AFTER LEAVING THE CASH DESK NO MISTAKES ARE BEING RECOGNISED
Having lived in England for almost 10 years and having changed several houses and dealt with plenty of agents I can firmly affirm that I was incredibly surprised by the level of unprofessionalism and ruthlessness of these people.
One nice afternoon we met Ernest in the role of the sweet and kind agent in order to show us a flat to rent in a quiet location where in the flat downstairs was living the landlady who - according to his words - was a very warm hearted old woman. Unfortunately, I later understood that Northfields had instructed her not to appear to us for reasons that will be later explained although she was there at that moment. However, he insisted that we were going to be doing great with her and she would never bother us. The latter was really important to me so I asked him several times. As well he confirmed the online ad, that the monthly rent was with all bills included.
After 1-2 days of thought we decided with my girlfriend to apply. In the meantime before signing the contract during our communications I was asked by Ernest 4 different times to leave him a good feedback in google maps because "he may win a trip to Lisbon from his company" (that's why his name is mentioned in some other reviews. To be honest at that time all was looking great and I could have done the same with the other people here but I found it more normal to wait for the tenancy to start, so I explained it to him).
The time was limited and when they sent us the contract was when we realized that our security deposit will not be protected by a government scheme but be kept by the landlady although we had already sent it to them. They never explained us in-depth these unique circumstances. The Google maps feedback seemed definitely much more important.
And the 2nd day of the tenancy was when the problems started and haven't stopped since. The landlady who is holding the security deposit started approaching us on a daily basis claiming that Northfields fooled her and that we have to be paying her the bills for our flat and the council tax.
After a few days I called Northfields to report it. They assured me they will "take it on them". They would call her in order to arrange any misunderstanding, explain to her that we agreed rent with bills included, that's what the contract writes and make her stop.
Due to the fact that they lied and never called she kept harassing us. That's when we knew we had to formally escalate it to Northfields. After sending an email to everybody in the "team" we went to the office to have a chat. At first Ernest came to us and at least had the courtesy to admit that they won't bother doing anything because they don't manage the property, a fact that hadn't been explained to us earlier. We didn't know that after the signing of the contract we would have to deal about everything with a lady we had never met before and didn't know how she was.
But even before finishing his words Charmaine Grant had approached us full of empathetic facial expressions. And she relieved us by claiming that she had already started discussing the issue with their lawyers and they would soon send to the landlady a formal letter while they would of course let us know. That looked fine so we left satisfied.
After two weeks of no contact I was convinced that again they did 0. So I took the initiative to contact Charmaine Grant who confirmed it, they wouldn't bother moving even their finger because it's not their responsibility.
It was unbelievable, this lady looked us in the eye and lied so profoundly! And she didn't even let us know that she would take her word back. Imagine that she is also, supposed to be a professional who was paid £300 and guaranteed to help us find a nice place to live with quiet enjoyment. She could have at least been straight from the beginning and admit what their behavior was proving, that there wasn't anything more to gain from us so it makes no difference if we live or die.
After feeling so disgusted I knew I had to go to other services such as the CAB, shelter, council and so on. This is what I have been doing for most of the time since. It has been such a stressful situation and we have faced so many issues like unlocking the door and entering into our flat with no notice at times we were present and many others that can't be disclosed here while we were waiting for the contract to finish. All because of this bad afternoon that we viewed a house from this agency...
As well it is even more disappointing that Northfields knew in the first place what they were putting us into, that's why at some point later even admitted that they were meeting the landlady in pairs to have a witness as she was keeping changing her story all the time.
It was crystal clear that they took the money and then they started "whistling ignorantly" as we say in Greece. (We had paid some months in advance). How much more unprofessional can it be? read more