FineHolm letting Glasgow - DO NOT USE!!

flyingscottie81

We currently rent from this company and have been lied to repeatedly, treated with such bad attitude, ignored, and generally abused as a customer!

We have been in touch with the owner of the property we rent directly and they too have had the same treatment.

The owners are returning from abroad and have advised that they will be moving back in to the property... very sad.

FineHolm told them that they would have to send SHERIFF OFFICERS to our home to serve us with our notice.... they told the owners and us that this was a LEGAL requirement.... absolute nonsense!

The first time I questioned this, I was told it was a legal requirement, the second time I queried it I was told it was their 'policy', and the THIRD time a queried it I was told that the owner had requested it..... Hmmm I smell a rat!

We reported this conversation back to the owner who was absolutely APPALLED. FH told them that they had no choice.... and also never informed the owner that they would be charging the £200+ charge back to the owner either.

BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY.

As there is only a voluntary body (ARLA) for regulation, the only thing I can really do is try to warn as many people as possible about their behaviour, as ARLA have no power to do anything at all about this

Still awaiting a Sheriff Officer at my door.... needlessly :mad:

Has anyone had a similar experience? Or any advice?

bullet_2

Yes, although it was back in the mid to late 1990's, so maybe not relevant. Myself and my now husband were young and naive students back then and when we were told we had to pay £100 in cash as well as the months deposit we duly paid over the money. We were told it was a connection fee for Scottish Power.
Well, we kept all receipts and were told that this £100 would be refunded to us at the end of our tenancy. A few days before we were due to move out we asked about the return of this £100, a lot of money to us and were assured that we would definitely have it returned.
This is where I made the fateful mistake of finding the receipt whilst clearing and absently throwing it out. I can still remember thinking upon realisation that it didn't matter as Fineholms were trustworthy.
Of course, they held onto our £100, claiming that they had never received it, that the woman who had demanded it from us would never say such a thing and accusing us of being liars. Without the proof there was really nothing we could do.
They did, however, teach us two valuable lessons. Firstly, to keep hold of all receipts and letters proving payment of something until absolutely certain it will never be required. And secondly, to always, no matter how friendly the people might appear to be, to get every request/correspondence in writing from a company we are dealing with.

sweet4

This company are so unprofessional,we are the landlords and paying FINHOLM for full management,and all you get out of them is the tenents have rights.
The tenents are being uncoperative,in every sense of the word.Our house is also up for sale,the tenents knew this from the begining,and was making up every exscuse not to let our estate agent gain access,as the tenent also is interested in buying our property,now we need to get a survey done as we have to remorgage to buy another house,the tenent has an exscuse for everything,but we hold the keys,so we are going to have to let thetom in ourselves,also according to the estate agent they have wrecked our home and broke our tap,still waitin for a reply from FINHOLM and so it continues.

theartfullodger

Both of their "Financial Services" associate companies

FINEHOLM FINANCIAL SERVICES (EDINBURGH) LIMITED &
FINEHOLM FINANCIAL SERVICES LIMITED
SHERWOOD HOUSE
7 GLASGOW ROAD
PAISLEY
RENFREWSHIRE
PA1 3QS

are late delivering accounts to Companies House.

In my experience this is usually due to incompetence or fraudulent activity: There may of course, no doubt, be some other innocent explanation in this case...

Cheers!

Lodger

Jowo_2

theartfullodger wrote: »

Both of their "Financial Services" associate companies


are late delivering accounts to Companies House.

In my experience this is usually due to incompetence or fraudulent activity: There may of course, no doubt, be some other innocent explanation in this case...

Cheers!

Lodger

My return of my accounts to Companies House was compromised by my accountant who received all the information needed to do it in a timely way who then stopped corresponding with me and simply vanished - no response to emails, no response to phone messages, nor letters. Had to find a new accountant and submit all information from scratch - took weeks to do and therefore missed my submission date.

The OP will find the Shelter Scotland website and free phone service very helpful for finding out their rights, including the notice process.

As far as I'm aware, the Sheriff court is not invoked merely for a landlord to serve notice to their tenants but only as part of a much more advanced legal process to repossess the property and evict tenants, should tenants refuse to go after the expiry of their notice or owe significant rent arrears.

bulktrans

they are not friendly, rude staff and highly unprofessional....do not use them..

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD

Fine Home are an arrogant lot...


I think they usually supply a 'notice to quit' alongside the lease on signing the AST. I'm suprised they have invovled 'sheriff officers' when you where probably given an AT6 at the beginning of the lease.


Sheriff officers are commonly used in Scotland to issue AT6 forms particulary when a tenant won't or fails to sign for a recorded delivery notice.

Scamholm

Avoid Fineholm at all costs, I had a truly bad experience with them as well. You can find more (56!) negative reviews here: allagents.co.uk/fineholm-letting-services-ltd/

anselld

More reviews here ....
http://www.allagents.co.uk/fineholm-letting-services-ltd/

Scamholm

@ anselld: Thanks for linking!

@ all:
I hope that the google ranking of that page (allagents.co.uk) will increase, so more people get the chance to get warned. Try to post that link on as many pages as possible if you are a Fineholm victim.

theartfullodger

PROFESSIONAL_LANDLORD wrote: »

Fine Home are an arrogant lot...


I think they usually supply a 'notice to quit' alongside the lease on signing the AST. I'm suprised they have invovled 'sheriff officers' when you where probably given an AT6 at the beginning of the lease.


Sheriff officers are commonly used in Scotland to issue AT6 forms particulary when a tenant won't or fails to sign for a recorded delivery notice.

A little clarification....


Most new tenancies in Scotland are "Short Assured Tenancies" (SaT's) see
http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/getadvice/advice_topics/renting_rights/renting_from_a_private_landlord/short_assured_tenancies
- even if the tenancy states it is a SaT it also needs ..
a) to be for at least 6 months (so, say, 1st Jan to 30th June won't be a SaT as T can't be there for "at least 6 months" ..)
b) to have had an AT5 (not AT6) served prior to the tenancy being signed & witnessed - the wise LL ensures he can prove this, usually by a signature of T on a copy of AT5 dated & timed...

If LL wishes to serve notices to Tenant to p*** off (one may be an AT6 notice) then to be valid for the purposes of court action there are only two valid ways, thanks to..

...Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1907 ............. (Schedule1, s34.8)

i) Sheriff Officers in person
ii) Recorded-signed-for.

LL (or agent) can send such notices round (say) by hand or in't ordinary mail & hope tenant departs when requested (I did once, they went!!). But if Tenant decides to stay & fight it then T's lawyer would probably win the case without proof of legal serving by either recorded-signed-for or Sheriff's officers...

Cheers!!


Artful

PS so FINEHOLM are consider by some a bad idea not to be touched with a long barge pole eh?? Others may hold differing views...