and cranny, but I have never experienced this kind of dishonesty before. Don't rent from Foxtons.

I came to Stirling Ackroyd when looking for a property to by in the area. They were amongst a…read moreclutch of different agents I decided to use when looking. Ultimately, and luckily for them, they came up trumps and found me the property I live in today as I write this review. Overall i was happy with the service, they weren't pushy and although they insisted on showing properties well in excess of the ball park budget, they ended up coming on budget. All that being said, the only blotch on their performance came when handling our offer. It seems 'someone else was interested' and they took the offer process to sealed bids. Having watched many a property programme I knew it was a waste of time trying to outbid the asking price, so I stuck to my guns. We then supposedly lost the property. After a couple of weeks they came back and said the new purchaser was taking their sweet time and were we still interested and willing to match the other buyers price. Of course I told them it wasn't worth the paper it was offered on and that, at best I would match my initial bid. Cheeky sods! Anyhow, all round they are ok, and I would likely use them again and recommend them.

I must say this is the first time I have used an estate agent who knows what they are doing. Jay is…read morea life saver as I've had my property on the market for two months now with another agent, Lockwoods let my two bedroom flat in one week. Jay was fantastic to work with always keeping a close relationship. I was also regularly updated in relation to the progress. There's also a chap called Harry there who was very time efficient and booked viewings at time slots that fitted me really well so that I could also attend the viewings. The tenants Lockwoods have sourced for me are wonderful. Even now the property has been let Jay still contacts me regularly to see if I need any assistance or if there's anything he could help me with. That's one thing that is important to me is to finish a job the way you start it. Most other agents tend to flatter you at the beginning but as soon as the property is let you don't hear from them again whereas I do not have that problem with Lockwoods. The services they offer are clear cut and outstanding from initial phone call to the final let. Fantastic Job Guys Thanks Again Lockwoods Kind Regards Jimmy Chi

From the owner: It's true, we really do love it. But it's not just our passion for homes, sales and lettings that…read moremakes our service special. It's the fact that we always aim to deliver an outstanding customer experience. We believe it doesn't matter where you are or what your background in property may be; experience has shown us that there is always something new to learn or do better. For us, this means a dedication to new learning with regular staff training and an investment in the very latest technology, ensuring we are always ahead in this fast paced market. This provides you with a dedicated team in which individuals have the knowledge, skills and desire to excel personally and professionally - keeping you informed of the latest legislation and up to speed with market trends. And, of course getting you the best possible deal as an agent, all at highly competitive rates. At Lockwoods, it's all part of the service.

We have been with Victorstone for quite a few years now. For more than a year now, Victorstone has…read morebeen delaying all our rental payments. We only get payments once every 2-3 months, without any explanation from anybody. We are paying a large monthly fee for full property management, and not only do they ignore our calls and emails, they are also extremely rude over the phone when we manage to get to them. They are passing us on from one manager to another, hanging up the phone on us when in real frustration we are trying to explain the situation, and never get back to us with a formal written response as we have repeatedly requested. When calling their offices, you can never get to anybody from either property management or the accounts department, they only answer phone calls on letting or sales, and then they pass on the calls to somebody else who is equally unaware of the issue your are trying to discuss. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

Wish had an option to rate zero stars to them…read more Eversince the day I moved into the house managed by Victorstone, I have faced nothing but problems, humiliation and stress! Just highlighting some keys points: 1. Gave me my room in a complete hacked apart situation, photo attached. After a week of complaining nobody came to clean i had to remove all the stuff. Gave me a broken bed + broken wardrobe + filthy room + no electric in the room + a disgusting leak ( which were never fixed ) 2. The staff is very rude and their manager, Leona, the manager is probably one of the rudest person I have ever come across. \ 3. The staff retention is poor- I have lost count the number of people who quit their job at Victorstone, not only this, the staff who came home and dissed about the company itself, speaks volume about the culture 4. The communication is poor and probably nobody has any idea what's going on and how to approach and tackle problematic issues and situations.On my contract it said- its bill all included however, it wasn't. The tenants had to get involved and it was a huge fuss! 5. The contact is a meaningless piece of paper. Whatever they state of false. My deposit is DPA protected, however, when i shared my contract - the manager recklessly said that is not right. and other parts of the contract like cleaning, maintenance, witholding of payment - was all false. So, whatever they mention on the contract is False. 6. 9 people moved out of the house in 12 months, because of this shitty agency and how they treated us. I am investing my time to write this review clearly states this is meaningful. I am sharing my experience so that nobody has to go through the trauma and humiliation that i had to go through this agency. I have no heard a single good word about them from any of the customers i know, I have no idea if these review are legitimate here!! Please avoid this agency at all cost.

Ok, now I've had some time to reflect on my year at Urbanest Hoxton. It really was a 5-star…read moreexperience for me and totally worth the price. Also, having friends who have lived at other privately owned student halls, I can definitely say that this company is special in the way it treats its residents: as real tenants and customers, NOT just students to be taken advantage of. While there weren't too many other Americans in the building, I made many other great friends of Canadian, Swiss, and English origins. No, they aren't going to make them for you, but its there if you want it. And being a bit older (27 at the time), I still felt comfortable even though many students were undergrads. Excellently appointed rooms-- great showers/bathrooms, well-built furniture, under floor heating. Great, personable staff (tip: be nice to them and they will repay the favor). Fabulous location. Free bikes and bike storage. Laundry always worked and was a reasonable price. SUPER fast internet at all times. When things broke, I actively and promptly saw people trying to fix them. My only con: Sure, some of the other residents were rich, spoiled, douche-bags who have millions of servants at their home and don't know how to bathe themselves or put their garbage in the bin properly. But really, that's my only complaint. And I found cool people to make up for them, so whatever.

I lived at Urbanest for two years, and by the end of my time there it really did feel like home…read more(which I think is a huge achievement for a student residence because I think some are at risk of feeling a bit like a hotel). There a few things in particular that are worth highlighting: 1) Cosmopolitan Community. From day one the social scene at Urbanest was fantastic, and I made some wonderful friends who I hope will be for life (including my now husband!). Moving to London can be a bit daunting, but the house parties and activities organised by the building made it really easy to integrate. It was great making friends with people from so many different backgrounds. 4 years on I still count some of the people I met at Urbanest as my nearest and dearest. When we get together we still reminisce about our time at Urbanest! We had some serious laughs. 2) The Staff. I cannot praise the staff at Urbanest enough. They are professional but also highly approachable. If ever I had a problem with the flat or some kind of issue they would always fix it. Furthermore, they're just really nice people and actually care about the residents' pastoral needs as well. I remember quite a few times when I'd had a really bad day I'd stop at chat with whoever was on reception and they would really take an interest in what was going on in my life. They're also flexible - I've heard some horror stories from other friends living in private residences where the building seems to be run like a prison! This is certainly not the case at Urbanest. 3) Location and Building. I don't think I need to say much about the building - it's as fab as it looks on the website. True, the rooms are not huge, but the shelving and cupboards are done quite cleverly so you actually have quite a lot of space to put stuff. And I have a LOT of stuff and I happily managed for 2 years! Plus I would really recommend making use of the communal spaces (especially the study room where you'll nearly always find someone else for moral support... particularly if you're pulling a dreaded all nighter..). As for location, well Shoreditch and the surrounding areas are fantastic for students! There are great bars, cheapish places to eat etc. And I always felt safe walking home at night even by myself, which as a girl living in London was really important to me! I wouldn't hesitate in recommending Urbanest to anyone. It was a fantastic two years.