Does anyone use Northwood Lettings

which_witch

It has taken me almost twelve months of dealing with the ombudsman after the dreadful experience of letting my house through Northwood Wrexham. They are a totally incompetent company headed by a man who tells lies and makes false promises. My house was a ruin after two and a half years and they refused to accept any responsibility. They maintained they had done nothing wrong, whilst they had actually done NOTHING at all. Except take their fee every month. If you do have the misfortune to deal with them I strongly advise you to make sure you have every little last detail in writing, no matter how trivial it may seem. My only mistake was in trusting them and accepting their word. I was therefore unable to prove many things to the ombudsman which meant that he was unable to find in my favour.

wrexhamresident

I would not recommend Northwood Wrexham if they were the last letting agents in town. My property has not been looked after during the time I have entrusted them and literally anyone has been dumped in my house in desperate attempts to earn money. Ask for them to ring you and they'll hide. I'm just coming out of the guaranteed scheme and it looks like I'll have to engage legal advice to get them to pay up what they owe me. Someone needs to tell these people that a local business succeeds on a good reputation, but that's the problem they don't know what one is!

Laurence_WMF

I was going to ask about Northwood, having received a leaflet through my door guaranteeing rent from them, even if the property is empty, if you (a landlord) use them as letting agents.

But I did a search for them on the MSE search facility first. It brought me here.

So reading this thread with a consensus that they are dire has been really helpful. Shows the value of this forum, and of doing a search before posting.

Thanks to MSE, this forum and all contributors to this thread.

Cheers,
Laurence

which_witch

I am well rid of them now, but I went through their complaints procedure finishing with the ombudsman. This involved a great deal of time in copy, ing and sending every e.mail that had passed between us and reporting every conversation we had had when they had said how they would look after things. The outcome was £150 awarded to me. The conclusion I came to was that I was too trusting and believed all they told me. My advise is if you are dealing with NORTHWOOD make sure you get everything they tell you in writing. Don't trust them.

Guest101

Worth noting that they are franchises, so you can get good as well as bad. Make sure you read everything, make sure everything s in writing!

which_witch

The NORTHWOOD agency I dealt with was in Wrexham just like the previous post from wrexhamresident.

Douglas_Small

Won't go into too many details but as a tenant our experience with Northwood South Manchester (Sale) has been very poor from the start of the tenancy all the way through.

I would not recommend anyone using them as a tenant as they show absolutely no interest in tenants' issues or problems. Once the deal is done they just want the rent to roll in.

Bosco13

I am currently renting my house out through north woods guaranteed rental scheme as I have gone overseas. Since the day tenants moved in my neighbours have been contacting to say they are awful and the house is being trashed! Funnily enough when north wood said they done an inspection they said the house is fine and there is no damage.

Can anyone give some advice as to when you contacted north wood to terminate the contract?! It says in my contract I need to give two months notice if I don't want to extend the contract, but wanted to know if anyone had bad experiences with only giving two months?

Carrot3

Me and my boyfriend rented off them for over a year and when we moved out they was a nightmare with the deposit! One week they said we would get the full amount the nect it was £30 less. After an amount was settled they told us that they would send it via cheque in the post. 2 weeks went and buy and still no sign of the cheque so I rang and enquired about it. The woman was very helpful and sympathetic in the phone and told me that it hadn't even been authorised so had to wait a further 8 days until it was credited into our account. So all in all it took 5 weeks to get the deposit back! Was not happy at all!

Guest101

Bosco13 wrote: »

I am currently renting my house out through north woods guaranteed rental scheme as I have gone overseas. Since the day tenants moved in my neighbours have been contacting to say they are awful and the house is being trashed! Funnily enough when north wood said they done an inspection they said the house is fine and there is no damage.

Can anyone give some advice as to when you contacted north wood to terminate the contract?! It says in my contract I need to give two months notice if I don't want to extend the contract, but wanted to know if anyone had bad experiences with only giving two months?

Not to criticise too much, but even with a basic knowledge of their system, and having never seen the contract; you realise northwood are your tenants? You can't cancel the contract, you must wait for the 6 or 12 months and serve notice. Even then their tenants may not leave. It could be another 6 months before you see your property.

Did you do an inventory?

They rent out to anyone when your on that scheme. Chances are the first people who came along. They even prefer benefits clients.