Reeds Rains Letting Agents - What are your expericences?

I was wondering what type of service other people had experienced from Reeds Rains letting agents?

I have had a series of incidents with them that I believe have been handled very badly.

If anyone has any ideas how I can get them to maintain the house properly I would really appreciate it.

a friend of mine gave up with them and has gone to martin and co, the people in the city centre office seem pretty much upto speed with handling situations

Which branch have you had issues with?

It's the property management people who are totally separate from the branch. The branch has always been reasonably helpful.

I think the property management are somewhere in Manchester.

I don't know how they are for landlords, but as a tenant I thought they were terrible. They load in a lot of surprise and often unnecessary fees (insisting that you pay about £80 to have your contract drawn up and signed again every six or twelve months, which I never experienced with anyone else in a decade of renting) and were really bad at responding to any problems I had.

I rented a flat through them and when I viewed it they said they'd arrange to have blinds put up before I moved in and it still hadn't happened by the time I left a year later. It ended up with whichever tradesman they were using to fit them, who either didn't want the work or simply couldn't be bothered. Either way, they did a lousy job of chasing him up as I called them about it at least once a month. Worse than that, I went away on business in late 2010 and came back to find that there had been a leak in the unoccupied flat upstairs, part of the ceiling had caved in and the whole place was wringing damp. Again, by the time I'd left five months later they'd done naff all about it even though the water had got into a light switch and a storage heater. The damp played hell with my asthma and the only reason the leak was stopped was because I called the building's caretaker directly.

Next up, I needed a reference from them for my mortgage application and they made such a pig's ear of this basic administrative task that it looked like my purchase might fall through. To add insult to injury, they then tried to take a massive cut of my deposit for cleaning based on a quote from a company who hadn't even seen the property. It took a letter from a solicitor threatening legal action over their failure to react appropriately to the leak before they let that drop.

Like Suze, I found the branch staff very helpful and Reeds are certainly very good at getting tenants into properties. It all falls down at their HQ in Cheadle, which seems to be a sprawling, beauracracy-choked morass intent on swallowing all common sense and decency within, as well as any paperwork you might send their way.

I warned all my friends off them as tenants a long time ago and I'd venture that their general inefficiency doesn't bode well for landlords, either. I just hope I'm not too late for the OP!

The problem from T's point of view is that the Letting Agents act for L and not for T.

It's similar to Estate Agents' role: they act for vendor, not purchaser.

I'm well aware of that, but if I was a landlord looking to let (and I will be in a couple of years) I'd probably avoid anyone with a reputation that's likely to deter potential tenants!

Customer or not, if they're treating tenants badly it's bad for landlords too. I suspect the general administrative sloppiness isn't reserved solely for tenants, for one thing. Also, had I taken further legal action against Reeds Rains for appreciably damaging my health and jeopardising my safety (and if I hadn't enough on my plate, I would have) then surely there's a good chance the landlord would have been dragged into it?

Depends.

If T sues Agent (A) on grounds of negligence or another tort, it does not relate to any contract that L has- whether with T or with A.

Fair enough. Personally I'd be very concerned if my agent was getting into that kind of bother, though. What if they try and pass the buck back to you, claiming they'd informed you of problems and you hadn't responded?

I've rented property through a dozen or so agents over the years, some good, some bad. When I come to let this house, I'll be using one of the good ones and it won't be Reeds. I only had good experiences with Belvior, for instance, although perhaps that's why their rentals always seem a bit expensive!