Martin & Co Birmingham Harborne

Worst estate agent to use. House was left on market for up to 18 months. They did not liaise with solicitors and buyer so buyer walked as they wanted to close.

Honestly one of the worst letting agents ever, we had so many issues and it took them a while to do anything about it and tried to scam us on our deposit which we disputed and we got most of the exaggeration back. I don’t know how they’re rated so highly, also very rude over email makes me think this is fake.

Those guys are really unprofessional and they will make everything they can to rip you off. They are holding our deposit for 2 months already as they put a list of unfair expenses to dry out the whole deposit. An example of this is charging … More

Scammers!!! We were advised to pay a holding deposit on a property before any legal paperwork. Unfortunately we trusted this agent only to know that the application was withdrawn once deposit was paid and the deposit was retained without any justified reason. This was an unprofessional way to finalise an agreement. AVOID at all costs !

Very poor customer care. Treating everyone as fraud. Very rude and unprofessional. Arranging viewing the property by themselves and using their spare keys, be careful they are entering the property without current tenants. Finally they locked the property with ERC - extra lock after viewing. Current tenant homeless overnight on the streets under freezing conditions. Please aware this is from Harborne branch

Very bad for tenants. The property managers claim to be impartial but clearly they are doing the landlord’s bidding. When we moved out of our flat they tried to take over £400 from our deposit. Our property manager listed numerous ridiculous charges - mostly things we could not be held responsible for. When I contested these charges, I was met with belligerent, obnoxious replies. Our property manager was the epitome of incompetent and refused to see sense. Essentially, what they were trying to do was extort us. After weeks of back and forth, despite the fact I’d said in the early stages that I was happy to take this to dispute, they finally raised it with the DPS. When the DPS took a look at it, they decided to award most of our deposit back to us (unsurprising, as any reasonable person with a working brain would realise the charges were completely unjustified.) If you are in the unfortunate position of being a tenant with Martin&Co, keep a record of all communication, and take photos when you leave. When they try to swindle you out of your money, insist that it is taken to dispute.

Despite my initial positive assessment of Tobias Ogunmesa as a competent service provider, he turned out to be unprofessional by neglecting my email correspondence regarding my viewing/application. It appears that his priority was seeking favorable reviews rather than delivering quality service.

We’ve been renting a property through Martin & Co Birmingham Harborne for some time now, but unfortunately, the experience has been very frustrating. From the beginning, there were multiple issues with the flat that needed to be fixed. Despite reaching out to them numerous times, no action was taken. In the end, we had to involve the Birmingham City Council just to get basic repairs addressed. Whenever a new issue arises, we have to chase them repeatedly, only to hear the same response—“the landlord is not responding.” This has been an ongoing issue not just for us, but for several other tenants in the building as well. The communal areas are in poor condition, and the outside of the building is not cleaned or maintained. As tenants, we expect a level of service and responsiveness, especially when renting through an agency. Unfortunately, Martin & Co has failed to deliver that. It’s disappointing to have to deal with these issues repeatedly, and it really makes us question the value of renting through this agency. I hope they improve their services for future tenants, but based on our experience, I cannot recommend them.

I give them 5 stars one year ago as the letting department offered us good service to finalise the deal smoothly. But I have to downgrade this to one star after a very disappointing service from property management department. The flat was not professionally cleaned at the time we received it with stains everywhere on the carpets and walls. Moreover, we had some issues we reported as soon as we moved in such as reluctant curtains that are stuck and not moving smoothly, a broken shower panel, scratches on cooking hub, toilets flusher that keep leaking some water and needs to be tightened from time to time. The handyman (Raj) that they sent told us that most of those faults are wear and tear and can't be fixed as the only way is just to replace the whole system. We didn't make a big fuss out of it. But the problem that all of those faults are now shown in the-end-of-tenancy report or inventory as faults that we are responsible for and we have to pay for to be fixed. When I contacted Simran (the property manager) , she mentioned that Thier data base shows that all of those faults have been fixed and they have the invoice showing the cost of fixing. I told her that it can't be a pure coincidence that those faults are exactly the same ones I reported at the beginning of tenancy. Second, It was obvious that the guy who has done the end of tenancy inventory is not bothered to check as he reported a lot of the flat contents as MISSING ITEMS only because they are in a different place (e.g. in kitchen cupboards instead of being on the kitchen table... Etc) Finally they wanted to charge us a hefty amount of money to professionally clean the flat while the flat was not professionally cleaned before we moved. Thier quotes for everything is twice or 3 times more expensive than average prices. (For example they charge £10 for removing a tape from the back of the door, a tape we forgot to remove and it can just removed in second) Unfortunately, we are heading to a dispute on DPS deposit service. For those who are renting through Martin and Co. Harbourne, please be fully aware and show attention to every detail at the time you move in , keep evidence, don't try to be nice tenant who doesn't make a big fuss of every detail as you might end up being penalized and taking the responsibility for it. Otherwise, your deposit will vanish by Thier unfair and hefty charges.

I am highly disappointed in this agency. I was called after going for a viewing and the landlord is happy with my offer and is willing to meet I and my husband to finalize everything. With this great news, we stopped every viewing I had. …