William, I have now listened to the telephone conversations between you and Matthew Smith on Saturday. During these calls, you stated that you were upset with the frequency and content of marketing letters you have received from Belvoir. Matt Smith apologised and offered to remove your address from our database, but it seems that this is insufficient and you then told him that if you received another letter, you intend to leave us bad reviews everywhere". By not providing your address and leaving this threat, you stated that you believe we will change our approach and not send out any further letters for fear of retribution from you. You also stated that you thought that we would think more of the prospect of bad reviews than we would of your complaint. The sniggering to which you refer was, in my opinion, the sigh of an exasperated individual faced with the unrealistic demands of someone who has been offered a very quick remedy to his complaint. The sending of letters in this manner is not unusual and whilst it does upset some people, we actually gain many instructions as a result of such activities. Many vendors see this as a positive sign that we are pro-active in our approach to business. Nonetheless, there are some who do not like these letters and we are always very happy to remove addresses from databases when asked. No doubt there are also many recipients who simply bin the letters, along with a multitude of other unsolicited mail. If you would like to discuss this matter further with me, I should be very happy to take your call. Mike Jones. Director.

Adrian, I am saddened to hear that what had hitherto been a perfect tenancy and relationship seems to have turned so sour as a result of your misunderstanding. (I have edited this response to reflect changes made to your original review.) You have been charged rent strictly in accordance with your tenancy agreement. This is an agreement for which you were given an opportunity to take advice and which you signed. You elected to stay at the property a week longer and additional rent was therefore due. Andrew has already written you a lengthy and detailed explanation, but it is clear that you remain unhappy and I would urge you to contact me directly to discuss this matter. Feel free to call me on 01256 830800 or email me mike.jones@belvoir.co.uk. We are members of the Property Ombudsman and, in the event that you remain unhappy following our response, you may address a complaint to them at Milford House, 43 - 55 Milford Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 2BP Mike Jones. Director.

George, I am very sorry to learn of this. Unfortunately, from the limited information provided, I have been unable to ascertain exactly what has gone wrong on this occasion. I have also been unable to locate any emails received in January from anyone named George. Perhaps you will be able to give me your email address in order to trace your emails. It might, of course, be that your emails were sent to another branch of Belvoir. We take customer services very seriously and have won awards for our customer care. Consequently, I should be very pleased to hear from you so that I may investigate fully and take appropriate action. You may call me on 01256 830800 or email me mike.jones@belvoir.co.uk Negative reviews of Belvoir Basingstoke are quite unusual and I hope that this will lead you to believe that circumstances such as those outlined by you are rare. Occasional mistakes, however, are inevitable and I apologise if as a result of our actions or inaction, you have been inconvenienced in any way. With regard to the updating of websites, the only two options for a given property are available" or let". Once someone has applied for a property, we stop conducting viewings, but until such time as references have been satisfactorily completed, it continues to show as available". This means that in the event an application is unsuccessful, we have a source of recent interested parties from which to find another application. If indeed it was anyone in my team who has let you down, I genuinely hope that you will take a minute or two to contact me to clarify the circumstances, in order that I may take steps to prevent this from happening again. Mike Jones - Director.

Unfortunately, I can find nothing to match the circumstances outlined in your first paragraph. I am, however, aware of a recent situation which appears to be that to which you refer in your second paragraph. You made an offer on a property we were selling, but the vendor did not wish us to stop marketing of the property until such time as your offer was "proceedable". Until such time as your own property was sold, you offer could not, therefore, be entertained. This is not at all unusual. However, contrary to your assertions, you were never promised otherwise. Once you were proceedable, we asked for a "chain-check" from your agents, Purple Bricks. They took in excess of a week to provide this confirmation and in the meantime, the vendor accepted another offer. Once your circumstances were clarified, the offer was nonetheless put to the vendor. Unfortunately, for you, the vendor chose to stay with the first-time buyer offer. This was explained to you and you were told that the size of the offer wasn't the issue; the owner simply chose to stay with the first time buyer's offer. Naturally, we are concerned whenever somebody is unhappy with our efforts. On this occasion, however, it is actually Purple Bricks to whom you should direct your comments. Our offer-check procedures take around 24 hours. They took in excess of a week and we only got a response once you intervened. It was the Purple Bricks delay which lost you the property. We take customer care very seriously and I invite you to write to me or email me directly for a fuller explanation of the circumstances surrounding this. We are members of the Property Ombudsman and, in the event that you remain unhappy following our response, you may address a complaint to them at Milford House, 43 - 55 Milford Street, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP1 2BP Mike Jones, Director.

James, we are sorry to learn that you are unhappy. However, the deposit negotiations are not yet complete and, in the event that you remain unhappy with any proposed deductions which your landlord is requesting, you have the absolute right to disagree, using the DPS Al…See more

Dear "V K", At check-out, there is sometimes a difference of opinion. The out-going tenant has his view-point, the landlord has his and an agent is very often stuck in the middle, not necessarily agreeing fully with either party. An agent is in the invidious position, sometimes, of having to put forward a claim according to a landlord's wishes, irrespective of his beliefs. In law, we are the landlord's agent and whilst we have a duty of care to a tenant, we cannot lose sight of our contractual obligations. This has already been explained to you in response to your letter of complaint. We lodge all our deposits with The Deposit Protection Service and occasionally, when required, we use their Alternative Dispute Resolution service. (ADR) On this occasion the ADR largely found in your favour and the vast majority of your deposit was returned to you. In our formal response to your letter of complaint, we pointed out the fact that we are members of The Property Ombudsman and furnished you with details of how you may lodge a complaint with them. It is our understanding that they do not comment upon deposit deduction disputes since there are established methods for dealing with such issues. (In this case, The DPS ADR.) If you remain unhappy with anything else, you are still free to contact The Property Ombudsman at 55 Milford St, Salisbury SP1 2BP

Dear Pr, I am a director of Belvoir and the male member of staff with whom you spoke this morning. I apologise if anything I said offended you in any way; this was not my intention. We always seek feedback from those who have viewed a property which it transpires they do not like, in order that we may try and direct them to an alternative property which is more suited to their needs. By examining in detail an applicant's requirements, we can save applicants the time and trouble of viewing properties that are manifestly unsuitable. In your particular case, you were shown a property a few days ago and remarked that it was too small for you, although, contrary to your comment in this review, you actually claimed at the time to favour the location because of schooling requirements. Your viewing of the property about which you telephoned today, had already been arranged. It is, however, significantly smaller than the first one you viewed and I was simply trying to point out that you might be better off looking at a larger property we have available in the same area and which I could have shown you at the time set aside for a viewing of the smaller property. As a result of an administrative error, measurements do not appear on one of the floorplans, making an accurate comparison very hard for you. This was something you sadly wouldn't allow me to explain. I suggest the fact that we maintain accurate records of applicants' requirements and reasons for not liking a property actually points to a letting agent attempting to match applicants with suitable properties to the benefit of all. We very often show applicants multiple properties and to suggest that we wouldn't be prepared to show you a property because you didn't take the first one you were shown is clearly inaccurate. I trust this clears up any misunderstanding over our telephone conversation. Regards, Mike Jones.

Dear Xin, I am extremely disappointed to read your comments and sincerely apologise if you feel unhappy over the manner in which your deposit was handled. Unfortunately, from the brief information provided in this review, I am unable to locate your file in order to comment further on your specific complaint. Our tenant deposits, are lodged with The DPS and any disputes are settled through their Alternative Dispute Resolution Service by independent and fully trained dispute professionals. It is they who decide whether or not a claim upon a deposit is legitimate and a tenant is always given a very adequate period of time in which to argue their case. We are passionate about customer service and deeply committed to solving genuine complaints. Please either contact me on 01256 830800 or write to me at 10 New Street, Basingstoke, RG21 7DE and I will provide details of our complaints procedure. We are members of the Property Ombudsman Scheme (TPOS), and are also licensed under the National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS). I look forward to hearing from you and resolving your concerns. Mike Jones. Director.