Have been a tenant for a year now and have Rebecca as our manager, who is great. She has made renting very easy and pleasant, responding very quickly to emails or calls and sorts any issues out equally as fast with the landlord (who we have not met but also seems very dedicated to us, the property and helping us sort any issues out). The only thing for me bringing it down to 4 stars from 5 is that our contract if only for 6 months at a time and have been told the contract cannot be extended to a yearly one which we would ideally have gone for. Upon renewing every six months, comes with a £60 fee each time. This however is made clear in the contract, it's just a shame that we cannot extend.

Pretty happy mostly with getting our house, in a good location and also able to get quick responses from the staff at Northwood. However, it has been a bit disappointing to have issues still being resolved 3weeks after moving in. Issues that were not resolved upon receiving the keys were leaks, stuck doors and waiting for pest control. I didn’t really want to move in with my kids while there were still pest issues. I also had to shampoo the carpets throughout and generally deep clean as the carpets were dirty and were a lot of webs and flies around. Now finally getting settled, except for the leaky sink. Otherwise happy with the friendly staff.

I got asked to write this review weeks ago since Northwood are no longer my lettings agent and they would’ve got a good review until today. Northwood gave my name and phone number to an energy provider that is nothing to do with me, for an unpaid bill that wasn’t registered to my address 🤦🏼‍♀️ I was threatened with debt collection action over this bill, and Northwood had nothing to say except a very half hearted sorry, told it was fine since I wasn’t liable for the bill and an incredibly rude woman asking what else I expected her to do. Maybe find out who gave my details out? At the bare MINIMUM speak with the person who made the error and make the aware of the consequences on their mistake? Nope, none of that. Seems their complaints procedure could do with a serious review. On the positive side, our property manager (Milly) worked really hard to make our tenancy enjoyable and she is a credit to the company.

Disappointing service. We went to view a property with this letting agent, the lady who showed us around was actually lovely hence the 2 stars, we fell in love and an hour later decided we would like to take the property. When viewing we had explained that i was expecting a baby and the woman showing us round had no issues with this and even gave us ideas for the second bedroom as a nursery! We called up and registered our interest, and were told we would be called back once all the viewings were over. One hour later we got a call back saying that if we wanted the property it was ours (subject to referencing obviously) and could we pay the holding fee then and there. This is I did and was absolutely over the moon. I must point out they were very nice on the phone at this point! I spent the rest of the day planning our daughters first home! Three hours later i got a call back saying they had spoken to the landlord and he did not want children in the property so we could not have the flat, is this not something they should be aware of before viewings and accepting a couple with a baby on the way? They told me they would refund me the holding fee and no more would be said about it, i said ok and holding it together asked for my money back which was paid on a credit card... silence... turns out she didnt know how to do this and would call me back. I spent the rest of the evening in tears and as you can imagine as a pregnant woman the emotional effect was not fun. Over the next three days i called countless times asking if they had found out how to do the refund only to be brushed off, finally i got hold of someone who quite rudely and bluntly told me it had been refunded and i just had to wait to see it come back. Now i would have thought a courtesy call to let me know this had been done would have been company policy but clearly not. I never heard another peep from them. Luckily we have now moved into a beautiful house with another letting agent who have been absolutely fantastic so all turns out well for my little family in the end.

I was with Northwood as a tenant. We were limited by choice of housing in the area so the one we found we signed up for quick. The viewing was not an issue. It was strange the way the guarantor system worked. My credit rating was through the roof and earning a good amount. But due to not having rental history I had to have a family member who was younger and earner significantly less than me be a guarantor! Made no sense and we have to pay an extortionate amount for the privilege of doing it. Lived in the property for 2 years. We looked after it like it was our own. We passed the quarterly inspections with flying colours. I prided myself on that but repeatedly got requests to remove the weeds out the front of the property... Which were on my neighbours unoccupied property! They didn't accept this but I was not meddling on someone else's property so the complaints kept coming. Couldn't understand it. On handing in our notice in, next up were the viewings. The only request we had was that we put our personal effects in drawers and wardrobes and if they could not open them, it would be appreciated. The viewings came thick and fast and we vacated for them. On returning in numerous occasions OUR OWN PERSONAL FURNITURE with personal items were wide open, drawers open... I assume they just left viewers roam un-attended. Be wary of that. Someone signed up for property relatively quickly and it turned out we knew the new occupants. They had no furniture and with this being a townhouse it was extremely difficult to move large furniture items like tables and sofas out. The new occupant offered to buy from us and we were happy to sell. The only problem... Northwood. Despite it being a perfectly reasonable request. They threatened to fine us for every piece of furniture left. We had to move it out. Store it. Just to move it back in the day the new renter entered the property. Madness. We also had a fully fledged carpet cleaning vacuum which kept the carpets immaculate. However we were forced to spend hundreds getting a professional carpet cleaner in to provide an invoice to Northwood. I understand why they'd do this in most case but the carpets were in mint condition. The cleaner was in disbelief and felt guilty taking my money because he admitted the work wasn't required. Fortunately he seen sympathy and gave a discounted rate effectively in exchange for an invoice. On leaving the property, we were contacted by Northwood to say the kitchen was not cleaning to a good enough standard, particularly the sink area. They tried to enforce a cleaning bill of hundreds on me. After begging and pleading to get back in there to resolve it myself... I found a soapy sud ring left from a cleaning sponge on the washboard. I literally wiped it with a towel and it was gone. THAT WAS IT. After being out of the property for weeks, the new tenant had obviously had issues with setting up the television with the satellite points in the house. They did the right thing and contacted Northwood. Instead of Northwood contacting the home owner I had them contact ME, the former tenant numerous times for help with the house. Asking for how-to's. WHAT!? This company operates in strange ways. PRO-LANDLORD. Heavy handed with tenants. I would not recommend.

Unfortunately, we had a terrible experience with Northwood. When we first rented our property, we informed Northwood of some loose carpeting on the staircase which had caused my partner to fall down the stairs. Rather than fixing the issue, Northwood told us to “reconsider if this is somewhere we wanted to live”. When we discovered a massive cluster of black mould behind our fitted wardrobes (which had seeped through and destroyed most of our hung clothes) Northwood initially claimed that this was through our ‘lifestyle’ without even seeing the property. When we finally persuaded them to call out an independent damp surveyor who confirmed that this was a structural issue and in no way our fault, they were not apologetic and took ages to reply. My partner and I were forced to sleep on the downstairs living room floor for weeks until they finally got someone round to fix the bedroom. When I asked about fixing the black mould in the bathroom, we were told that it was ‘easily wipeable’ despite it being down the back of the shower and ceiling. Despite the house being advertised as pet friendly and us moving in with a cat and being transparent it the letting agent about our intention to get another, we were served an eviction notice when we got another kitten. (When we were initially showed the property, we were told that the previous tenant had three cats). We feel that this was Northwood trying to shift us out for fighting with them about the mould. This eviction notice was swiftly retracted, as the property was advertised as cat friendly. When we moved out of the property, Northwood tried to take a large chunk of our deposit. They claimed the carpets were unclean despite us paying a professional carpet cleaner that they recommended. Once we showed receipts, they removed this from the bill. We ended up having to raise a case with the DPS to get our money back for other grievances (we won). The property managers that we delt with were condescending, rude, and unprofessional. No one should have to be told to “reconsider if this is a place to you want to live” when raising a genuine health and safely concern. No rent-paying adult should have to be forced to sleep on the living room floor for weeks because their bedroom is uninhabitable due to mould. No one should have to fight with the DPS to get their deposit back in a cost-of-living crisis. The only reason my partner and I are not raising this with the Housing Ombudsman is because the last year of renting with Northwood has been so horrible that we just want the whole ordeal to be over.

Do not use as a tenant unless you’re happy to forfeit your whole security deposit.

Throughout the whole tenancy, they seemed to do everything in their power to make moving into our first rental house a hellish experience. Told us we wouldn't need a guarantor but then decided we did need a guarantor, unnecessary difficult attitude during the experience. If you're looking to privately rent, my suggestion would be to steer well clear of these people, they're only interested in themselves and the landlord with no regard for tenants. The inspection after we had moved out was used to nit-pick details which had no relevance in being deducted from the already large deposit paid, a truly dreadful company.