Estate Agents

Looper · May 2013

After renting my property through David Philips estate agents and having the cliché bad estate agent experience (i.e. poor service, no communication, non-payment of rent and missing tenants deposit) I transferred to Davies & Davies and what a contrast. Davies & Davies: Monthly statements, accurate on time payments, repairs dealt with and communication are answered promptly. David Philips: One monthly statement, all payments either late and/or short. Took several months of emails/phone calls for them to look into the payment issues, then blaming it on the tenants before admitting that they had screwed up again. Tenants deposit was not protected and has now disappeared into a black hole together with 3 months rent.Recommend <a href="http://www.allagents.co.uk">www.allagents.co.uk</a> to check estate agent reviews. D&D good. DP bad (I am not the only one).

ChangN4N6 · May 2013

This is helpful as my bro is just about to do the same. Chang

vetski · May 2013

Tenant's deposit not protected? Did DP, or has D&D, told you that you as landlord have liability, even if not your fault? Plus, re missing rent, if under 5K you can take DP to the small claims court.

Looper · May 2013

Thanks for the advice. Have a judgement via MCOL for the missing rent and waiting for court warrant to be enforced. I paid the tenants deposit when I transferred to D&D and will be passing this to the courts when the rent issue is resolved.DP claim to be a member of the ombudsman scheme but it is only for sales, not rentals. No trace of the deposit in any of the three protection schemes. I know one landlord and tenant who also had trouble getting the deposit back from DP but managed to find it in a protection scheme and transferred it to a new agent.DP told me that the short/late payments were due to the tenants, it was only when we told them that the tenancy was not being renewed that it came out that DP had screwed up.Cannot recommend D&D enough, they helped us through a difficult transfer and given an excellent service.

vetski · May 2013

@Looper, I discovered the other day that there are 4 schemes (had also thought there were 3) - worth checking the 4th? <a href="https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection/overview">https://www.gov.uk/tenancy-deposit-protection/overview</a>. One of them, I don't know which, involves the agent/landlord paying an insurance bond rather than physically paying the deposit into a scheme, though I think deposits under that scheme are supposed to be held in a separate bank account. Very surprised they're not with ARLA. - good to know. Good luck!

rainbow_carnage · May 2013

From the point of view of a tenant, all estate agents seem like a tremendous waste of money. We've lived in the same flat for 11 years. We rent it directly from the landlord. For the most part, we don't bother him and he doesn't bother us. We only call him when there's a serious problem (e.g. the boiler stops working). We speak to him maybe once a year, and see him even less often. In 11 years, he's only raised the rent three times (not having to give a portion of the money to an agent helps). We've never missed a payment. I really don't see how an agent would improve things for either of us. I don't want to pay £300 for a credit check that costs a fraction of that. Our landlord never ran credit check on us. It was enough that we had pay stubs and bank statements and a reference from the last place we lived. If he did want to know our credit history, I would've happily given him a copy of my statutory credit report, which costs just £2. We've been thinking of moving for a while now, but the hassle and expense of dealing with estate agents puts me off. I'd like to find another private landlord, but there don't seem to be many about.

Looper · May 2013

Vetski: Thanks for the info, I will check this scheme for the deposit. I have proof from the tenants that the deposit was paid to DP. Rainbow_Carnage: Needed the agent to handle things whilst I am overseas, DP just gave me problems (they did not even organise the annual gas safety check).

N2n4 · May 2013

Think the merits of Davies & Davies have been discussed on here before but they really are good, very friendly and professional.

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Looper · May 2013

RIP David Philips Estate Agents. I found out that David Philip Copestake (Highbury) Ltd went into liquidation this month, like David Philip Copestake (Stroud Green) Ltd went into liquidation last year.Hopefully the premises will be turned into kebab shops so that they can best serve the community, but if by chance they are still estate agents avoid.

yagamuffin · May 2013

Davies and Davies are the agents for our current flat and they are very good, I will go so far as to say the best we have used so far.<div>Liberty (Station Place) were okay but only because the Landlord was always around pushing them, Ariston (Hornsey Road) were decent, Christopher Charles (SGR) were good (mainly 'cos Eastenders Barry was a good chap) and Barbara Gibson (Highgate) were pretty rubbish.</div>

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Cotton213 · May 2013

@Looper, Thanks for the reviews. Must admit they have changed everything we were about to do. Good job we checked otherwise we'd probably have been out of pocket too. Wish you the best of luck in getting your money back.

Looper · June 2013

SHOCK!!!! David Philips is not turning into a kebab shop. They are still trading as estate agents with the same staff and David Copestake still the director. Reason for the post is that more casualties have been revealed on <a href="http://www.allagents.co.uk">www.allagents.co.uk</a> .If you are a landlord/tenant and the deposit has not been protected then chase the agents, contact trading standards and speak to a solicitor.If you have lost money to David Philips then contact the liquidators (Leonard Curtis) to question whether David Copestake is fit to be a company director.If you are looking for an estate agent try someone else.

markpack · June 2013

I've not used David Philips as a would be renter or landlord, but my experience of their attitude towards tidying up their estate agents boards when dumped around the place has been pretty poor - not only their apparently lax approach towards tidying them up but also having the cheek to repeatedly blame me for calling supposedly the wrong phone number... even though the phone number is on their boards and had their voicemail message on it!

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