Which letting agents in Cambridge are bad

[Octavia09]

I am looking for a new house to rent in the CB1 area. Can anyone andvise me a good agent and tell which agents I should not go to, please. I have read really bad comments about Russels (they have lots of nice properties).
Many many thanks!

Sorry I can't be very helpful, but the only thing I have heard is the same thing about Russells.
I am sure you will get helpful responses on here, but the cam.misc newsgroup could be worth searching/asking as well, also www.wereallneighbours.co.uk/idlechat/.

Thank you SummerLightning and for the link as well I did not know about this site. Looks interesting to me.

We used Russells for a year, they were rude and very unapproachable and the inspections on the property were every 3 months! Seemed like they were always there. Now with Tucker Gardner who are friendly, attentive and really quick at sorting out any repairs etc. Really recommend them.

We are currently with TG and would love to stay with them but the landlord of our flat is selling it. If we do not find anything with TG then we will have to choose something from other agencies. That is why I would love to find out about those letting agencies which are best to avoid.

We are with Russells right now. Not great really, would avoid if you can. We didn't like them from the off but the house was too good to miss out on.

They have been good about getting contractors in v. quickly, but to be honest we only needed them in because of problems they 'hadn't noticed' in the first place.

Depends on if you like a house/area enough to put up with it I guess.

Good luck!

We rented for 18 months with these:

www.inter-let.co.uk/index.html

They were great, always fixed things straightaway, though it looks like they may have scaled back lately as they're not offering many houses.

THe landlords renting board, that's where we found our house. Gum tree was full of scamming people! There is an older renting thread that tells you all about it.

www.brettward.co.uk/canb/

UMF, thanks, they do have very few properties indeed. But thanks anyway.
Goldenpeach, I do check the notice bureau from time to time. It is hard to find something when you are under the pressure to find it. Unfortunatelly, I cannot find reviews on Cambridge letting agents except Russels.

Russells has a property in CB4, but it might not be your cup of tea, I met the next door neighbour - she seems nice.

Have you looked on Cambridge online? That site has lot of info.

We're with ESRA and I don't think they're very good. Really high fees and also visits every 3 months. We had some problems with the poperty that needed sorting out in the beginning and they weren't too bad though.

To be honest we looked at so any properties (20+) - we wanted CB1 as well, that I would never discard one because of the agency. I think we'd still be looking!

I hope you have better luck and find something quickly though!

We are with TG and they also visit the flat every three months but this is not a problem as they check very quickly and go. They do not bother us and if there is something to repair the TG is very helpful. SO, I do not really mind the regular visits as long as they do what they are supposed to do.
Why I do not like agencies like Russels and Haart because they have lots of fees unlike TG.
I will have ESRA in mind as well.

Come a bit late to this but we always found Redmayne Arnold and Harris to be good, I concur with those posters who have commented on Russels, I wouldn't touch them with a barge pole

Oh, thanks jpg. It is not late, no. We are still looking for a suitable house. We have time till June but the time flies quickly and it is not easy to find a good house/flat within a short time. We do not want to move out again.

Just wondering if anyone has any experiences of 'Cambridge Property Lettings'?
I've never heard of them before! We're currently with Tucker Gardner who I think are great!

We have to stick to one area because of the school. Because of this the choice is limited. We have not viewed any houses yet. Tucker Gardner is great but there is nothing in our area.

I have experienced great dissatisfaction with ESRA and as a result am currently going through the appropriate judicial processes to expose this letting agent. I would like to hear of any further comments/experiences people have had or if they would expand on comments already made. Please email me on [email protected] with comments.

We have rented a lot in Cambridge and elsewhere (now thankfully own, we found renting an expensive business!! ) We liked Pocock and Shaw who were brilliant! (a bit disorganised! But otherwise lovely and seemed very fair! They thanked us for looking after the property well and sent us a really nice thank you email after we moved out). Cheffins are awful (like to rip off everyone! and not great for buying/selling either), redmayne Arnold and Harris had nice office staff and we found them really pretty good, until the end when we got screwed over with excessive cleaning charges (despite leaving the place much cleaner than when we moved in, and putting up with mould growing in all the bedrooms - which they tried to sort out by providing dehumidifiers). Haven't got much experience of TG, but have viewed a few of their properties and they seem a bit pricier than other places (nice people showing us round each time though!)

We disliked Russells when we first moved to Cambridge, When we finally left the property the check out inspection took an hour!
Tucker Gardner were friendly and helpful all the time.
Our last experience was with Marilla Gardner. They were slow with dealing with repairs and when we checked out they didn't want to refund all our deposit as the house wasn't 'just cleaned fresh' despite paying for a professional clean. We were two professional workers without kids or animals at the time.

Avoid TG in Ely at all costs if you are a tenant. They are horrendous and never return full deposits. They are also terrible if anything needs fixing and enter the property anytime they feel like it whether an appointment or not. I dont know what the cambridge branch are like.
This site has lots of reviews of agents too which would be useful: www.allagents.co.uk/tucker-gardner/

Hey, Just found this thread re: letting homes in Cambridge CB1 area. I am a landlord in CB1 our tenants are leaving . They have been there 5 years. Just checking if there are any updates on best letting agents, or if anyone has used the University accommodation bureau? Great 2 bed central.

Don't use Purple Bricks - I say this because a house that backs onto ours had awful tenants and we had quite a job actually contacting the agent.

Doubtful of Savills as there is a piece of land for sale near us which I have been unable to get any info on. Again, bad website. The property say ask for info. I have filled in the form twice to no avail. I don't want to phone up.

Central CB1 - whereabouts?

I found SAB (St Andrew's Bureau) to be the worst. The man who I viewed the property with appeared to know very little about it and he was really patronising too. There has been no effort by them to contact me with the answers to my questions about the property. I would avoid if I could but they have a lot of properties on their books. Total lack of information, knowledge and courtesy!

I have found the viewing reps at Abbots and Bush to be very well informed and helpful. I have not rented through them though.