Are B & K Estates Right For You?

Marlie was fantastic at showing us a variety of properties within our budget. She was really knowledge about the knowledgeable and the tooting area. Couldn't ask for much more from an estate agent

We rented a property through BM in May 2017, when we viewed the property it was not clean and we were told the property will be professionally cleaned before our move in date. When we moved in the property was still in the same state and we emailed BM letting them know that we will not pay for a professional clean when we move out. During our tenancy (that finished Nov 2019) we had the following issues: 1- Simple repairs such as fixing a sink tap or a toilet seat or a dishwasher or a toilet flush took over 3 months. Our last repairs which was a toilet tap was reported 4 months before our move out date and it was still not fixed by the time we moved out, multiple emails were sent to them but they didnt care. 2- We were only given 5-6 hours notice before viewings of the flat, most of the times we were at work and trusted state agents to show the property to future tenants. On 2 occasions the agent named KASHAF left the door of our property unlocked, luckily nothing was stolen. 3- We received our check out inventory 6 days after we moved out and most of the things were left in good condition (as per inventory), we were told that we will have to pay for the professional clean which i refused to as when we moved in flat was not professionally cleaned. I forwarded the email correspondence i had with the agent at the time we moved in. 4- A week later we received an email from Eleanor Baker stating that landlord will be claiming the whole deposit for the damaged caused to the sofa and wardrobe, when i told her that there was no damage when we handed the keys and there is no damage mentioned in the check out inventory and asked her how all of a sudden they are making this unsubstantial claim, her reply was “i will pass this on to landlords but i dont think they will drop the claim”. She totally ignored the check out inventory report carried out by a third party and stopped replying to my emails. 5- i called PJ several times and he told me several times that he will catch up on this situation and get back to me but its been 10 days now i am waiting for someone to tell me when am i going to get my deposit back. I thought renting a property through estate agents makes your life easy but this has been terrible experience and I would never ever use BM or any high street estate agents as they all put on a professional face but don’t care about people and their money.

Very pleased with the service we received from KFH Balham. Leigh and Chris were highly professional and dedicated on getting our sale through as quickly as possible. Would highly recommend.

Paul, the manager, and other team members failed to manage our expectations at every level. It began when we challenged the suggested asking price which we thought it was far too high. They insisted it was right, if not a bit low. We explained that the last thing we wanted was to put it on for too much, get excited, then have to come down in price and be disappointed. They said the market in Balham was awesome and talked of sealed bids and we should probably push for even more. We pressed the point but they insisted they had buyers waiting in the wings. After hardly any viewings and a failure of all these buyers to materialise they suggested we drop the price by £30k exactly the scenario we had said we wanted to avoid at outset, then tried to blame us! They managed to hit pretty much every negative cliche you can attribute to Estate agents. We changed to Purple Bricks, saved 5k in fees and sold to the FIRST person who viewed. My suggestion is you avoid KFH.

Myself and my housemates had a great experience renting through Knight Frank, Alice and the rest of the team were fantastic and ensured that everything went smoothly. From putting in the offer to getting all our documents sorted and signed, we received clear and useful emails throughout and always received quick replies to any questions we had which was very reassuring. We are now all moved in and very happy with the whole process, a big thank you to Alice!

Knight Frank’s communication was poor and often they wouldn’t update us even post a viewing. In 4 months, they had just 21 viewings which resulted in 1 offer well below asking price - we have had better results with Marsh & Parsons in just 3 weeks!

Very positive experience, we sold and bought through KFH, they were consultative throughout and managed expectations along the way. Always available and contactable (after hours and at weekends) and looked after us as clients and buyers. Would highly recommend their services and expertise / knowledge of the market. Lloyd in particular was brilliant getting everything over the line for us and helped drive momentum - thank you.

It's been two months since we've moved out and we still didn't get the deposit back!!! Blood-sucking leaches!! Think 3 times before renting from them

Michael was a joy to work with. He understood our brief, found us the perfect flat within a number of days and went above and beyond to help make the process as smooth and stress-free as possible. I'd recommend him to anyone.

If I could go back in time, I would avoid signing a rental contract with Jacksons Tooting. I have had a multitude of issues (damp/mould, bathrooms leaks, pests, inability to open certain windows/doors, failure to secure timely deposit refund) with the property since moving in, which Jacksons (in conjunction with the landlord) have taken months to resolve. Many of these problems are not directly in Jacksons’ remit, and require landlord input, which has been a difficult and slow process to obtain. I appreciate that these issues are not Jacksons’ fault; however, by agreeing to manage the properties of such landlords, Jacksons’ must take responsibility for the resolution of these issues. The communication between staff and myself has, on the whole, been suboptimal (with delays in email correspondence, property management staff often unavailable to discuss on the phone as doing house viewings), and administrative tasks taking longer to be actioned than reasonably necessary. In summary, I like to think that the staff at Jacksons Tooting are not purposefully ill-intentioned; however, by their association with substandard landlords and their poor client interaction and problem-solving skills, their reputation is at risk. I would advise against their use for house/flat rentals.

I rarely share my opinion on Social Media but glad to do it on this occasion. Regent letting division has proven to be very serious and efficient since the beginning of our relationship. Ahmed is my counterpart within that department and i like to praise his dedication in keeping me, the owner, well informed within the whole process - rental value to expect, tenant research, tenant security check, check-in, check-out,etc. Thanks Ahmed; great working with you!

Please AVOID this agency! They never respond to emails, they ignore you all the time, they don't attend to any maintenance issues and they simply don't care about your property if you are a tenant or landlord. I used to be with a smaller agency, Berkley, which was really good, but unfortunately they were absorbed by Regent. This has been the worst property agency experience I have ever had. We have a mould problem in our bathroom, which was reported to them in May 2017 and up to today November 2017 they haven't resolved the problem, despite landlord agreeing to put an extractor and giving them funds for it. They sent an engineer to assess the work in August and since then they just remained silent. I have been sending them emails and calling them since August, but they simply ignore you and never reply to your emails. Last week we got an email from a new agency saying that the landlord was very unhappy with Regent's poor service and decided to change them. Regent hasn't even notified us and when we called them they didn't know what was going on, they are always in total mess. They were supposed to fit the extractor before they officially stop managing us as the landlord gave them funds for it. They sent another engineer last week again to again assess the work, as apparently the previous one lost the report (this was their first argument) or didn't get the right quote (this was their new argument when I called a day after). Nevertheless, of course they failed to resolve the issue as the landlord was done with them and decided that the new agency will finally deal with what Regent failed to do for past half a year. Also, they never know what is going on and when our previous property manager left, they didn't even notify us and didn't know who was the new one for some time. Everyone is always out of office and they always promise things they never deliver and never get back to you.For example they tell you they will email you or call you back in 5 minutes, but they never do. Forget emailing them as your emails will never get a reply, forget reporting maintenance issues on their platform Fixlo as they will never attend to them, forget calling them as people leave their jobs daily and the new people never know what is going on, forget complaining to them as they will pass it on to the maintenance team which doesn't care. Also, they have lost a copy of our keys which were given to them by our previous agency (I have emails to prove this). They never even checked the flat and in case we aren't here and something is happening or we are locked out, they can't do anything. They failed at managing our property, they failed at attending to maintenance issues plus I find their staff very ignorant and often impolite (example - our previous property manager Davindra told me to have a window in the bathroom opened all the time as in her opinion this would resolve the mould issue, despite me telling her we live on ground floor and have to close the window when we are not in the flat. Also, her emails were very passive-aggressive).Their emergency number often doesn't work and either no one picks it up and if they do you have to keep calling it for hours. The worst experience ever, I highly recommend avoiding this agency if you are a landlord or tenant as they simply can't deliver anything and they won't manage the property for you at all. Also please note that they fake their reviews, their own employees (example: Ben Temple who is a director and Jordan Axten who is a compliance officer) gave 5 star reviews although Google Policy clearly states that you shouldn't review your own employer here as it is a conflict of interest. As soon as I reviewed them, Jordan Axten added a 5 star review (without any comments) and their supplier who does photography for them also gave them 5 star review to put their overall rating up. This agency is a big SCAM