Hello Ben We are genuinely sorry things have taken so long and yes we are aware that Covid 19 is being used for all kinds of excuses. In this particular case the landlord faces a large bill and therefore wanted to get several quotes as affordability wa… See more

You have had a problem with mould accumulation which we believed to be as a result of limited ventilation as it centred around the bathroom. We still believe this to be part of the reason however we also had the issue looked at by a contractor who diagnosed a problem with the concrete guttering a feature of many 1950’s built Ashford houses. This requires very costly replacement which the landlord has done and I would very much hope that the issue is now sorted. As to the gas issue, our contractor was carrying out a safety check and noticed that there was a very high reading for gas in the property and therefore had to turn the boiler off immediately whilst he found the leak. He was unable to do so and agreed to go back the following day which he did. The leak was fixed and heating and hot water was restored. We take our responsibility as managing agents very seriously and will not compromise on safety. We are not engineers or builders, we rely on contractors and are very careful to ensure that we use the best that we can find. When issues are reported we will look to instruct works as soon as we are able to do. In both the above instances we have sought to do this. I am not sure what else we, or indeed any other agent could do. Sometimes things break we cannot guarantee properties that are fault free in perpetuity, the important thing is that once issues are dealt with then they are sorted. Kevin Hall Director – Martin & Co (Ashford)

We accepted an instruction to market properties for a developer and were asked to market the properties in advance of completion based on their expectations. Unfortunately they were unable to deliver due to a number of setbacks. We communicated all updates that we received to applicants and were transparent throughout. We understand that this has caused some of our customers a lot of stress and we sincerely apologise for this. As a result we took the decision to remove the advertising and to only do so once each plot was completed.

As the name used in the review does not correlate it was not easy to identify who wrote this review however I am now aware of the author. You complained about the “hardness” of the carpets which the landlord agreed to replace (at a cost of £1,700) and on the evening before the contractor was due to fit them you cancelled and you have not contacted us since to rearrange. You reported an issue with the oven and hob on a Sunday and we had an electrician instructed to come to you the next day. Unfortunately (and outside our control) he could not attend and therefore we instructed a second electrician that met you at the property on Wednesday. He could not diagnose the issue and so we instructed an appliance engineer to contact you the same day. He has told us that you could not make yourself available until the following Monday. He went to the property as arranged and fixed the issue – a new element. Whilst the second issue was ongoing you called the office and screamed at my team. I understand that you were frustrated however I am not sure how you expect to achieve anything by being so disrespectful. We are more than happy to help. Good tenants are a pleasure to accommodate so why would we do anything to ruin a relationship. When people shout and swear at my team I am more than happy for them to terminate the call, why should they have to tolerate such behaviour? If that means we are rude then so be it. It is a shame that we cannot leave reviews on tenants. We act and are paid by the landlord. Notwithstanding this we have a duty of care to tenants and we will always go the extra mile to try to help. However sometimes tenants can look to avoid their obligations and will often blame agents or landlords to get their own way. Sometimes we have to point out to tenants that we cannot simply acquiesce to requests that either we have no power to decide or that Kevin Hall Director – Martin & Co (Ashford)