My experience with Stevens & Carter has been better than with most estate agents, and I have dealt with many. They were generally prompt at dealing with requests and emails and sent through memorandums of sale quickly and efficiently. They also were quick to mark the property as "sold stc" after our offer was accepted, which has not been my experience with other agents. My only negative is to say that on the day of completion I needed some help with the house as electricity had been turned off, and was rather unhelpfully told that possibly this had been cut off with the electricity company, so I should call them. This shocked me as obviously I would not have been able to get it turned on within a day, and this should not have happened without our knowledge, also trying to speak to an actual human was near impossible. Eventually I worked out for myself what had happened, but it would have been helpful if they had been happy to ask the vendors; I know we had a lot of questions, but I was assured (by several different staff) that some of them would be answered at completion e.g. combinations for key safes (I still am unable to open these). I would like to say that they did pass on most of my questions quickly to the vendors, and come back to me quickly, so generally they are very good; perhaps this was just a one off lapse of judgment comment, but is why I have only given 4 stars instead of 5.

I've waited 8 months to put this review up as I didn't want to just do it out of anger at the way we were treated and lack of professionalism. We were in the process of buying our forever home and, although not initially planned, put our current home on the market with Stevens and Carter as they were the agents for the property we were buying. The seller was aware of our situation changing and advised they were happy to continue while we waited for our property to be sold and at their request we instructed the land checks etc to be carried out with our solicitor to show we were serious buyers. We were on the market within a week and had 1 day of 7/8 viewings. We were in negotiations and had just accepted an offer a couple of days after the viewings when we were advised the seller of the house we were buying wanted to put it back on the market that weekend to see if they could get more money for it. Stevens and Carter had told them whilst updating them on our viewings that during negotiations we were "quibbling over £5000" so they didn't feel we really wanted their property, this was despite us spending out almost £500 on the solicitor doing the checks they had requested only the previous week. When asked why the seller was advised of the negotiation amounts and price, we were informed that they had a duty to the seller to disclose such information. If we had been on the market with a different agent, all they would have been told is that we were in negotiations with no figures disclosed. This was private information which we had previously advised we did not want disclosing. Stevens and Carter relisted the property and got the higher price (and commission) the sender was wanting - who by the way refused to refund us the cost of the searches they requested we do, showing exactly the kind of people they are. They also kept us dangling that they may still sell to us which the agent seemed to think was reasonable for them to do! As our purchase fell through we pulled out of our sale so as to not mess our buyer around as we had been looking for a suitable property for a number of years and did not feel it was fair on them or want to feel rushed into settling for another property. We did complain to the property ombudsman and had made Stevens and Carter aware of this. It was followed up on, but, surprise, all phone recordings hadn't been kept, so there was no evidence although the complaint will have been kept on file which is something. We would never buy or sell through them again due to our experience, and a number of people have advised me the same due to negative experiences with them. We have avoided looking at some properties listed with them because of seeing they are the agent on rightmove, which is a shame as we are still looking for another property. On a positive note Sam Townsend was always very professional & helpful but someone else in the team got involved and that was that. Too much information was disclosed and once the seller decided they wanted more money Stevens and Carter were not really interested in helping us resolve the situation. I'm sure they'll come on here and say different though. Previously, we have always used Crane and Co when selling our house and will do again in the future. Our position did change as clearly stated in my review and this was disclosed as soon as we were aware to the seller. The issue, and main point of complaint, was the over disclosure of information.

All I can say is avoid ....

*** BUYER ALERT*** This is info for other buyers going through Stevens & Carter Hailsham... in the hope that they are not ‘FLEECED’ as they attempted to do with us. The agent & vendor alike acted disgracefully. As a buyer we may be of less importance to these ‘people’ because we all know, higher sales equals higher commission... However certain disgraceful practices should really have Ombudsman consequences. We were ‘pushed’ up and up on an offer on a property of theirs in Coast Road, Pevensey Bay. Initially marketed at 395K. I was never comfortable with what we finally agreed on (385K) and hence organised a 2nd viewing 14/05/22. We realised that realistically 50K minimum was what actually needed to be spent on this house inside and out especially because on 2nd viewing we realised it needed a whole new heating system which agent, other than a few words on the house profile, NEVER chose to mentioned to us. Yesterday morning 16/05/22 I sent agent a nice email explaining that regrettably we had to withdraw from the purchase & I explained why. Their ONLY response was, within an hour or so of my email receipt, reducing the price online by 20K (375K)!!! If that isn’t proof enough of agent/vendor FLEECING & MALPRACTICE I really don’t know what is!! In all my dealings with agents over the years this has truly left me flabbergasted to say the least. BUYERS just please beware! I am sure the agent will reply to this, will have to reply to this to cover themselves. To you I therefore say again... DISGRACEFUL! I have emails & screenshots of every stage. I want no other BUYER to go through this! My partner & I will make sure of this.

Honestly... one star is generous. I viewed a property a few weeks ago and the service was diabolical. Firstly the Viewing agent was late. Then he pulls up and gets out of the car, shouts 'hi' and walks to the front door of the property. I said 'Hi Are you Dan?' He said 'No'. My mother an I looked at each other in disbelief. I had to say 'Sorry, what is your name then?' He was Sam. Clearly he had not made a note of our names and this really set the tone for a shocking viewing. Sam walked extremely closely to us throughout the viewing, so much so that I had to ask him to give us space, because of Covid. We felt really unsafe. Sam continually told us what HE would do the property and didn't give my Mother and I a chance to chat about our thoughts. Sam then said we couldn't have paper details due to Covid safety regulations. This was puzzling as we had 3 viewings that day and we got paper details from all of the other agents. Stevens & Co also failed to ask us ANY Covid safety questions before we viewed and Sam didn't have hand gel or seem to have any regard for the 2M rule- so not having copies of the paper details smacked of him just being unorganized. 40 minutes after the viewing I received a call from the office asking me if I was going to offer. I was shocked by this approach and thought the entire process was handled appallingly compared to other agents I have viewed with. I wouldn't market my home through Stevens & Carter if this is how they conduct themselves at such a crucial time for the Vendors.NegativeQuality, Professionalism

Honestly... one star is generous. I viewed a property a few weeks ago and the service was diabolical. Firstly the Viewing agent was late. Then he pulls up and gets out of the car, shouts 'hi' and walks to the front door of the property. I said 'Hi Are you Dan?' He said 'No'. My mother an I looked at each other in disbelief. I had to say 'Sorry, what is your name then?' He was Sam. Clearly he had not made a note of our names and this really set the tone for a shocking viewing. Sam walked extremely closely to us throughout the viewing, so much so that I had to ask him to give us space, because of Covid. We felt really unsafe. Sam continually told us what HE would do the property and didn't give my Mother and I a chance to chat about our thoughts. Sam then said we couldn't have paper details due to Covid safety regulations. This was puzzling as we had 3 viewings that day and we got paper details from all of the other agents. Stevens & Co also failed to ask us ANY Covid safety questions before we viewed and Sam didn't have hand gel or seem to have any regard for the 2M rule- so not having copies of the paper details smacked of him just being unorganized. 40 minutes after the viewing I received a call from the office asking me if I was going to offer. I was shocked by this approach and thought the entire process was handled appallingly compared to other agents I have viewed with. I wouldn't market my home through Stevens & Carter if this is how they conduct themselves at such a crucial time for the Vendors.NegativeQuality, Professionalism