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Martin & Co - Gosforth Lettings Agency
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ahrimaniac
Posts: 714 Forumite
Jesus wept almighty.
Bit of a rant here. If you're thinking about moving home in the North East, stay well clear of this company. I've had nothing but bad experiences with them and am loathe to recommend. Of course, this is just my personal experience.
We have been renting an apartment on the Quayside for three years, always paid rent, always paid bills, always paid Council Tax, and never any complaints. We kept the place tidy and always met appointments/inspection.
However, they have not kept their side of things. We reported a severe mould problem in the flat in November 2008 - and since then, they have fobbed us off and not done a bloody thing to solve it, resulting in mould growing all over the bathroom and ruining the lino. We treated and repainted the walls from our own pocket but the problem was under the bath, in the walls, all sorts. The extractor fan broke but they did not replace it. Upshot is, we were paying £625 a month for a flat with a mouldy bathroom. With hindsight, I wish we had taken it further and got EH involved.
Now, we've come to move out and agreed an early tenancy release with the landlady to pay half-rent until the next tenant moves in or our original tenancy ended. We cleaned the flat, removed our possessions and made the place look good. We have also arranged for Merry Maid to deep-clean the flat, oven etc this week. This will cost us £130 but it's easier to pay that then to deal with the ineptitude of the staff at Martin & Co.
We had our pre-checkout inspection (!) on Thursday and you could not belive the am-dram performances from the lady inspecting. To summarise:
They're just horrendous to deal with - crap repairs, extremely poor customer service (save for one exception), charging for repairs that were never done and abysmal at remembering what they've said.
Oh, and they also said I can't complain about their behaviour to anybody but them! This can't be true. I'm going to post this in the tenants bit too, but just wanted a rant! BAH.
Bit of a rant here. If you're thinking about moving home in the North East, stay well clear of this company. I've had nothing but bad experiences with them and am loathe to recommend. Of course, this is just my personal experience.
We have been renting an apartment on the Quayside for three years, always paid rent, always paid bills, always paid Council Tax, and never any complaints. We kept the place tidy and always met appointments/inspection.
However, they have not kept their side of things. We reported a severe mould problem in the flat in November 2008 - and since then, they have fobbed us off and not done a bloody thing to solve it, resulting in mould growing all over the bathroom and ruining the lino. We treated and repainted the walls from our own pocket but the problem was under the bath, in the walls, all sorts. The extractor fan broke but they did not replace it. Upshot is, we were paying £625 a month for a flat with a mouldy bathroom. With hindsight, I wish we had taken it further and got EH involved.
Now, we've come to move out and agreed an early tenancy release with the landlady to pay half-rent until the next tenant moves in or our original tenancy ended. We cleaned the flat, removed our possessions and made the place look good. We have also arranged for Merry Maid to deep-clean the flat, oven etc this week. This will cost us £130 but it's easier to pay that then to deal with the ineptitude of the staff at Martin & Co.
We had our pre-checkout inspection (!) on Thursday and you could not belive the am-dram performances from the lady inspecting. To summarise:
- shouting (!) that the oven was the dirtiest she'd ever seen - it isn't, we cleaned it with Mr Muscle AND told her we're getting it done
- exclaiming that we'll need to replace the cutlery as there is a spoon missing, then telling us it'll cost £8 (for a spoon)
- saying the bathroom was filthy whilst deftly ignoring the fact that they've rendered it unhabitable by doing SFA to sort the mould out
- stating that we were thrown out of our old flat for not paying rent (we've actually moved back into the flat we lived in before the Quayside so not sure the landlady would have us back if she'd thrown us out!)
- called my partner a liar by saying there were six plates despite the signed inventory we have four...
- said we had treated the flat with contempt - despite all of our monthly inspections coming back saying the flat was spotless
- saying we had to replace a full king size bed because one of the slats has broken despite us pointing out you can buy them online for like 60p
They're just horrendous to deal with - crap repairs, extremely poor customer service (save for one exception), charging for repairs that were never done and abysmal at remembering what they've said.
Oh, and they also said I can't complain about their behaviour to anybody but them! This can't be true. I'm going to post this in the tenants bit too, but just wanted a rant! BAH.
Comping wins this month: 2 x business class flights anywhere we like | Horse vitamins (!) | New kettle | Motorcycling prints | Signed LPs | Thanks to all!
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Comments
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From their website
At Martin & Co, our customers are important to us, and we believe you have the right to a fair, swift and courteous service at all times. We aim to deal with your concerns promptly, effectively and in a positive manner.
If you feel the matter remains unresolved you need to address your complaint to the Proprietor, who will conduct an investigation and respond with a final viewpoint. In the unlikely event that you remain dissatisfied then you may refer the matter to The Property Ombudsman (TPO) at the following address:
The Property Ombudsman (TPO)
Beckett House
4 Bridge Street
Salisbury
Wiltshire SP1 2LX
Tel: 01722 333306
http://www.tpos.co.uk/index.htm0 -
I would contact your local council. Environmental Health, Private Sector Housing and tell them your problems. Also see if they are with any kind of trade body or that scheme that looks after the deposit independent of you both. I would never ever pay for any repairs if its not your fault in a rented place because firstly its the landlord responsiblity and secondly if the repairs aren't of a high standard or the same as when you moved in they could charge you for the work to be done again.0
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Try posting on this thread as well as their are plenty of professional landlords and other property professionals who may be able to help
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.html?f=160 -
Also, I believe that Martin & Co are a franchise-based operation as well, kind of like McDonalds/Burger King/KFC, but estate agents, if you see what I mean.0
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I'm am not at all surprised by this post.
I (regrettably) am renting with them and they are THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE HAD THE MISFORTUNE TO DEAL WITH!
AVOID!
Different branch mind you - however they have no concept of "customer service" and have to be actively harassed to do anything.
Can't wait till my lease expires as I will be leaving and never renting with them ever again!
OP - Having had similar issues I suspect they will put your problems down to "The third party" that does their inventories. Like you are responsible for the third party they hired :rolleyes: ."Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" (Douglas Adams)0 -
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Ha - brilliant. And it's all true, that's the problem.
They are now making repairs to the bathroom since we 'have moved out' - their words, not mine. They've also scheduled the repairs to occur on the date they know we have our cleaners doing the deep-clean. I can't help but feel they're trying to put as many obstacles in our path.
But, we've always been pleasant to deal with. Although, one of their more senior members did call up, shout at me down the phone and then hang up. So that was charming!Comping wins this month: 2 x business class flights anywhere we like | Horse vitamins (!) | New kettle | Motorcycling prints | Signed LPs | Thanks to all!0 -
I'm still too angry to vent about my numerous problems with them!
However I am delighted that this thread appears high on a google search. I hope that word of mouth will spread and have a negative impact on their business."Isn't it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?" (Douglas Adams)0 -
As its appearing high on google what normally happens is new members will join and place posts praising Martin & Co Gosforth.
If you land on this page after googling Martin & Co Gosforth please take the time to read the thread from the top so you can see the issues the OP has with this company0 -
Oooh PinkLipgloss, spill the beans!Comping wins this month: 2 x business class flights anywhere we like | Horse vitamins (!) | New kettle | Motorcycling prints | Signed LPs | Thanks to all!0
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