ABYSMAL service / Lack of common sense / Not reliable when things go wrong - AVOID!! If there was a zero rating then Martin and Co would get it. We signed up with them shortly before leaving to live abroad several years back. It went well initially and they got a few people through the door however their tactics to get us to sign up the client we eventually ended up with were on a par with car salesmen. The agent conveniently failed to mention to us that the new tenant would have a pet (something we had specifically asked to avoid) until it was basically so far down the line that we'd missed out on getting other potential tenants without pets. We'd even agreed to a slight drop in rent which we absolutely would not have done had we been told this up front. We were in our new residence abroad for not longer than two months when we had reports that there was water leaking through the kitchen diner ceiling. The agents had attended the site but apparently could not work out what the issue was...obviously putting two and two together (that the bathroom was directly above the dining area was too hard). And after I pointed this out they double checked and found that the silicone sealant on the bath had come away. Anyway after the initial few stumbles all seemed to go well enough for a few years. The staff were polite enough but as soon as any problem arose they were pretty much useless. And I say that with my hand on my heart. The water issues in the bathroom reared their ugly head again in about year 3 after a routine house inspection. Again, putting two and two together is something that the agents don't seem to be good at: they took photos of the property and reported that "all was well". Well, I checked the photos carefully given the previous experience with the tenant and noticed the floor tiles in the bathroom were bowing. I asked them to investigate as this generally means some kind of water damage. They were unusually slow at arranging someone to visit and once they did they quoted an outrageous amount of money to merely replace the floor tiling and effectively cover up the problem. I said this was ridiculous and it needed proper investigating. So I sourced a contractor from the other side of the world and got them around. They advised that there was significant water damage as some of the tiles on the bathroom were cracked and letting water seep down below the bath where it spread outward to the floor tiles. In all the job cost us >£1000!!!! What's worse was that not less than a few months before Martin and Co had visited our property and gave the all clear. Something like this, we were advised, would have been ongoing for a while and they should have noticed it. We eventually moved back to the UK and annoyingly found the house in a state of disrepair and completely unclean. The stringent check out that they had the inventory company perform on us (upon leaving the UK) was clearly not adhered to in the same manner upon check out of the last set of tenants. Dirt and clumps of dog hairs were found all over the house, dirty sills / windows. The tenants had also not kept up the garden maintenance and in fact have basically killed off a whole row of 5 conifers by hacking off the lower branches. We advised that professional cleaners had to be employed and so Martin and Co clearly got their mates around for a kickback. They did a pathetic job for £200 and basically left it in a sub par condition. I dread to think what it looked like before they 'cleaned up'. Martin and Co also seem to think its acceptable to dump their lettings signs on your property when you're not there to protest. I asked them politely to remove the sign so they did but only the board part that identifies it as theirs! I eventually gave up and reported them for fly tipping. All in all they are a bunch of cowboys who want to sign you up to get your 10% or whatever ridiculous fee it is they charge. If things start to go wrong then start worrying as they have little common sense let alone professionalism when it comes to the lettings business.