Appalling company with zero professionalism. Communication is poor, staff are rude, and their practices are completely unacceptable. Avoid at all costs.

The end of tenancy procedures at Zest Estate & Letting Agents Bath are predatory and designed to ensnare unsuspecting students with unavoidable costs and deductions from their deposits. Please do not go here if you are a student, save yourself the hassle.

Tldr; avoid if you are a student. Slow responses, poor quality repairs, unfair deposit deductions. If you're a student looking to rent, I would highly recommend avoiding this agency. Having rented student accommodation for four years, this was by far my worst experience. Over the course of the tenancy, we experienced multiple issues, including very short notice for property visits, slow response times to urgent maintenance requests, and repair work that often felt inadequate—for example, a ceiling leak that persisted for several months before being properly addressed, and sudden modification to the fire doors that made them extremely heavy. The deposit process was particularly frustrating. We were initially charged over £1,000 for cleaning, despite having cleaned the property to a good standard ourselves before moving out. The independent checkout report even stated the house was in good condition, only requiring a light clean and vacuum to bring back up to professional move in standards. After a lengthy back-and-forth, the agency eventually gave a much lower quote from the cleaners than what we had been charged and revised the deduction. However, this process took a long time and involved ignoring points and questions in our emails, and discouraging comments about our chances in a dispute. Additionally, during our tenancy, a group of prospective tenants visited the property to ask about our experience, mentioning they had been told no viewings were available, despite us never having had a single one arranged. We've since heard similar stories from other students who rented through the same agency. It is also worth noting that the online portal for raising maintenance requests is very poorly designed, which feels discouraging to raise requests due to the poor interface, and silly features like requiring photos before any work will be arranged, even when a photo makes no sense, like of an extractor fan that stopped working. Avoid if possible. Else, don't be afraid to chase them throughout the year.

This agency ( Lillie Burton ) is proceeding to unfair deductions on students deposits without any support ( invoices ) and with grounds which are not serious ( alleging that circa 700£ are owed for professional cleaning including for an alleged removal of bin where a professional cleaner already took care of the cleaning of a very old house in bad shape and this when a landlord cannot impose a professional cleaning since 2009 ). . Students must run .

There are multiple issues I need to raise with Zest for the benefit of other students looking to rent properties in Bath. Firstly, they attempted to deduct a very large portion of our security deposit for unacceptable reasons (approximately £1340). Upon check-in, there were items raised in the check-in report which were present at the property. They attempted to charge us for the removal of items we were not responsible for. Additionally, some mattresses had small stains on them clearly highlighted on the check-in report, which they also attempted to charge us for. Even though we arranged a professional clean ourselves (admittedly they were pressured for time), Zest still insisted the house needed another full professional clean, which was £1000 out of the £1340 deduction quoted. On the check-in report, it was clear there were hairs and dust present in some of the photos, and Zest were being absolutely unreasonable for the state we left the house in. We would have accepted a small contribution as a deduction, but not an additional £1000. After raising our concerns, we agreed upon a total deduction of £900. Another big issue was their inability to deal with simple maintenance issues. At the start of our tenancy, our very heavy kitchen table top was loose (health and safety issue), and needed to be secured. It took Zest over 5 weeks to come and fix it, as they had mistakenly marked it as complete on their end. We were also not notified that some other maintenance issues would be fixed after the end of our tenancy, and I was only told after ringing Zest up to follow up our concerns. The best advice I can give to other students is to challenge their behaviour, as it is more than likely Zest will continue to do this to other unsuspecting students.

Poorly managed properties with appalling customer service. Avoid Updated review 22/04/25 It’s a shame to see zest reply to my google review rather than my actual email, which for me sums them up perfectly. Overall they take no responsibility for managing the property in question forcing me and others to contact the landlord directly. They don’t appear to be well experienced in having student tenants and don’t appear to be reasonable in resolving issues. For example; with regularity the students would go on breaks and miss up to 6 consecutive bin days resulting in rubbish all over upper Bristol Road and complaints from the council. The students are partly to blame and change every year, but they also have inadequate bin storage mentioned by many neighbours and the students themselves. Me and others have been very amicable with Zest for the past 2 years, but we have had enough with their embarrassing lack of responsibility. They just want the money not the hassle.

Literally don’t even bother with Zest. Pick any other letting agent than Zest. PLEASE! …

I strongly advise any prospective tenants, particularly students, to steer clear of Zest Property Services due to their shockingly negligent approach to property management and tenant welfare. Our experience with them has been nothing short …

Useless bunch of knts who can’t manage a student accommodation and deal with matters on a timely and consistent manner. Horrible.

My experience with Zest has been a headache throughout. From the moment we moved into the house they provided, it was evident that their commitment to quality and customer satisfaction was non-existent. The house we were given was in an appalling condition. Three broken windows and holes throughout the property which later caused the walls to fill with mice. It was clear that no effort had been made to ensure the house was in a liveable state. When we moved in one room didn't have blinds and sockets for months into the tenancy. After months of pushing they fixed the issues whilst charging us full price throughout. Upon exiting the property they tried to charge us nearly £1,500 to clean a house aswell as try to charge us for issues which were present on the check-in report. After threatening to take them to the DPS they quickly backed down on most of the charges. I strongly advise anyone considering renting through this agency to think twice. They have shown a lack of professionalism and basic decency. In summary, my experience with this property letting agency was an absolute disaster. I would give them zero stars if that were an option. Steer clear of this agency unless you enjoy dealing with subpar housing and unscrupulous practices.