Posting for a friend
This will be long to give a full account of how bad this company is.
My friends, lets call her lola, has been renting her property for over 5 years, almost 6. In this time the people dealing with her house on her landlords behalf have changed 3 times. In february 2016 the latest people took over. She wasnt informed of this change.
She only found out as she had a bad leak in her bathroom and was trying to get hold of her old estate agents to get a repair. She couldnt get any response from them to emails or phone calls. Luckily her next door neighbour is a tradesman and got hold of a plumber to fix it before it destroyed everything. She passed on her estate agents details to this man to get paid for the emergency work (hot scalding water was pouring into her bathroom and shes very lucky she discovered it not one of her two young kids who would of been severly burned). She found out later her very lovely neighbour paid for the plumber and refused her offers of payment. Almost a month after this her old estate agents emailed a very curt message to say her tenancy was now being dealt with by a different company. However ignored all attempts to find out who the new company was.
At this point she stopped paying her rent as she didnt know who she was supposed to be paying it to. Another month went by before she had a hand delivered letter (she was in, they didnt bother to knock on) stating the name of the new company and bank details to pay her rent. In this time shed tried to keep the rent money to one side but was made redundant and had to use it for living expenses whilst she got a new job. She was happy to pay the arrears on a payment plan.
However they insisted she hadnt payed any rent to the last company for 5 months plus the 1 when she had no way of paying. She managed to prove 4 payments but one was from an old online only bank account shed closed earlier in the year and couldnt get statements from. So she had to agree to pay 2 months of 450 each at 50 a month. They also arranged a property inspection 3 days before the first payment was due.
The woman who came was condescending and vile (she rang me in tears afterwards, very unlike her) She was 30 minutes early and lola had just come out of the shower so was in a towel when she opened the door thinking it was a parcel. Before she could say anything the woman barged in. The arrears were discussed and it was almost as though she didnt believe lola would pay them even though they werent due yet.
Lola then paid that months rent that day (she had to wait for her husbands pay to pay the payment plan). Later that day an illegal eviction notice was hand delivered though her door by the same woman. Upon ringing the company they claimed "mistake".
3 days days later she took the kids to school and came home at 9.20am to a second illegal eviction notice signed by this woman. She hadnt had time to pay them yet but had planned to after the school run.
She still paid it (on time) and rang them. Again they stated it was a "mistake" and to ignore it.
Since then lola has tried to put all communications though email as she doesn't trust what they say. They've made excuses to avoid doing repairs and upkeep to the house. The same woman has repeatedly done inspections (supposedly every 3 months but sometimes after 2) even after lola asked for someone else to deal with her property as she was so horrible.
It took 4 months of her pestering them to get a gas safety certificate even though she hadnt had one in 4 years. In the end she had involve the council to force the company. At this she got a panicked phone claiming it had to be done that day as though it was her fault.
In may last year after months of asking for an invoice and up to date bill for the arrears to check against her bank payments they told her she still owed 600. Between now and then shes missed one payment (which she thinks has been payed from her dhs account) however as last week the same woman again has told her she's still 400 in arrears.
Tonight we went through her bank statement since the may email and actually think shes at least 50 in credit.
Is she being unreasonable to go to there offices tomorrow and kick up a stink until she sees the actual actual figures?