26th Aug 2026 (19 days ago)
I had an awful experience as a landlord with Chestertons over the last year and experienced poor levels of professional conduct and purposeful misleading of both myself and the tenants.<br><br>I had been keen to rent my flat for a competitive rate and not to do building work and had said this from the outset to Chestertons. I wanted a tenant who was happy with the flat it its current condition, which was good but not newly decorated. Chestertons were initially highly responsive and very proactive, securing tenants very quickly. It was important to me that the property was viewed in person and when I asked that they had, Lettings Manager Maya gave me the impression they had saying that although she hasn’t shown it herself she knew one of the tenants was living in London so able to view.<br><br>When the tenants later moved in I was shocked that they were so unhappy with the property and complained about things that were clearly visible - photographing every paint imperfection in the flat. When looking back at the marketing photos, I saw Chestertons had edited these with AI (defects removed, walls airbrushed, vents removed) to give the tenants an impression of a perfect newly refurbished “new-build type” property, even though the flat was a historic 1900s building that hadn’t been newly decorated.<br><br>After Chestertons were previously highly responsive, it was difficult to get ahold of Maya with my calls to her and the messages left with the receptionist ignored. After being insistent, I eventually managed to speak to her and expressed that I felt altering the images and not admitting that the tenants had not seen the property was not good practice (especially when I directly asked this). I said I felt it had created an unrealistic impression of the flat and had resulted in a situation where neither tenants nor landlord were happy, meanwhile Chestertons had received their full year's commission up front. Her response to me was that no person rents based on photos alone, so AI editing didn’t matter and how they view is their choice. She said Chestertons specifically implements a "sight unseen clause" to protect themselves from this situation. When I asked if, in the event that the tenants did not want to continue to rent the flat, it was possible to end the contract early and refund their rent, she said to me that in this case the tenants would be liable to pay Chesterons' commission and all landlord outgoings and fees as an "early surrender" (i.e. making it unrealistically possible to reverse the contract).<br><br>Over time I managed to build a good relationship with my tenants, answering the many requests they had due to their mismatched expectations. They were reasonable people but had simply been sold an unrealistic impression of the property by Chestertons. I found Chestertons absolutely no help throughout. They made it very clear that they had been paid for their work and the tenants many demands were now my problem.<br><br>My experience is that they only care to get as much money as possible with little concern for tenant or landlord. I was very disappointed by the lack of honesty and I would urge both tenants and landlords to beware.... Read more