I’ve dealt with countless estate agencies, for both renting and buying properties, and I hate cliches but - if I could give 0 stars, I’d give -1 to this happy bunch. Nicholas Humphreys Northampton is one of the most poorly organised, unprofessional, condescending, and frustrating estate agencies you will ever deal with. A family run business, with each family member being given glorified titles of ‘directors’ and ‘managers’, when frankly they could barely direct and manage a low budget YouTube video. The Carpenters are a plague in the property industry. I had the misfortune of renting a property through them for a year. We arrived on our tenancy start date 14th July 2022, to find the property had not been cleaned yet, there was plaster around every socket, there were cables hanging down from the ceiling, the cupboards were greasy and yellowed, the oven was filthy and so much more was wrong - I still have the several pictures I sent them. The email was so big, I had to upload the images onto One Drive, as they would not fit onto a normal email. Time went on, and more problems arose. From damp/mould, to a leak through the boiler, which I reported promptly and never got an update as to when someone would be coming out. When I called to check, a few weeks later, Kate Banas informed me someone could come the very next day. I politely informed her I would be away at a wedding and would like to be there - could they come a few days later instead. She said it was fine, but then emailed me later to suggest if the boiler were to ‘get worse’, due to this ‘delay’ that I had apparently caused, I would have to foot the bill. In short, I replied absolutely not - to which she responded rudely as if it were my fault and apparently the delay was caused because of me - even though I had reported the issue weeks ago, and she was only able remember I had reported the boiler issue because I had made the follow-up call, to ask for an update. This email exchange took place over a shared email inbox - which the directors have an overview over, but no one stepped in to say - you know what, that’s not great customer service, Kate. The damp/mould mentioned earlier was always dealt with via email - ‘open the windows and use heating’. The windows were opened daily, and heating was used often. Our laundry was done at a laundromat - we were not actively causing any moisture, but Michael Carpenter did not seem to have the critical thinking skills to think - maybe these tenants are not lying and there is just a lot of moisture in that poorly maintained property. I had many of these exchanges with the Carpenters. At the end of it all, they withheld a lot of my deposit - some of it I agreed with. Other bits, I contested, and some money was taken off after Michael finally agreed. Be wary of this and keep all email threads with this agency. They will also use Kate’s husband, Jacek Banas, to do dodgy work around the house, and then invoice this to the tenant. They will then tell you that he’s cheaper than other quotes, to make it seem like they’re doing you a favour - yes, he is cheaper and for good reason. His work is awful. Poor landlord. Michael decided to be rude and condescending once again via email about the deposit, to which I responded in the same manner. I got a lovely email from his wife - another self-proclaimed DIRECTOR - saying she did not ‘appreciate my tone’. I advised her to speak with her team about tone and customer service, before commenting on mine, as I’d been nothing but polite and cordial to them, until I had those exchanges with her husband and Kate. There were many other things that I do not have the time to go into. The titles that these poor-excuses-for-estate-agents have given themselves, are not worth the paper they are written on. Strange individuals with no people skills, decorum or moral compass. Even if I did love a property in the future, I would not look twice at it, if it were being marketed by these individuals. Stay well clear. They will likely respond to this with lies, and I expect nothing less.