Dear Kasia, having checked our systems we can not find your name under our system as a tenant at any properties. If you wish to discuss your review please call us on 01525371997 or email lettings@mandmproperties.co.uk.

Dear Lydia, We are sorry to see your feedback and have investigated this. Our search doesn’t come up with your name or a contact number. Please check that it is M&M Properties, Leighton Buzzard who you have been contacting about properties, as there are other Lettings companies nearby with the same name. If it is us, then we are of course happy to try and help. Please call the office on 01525 371997 and ask to speak with Chris Hollins the Branch Manager

Please see our response under the review for Sandra K as this is the same property and same tenancy. Kind regards, M&M

Dear Sandra K, Thank you for your review, of which all feedback is acknowledged and investigated where needed. It is of course disappointing to see the 1-star review and will outline my response below. Having overviewed your tenancy file, I can see that your review has been triggered by the end of tenancy checkout process, as all maintenance issues that you have included in your review were raised and dealt with during your tenancy – with no complaints having been made by you at those times. For clarity, maintenance issues can’t always be resolved instantly unfortunately. We must follow a process of referring to a landlord, gaining instruction and then instructing a contractor. The checkout process is carried out against your original inventory and schedule of condition, for fairness & accuracy. Along with the photos that accompanied that inventory. Photos from the end of your tenancy, which you were provided with also, show the requirement for cleaning due to the condition in which you returned the property, this was vastly different to how you provided the property. The cost for the cleaning required was sourced from professional companies who attended the property in person to provide an accurate quote. You were advised that the landlord had a new tenant lined up, and that the cleaning work required will need to be done by a certain date, whether you agreed to it or wished to dispute this via the TDS scheme, to prevent the landlord having to delay or possibly lose the incoming tenant. This would have then given the landlord grounds to seek compensation from you due to the new tenancy not starting. This was not a threat but us being completely transparent with you regarding the situation and what could have occurred. All viewings are arranged with tenants by phone call or email, and we do not access properties without permission. I strongly refute your claims that we are cruel or threatening in anyway. We carry out over 200 checkouts each year which are all carried out fairly & correctly with the original inventory and photos. Had the property been left by you in line with your inventory & schedule of condition then there wouldn’t have been any need for cleaning to take place, but unfortunately this was not the case. All tenants are provided with a tenant’s guide, tenancy agreement and inventory at the start of their tenancy, this outlines what is required from them throughout the tenancy and at the end. As stated above, it is disappointing to see that you felt the need to leave a 1-star review, as I do not believe that this justified based on the overall management of your tenancy but born out of your own frustration in relation to how you returned the property and being held responsible for this. Which was the right process to follow and would be the same for any tenancy checkout. I wish you all the best for the future. For clarity, this response also acts as a response to the review left by CombatWaffle, as this refers to the same tenancy.

Dear Aaron, We are sorry to hear you felt the need to review our company the way you have. As you can see by the many five-star reviews from tenants, landlords, buyers and sellers we do strive and succeed in delivering very high levels of service on a regular basis. We regret you feel this was not the case for yourselves. When you report a maintenance issue to us via our FixFlo platform you will be aware that we have to have the issue either inspected by a property manager and or then quoted for by one of our reputable contractors if this is required. The quote then has to be approved with your landlord and as you can appreciate this process takes time from start to finish and even sometimes depending on the type of issue second quotes are required. I can see looking at the notes on the system the many issues you raised during your tenancy were all dealt with in a reasonable time frame and you were communicated with throughout the process. Relating your checkout of the property you rented, this was completed fairly in line with your inventory schedule of condition on move into the property. We also completed a pre-checkout with you ahead of your checkout date in order to ensure we outlined any issues that you would need to resolve. There were some cleaning issues of which were pointed out that you should rectify before handing in the keys and agreed to do. There were no other issues raised on your pre-checkout. On your checkout inspection the same cleaning mentioned hadn’t been done and therefore it was agreed with yourself that £150 would be deducted from your deposit to see to the cleaning as you didn’t do this. Of course, we report back to you within a few days of the checkout being completed to ensure the deposit is finalised as soon as it can be for your sake. To add, if you had done what was asked of you then you would not have been penalised. This cost was agreed with you and you have accepted the deduction via the TDS website along with the rent you owed and had the remainder of your deposit returned. The TDS outline the timeframe in which your landlord has to notify of any deductions once you request the deposit back and your deposit was actually returned sooner than the TDS advisory date. The proof of the cleaning being done has been sent to you and as you were told when you chased the invoice before that our contractors invoice us at certain dates in each month and therefore, we can only send the invoice to you once we receive it. To summarise, you have alluded to our company and staff as being liars and have also suggested in your comments that money withheld from your deposit (at fault of yourselves) has not been used to conduct the necessary cleaning that was agreed. Your accusation of fraud is very serious and we have notified our legal department of your comment. We of course refute your comment as proven above your deposit deduction of £150 was paid to Pineapple Cleaning. As an ARLA Licenced agent (Association of Residential Letting gents) we voluntarily ensure we follow the extremely high standards ARLA set for their members which in turn ensures an excellent service to our clients and customers. We have four established ARLA agents in our showroom who between them have over 100 years of experience in property management and continue to ensure M&M Properties set the standard in the Leighton Buzzard market and build on our position in the market by word of mouth recommendations. We wish you all the best in your new home and should you wish to contact us about this in any further detail please do get in touch at lettings@mandmproperties.co.uk or 01525371997. Regards, M&M Properties Lettings

Dear Mr Sullivan, We note your review of our company, and we regret you felt the need to review our local business is such a way. A business that has been in Leighton Buzzard since 1986 and one of the very few remaining independent small companies. Unfortunately, given the severely high demand for properties in this area and generally across the UK property market, landlords are extremely cautious on which applications are progressed and those that are not. Sadly ,we find ourselves in an era where landlords are leaving the sector, and the result is less properties to let. The majority of Landlords are now covered by rent guarantee and legal protection insurance which does require the tenant to pass through the referencing process, ensuring that a landlords insurance remains valid and they are protected. We as a company also uphold the most stringent referencing criteria and due to the lack of supply this high standard has increased as supply decreases. We understand the frustration you are experiencing with trying to find a rental property and sympathise with this, unfortunately you won’t be the only prospective tenant in a situation where an IVA (Involuntary financial agreement) is restricting them. With an outstanding IVA, it is a failure of the referencing process which does mean that unfortunately very few of our clients would be able to accept an application from yourself as it leaves them unprotected with their insurance. A guarantor does not necessarily mean you will pass the reference checks either, as factors surrounding your IVA like how much it’s for, when it began and how long it has left to run will have an effect. I was pleased to see that you mention our colleague was very sympathetic which is great to hear, as we do not like turning away applicants, but we must be as clear and transparent as possible with the processes involved with letting a property. The last thing we would want to do is offer false hope or waste anyone’s time. I would also point out that many rental agents and property managers, in this era of low supply and high demand, are processing tenant enquiries by email only. We still believe in the human touch but of course this sometimes means we receive reviews like yours, that’s a shame. I do feel your email is more aimed at general referencing policies, the UK market and PRS as whole as opposed to just your recent interaction as it sounds as though you are having the same issue elsewhere. Hopefully, you will have success imminently. As I have mentioned, we regret not being able to help you for the reasons above but wish you well with your search for a rental property. M&M Properties

Dear Jorge, sorry you felt the need to review us with one star without any context. Unfortunately, we are unable to help with your rating as we are not aware of your name nor a reason you would review us in such a way. Maybe you have confused us with another company? Please do get in touch so we can understand your relationship to our business as at this point, we cannot see any contact between you and us. Sales 01525377733 or Lettings 01525371997. Regards, M&M LB.

Dear Jorge, sorry you felt the need to review us with one star without any context. Unfortunately, we are unable to help with your rating as we are not aware of your name nor a reason you would review us in such a way. Maybe you have confused us with another company? Please do get in touch so we can understand your relationship to our business as at this point, we cannot see any contact between you and us. Sales 01525377733 or Lettings 01525371997. Regards, M&M LB.

Dear Mr Razak, We are sorry to read you review some 3+ years after we ceased managing your property. We regret that giving you a vastly reduced management fee for many years and then reducing our termination costs was not enough to satisfy you. This was a property we managed for the previous client for some 11 years without complaint. We note no complaints were made by you regarding our service to you over the years. We pride ourselves on 38 years of being Leighton Buzzards premier letting agent with 17 fully trained staff, 4 ARLA (Propertymark) licensed staff who have over 100 years combined experience, 24/7 reporting system for clients, processing over 1.5 million pounds of rental transactions monthly, servicing over 2000 clients (landlords/tenants) and being a truly independent company firmly rooted in the history of our town. We are sorry our fees did not suit your investment model however, we value our service and expertise very highly and as such wish you every success with the agents you choose to employ in future.