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Northwood - Preston

A selection of reviews/testimonials by highest rating
(in some cases, not all reviews/testimonials will be displayed)
1.00 /5

Avoid this agency at all costs. Sue is one of the rudest, most incompetent lettings agents I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. Any complaints addressed to "management" are directed to her husband. They do nothing for their management fees. Absolute shysters - avoid!

Reply from agent

Please could you contact us directly as we have no records of your name on our system. Also slightly confused as the complaint comments is wholly incorrect and has not been the case for a number of years. Your history of reviews does make us question the authenticity of this

1.00 /5
Reply from agent

We have no record of your details so unable to assist further.

1.00 /5

I don't recommend renting from this agency at all. We rented a house and then our daughter had Leukaemia, in 2018, we asked them to change the carpet as the bacteria could cause a fatal infection. They refused. The carpet in the house was fitted since 1989. Our daughter's oncology hospital sent them a letter telling them how risky the bacteria are for her hickmen line and her low immunity. They tried to chase the hospital and then refused to change the carpet. Their answer was described by many readers as so very heartless. The hospital advised us to ignore them and clean the carpet as much as possible and we cover it with rugs because we had no time to complain to the right people. We had a very stressful time and we were busy with the hospital trips and stays. Then after, they advertised for a bungalow for rent we requested to move out and rent the bungalow. They refused to rent us out the bungalow and the reason was because only my husband was working and their new policy requests that me and my husband should be both working. But staying where we were, their policy works OK for one person to be working. Again her answer was described by many as discrimination against. Sue is, as described by other reviewers, patronised and she thinks she knows something. I only witnessed her doing good when she put her gloves and cleaned the hood the day we moved. But she better could have done this before renting out us this house. AVOID AVOID AVOID this agency.

Reply from agent

Anthony and Antoinette, sadly as like other reviews you are missing a put a lot of the information and you are only leaving this review after a very lengthy tenancy of which you continued with no complaint like this at any time and perhaps coincidently, now your deposit has been returned. The reason carpets were not replaced was because there was nothing wrong with them. They were in a good clean condition when you moved in however you refused to clean them no matter how many times you were asked. It is the responsibility of tenants to keep the carpets in a clean condition. If they become dirty from use it is therefore not at the expense of the landlord that they are professionally cleaned . Any concerns about bacterial infection is based on this level of routine cleanliness and the representative from the oncology team who approached us, soon dismissed any possible worries about the property concerns when they were advised of this . Allowing any young children, particularly with such health issues, to run around a public house / restaurant without socks/ shoes would not be advisable. Unfortunately there are financial thresholds that all tenants for all houses must meet. Every maintenance issue that needed dealing with in your 7/8 year tenancy was always addressed and completed. No one has ever been patronising in any way to you, we have always conducted all conversations and meetings in a purely professional manner- despite not always receiving the same in return. Therefore unsure where your comments regarding this have stemmed from. I’m glad Sue was able to finish your cleaning as a final help to your family and save you the money of paying a cleaner to do it.

1.00 /5

I have rented from Northwood Preston for just over two years. I have previously been an estate agent and have significant experience handling lettings so my assessment of Northwood is both personal and professional. They're horrible. They have been my letting agent and landlord, an arrangement that deceives property owners and screws tenants and should be illegal in this country. After more than a year living with a malfunctioning boiler, cold showers and faulty electrics, its clear Northwood is inept and I can confidently say the government should ban these guaranteed rent schemes where the letting agent, acting as the landlord, has no real interest in the property other than collecting rent. While they've sent vendors to make repairs, in some cases they made matters worse. Northwood has never followed up with me to find out if requested repairs were completed satisfactorily. They just don't care about their tenants. Northwood has also been attempting to sell this home for a year and a half and have failed miserably. They significantly overvalued the property and have had less than 10 viewings in a year and a half in a desirable area (the property also sat empty on the rental market for six months before I rented it). In my experience, the Wards, who own this franchise, are demonstrably incompetent, uncaring and unqualified and I have discontinued rent payments and viewings in protest. Response to Northwood's reply: I can pay the rent so your assumption is completely wrong. As you know, difficulties with a bank transfer were the cause of a prior delay in payment of rent and you were kept well-informed of those circumstances but have decided to be vindictive and cast my delayed payment and my more recent refusal to pay rent in protest in a more nefarious light. Shame on you. I don’t appreciate your slanderous insinuation that I’m a liar. Not surprising coming from you though as you attempted to evict me just prior to the government imposed lockdown in retaliation for negative reviews I posted about the poor quality of your services. You only rescinded the eviction notice when I contacted the owners directly and told them what you were doing. And you expect me to be grateful to you for the reprehensible manner in which you tried to silence criticism? I have been forced to remain in the home due to the pandemic and informed you that I would be leaving at my earliest opportunity making the repair of the boiler and other outstanding issues moot at that point. You've had well over a year to repair the boiler, the electrics, the falling flashing, etc. but have chosen instead to either ignore these issues or try to find the easy way out. As a result, I requested a reduction in my rent payments for the few months I expected to remain in the property as compensation and you not only tried to ignore that request as well but flatly refused to even take it up with the property owner. Communication with you has proven to be useless and a waste of my time so I've stopped. I'm the one who has had to chase you to complete repairs, not the other way round. I approved and cooperated with all viewing requests, sparse though they were, up until the time the pandemic hit. By the way, post-it notes don't cause holes in walls and mine certainly didn't. If you want to continue in this business then I suggest you either focus on doing a better job or get thicker skin. As we've all seen with recent events, if you're in a position of power in a relationship, as Northwood is in this one, and you do nothing, ignore the problems or you make matters worse, then you should expect the unheard to react negatively. I've certainly endured enough cold showers over the past year+ that it should be understandable that my blood is boiling. And, you know, Northwood has never once apologized and that alone should speak volumes about the kind of people they are. Btw, Didn't take the light bulbs love. Lights don't work because of your faulty electrics. Hope you've figured that out by now, but I'm not confident given my experience. Rent was current.NegativeQuality, Professionalism

Reply from agent

Chris, I see that you are trying a second round of negative and completely untrue reviews which we do believe stems from an inability to pay the rent. As you full well know the owner has offered you a new boiler and for an electrician to fix the issues but you have denied the works to be carried out - which we have in writing. Sadly threatening us with negative reviews that you say you won’t remove, does not negate how untrue they are. It does seem a routine that when you are unable to pay the rent, instead of contacting us to work through it we have to chase you 3/4 times and you also dispute maintenance and become extremely difficult resulting in reviews like this. Even to try and avoid the rude emails you send we tried calling to talk through the rent issues but instead you put the phone down when we Identified who it was. Despite the manner in which you choose to speak to us- at no point have we ever , nor would we ever respond in the same manner. You continue to do this despite a number of months ago us kindly requesting that you do not speak to us in that way. It therefore highlights another aspect of your review which is untrue. The only negative communication comes from you. Also seems to be the same path you went down with your last landlord. The selling of the property doesn’t help with the post it notes you pin( causing holes) into the walls round the house for viewers to see highlighting what you think are issues. If with the experience you say you previously have, you would know that we advise a buyer a price but should they wish to differ on the asking price that is their choice. We have asked for viewings but you have stated that you do not want us, viewers or contractors in the property. You’ve failed to mention how grateful you were that both Northwood and the landlord didn’t go through with your previous notice and allowed you to stay due to you not being able to secure a new property. This is despite the manner in which we were spoken to, slanderous comments about us online and to the landlord and the lack of rent paid. Should we fail to provide the correct service for our landlord and tenants needs, we do of course take it on board and strive to be better, however in this case we feel confident that at no point have we failed in anything. Finally, highlighting the business owners’ name does seem unusual given that you have only ever spoken to one member. **** UPDATE - the tenant has left the property with no notice, 3 months rent owing, abusive message in the property, taken every light bulb in the property, rubbish and furniture left

1.00 /5
Reply from agent

I am afraid we don't have a record of your name on our system. Perhaps you could contact us to talk through your association to the company and your review

1.00 /5

Was very keen to view a property and had an appointment booked in on fulshaw road when my wife was called up by one of the rudest people she has ever come across to confirm the viewing. Took a week for the viewing and she patronised my wife on the phone that much she righfully cancelled the viewing on a property we were really interested in. Felt like an inconvenience when she said dont waste our time if you dont want to pay asking price were too busy (not even viewed the property so how could you assess how much you wanted to pay without seeing)!!! Sellers avoid!!!!

Reply from agent

Thank you for your review and we are sorry that you have felt the need to leave this. We do however feel that it is very unfair that you have stated completely incorrect facts on the call between a member of staff and your wife. It would appear that the hearsay conversation that has been passed onto you is a different one that was overhead in the office. We rang her with the intention of confirming the booked viewing but was told that your wife didn’t know if she still wanted to go as you might not have been free to attend. It is not unusual for agents to confirm viewings to ensure timings in the diary etc are correct. We tried to discuss with her about the condition of the property and wanted to make sure she was aware that the property needed quite a bit of cosmetic work and wasn’t ready to just move in. The member of staff then also tried to explain that offers had to be the asking price or above and the seller would not be accepting anything less. Again this was to make your wife aware that should she have a mortgage she had the knowledge that the asking price had to be achieved and then the work on top of it taking into account the amount of mortgage had been given. If your wife hadn’t have ended the call the staff member would have been able to explain that it was a company selling the property – hence the requirement regarding the selling price. All other 20+ viewers for this property were made of exactly the same information and nobody has reacted in this way. I apologise if there was a delay booking the viewing in but the first appointment was given taking into account other diary commitments.

1.00 /5

Sue Ward is a vile woman. Infact the whole family are. I dont know who she thinks she is. She is a disgusting patronising human with no compassion for people whatsoever. Working for minimum wage and thinking shes the queen. You didnt get you 3 thousand pounds though did you Sue. You little scammer. And never responded to my email. Hm. Enjoy hell

Reply from agent

Chris - as you will be well aware your review is so so far from the truth it is laughable, however if you feel the need in yourself to leave these kinds of reviews - there is obviously not point us trying to understand why you have chosen to be so horrendous towards Northwood and its employees.

1.00 /5
31.12.2019
Its difficult determining

Its difficult determining where to begin with this lot. My experience with them has been awful. Its been 10 months since I reported a problem with the boiler causing cold showers with intermittent periods of scalding hot water. Its still not fixed. I reported exterior flashing that had fallen some time ago allowing wasps to nest behind it. Their reply? I have to pay to have the wasps exterminated before they'll repair the flashing. Still not fixed. They've tried to charge me for a vendor's service call simply because they couldn't figure out why the electrics weren't working properly - they figured it must be my fault. Still not fixed. I reported that water was leaking from an outside pipe connected to the boiler. Still not fixed. I reported a leak in an interior water pipe. Miraculously, its been fixed, but they'll likely do nothing about the ugly stain left on the dining room wall or look into potential mold remediation. Based on my experience, a better name for this agency is Northwouldn't.

1.00 /5
31.12.2019
"Its difficult determining..."

Its difficult determining where to begin with this lot. My experience with them has been awful. Its been 10 months since I reported a problem with the boiler causing cold showers with intermittent periods of scalding hot water. Its still not fixed. I reported exterior flashing that had fallen some time ago allowing wasps to nest behind it. Their reply? I have to pay to have the wasps exterminated before they'll repair the flashing. Still not fixed. They've tried to charge me for a vendor's service call simply because they couldn't figure out why the electrics weren't working properly - they figured it must be my fault. Still not fixed. I reported that water was leaking from an outside pipe connected to the boiler. Still not fixed. I reported a leak in an interior water pipe. Miraculously, its been fixed, but they'll likely do nothing about the ugly stain left on the dining room wall or look into potential mold remediation. Based on my experience, a better name for this agency is Northwouldn't.

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5 Butler Street, Preston, PR1 8BN, UK

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