Overall we’ve had a pretty terrible experience renting through Martin & Co. I’ll start by clarifying that we did work with two helpful members of staff over the 18 months we rented with them, but both have since left. If the employee experience is in anyway comparable to the tenant experience, I can’t blame them in the slightest. To be fair, we should have known something was up from the minute we moved in, summer 2021. We’d had a virtual viewing due to Covid protocols at the time, but on our moving day it became clear that the video we had seen was not as recent as had been suggested. The garden was massively overgrown and the house hadn’t been cleaned in weeks or more. But we tried to make the best of things, and after a fair bit of back and forth, Martin & Co sent round a gardener to cut back the 5ft high weeds. Problems arose again in the autumn. Large patches of damp appeared on the ceilings and walls of the bedrooms and dining room, and black mould accumulated in the corners of the bedroom too. We immediately sent photos of this through to Martin & Co, and while the staff were very helpful in contacting the landlord, nothing actually got sorted. A roofing specialist was sent round to inspect the property, and after compiling an extensive list of issues (ranging from no felt in the roof and rotted fascia boards to full-on holes in the brickwork), the landlord ultimately did nothing to address these problems. The advice we received from Martin & Co was just to sleep with the windows open… in winter. We were assured that when it stopped raining, the damp would soon sort itself out. It didn’t. Fast-forward to May 2022. There’s a hole in the roof. We take a photo, send it to Martin & Co, who pass it onto the landlord. A roofing specialist comes round, inspects the roof and yet again compiles a list of issues with the roof. Again, the landlord decides to do nothing, claiming that it’s not something he can afford. Bear in mind that at this point we had paid over £9,000 in rent to this man. A month later, the roof hole proved to be an excellent entryway for two families of pigeons, who took up residence in the roof. Again, we contacted Martin & Co, again we sent photos, and again the landlord refused to do anything. It’s also worth mentioning that this is around the time that the one helpful member of Martin & Co staff left, and communication became increasingly poor. We were simply told that as the weather was fine, the hole wasn’t really a problem. Also around this time, the landlord announced that our rent was increasing, no doubt due to his tireless efforts to keep the house in tip-top condition. After almost a month of pigeons living in the roof, we began to hear squeaking and chirping. They had, as birds do, set up nests and hatched some chicks. We let Martin & Co know, and of course, nothing was done. At this point, we decided to withhold rent. Amazingly, less than ten minutes after I notified Martin & Co of our decision, the landlord suddenly found the money to do the most minor of roof repairs. However, rather than actually paying someone to check on the pigeon situation before fixing the hole, the solution was just to replace the missing slate, trapping several pigeons and their babies in the roof. Hearing the panicked birds scratching around and trying to get out, we called Martin & Co and were told by the director “yeah well he’s a roofer, not a bird expert”. After calling the RSPCA, we were informed that not only was our landlord a negligent landlord, he was also actively committing a crime against wildlife since it’s against the law to trap animals inside a building. Phone calls to Martin & Co from the RSPCA led to the hole being reopened to allow the birds to leave. And our decision to give notice on our tenancy. But it doesn’t end there. Remember the damp walls and ceilings from autumn 2021? Well they of course returned. With a vengeance. Martin & Co did nothing, again. Terrible communication right up until our deposit was returned. Do not trust them.