If I could give Michael Stewart Property zero stars, I would.
Michael Stewart Property is by far the worst letting agent we have ever had the misfortune to deal with. We moved into the house we're currently in in January 2016 and there were problems right from the beginning. On our move in, we were given no inventory and our ID wasn’t checked; we were shocked, but unfortunately this really set the precedent for the rest of the tenancy under Michael Stewart. Issues took weeks to be resolved – we were without an oven for over a week, and a leaking radiator wasn’t fixed as agreed while we were away, so we returned home to a freezing home and soggy carpet. In fact, a massive mould issue in the master bedroom which we were assured would be remedied within four weeks of our moving in, actually took well over six months and a plethora of phone calls and emails before it was sorted. (Communication isn't their speciality - when the phone did get answered, we were regularly promised messages would be passed on, but a call back was a rare thing indeed.
After meeting the landlord in person, it became glaringly obvious that the issues we’d experienced were down to the agents and the agents alone. He decided to terminate his contract with them and deal with us directly. This has worked ten times better for both us and the landlord. However, ending their contract was, of course, not without issue. Michael Stewart Property didn’t speak to us AT ALL about the contract ending - had it not been for our landlord keeping us informed, we’d have had no clue whatsoever that it was even happening. Furthermore, it took Michael Stewart a full eight weeks to refund us our deposit, and even then it was short.
We looked into where our deposit was being held (legally, it should have been put into a government-approved scheme) and lo and behold, it hadn’t been registered with any of them. We are now taking legal action against them, as they broke the law and failed to protect our deposit.
My advice to anyone considering letting through Michael Stewart Property – whether that’s as a landlord or a tenant – would be to steer well clear. Their incompetence will turn your dream home into a nightmare.
If you’re a current landlord or tenant – check whether they’ve protected you/your tenant’s deposit, as you can - and should - claim compensation if they have failed to do so. You can claim up to six years after the tenancy ended.... Read more
42 mo. ago