Worst rental experience I’ve had – poor condition, cost-cutting and excessive claims This has been the worst experience I’ve had renting a property. There were countless issues from the very beginning. On moving in, it quickly became clear that the property was not in a proper condition. Parts of the carpet were missing, leaving exposed flooring, and the carpets that were present were already stained. The kitchen worktop was stained and discoloured, and the paintwork throughout the house was of a very poor standard. There were also issues such as a broken curtain rail upstairs and damaged blinds in the kitchen. While the property may have appeared clean at first glance, the actual condition was very poor once properly inspected. There were also basic issues with workmanship around the property. For example, the fence in the back garden was not properly installed and had to be temporarily supported, frequently coming loose and being affected by wind. This is just one example of the general standard of upkeep. During the tenancy, maintenance was handled poorly. A faulty fridge freezer was reported and took over two months to be replaced, including during the height of summer. This made it very difficult to safely store food for a prolonged period. When it was eventually replaced, the new unit was around 30% smaller than the original, which felt like a cost-cutting decision rather than a proper like-for-like replacement. There were also serious concerns regarding access to the property. On one occasion, I was contacted requesting access on the same day. This did not respect my right to proper notice or quiet enjoyment. At my own expense, I installed an electric vehicle charger at the property (costing around £800), which added value to the home. Despite this, there was no willingness to show any goodwill at the end of the tenancy. At check-out, the report listed a large number of issues, many of which appear to fall under normal wear and tear. Given the condition of the property at the start of the tenancy, these claims feel excessive and unreasonable. I would also advise future tenants to carefully consider how their deposit is held. In my opinion, using a traditional protected deposit offers more protection, whereas the alternative deposit scheme where you pay monthly can leave tenants exposed to higher claims than what your standard deposit would have been. Overall, the experience gave the impression of a company that cuts costs wherever possible, does the bare minimum when it comes to property condition and maintenance, and then attempts to recover costs from tenants at the end for issues that were present prior to moving in. I would strongly advise anyone renting through them to thoroughly document everything at move-in and be prepared to challenge any claims. Also to use an actual deposit because they can attempt to claim thousands whereas standard deposit is just that. I see why they have poor reviews/ratings . It's just a shame we live in a world where housing is hard to find and we are forced to use companies like this.

Spoken to a woman called Ashley Bignoss at the john Shepheard branch today. Condescending and rude on the phone. I only called up to enquire about a house for sale and she’s huffing and puffing.

This is the worst agency I have used so far. Very poor communication, no responses to voice messages, and after the tenancy ended no one explained what the next steps were or what the process looked like. Additionally, one of the employees, Ashley ,was rude. He shouted at me over the phone and did not allow me to speak. This is completely unprofessional and irresponsible customer treatment. It reached the point where I had to ask him not to raise his voice at me. On top of that, he is trying to charge me additional costs due to his own oversight. Before moving out, I left voicemail asked where I should leave the keys and how I could access the electricity meter to take final readings. I waited patiently for three days for someone to respond to my voice messages. Now Ashley wants to charge me extra fees because of this delay, which was not my fault. I am very disappointed with the attitude of this agency. A professional agency should take care of tenants as well as landlords, not treat them differently. Unfortunately, that is the clear impression I got from working with this agency. I also strongly believe that phone calls should be recorded for quality and safety purposes, because situations like the one I experienced should never happen.

Terrible company. Spend more time trying to delete bad reviews than actually doing anything professional

Enough said. Do not deal with issues despite reporting 4 times through their portal. They also get contractors to call you and harrass you for fees you should not have to pay. When are my issues going to be resolved seeing as you have the time to unpublished my reviews.

No contact from Chris Marla for the last 3 weeks although we had a follow up call regarding the damp issue in our house aswell as bins. We’ve been given no council bins since moving in (3 months) meaning we’ve had to store bins in the garden. We were told bins were arranged back in September, and they were ordered. However, they haven’t arrived as our property manager ‘contacted someone she knew in the council to buy the bins’ instead of purchasing the bins through the councils appropriate avenue. (This ensures that bins arrive in 10 days at most.) They’ve also refused to give landlord details although the council requested that we contact the landlord following the issues. We were told contractors were arranged to visit to fix the damp in the house, but there’s been no fix in again, in 3 months. They’re an extremely ignorant company when it comes to actually addressing and fixing any issues raised with the house. We waited 1 week after the call with Chris ensuring the issues would be resolved promptly, until we emailed asking what’s going on. Since then we’ve sent multiple emails over the course of weeks but, we’re still being ignored. These issues are also only the major issues regarding the house and don’t even include the dirty oven upon moving in etc.

Unfairly withholding our deposit. These guys have been unprofessional since the start, everything is difficult and you can never get through to anyone. On countless occasions I’ve been put on hold and told that I’d get a call back straight away- never have they ever called me back. I’ve had to go into the office on multiple occasions to get to speak to someone and time and time again I’m met with ‘ it’s been a week from hell- I’ve not worked through my emails yet’ or ‘ sorry I’m really behind on my emails’. We had a leak in our flat and they sent a plumber- the plumber left a stain from the dye he used to detect the leak and we sent images to ensure we wouldn’t be charged for these and never got a reply. I then went in myself to make sure they had noted this issue and that we wouldn’t have money taken from our deposit. When it came to key handover we got an email a week later charging us £400 for the replacement of the lino floor. I don’t know where they got this number from, but they gave no evidence for this quote and it seems very steep for the area this cheap Lino needed to cover. Over 3 weeks later we’ve still not had our deposit or any communication other than when I rang multiple times and was told we’d get it last Friday - we didn’t get it and then a week later I rang and got told ‘I can’t actually tell you when it will be as I don’t know’. So they must’ve made it up the first time. Thankfully we have the details of our landlord to liaise directly with them about the issues we are having. Would not recommend at all. 0 people skills. If we don’t get our money back by the end of the month (which will be a month after handover) I will be getting our solicitor involved. It shouldn’t be this difficult and leaves me feeling incredibly frustrated.

They Deserve ZERO RATING I have been extremely disappointed with the property management service provided by John Shepherd. My property was initially managed by Royston & Lund before the company was sold to John Shepherd, and the quality of service has drastically declined since the changeover. There is no direct email contact for the Nottingham office, making communication frustratingly difficult, and my calls have gone unanswered. It's unacceptable to receive such poor service, especially when dealing with something as important as property management. I would never recommend them to anyone. Avoid at all costs!

I don’t leave reviews very often but John Shepherd deserve one. I am absolutely disgusted with this unregulated letting market, trying to remove deposit money for 2 small plastic cracks in a fridge freezer and saying they will need to replace both from our deposit money. Furthermore saying they will need to have it re-cleaned despite us paying £180 for two cleaners to spend 3 hours cleaning it professionally. Prior to this when we lived in the flat we had a low water pressure problem which took them over 4 months to fix, they came up with excuse after excuse before finally offering to fix it a few weeks before we moved out (only because we had to get the council involved to sort it). We then moved into another property with them where the oven had not been cleaned (see pictures attached) yet was told it was just cleaning residue. Also the dishwasher that did not work, we were originally told to try to fix it ourselves? Thirdly in our contract it makes reference to a washing machine, yet no washing machine was present and we had to spend hundreds to buy our own. I cannot believe what these agencies try to get away with, I highly doubt they would even replace the fridge and freezer for such a small crack and new tenants who will soon move in, they just want money money money! Disgusting.

I don’t ever leave reviews but our experience here was really bad. If you don’t know your landlord to verify what John Shepherd say I would definitely avoid! They repeatedly told our landlord conflicting information to us. The lies and errors were caught because we knew our landlord personally as well. They must not realise that we talk. Neither of us could trust anything they said by the end. Their communication was so poor, emails were often ignored. I would never use them again.