Letting agents in Cardiff

runciblespoon

Does anyone have any (dis)recommendations for rentals agents in Cardiff, from the perspective of a tenant? In particular any opinions on Thomas George?

Cheers

backtowales

Allen & Harris Pontcanna and Darlows Albany Road were useless.

R. H. Steel were ok, but we eventually rented from Abode in pontcanna. They were very helpful and got references etc very quickly.

Not had any dealings with Thomas George sorry.

CarolynH

Been a few years since I rented - seem to remember that Mead were very disorganised and quite unhelpful. Kelvin Francis were not bad.

PasturesNew

I used Darlows, Albany Road. They didn't keep me informed.

When I looked round and said "yes" the guy forced me to put a date on the form for moving in - said he couldn't complete the form without a date.... then I handed my notice in where I was and the date was unachievable as the landlord wanted to do things to the property. I didn't move in until 6 days later! All that time I was phoning them twice a day and they couldn't give me ANY clue what was happening/when.

I found most of them were pretty slow - taking up to 1-2 weeks to even get a viewing.

At the end of the day you have to go with whichever one has the property you want though. So not much choice in the end.

I did have one viewing with Thomas George. Took ages to get that viewing though.

Dan29

Avoid CPS in my experience. They're also mentioned in this thread:

CPS are totally useless. For the first three weeks we had no hot water of flushing toilet (lucky we knew the nieghbours!), the garage door was broken so our car was sat on a busy street for weeks and had both wing-mirrors smashed off (at a cost of £200 EACH to replace) and when they sent someone around to fix the door it was an agent with a hammer and screwdriver - no need to say that it didnt work and a locksmith was called and the lovely CPS were charged

jiblets1

I had a terrible time with Thomas George in Cardiff myself. They were fine while we were actually in the rented accomodation, but when we left they charged us for cleaning all the carpets and painting all the walls. There were no stains on them, they were only grubby. I think slightly grubby carpets and walls are fair wear and tear after 2 years in a residence! They refused to give us the money back, even after we proved to them that they had broken the code of conduct they had signed up to in several ways, and wouldn't return it even after their regulatory body got involved. In the end we had to wait over a year and for the body above their first regulatory body to sort it out. They refused to communicate clearly and promptly with us throughout the whole debarcle, and they completely let us down.

Seems Kelvin Harris and R.H. Steele are winning this race with "not bad". Isn't it awful that there are so many rental companies around that don't provide the service they should.

Dan29

backtowales wrote: »

R. H. Steel were ok

"Not being funny but" in case anyone tries to contact them it's RH Seel

They were the managing agents for Adventurers Quay in the Bay when I owned a flat there a few years ago and they were fine in that role.

CarolynH

Dan29 wrote: »

"Not being funny but" in case anyone tries to contact them it's RH Seel

Yeah, it's Kelvin FRANCIS as well

jiblets1

Ha ha, the good ones will never be found....

htjo

A num,ber of years ago we rented through Seels - thought the renting part was okay actually getting stuff done to the property was a bit of a nightmare. Their builders didn't understand why a draining board draining on to the floor was unacceptable and why did we complain about water from an upstairs flat pooring down our wall? It all left a bitter taste in our mouths, but it did mean we moved on pretty quickly.

all the best

UnlikelyButTrue

Avoid Keylet like the plague- by far and away the worst service i've ever, ever experienced, lettings or otherwise.
we had 6 months of hassle from them because we (THEY) has 'lost' our rent- very aggressive letters, phone calls and general nastiness.
hth!