The worst estate agent I have had the displeasure of dealing with in the last 45 years. Totally incompetent. The manager/director Will most unhelpful in all my dealings with him.

I rented my house out with the Bolton branch to 2 tenants who were living there with a child, for a 12 month contract, which specified that no pets be allowed in the property. I provided 4 months’ notice for the end of the lease and, it became apparent, closer to the date, that the tenants were struggling to find a place to move to as they were purchasing a house and had not planned accordingly to account for any delays. We had to keep chasing the agency for an update about what was happening and, by this stage, it was too late to extend our contract where we were currently staying or to find another place to stay. The agent we were dealing with in particular, Roger (somehow the director of the office), was always out of the office and would either take a very long time to respond by email/calling or would ignore. When he would eventually respond, he was unable to offer any updates and there was absolutely no urgency in chasing the matter or communicating what was happening to us. He kept asking us whether we could extend our contract, which was not possible, probably as he was too lazy to do his job and also so he could potentially try to get a couple of months’ extra commission. When it did get to the stage of my partner and I having nowhere to live, despite providing 4 months’ notice, and having to look into pursuing a legal eviction, he also had no knowledge of how to proceed and said this would just be something that we had to sort ourselves, with no guidance on the matter. In the end, we spoke directly with the tenant, who was also difficult to get hold of, as we did not trust that Roger was actually following up with them on his end. We spent the entirety of the past month and a half chasing the agency and the tenant for an update, and were prepared to go ahead with legal proceedings on the end date of the tenancy. Fortunately, the tenant managed to secure a new place a couple of days after the end of the tenancy. However, the whole process was incredibly frustrating and upsetting, being so difficult to get an answer from the agency or any advice. My partner and I would not have had anywhere to move and were uncertain of how to even plan our future, plus had to spend a lot of time chasing the office when we both work full-time and have other commitments. The agent would also say one thing on the phone and then contradict himself later in an email. Even the day of the move out, he had promised that he would be at the property in the morning to complete the check-out and return the keys by midday but did not contact myself or my partner on the day to keep us updated. My partner rang the office and he said he didn’t know what was happening, which made absolutely no sense. After a great deal of chasing, we managed to pin it down to 3pm. My partner and I work full-time and yet we had to keep chasing. Roger seemed to think we should just be at the mercy of his disorganised schedule (if one actually even exists). We kept having to chase right up until the end when it should have been a simple, transparent process. He had no sense of caring about his role, or even basic competency and communication skills, when supposedly acting as an agent on my behalf. I have now also discovered that, from several neighbours to the property, that the terms of the contract were actually violated and there were 8 residents living there, along with a dog. This would have been picked up on, had the inspection checks been carried out correctly. I was sent a monthly inspection check by the agency and yet it’s become evident that they did absolutely nothing - not even the bare minimum - to warrant their commission on the property. Furthermore, we were assured by the agent that the tenant would pay for the days extended beyond the contract end date and we have had to chase this yet again, with no update received. If you want a lot of unnecessary hassle and stress, negligence, a complete lack of communication and competency, and a breach of contract, then use Belvoir. If I could give zero or even minus stars, I would!

My experience with Belvoir ultimately has been extremely disappointing and costly. I employed Belvoir as letting agents in 2016.At this time I had been visited by the effective “face” of the franchise, Mike Stuttard. He came over as professional and generally nice. He is the side of Belvior that goes out and "gets the business" Roger Basnett is the office man that manages the lettings. When tenants of my brother’s vacated his property he became frustrated with Roger’s apparent lack of efficacy or absence of base agent skills and asked me to assist.I should have taken this lack of interest as a warning. A short time later Roger informed me that my tenants were giving notice. At this time I asked him to cause someone to visit the property and check the condition prior to them leaving. Roger agreed to this and arranged re letting the premises out.In the meantime,unbeknown to me, Roger provided a reference to the tenants without checking the condition of the property or making any enquiries as to anti social complaints When the tenants left the property the premises were checked over and found to be extremely filthy. All the carpets were beyond cleaning, walls were filthy with food and liquid stains, built in furniture damaged and boiler leaking water and broken. Roger e-mailed the photos of the state of the property to me abroad and stated an intention to get the relevant trades in to give estimates to repair-This never happened. Of great concern was the fact that the last months rent had not been paid and only eventually chased up late “due to the computer”-This is an excuse Roger likes! This fact was not conveyed in relation to the reference provided a short time earlier and the reference was allowed to stand when it’s retraction would have been appropriate in the circumstances. On my return I visited the property and was even more shocked seeing the state in person. I advised Roger I wished the deposit to be entirely to cover the dilapidations. This was agreed and stated to be fully understood by Roger but he actually did exactly the opposite and claimed for rent arrears (this was intended to be pursued in the small claims court). Later Roger stated that he couldn’t remember any such requirement and inferred I was lying. This was despite the fact that the tenants even agreed the rent arrears shouldn’t come out of the deposit.I fully believe that Roger did this in order to charge the management fee for the rent. When I challenged him on this,he defended his position denying the refund. The business relationship ended when Roger inferred I was lying and a complaint was later made to Mike. It is pertinent to note that Roger does not deny the conversation, merely that he can’t remember it. I personally believe Mike could have dealt with the complaint more efficiently and critically however two amounts of monies were eventually refunded despite Roger’s opinion to the contrary. I do not in any way blame Belvoir Bolton for the state the tenants left the property however the total absence of effective management by Roger, coupled with the reference provided, in my opinion gave the tenant no incentive to remedy the damages prior to vacating. A rationale that the tenant may have stayed in the property longer, accruing more debts was proffered however I do believe that this shows a negligent attitude that merely results in the probability that the next unfortunate landlord suffers similarly. If the tenants had vacated owing money and left the property in the same condition as when initially rented I presume that Roger’s indifference and lack of competence would not have surfaced. All in all when the renting went wrong Belvoir were useless and uninterested. Roger has demonstrated to myself that he is untrustworthy. He uses "the computer" excuse regularly and is negligent with a poor level of customer service. He appears to be proficient in charging for items that are not appropriate or warranted. I personally would recommend that anybody dealing with Roger should always be in a position to prove the contents of the conversation.