I’ve never left a review before and I’ve hesitated for four months on whether to take the time to do so here, but as the service I received had an impact on my children, I felt it necessary to share the appalling service and lack of humanity I received from Sparks. I intend on making a formal complaint, but if this comment stops one customer using Sparks, it’ll be worth it. Having rented through Sparks for almost two years, I notified them of a temporary change in circumstances earlier this year. My partner and I had separated and I was on maternity leave at the time. As a result I was forced to claim Universal Credit for a very short period of time - something I’ve never needed to do before but fortunately i was entitled too whilst my salary was lower. I notified Sparks of the change in circumstances and within two days I was served an eviction notice under the Housing Act. I have a two year old and at the time, my baby was three months old. I understand there is no legal obligation to provide further detail when an eviction notice is served. However the timing was very coincidental and didn’t sit right. I’ve been a very reliable tent and would have had no issues continuing to pay my rent. I contacted Sparks for some support and advice and the disrespect, lack of empathy and general tone I received from Debbie in lettings left me in tears. I was made to feel like I was an inconvenience (not the first time when liaising during my time letting the property - we’d had many a problem during our time at the property which I will go on to detail further in this review, one of which could have been fatal had I not caught it in time). Debbie even chose to advise me that my landlord had cancer - this is absolutely awful and my heart went out to them - but was completely irrelevant to why I was being evicted - the property was due to be re let and since has been. Another point Debbie chose to highlight during this particular conversation was “if you choose to rent it is up to the landlord if they wish to evict a tenant”. Having worked in property PR prior to my current position, I think I’d be accurate in saying that this generation do not “choose to rent” it’s sadly an implication of being priced out of the current market. The snobbery was all too apparent - please note, not once did Debbie offer to help share details of properties which may have been of interest. Knowing myself and my two small children would soon be homeless. I’ve since gone on to move to a property which is lovely, has had no issues and the landlord was very understanding regarding my temporary circumstances when we first moved in. I’m now back at work again in a career I worked very hard for. I appreciate that the landlord is a client of Sparks, but so was I and the service I received was disgraceful. sparks Since moving, the landlord also tried to take over half of my deposit. I requested proof of receipts from Sparks again and again but these requests were always responded with a passive aggressive email from Debbie. Eventually I disputed this via the TDS - thank goodness for this service as we have luckily won our dispute. Sparks would have happily allowed the landlord to unfairly and wrongfully deduct costs. Whist being five months pregnant, I discovered the fuse box in the property was burning - I’d smelt something and luckily checked it before going to bed. It was a matter of time before it wold have blown. It since came to light that the landlord hadn’t had an accurate check completed before we moved in which led to this felt not being picked up. This is just one of the many issues we endured during our time at the property. The maintenance man actually once said, “we should move in here”. I appreciate Sparks is a business, but they advertise themselves as a “ caring, community organisation” and this is so very untrue. My rent was always on time, I looked after the property well and we were reliable, good tenants - despite all the issues we faced whilst renting this dangerous property. Shame on you Sparks. Utterly appalling service.