My experience with James C. Penny Estate Agents has been emphatically the worst I have ever experienced.
Myself and housemates entered our newly rented property yesterday to find that JCP and the landlord they represent had done absolutely nothing to turn over the property since the previous tenants had left. This meant the house was filthy, uninhabitable, and unfit for purpose as several of the fittings in the property were broken, dangerous, and unusable. In addition, they had not removed the rubbish left behind by the previous tenants. All of this meant we could not inhabit a property we had paid over £3000 (so far) to live in. It is shockingly unacceptable for a letting agent to allow a tenancy to commence without even having checked that a property under their management is in a suitable condition.
The service they have provided to us as from the beginning has demonstrated their utter disdain for tenants. The agent who showed us around the property could not answer a single question about it and had clearly done no research before conducting the viewing. However, she was perfectly capable of haggling extra money out of us for the rent on the landlord's behalf. The individual responsible for maintaining correspondence with us before the tenancy commenced was unresponsive and unorganised. Then finally, we enter our property to find they have done nothing to prepare for our arrival.
As a result, we have had to dump our belongings on top of beds whilst we wait for JCP to carry out the end of tenancy processes that they should have completed before we arrived. We cannot currently live in a property that we are paying rent for and one of us has had to take time off of work to accommodate the maintenance that needs to be conducted. We still do not have an inventory to even report the condition we are faced with.
Having failed to do any of the above, it begs the question what is a letting agent even for? Other than to copy and paste the same washed up tenancy agreements and cream off the top of every stakeholder's cash.
I am angry, perturbed, distressed, and saddened. This is yet another example of how tenants are at the mercy of landlords and letting agents who have the monopoly on property in the United Kingdom, and sap everyday people of their money whilst doing the bare minimum in return. JCP will have to go a long way to change my opinion of them.... Read more
26 weeks ago