Lee Reynolds was so accommodating to mine and my partners needs. He was always available to answer our questions which we really appreciated. During our time trying to find a place to rent Lee was definitely the best he seemed to really care about making sure everything was right for us.... Read more
24 days ago
Appreciate this review comes amongst a lot of 5 star reviews but two things: firstly, we would have loved to have the experiences everyone else seems to have had and secondly, our experience completely legit.
Initially Barton and Co were very personable, very keen to ingratiate themselves, presenting themselves as a tight-knit, homespun antidote to the more cavalier lettings agents that operate in the local area.
However, once we were in the communication dried up once and we rarely received acknowledgement of our emails.
Though they did replace our oven quickly when we moved in (they hadn't checked it worked before) we spent the rest of our tenancy with a radiator hanging off the wall at a 45 degree angle, amongst other issues.
We were misled as to the nature of our landlords as despite being informed they wanted a professional couple as long-term tenants to look after their property, we were asked to leave the property after a year to vacate for a student let.
We were informed we had the opportunity to extend our contract but this was unequivocally not the case, as our emails were never acknowledged and we were never advised of an alternative course of action.
I'm sure it was incompetence rather than malice, but they would not accept any culpability nor would they meet personally to discuss. I've worked in both property maintenance and communications so I found their behaviour galling.
Furthermore, this move derailed our efforts to save for a mortgage deposit as we were forced to waste it on another rental deposit.
Appreciate the above might be a bonus for many buy-to-let landlords in terms of misleading and effectively dispatching tenants when a chance to increase their profits presents itself.
But should the wind change in favour of legislation which actually protects tenants from the debilitating effects of cowboy landlords, outfits like these will be found out.... Read more
761 days ago