The overall experience from Castles was inconsistent, sometimes positive, but more often frustrating. Mainly because they don't get the basics right often enough. Initial engagement was very good, but thereafter the service was generally weak. The contract with Castles was issued after the house was advertised for sale, and the advert itself had to be changed several times due to painfully obvious spelling and grammatical errors. During the time the house as on sale, communication was inconsistent, with viewing notifications sometimes late or not received in advance. There is no single point of contact at Castles, only a collection of what feels like independent, free-lance agents, any of whom you might end up speaking to, and quite often don't know what the other agents are doing/have done. To Castles credit, some of the interactions were good, but again inconsistent. When we did get an offer on a house which we accepted, the house was taken off the market before confirming that viability of the buyers, who subsequently pulled out due to funding issues. This was poorly communicated to us, and led to us losing time in the sale of the property. When we found a property to purchase, there was no urgency from Castles regarding our house sale, or discussion of options to ensure that the sale did not hold up our purchase. A new buyer was eventually found, but despite promising to keep on top of the sale progress, there was little communication. Even details such as what time the surveyor would be attending was not provided, despite chasing repeatedly.

You've left your sign on the floor by Austins mead, Bovingdon for months now. Presumably either due to laziness or incompetence which both aren't things you want in a estate agent. It's a really low bar already. Come on.

I thought this estate agent it's not corrupted but i thought wrong, I made a offer in detached house in Charles Street in Boxmoor spoke to little kid called Lewis they accept it ask me to email the paper, mortgage I had in place just to go ahead ignored everything and sold the property cheaper. Doesn't deserve star. STAY AWAY THEY ARE CORRUPTED

After having driven twenty miles to sort out some jobs for a friend at his property which is for sales with Castles, we were met by a woman showing buyers around the property. The manager of the Castles office, Simon, had been told, and acknowledged, we were coming, but despite this, we were immediately asked to leave by someone the woman had called at her office. He would not listen to sense, and started getting aggressive, which caused us stress for the remainder of the weekend. Poor internal communication and poor professional behaviour.

As first time buyers we had a horrendous experience with Castles who made every step of the way difficult and more hard work than it should have been. Unfortunately they fit the bad stereotypes you hear about Estate Agents. I would not recommend buying a house from them as a first time buyer as they try very hard to take advantage of this fact.NegativeQuality, Professionalism

Lack of

Review from summer 2020 Positives: - Great photos of the property - Let us out of the contract without charge or fuss - Cheapest fixed fee Negatives: Very confident that the property would sell at a certain price and while I was not convinced, I agreed to go with it. The property had to be dropped a lot to even get viewings and was later valued by the lender at £40k less than Castles valuation. I especially requested that I wanted all the details (photos, floor plan, video etc) to go online at the same time. But the listing was uploaded incomplete, technical difficulties blamed and the issues never resolved. The listing didn't have much of a description and it started by repeating the same sentence twice. Lack of communication. It wasn't explained that the photos would be taken on a separate day to the video. I had to keep then asking when the video of the property would be taken and the date was rearranged a couple of times. Once the property went live, Castles stopped replying to my emails or phone calls. Overall they didn't seem to have any time to deal with me and so I quickly changed to another estate agent.

Sellers

Lazy agents who are not proactive when coming to sell your house, they do not chase any potential buyers and are rude. Cheap fees do not compensate for the poor customer service and lack of sale.

Firstly I would like to say 12 years ago when I purchased my property from Castles they were very efficient and professional unfortunately I did not have this experience this time round . I put my property on the market with Castles in February this year 2017 and although very friendly when they came round to photograph and market my property they didn't explain the length of contract they did explain the rate which they said was a special rate for a return customer which is wasn't 0.8 % is standard in most estate agents with a few a little cheaper . I should have read the contract but they took it with them not offering a copy or opportunity to read it like other estate agents do . I stupidly signed quickly as they hurried out unfortunately for me they tricked me into a 16 wk contract which is much longer than most other estate agents now that I've done some asking around !! I felt let down that this wasn't explained on reflection I Leart a big lesson you cannot trust certain estate agents obviously they are desperate for business that they have to lie to my husband saying that they explained everything to me !!! This wouldn't have been so bad if they had managed to get any viewings I had 1 in 16wks utterly ridiculous even in a slow market .I live in a nicely presented home in catchment of the only outstanding school in my area and a 5 min walk to Apsley station!!!! I would never recommend Castles to anyone ever again and I have certainly spread the word of their incompetence to everyone I can warn !!! Houses have sold in my area and my property sold within a few days once my contract had ended so proving their incompetence further avoid at all costs !!!!!