Does anyone use Northwood Lettings

PeterLWilson

Not had any experience with them, but looking at their Yelp reviews they have a one star review that says they are terrible, and then two additional five star reviews that were both left on the same day, and both from accounts that have not left reviews for any other companies apart from Northwood. Hmmmmmm... pretty suspicious.

ben4911

The bullying tactics used by Daniel Harris of Northwood, Sale, are nothing short of obscene. Putting rent up 3 days before signing a contract of renewal with no notice, and threatening to evict by Monday (this was on a Friday) if the increased rent wasn't agreed to and a new contract signed, at the standard 'admin fee' of £100 to sign a generic contract. The visit to the property was conducted by the branch owner/manager, who proceeded to take photographs so he can market the property when the eviction goes ahead if the rent increase is not agreed. Raising his voice, pointing and other such school yard tactics to gain his commission. The whole process was downright disgraceful, with no apology. Following the complaints procedure it went directly to the manager, whom was of course the problem, with no other course of redress but the ombudsman, who now phones despite being advised of email only because of his intimidation tactics. Avoid this company at all costs, both as a tenant or a renter.

Guest101

ben4911 wrote: »

The bullying tactics used by Daniel Harris of Northwood, Sale, are nothing short of obscene. Putting rent up 3 days before signing a contract of renewal with no notice, and threatening to evict by Monday (this was on a Friday) if the increased rent wasn't agreed to and a new contract signed, at the standard 'admin fee' of £100 to sign a generic contract. The visit to the property was conducted by the branch owner/manager, who proceeded to take photographs so he can market the property when the eviction goes ahead if the rent increase is not agreed. Raising his voice, pointing and other such school yard tactics to gain his commission. The whole process was downright disgraceful, with no apology. Following the complaints procedure it went directly to the manager, whom was of course the problem, with no other course of redress but the ombudsman, who now phones despite being advised of email only because of his intimidation tactics. Avoid this company at all costs, both as a tenant or a renter.

Or learn your rights? Just saying.

wantonnoodle

To be honest, I'm in the process of buying a house, after having rented in the Sale and Altrincham areas for 10 years. Its not just the rental side of Northwood I would avoid, I really disliked the experience of viewing houses to buy which were on the market with them. They were the most obnoxious, unhelpful agents we have dealt with (and in the 6 months of house searches we've met most of the agents in the area). They seemed to be unwilling to book viewings, and when they did, would give an appointment that was worded to all intents and purposes like a one to one viewing with the agent, but when you turned up you found that it was a full open house with 20 other buyers there. They were just an unpleasant bunch of people and it put us off viewing a couple of houses we were interested in, just because we couldn't face the hassle of dealing with them.

arissarazul

Have heard bad things about this agent, negative reviews scattered all over the internet.

Anyone know any really good estate agents who guarantee rent in London? Northwood don't really cover my area, not that I would use them anyway.

I've also posted this on the other thread too, sorry for double post.

Pixie5740

arissarazul wrote: »

Have heard bad things about this agent, negative reviews scattered all over the internet.

Anyone know any really good estate agents who guarantee rent in London? Northwood don't really cover my area, not that I would use them anyway.

I've also posted this on the other thread too, sorry for double post.

Do you really need the rent to be guaranteed? Especially in an area with high demand for rental properties.

The issue with most, if not all, of these rent guarantee schemes is that you have let the property on a commercial (so not an AST) basis to the letting agency and then they sublet the property to whoever to minimise voids and keep the money flowing in. Why not be MSE about it and manage the let yourself?

paulnorthwood

We made the mistake of renting a flat and Northwood Warminster were the agents managing the property. From the get go they were totally unflexible and difficult. Although it was agreed that the flat would be cleaned before we move into the flat when we received the keys the flat had not been cleaned. I showed the person doing the check in for us that you could run your finger anywhere from table top to kitchen sinks and it was still covered in dust. There were cobwebs on with dead flies hanging on the windows and dead insect in kitchen cabinets. All they could tell us is that they will take note of it and at the end of the lease when we return the keys they we can return the property back to them in the same condition. We had to accept the property since we had already signed the contract.
We had loads of problems with the property from ceilings to malfunctioning fire alarms that go off every so many days. To top it all there was an old washing maching which stopped working with our clothes stuck in the machine. This was perhaps the oldest washing machine I ever saw and still when we contacted them about it, we had to wait for several days before a repairman could come over to tell us what was obvious that the washing machine needed to be replaed. They finally ordered a new washing maching and it took them about 3 weeks to replace the washing machine. Obviously they chose the cheapest shop possible and the cheapest and oldest replacement washing machine possible. Just think about not washing any clothes for 3 weeks. Yes, it sounds terrible and we ended up with heaps of dirty clothes. But Northwood never took any responsibility and was as unhelpful, to say the least, as they always are.
So my strong suggestion would be to avoid Nothwood at all cost and don't let them trick you into signing a deal with them or through them. Stay away from Northwood. They will reveal their true face once you have signed the contact and when you need them to hold up their end of the bargain.

Bluebell1000

Thank you all for an interesting and useful thread. I am a landlord, currently dealing with this company as they have taken over a local letting agency (who we had a management contract with), and was wondering about others experiences of them. :eek:

westernpromise

They sound great!!

johnjoesmith73

I know this is an old thread but I'm just wondering if anyone could offer a little advice?

I've been using Northwood Guaranteed Rent for over 5 years now but the 12 months contract I had with them has spilt into the 2-month rolling contract they offer for the last couple of years now.

They recently got in touch to say that the tenant they have in is being very unresponsive with them and hasn't kept the upkeep to the garden. The lean-to conservatory also shows signs of age and wood rot, so I've said I'm happy to sort a UPVC refurb as this was something I knew would need doing sooner or later anyway.

They've since said I need to serve 2 months notice to the tenant as she's being unaccommodating and would need to evict her before I would be able to get this work done. They've also said my payments would be suspended until the work was finished and the property tenanted again.

The Guaranteed Rent scheme takes over 35% of the rent earned on the property so I would have thought I'd be covered in such circumstances. Does anyone know what my rights are in this situation?!? Any advice with regards to this particular scheme would be very gratefully received!