Caversham, Reading - Any good lettings agents or are they all as rubbish as each other?

[BraveMerida]

Hi there. Long shot but....any landlords here from Caversham, Reading, who could recommend a good lettings agent please? Someone who charges reasonable feed for fully managed service and is efficient and competent...that is all I ask.

I've just read through the draft Lettings contract with Romans and I fear that we will be bankrupt before long for all the various extra charges they will impose plus VAT to do what we expect the agent to do as part of the the monthly fees anyway.

TIA

We have a town house in Caversham and use Romans, however we use them to just find the tennant, do the checks and then provide the Agreement, after that we manage ourselves as we only live in Shinfield.

Infact we use Romans in the town for our other properties. They are pretty efficient but as you say their managed service is madness.

In our experience Romans are the best of a bad bunch, don't even touch Atlantis !

Thank you. I think I might know you, or someone very much like you! Do you have a DD who went to the Abbey school?

Much as I find dealing with the Caversham team a pleasure so far, I cannot accept their lettings contract, it is simply ridiculous from a landlord's perspective, makes me wonder how they have any landlords as clients at all, assuming they have read the contracts!

I'm now inclining towards Farmer and Dyer. Much more reasonable.

Any thoughts on Farmer and Dyer anyone?

Farmer and Dyer have a very good reputation locally. They were the ones I was going to come on and recommend.

Thank you. Good to know f&d come recommended.

No not me, have one DD who is 4 .

DS thanks for the tip, will keep them in mind for next time.

We rent out through Romans, had a really bad experience with Walmsley, was a nightmare. I was nervous about going with Romans as reputation isn't great, but actually found them really professional and good to deal with. We manage the property ourselves, so didn't need to pay for that. I liked Romans because they could market it through the Reading officer as well.

In Reading, also wouldn't recommend Atlantic

Think you meant Atlantis lettings here. I agree, avoid at all costs. They were awful, but managed to sell the business to Romans. Not good news for the consumer. Atlantis Estates still doing management with our block where they are dishonest and excessive with charges. High staff turnover too.

Yes, Romans published fully managed fees are very high. You can negotiate lower rates though.
But they are forever trying to up the fees or add extra charges every time we have a new tenant.
After complaining they stay the same but its very annoying. It's happening so regularly we are thinking of switching - any suggestions?

Beville is close by and may cover Caversham?

We need a good agent covering Wokingham. Presently pay 10% plus VAT for fully managed plus 3.5% insurance premium. This includes 2 inspections pa. Plus really high charges - £400+ excl VAT on top every time we change tenants. Any recommendations?