Greedy!! Cheap!! Unprofessional!! Unethical!! The Agency is very cheap and greedy. They don't give the property in clean and maintained way and expect tenant to manage and keep it maintained. An example is attached. This is how they have handed over the garden at the time I moved-in to property. I have raised concerned before tenancy process, over the phone, Justine has agreed that the owner will do the needful before I move in. At the time of key handover, I again raised the concern. She said, she will speak with the owner and do the needful. And after a month, when I am following up about the status, the property manager Duncan is straight away rejecting it and saying it in not in there record and since I agreed with the tenancy, it is my responsibility to clean it and maintain it. The previous tenant is also working with me. They have charged £600 for carpet cleaning and mowing the garden. When I have moved in, all the kitchen cabinets, oven, bathroom floors were full of stains and marks. And garden state is quite visible in the photo attached. Then why the seven hells they have charged such a big amount from the previous tenant if they did nothing. I don't recommend this agency and ask to avoid unless you have not any other option. They can only give you pain and stress and nothing else. It was my big mistake to choose this property and agency. Greedy!! Cheap!! Unprofessional!! Unethical!!

Appalling handling of the sale of my house. I checked & was completely assured any potential buyer would be vetted ‘properly’. It’s a basic service of any decent estate agents. The OFFER is verified. Finance in place - verified, deposit in place - verified. John Payne has wasted TWO MONTHS of me being able to sell my house to a ‘verified’ buyer. I have been mislead. I have been told information which is not true. I accepted a lower offer & a 2nd Memorandum of Sale issued weeks ago, to get an ‘email’ out of the blue to tell me they’d given the keys out to yet another lenders valuer, WITHOUT my knowledge, WITHOUT my permission & WITHOUT having the decency to pick the phone up to me to inform me. The revised offer they got me to accept wasn’t even verified, checked or confirmed by seeing basic evidence (only now I find out). I have now lost so many hundred £’s to solicitors & not been kept informed, not told the truth, not bothered to follow up anything they promised at the start. I thoroughly checked with the Senior Sales Manager when choosing JOHN PAYNE ASSOCIATES they would be efficient in the simple basics. They will happily charge you £’ssssss to ‘sell’ your house for you, but make promises to attain your business which they do not carry out. I have today lost the house I am buying because of this. I have lost 2 months of potential serious buyers buying my property in what is already a vulnerable time in the housing market. Upon stating I am changing representation today, the most efficient letter I have received within 30 mins from this company was to acknowledge that, remove it immediately from Rightmove & their windows without even an apology. ABSOLUTELY ABYSMAL.

This business charges an eye-watering 84% plus VAT for a let-only service. Even when their salesperson agrees in person to charge 50% plus vat to get the business, they pretend that their rate is not subject to change! Further, having been paid up front by the tenant for a 6 month tenancy their "computer system failed" to recognise this and did not voluntarily pay the money. I, as Landlord, had to ask them for it some 3 months in to the tenancy.NegativeQuality, Professionalism, Value

Terrible communication as i always had to CALL THEM during the process, woman on the phone rude to me. Only told me a few days before I needed to move into my flat that I couldn’t have it as the landlord was selling up and nearly left me homeless. I will never look for a property with this company again.NegativeResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism, Value

Not professional, not communicative. With fake 5 star review... AVOID!NegativeResponsiveness, Professionalism

Absolutely terrible company. Told me the landlord sold up A WEEK before I was supposed to move in! Then when they offered me another property, they give it to another person. Called multiple times and no one answered the phone. Almost left homeless as I already gave my current landlord the notice to move out. When looking for a property I will NEVER use this company again.NegativeResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism, Value

They Get you into a house nice and quick but you best hope you have no issues while you are living there because they won't sort anything. Half of this comes down to the landlord but while Payne's are managing the property it's up to them to push things forward. Had a leak since the second week I moved in that was 5 months ago. Also got a faulty front door which you can't open from the inside sometimes which is a fire hazard as it's the only door in and out of the house and was told to get it fixed myself and invoice them. 5 stars to zero!

Where do I start, it cost £275 to be referenced, a charge that even at the time the government had announced they intended to make illegal as it is an unjust charge, yet Payne’s continue to charge and I’m sure will up to the date it becomes illegal. We offered to pay slightly above the advertised rent in exchange for an expedited move in process with a set date. Payne’s agreed, failed to meet the date by 2 weeks, then flatly made it clear that if wanted the house we still had to pay the higher rent. When we moved in the house was far from spotless, was littered with landlord items not covered by the inventory and there was significantly more furniture included in the part furnished house than when we viewed the property. Which meant having to find storage for our own furniture. When we raised all of this with Payne’s they denied all knowledge. Payne’s then used an online inventory service, with a two week timer. I was away during this time so was not aware, when they returned they refused to allow me to add my comments claiming it is assumed because of the timer. A fact now refuted by the independent adjudicator at the tenancy deposit scheme, who confirmed, this meant our inventory was unsigned. Our main contact with Payne’s was an individual named Gary, who was extremely unprofessional and at best terse during his communication with me. Inspections were organised akin to how I imagine the stasi announced their arrival. One inspection where I explained a family member had died and could we postpone 2 weeks, I was told the inspection there and then was necessary by Gary. When it came to moving out is where the true annoyance began. Having left the property in a good condition on time as agreed. Payne’s decided to try and charge us around £850, including £120 to fit a push fit lamp the landlord had given us written permission to remove, full gardening services, a full house clean. They also highlighted we had accidentally left some items at the property, they refused to allow us to recover these and instead charged us for them. We refuted the charges so strongly eventually they dropped the demand to around £580. We made a concessionary offer of £250 which we thought was very generous and addressed their concerns. Eventually we took the whole issue to dispute where it was decided, it was unjustified to charge us for a full house clean, it was unjust for Payne’s to charge us two days of rent for not taking a day off to return the keys, despite the fact Payne’s did not attend our checkout and only work business hours. The TDS also decided their claims towards gardening were also high. In the end having tried to take us for around £850, Payne’s were awarded around £380. In short, from my experience Payne’s will be extremely difficult and then try and cover all of their landlords costs by aggressively pursuing your deposit. Contact with Gary and his manager Daniel were particular low points of the entire experience. When I was buying my house, I actively discounted looking at Payne’s advertised houses and would never advise anyone to do business with them if they value their reputation. If I could give a 0 rating I would. Now the tenancy dispute is done, I am looking into avenues of complaint and compensation against Payne’s in areas not covered by the dispute service.

Where do I start, it cost £275 to be referenced, a charge that even at the time the government had announced they intended to make illegal as it is an unjust charge, yet Payne’s continue to charge and I’m sure will up to the date it becomes illegal. We offered to pay slightly above the advertised rent in exchange for an expedited move in process with a set date. Payne’s agreed, failed to meet the date by 2 weeks, then flatly made it clear that if wanted the house we still had to pay the higher rent. When we moved in the house was far from spotless, was littered with landlord items not covered by the inventory and there was significantly more furniture included in the part furnished house than when we viewed the property. Which meant having to find storage for our own furniture. When we raised all of this with Payne’s they denied all knowledge. Payne’s then used an online inventory service, with a two week timer. I was away during this time so was not aware, when they returned they refused to allow me to add my comments claiming it is assumed because of the timer. A fact now refuted by the independent adjudicator at the tenancy deposit scheme, who confirmed, this meant our inventory was unsigned. Our main contact with Payne’s was an individual named Gary, who was extremely unprofessional and at best terse during his communication with me. Inspections were organised akin to how I imagine the stasi announced their arrival. One inspection where I explained a family member had died and could we postpone 2 weeks, I was told the inspection there and then was necessary by Gary. When it came to moving out is where the true annoyance began. Having left the property in a good condition on time as agreed. Payne’s decided to try and charge us around £850, including £120 to fit a push fit lamp the landlord had given us written permission to remove, full gardening services, a full house clean. They also highlighted we had accidentally left some items at the property, they refused to allow us to recover these and instead charged us for them. We refuted the charges so strongly eventually they dropped the demand to around £580. We made a concessionary offer of £250 which we thought was very generous and addressed their concerns. Eventually we took the whole issue to dispute where it was decided, it was unjustified to charge us for a full house clean, it was unjust for Payne’s to charge us two days of rent for not taking a day off to return the keys, despite the fact Payne’s did not attend our checkout and only work business hours. The TDS also decided their claims towards gardening were also high. In the end having tried to take us for around £850, Payne’s were awarded around £380. In short, from my experience Payne’s will be extremely difficult and then try and cover all of their landlords costs by aggressively pursuing your deposit. Contact with Gary and his manager Daniel were particular low points of the entire experience. When I was buying my house, I actively discounted looking at Payne’s advertised houses and would never advise anyone to do business with them if they value their reputation. If I could give a 0 rating I would. Now the tenancy dispute is done, I am looking into avenues of complaint and compensation against Payne’s in areas not covered by the dispute service.