RENTERS BEWARE - We moved into our flat approximately 10 months ago with an agreement that we would stay for a fixed term of one year which would then transition into a periodic rolling contract. We were contacted twice ahead of the expiry of the fixed term with a proposal to renew, which we declined in favour of the pre-agreed rolling contract. Without warning or explanation an employee of Martyn Gerrard delivered a section 21 "no fault" eviction notice for us to leave the flat. To make matters worse, the eviction date is the same date as when my partner is expected to give birth to our first child. It would appear that Martyn Gerrard does not have any regard for the welfare of their customers if they believe that they can profit or take advantage of you in anyway. UPDATE - Martyn Gerrard contacted us 10 days after serving the eviction with another "offer" (threat) to withdraw the eviction and to extend the lease. It appears that lease renewal is an income stream for MG which enables them to charge additional fees to landlords (they have a renewal consultant employed to do this). If the tenant does not agree to this then they will offer to evict and replace the tenant using this tactic and will secure another new-tenant contract fee. Through this lens it appears as though Martyn Gerrard and employees are incentivised to have tenants sign as many lease renewals as possible and are willing to blackmail their customers with eviction. They are willing to misuse section 21 eviction laws to achieve these ends - laws which have been acknowledged to be unfair and in need of replacement. This is a serious conflict of interest and a warning which should be flagged here in order to benefit the wider general public. After this experience I would strongly advise prospective tenants and landlords to reconsider their options and take their business elsewhere if possible.

Even one star is way too much! We have been left hanging to view the property and missed few other just to find out couple weeks later on website it was already rented out. Despite my husband's calls, me registering with their agency and their promises to call us back about the property. They might be good, but in wasting people time nothing more. Glad we have had that experience with renting from this estate agency, at least we know we will definitely avoid them to buy our house.

AVOID AVOID AVOID Please do not be fooled by any of the good reviews about Balgores Hayes Brentwood. We rented a property from them two years ago and had serious issues with the property including severe leaks and damp which we informed them of multiple times in writing however property managment never did anything to resolve the issue OR even inform the landlord. It was because of this we left the property and vacated in August 2020 towards the end of our tenancy which we paid for until the end of our contract. It is now December and we still have not received our deposit back which equates to around £2000. After chasing them every couple of weeks we were never directly told about a dispute our landlord had regarding the issues of the leaks and the damage it left the property it, only in a brief phone conversation in November months after chasing back our deposit. Oddly all of my emails relating to the issues had never been passed on to the landlord and the property management team had left the property to rot. All of this and not to mention the lettings manager attempted to blackmail me over email to get me moved out of the three bedroom property in ONE WEEK during the pandemic due to finding a new Tennant that he was scared to lose and told me if I didn't the potential new Tennant would be devastated and homeless when I said it wouldn't be feasible as a family with a young child and no support whilst in lockdown to which he became rude and aggressive. He also refuses to acknowledge any part of his responsibility in helping tenants and when I called him out of desperation when having an enormous leak in the house his words were ''what do you want me to do about it''. The list goes on and on with the no returned phone calls or emails, the members of staff laughing at m y desperate pleas in the background and still I have no deposit back. Please do not deal with this company ever, they cannot be trusted. Im now lodging a formal complaint to try and obtain my money back.

Avoid

Unprofessional, Uninterested, Untrustworthy. After a week of negotiating for a flat, I was told by Jessica that 1.) the landlord would not accept my proposed move-in date 2.) the landlord would not accept a break clause and 3.) that the flat would be furnished. All of the above was proven to be false, when my partner and I met with the landlord ourselves. Having no furniture of our own, it was imperative that the flat would be furnished, but the landlord claimed it was marketed as an unfurnished flat and that he was never willing to furnish it himself. During this time, we lost a viable flat. The lettings manager, Anthony Spittle, was hostile rather than receptive. I am still waiting for them to refund my deposit, despite having made it last Friday (it is now mid-day Wednesday). Paul Van Halle, head of property management, promised to oversee my refund, but this has clearly not been a priority as it should have been. Plenty of other more reliable, friendly and helpful agents nearby. I would recommend to use anyone other than Martyn Gerrard.

Called them multiple times and no one answered the phone. Checked Google timings and called between the operating times but no answer. How can they do business when they can't even answer a phone call!

The initial meeting with JH was professional and friendly. Once he had secured our signature to use Balgores, without being asked we started to be looked after by other members of staff . I was at home twice when Balgores turned up unannounced and let themselves in to find out later they had forgotten to confirm a show around. We were lied to on numerous occasions once our property had been sold, fortunately we knew one of the new owners who confirmed what they had told us was not true. We were also given very bad advice regarding renting a home, we were told not to start looking until 2 weeks before completion which has left us homeless Their renting department is worse than their buy/selling dept, we never once heard back from them. I tried complaining to JH but have heard nothing for 2 weeks so have no other option but to leave negative feedback here

Terrible.