I rent a property through northwood and I have nothing but problems and bad service. Very disappointing.

LANDLORDS BEWARE We went with Northwood in 2012 because were were moving to Australia and wanted the rent guarantee and peace of mind. It all looked very appealing when they came over with the glossy brochures but when the tenants came to view Northwood forgot to turn up so we had to show them around ourselves. The first couple of tenants were lovely but one later told me that she left because they wouldn't respond to her messages asking for small fixes or requests and then put the rent up with very short notice. We came back to the UK for visits over the next few years. The first time we noticed that the property was falling into disrepair such as the decking starting to rot. We pointed out that this needs to be picked up on inspections so we can get it protected before it's too late. We had complaints from neighbours that the tenants were smoking drugs outside the street and then there was a loud party with teenagers running drunk in the street and the police had to attend. We came back a few years later and the new tenants had basically trashed the property. It stank of urine and was covered in mold because they had disabled the extractor fans in all bathrooms. They had repainted without asking, drilled in huge holes into the walls and glued wood to the wall with no nails. Their pets had damaged our wooden floor and carpets. The garden was covered in over 15 dog turds. We sent a very long email telling Northwood how upset we were and the entire team ignored us completely. Davina, Louise and Graham refused to reply. Eventually Graham sent a message saying that they can't tell tenants how to live. We were very upset because this wasn't just untidy but causing damage and this was our family home for years. After 13 years with Northwood and very poor service we decided to give them notice. Their so called tradespeople continually did sub standard work meaning we had to pay for the same job to be done many times over costing us thousands in rotted decking and doors. They replaced bathroom taps and just threw the old taps under the bath. Carpet door strips were nailed on top of old strips and never matched. When we collected the keys nobody bothered to say thanks for using them for all this time. Everybody in the office just ignored me despite me dealing with them over all this time. They said they had done an exit inspection and that the house might just need another tidy up. I went into the house and discovered a disgusting filthy mess which took months and over 40 thousand pounds and four months in lost rent to put right. - House painted without asking and it covered everything including skirting boards and cornice - Wood no nailed so they could hang curtain poles and it tore off the plaster in huge chunks - Carpets infested with fleas from their cat - Custom shelving half painted with gloss but then given up - Filthy scum all inside the oven and kitchen units. Oven dirty beyond repair. - Missing and broken bespoke light fittings - Garage door severely damaged - Plastic cable conduit glued to the walls - Padlock clasps screwed into bedroom doors - Huge crack in bath panel - Argos curtains and blinds left up and ours throw into the loft - Holes drilled and rawl plugs left in but half filled in with Polyfilla I had to pay decorators, electricians, landscapers, carpet fitters to repair and replace everything so it was rentable again. Even the kitchen has to be ripped out because the insides had been used to store something black and it was completely stained. Everything was covered in dog and cat hair as as I said above, infested with fleas. Northwood are a disgrace to rental agents and I would never use them again. Please see photos attached for the state they let the property get into.

I have had the worst experience with Northwood. They left us with leaks in our ceilings and no living room light for over a year, the oven and hob were thick with grease when we moved in, the extractor fan was mouldy and the balcony was never cleaned as promised for 3 years. They just continued to pass the buck onto the maintenance company and blamed it on them, when Northwood have an obligation to take care of their tenants. Nothing was done and the rent just kept increasing. Our neighbour next to us (from the minute she moved in) had two noisy shitzhu’s (breaking the contract entirely) and still has not been evicted, Northwood just kept on dragging their feet. There were many many other issues with this company that we experienced throughout our tenancy. Which I took up with the JVS show. Upon departure there were a couple of surfaces that needed wiping down, and they billed us with a £100 cleaning fee, they’re also charging us £50 for a key fob that you can get on Amazon for £6. STEER CLEAR.

LANDLORDS BEWARE! I STRONGLY URGE YOU TO RUN A MILE FROM THIS AGENCY. I handed over an extremely well maintained property to Northwood and 2.5 years later I got back a filthy, mould ridden, damaged property and a garden pushed to the brink of extinction. An impressive sales pitch from Davinia Taylor and Graham Hill to win my business was the only thing Northwood did competently in the 2.5 years I had the displeasure of working with them. See attached example - I handed over a lush green lawn, here's what I got back (which Northwood deemed 'Fair' in their checkout report). 1. Their vetting and referencing process of tenants is completely unfit for purpose and they will happily place difficult tenants in your property. I quickly began to receive complaints from neighbours about my tenant. When the tenant eventually moved on to rent another property from Northwood, I was not asked to provide a reference (I guess that says a lot about the due diligence they invest in their referencing process). 2. They are unresponsive (it was not uncommon for me to wait three days for an email response) and they are often abrupt when they do communicate. 3. They are completely incompetent at overseeing even the most basic property maintenance - ironically forgetting about some key tasks and in other cases duplicating them (they serviced my boiler twice in 6 months, and billed me for it, of course). I never received an inspection report unless I requested it. The catalogue of errors and incompetence is too lengthy to list here, but know that after 2.5 years I estimate I spent 90+ hours either dealing with Northwood's errors, chasing them for responses or completing remediation on my property as a result of the tenant they placed. Ironically for the pleasure of this service they will charge you around 50% more than other local agencies. I have since come to learn from other landlords that there are some trustworthy, reputable local agencies based in Newport Pagnell. Do yourself a favour, learn from my mistakes and run a mile from this chaotic and stress inducing operation.

Bad experience, I call for rent property after view,talk I will send e-mail for apply holding deposit ,not happening, call against 3 hours,spoke is gone,no advise or call for advice.

An honest fart would be more helpful than the staff that work for this company.

TERRIBLE experience. Since being contracted had nothing but hassle and complete attitude from staff. Constant head ache of staff being unorganised and not wanting to help. AVOID AVOID AVOID.

Customer care, reliability and professionalism all zero. Stay away from these street kids.

We aĺ know they are scam artists. They do a good job manufacturing false reviews. In truth, awful, awful scamners. Ridiculous , horrible horrible people. ABOUD AT ALL COSTS peo0le ,b

i would completely avoid using this company. we had a viewing with Blake who could not have been less interested if he tried. he could not answer simple questions about the property and the process. we then dealt with Anita who i have never been spoken to so rudely then i was by her. she spoke to me as if i was dirt on the bottom of her shoe. she was so hard to get hold of as "she was always on the phone" or "out of office". we received no updates about our application unless we phoned. every time we did phone for an update i was spoken to as if i was nothing by Anita. we was told the wrong information about different things. i think its totally unacceptable how they let there staff doing viewing with no knowledge or at least a personality and the way they let there staff talk and treat people!!