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!

My experience during my tenancy was fairly standard for a letting agent, unresponsive and generally unhelpful. To be expected. However my experience trying to get the deposit back has been far from normal. John Shepherd are happy to send unsubstantiated claims for large sums of money but when pressed on why these deductions are being made are unable to provide a breakdown for the costs. This is of course in breach of the The Property Ombudsman (TPO) Code of Practice and ARLA Propertymark membership both of which they are bound by. This has halted deposit deduction negotiations and thus the proper return of my money in a timely fashion. I have raised these breaches of the Code with both Tina Margetts and Chris Blick but as of yet neither have even acknowledged receipt of the advice or complaint respectively. While they may have the logos of both ARLA and TPO to assure customers of their professionalism this could not be further from my experience when dealing with this organisation. I would urge others to read the TPO Code of Practice for Residential Letting Agents so you know exactly what service you should be receiving and ensure you are not being inadvertently mistreated by this organisation. Consumers have far more rights than letting agents would have you believe.

Trying to deal with these agents is impossible. I’m a landlord at a flat on the ground floor below a flat they are agents too. They have had a major leak in the flat they are agents too and basically told me they are getting a humidifier . What a joke. My tenant says the ceiling is about to collapse as in the pics attached and Julie at John Shepherd tells me the issue is fixed. No urgency what so ever on behalf of their tenants . The plumber they used used 3 different explanations for the leak and none of them are accurate. If this is how they respond in emergency’s they are not proper agents and show absolute no duty of care to their tenants and to the other people they are affecting .NegativeResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism

We have been fatally scammed by this "agency". WE DO WARN EVERYONE before proceeding with them, as the problems never arise before signing the contract. It has been an absolute nightmare since barely a year ago decided to move somewhere else. Our minimum stay was over by then. They have completely stolen our deposit, leaving us in a critical financial situation after having a baby and both of us lost our jobs because of Covid. As an example, they quoted £900 for a job that can be easily done for £100 (we indeed found many contractors that can prove this). We have been completely helpless. Please, stay away from these unethical and heartless people, they can ruin your life as they did to us.

LILLY JOHNSON I have had the worst experience with this member of staff and the way in which John Shepherd has dealt with my first potential rental experience. I offered an additional 25 pounds for a flat I was very interested in which she was quick to accept. Then I paid my holding deposit which which she once again took without informing me that it wasn't necessary to pay until everything was sorted. After everything went through, she sends me an email at 13.11 today to inform me that my tenancy has been cancelled without a reason. She then immediately puts this property back on the market for 50 pounds less than what I was offering, still without me cancelling. After this, she sent me a harsh text claiming that she had called me "five times" when in fact I was called once. To end this, she claimed that it was I who declined the move and now refuses to return my holding fee which amounts to just over £138. I have never experienced anything of the sort. Please stay away as you will never be given the contact details of who or where to complain or be offered any help. In response to the reply below... I was only called ONCE today and you had cancelled my contract even BEFORE getting to speak to me!!!! I have the timings on the emails, texts and calls to support this and I am more than happy to share these. Lilly's attitude was wrong from the off and it continued throughout the process. I forgot to mention that staff tend to be in "meetings" anytime a serious concern needs addressing.

This agency has mislead us by using false advertisement and information through out the moving in process. To begin they told us the property is managed by the Landlord but later when we have signed the contract only have they managed to …

This agency has mislead us by using false advertisement and information through out the moving in process. To begin they told us the property is managed by the Landlord but later when we have signed the contract only have they managed to tell us it was managed by the agency. Horrible HORRIBLE agency, please avoid at all cost!!!!!! The issues we have had with them started first when we were dealing with Brendan who was our point of contact and without any acknowledgments he was longer representing us, rather it was Lily. Lily never confirmed why Brendan was no longer our point of contact and all the issues we have told him about the property fall on deaf ears. It was lost in the transition. We signed the contract thinking all of the issues have been identified and looked into. We called the office for regular updates to confirm everything..NO answer. Every time we call it's the same old excuses. "Lily is in a meeting... Lily is busy, Lily is on the phone" etc. Honestly, Please avoid. I will never be using this agency ever AGAIN. I will make sure I save people from these SCAMMERS!!! They also never take complaints serious.