1st Sep 2024 (17 days ago)
As a landlord Thornley Groves cost me stress, money, and good tenants. For my tenants they caused unnecessary stress by literally not responding to their issues and causing them to live in unsafe conditions due to their negligence. The summary is - avoid Thornley Groves at all costs; their glossy sales pitch hides shockingly poor service levels once on contract, and a disregard for the issues their ineffectiveness causes to people's lives.
More details below if you need further evidence…
I decided to let my house out when leaving Manchester, and chose Thornley groves because their sales person was able to answer all my queries, and put my mind at ease with the service they offered. The issues started within the first few weeks of the property being let. The tenants asked for 3 skylights in the kitchen to be cleaned. Thornley Groves quoted me £1,750 to clean them (CLEAN….not replace). After several conversations where they insisted this was the market rate, I was forced to find and book my own window cleaner for £100 for the whole house.
The problems then followed when a storm hit Manchester, affecting the roof. The tenants (who had a newborn baby) reported a leak and Thornley Groves asked how I wanted it dealt. I said repair as soon as possible and gave permission to spend what was required. 2 MONTHS later they called back and asked me to approve the repair, for which I thought they had already dealt with. Unnecessary damage caused, and stress for the tenant, who had called them repeatedly about the issue and Thornley Groves had resorted to putting the phone down on them.
A few months later and the tenant reported a pinhole pipe leak. Thornley Groves sent round 2 contractors to the same job and I was double charged. When I challenged why I'd paid for the same job twice they had no solution other than to chase the contractor that didn't do the work for a refund. That refund took nearly a year to be paid back to me, long after I'd terminated my relationship with TG, and I only received 50%. I had to chase them constantly to get anywhere.
There was then a mould issue in one of the bedrooms. The tenants had a young family and were using the 2nd bedroom far more than I used to. A mould issue grew and they reported it. TG didn't do anything about it. The tenants repeatedly called the TG and they simply put the phone down on them, and closed their online requests without resolution. I found out about the issue because after months of their children sleeping in the same bedroom as them (to avoid the bedroom with mould) they talked to the neighbour, who contacted me. I was then able to communicate with the tenant directly, and get the issue sorted in a matter of days. The contractor I used had also worked with TG, and he said they always have to quote more when working with TG due to the uncertainty they bring to the job.
The real icing on the cake came when I took back control of the property. I went in myself to inspect it, and arranged for my own boiler service, using my neighbours friend who had looked after their boiler for 20 years. He reported that someone had broken an internal boiler clip, rendering the boiler unsafe. This was a 1 year old boiler, and the only person who had accessed the inside of it since installation was the boilerman from Thornley Groves. The poor tenants were living in an unsafe environment due to their negligence, and weren't even aware of it.
It disgusts me how the lettings team treated the tenants. They were a young family who were so worn down by the experience they vacated as soon as their contract ended. From a landlords perspective I spent more time chasing their incompetent actions or inactions than I would have if I had just managed it all myself.
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