TO ANY CURRENT OR FUTURE TENANTS!! BEWARE!! They will try charge you for every speak of dust and every little issue or item they can when you leave! When you move in look at the apartment or house with a fine tooth comb and mention (in writing) the differences between your place and the inventory they send you, because if your a chilled person that doesn't mind if your blinds don't tilt or if theres a label missing from your mattress they will try charge you for it even if it wasn't you who damaged or removed something. So just be as analytical as they are and contest things if it really wasn't you who damaged something and your likely not have to pay what they are trying to con off as your fault! Other than that while your living in the place they are fairly responsive and good agency, just when you leave they will try squeeze every penny out of you.

Rented a property in Harborne for one and a half years. Overall I have to encourage people to avoid John Shepherd. The general state of the property we rented before and during our tenancy was extremely poor. Windows leaked, shower leaked. Poor communication and buck passing from everyone meant we were left living in unsanitary conditions for months. Been in touch with new tenants and house still in state of disrepair with rent increased by £200 a month.

The worst rental experience we have ever had! The way we were treated is an absolute disgrace. We rented through Acres/John Shepherd from Feb 21 to April 22. In Jan 22 we received a call from the estate agents at Acres asking to come round to get the house ready for sale. This came as a complete shock to us as we hadn’t even been told by John Shepherd that the landlord was planning on selling the house. A complete lack of communication from John Shepherd, and clearly incompetent staff who couldn’t even be bothered to give us the heads up that the house was being sold. During our time in the house, we had the displeasure of dealing with Julie Sargeant who is possibly the rudest, most condescending person I have ever dealt with. Emails were constantly ignored, she only replied to emails if she needed something from us. We also had many contractors visiting the house during our time there who made comments about Julie, so it was interesting to note that it is not just us who she was unpleasant to. We requested to be present during the inventory check out (as is our right), however we were denied this due to “Covid restrictions”. We found this very odd as this was in April 22 after all Covid restrictions had been lifted. It was also odd that this didn’t seem to be a problem when we lived in the house and the agents needed to come over, this was while restrictions were very much in place. John Shepherd have also not given us any of our post since we moved out. Julie said we had some post quite soon after we moved out so I gave her our forwarding address. We never received this post which Julie claimed she sent - which incidentally coincided with us disagreeing to the deposit deductions! I have since contacted multiple times asking to collect our post but have been told there is none. Having been in contact with the senders, I am aware of multiple pieces of post so I know that this is untrue. Absolutely appalling experience, do not deal with John Shepherd!

A tenants perspective - from a year at a flat in Harborne, Birmingham. Slow to reply to emails. Passive aggressive during correspondence. Unhelpful and frequently 'out of office'. Aloof and will not chase matters with the landlord. Appalling lack of courtesy in providing updates. When trying to book viewings post-covid we had frankly disgraceful service, outright rude staff operating the phones, promising to return calls and ignoring you. They were saved by Janusz - he was the only member of their team with any manners, replied swiftly, was friendly and helpful - thank you Janusz! Once in the flat, they clearly had not cleaned or even inspected it - with the flat littered with rubbish, previous tenants items, cobwebs and an actively leaking ceiling. They were also distinctly unhelpful throughout the tenancy, for example we waited over 2 months for them to replace our broken washing machine - they tell you what you want to hear over the phone / email and then do not action anything. We thought we wouldn't have to deal with them anymore at the end of our tenancy but we are still awaiting our deposit back after ending the tenancy 2.5 months ago. No disputes, just emails asking for our payment details then silence for weeks on end. We've had to submit a dispute which will hopefully get this resolved. Would definitely not recommend their company to friends or colleagues. An absolute disgrace to the services sector in the UK.

This is probably the worst letting agency I have ever used in my life. I have been renting for nearly 7 years in the UK and I definitely had the worst possible experience. The staff is extremely unhelpful, arrogant and ridiculously rude. I had no water in the flat when I moved in, missing letter box keys, fob is not working, broken wash machine, the flat was dirty, messy and not even been cleaned! It took them weeks to fix the problem, definitely wasn't a livable condition when I moved in!!! When I moved out, they tried to charge me £180 for cleaning fee, and blamed me for broken items which were already broken when I moved in and the flat was dirty on arrival! I can guarantee that the flat was 100% cleaner when I moved out compared to when I moved in! I would not recommend that you use these guys to deal with anything from sales to lettings to maintenance. Inaccurate descriptions, lack of timely support, manipulative practices, disrespectful and disgusting services!

Very rude. Impolite.

Very bad form John Shepherd! Made a service request back on 19th November 2022 and still awaiting their response over 6 weeks on (and this was to their management team)! Calling this agency dynamic and responsive would be a gross exaggeration. You've got my emails and telephone number so don't be shy and call me!

Rude Customer service

Worst agency ever .