A "stranger" has a key to my house. Martin and Co don't care.
- Thread starter fiveub
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You did what you and if I was in your shoes would think would be the correct process.
The letting agent Martin & Co sound a terrible shower of munters and you've been very patient with them. If they have a non local office or head office I'd be complaining about the local branches conduct on dealing with your safety.
If their is damp in the property and they aren't bothering to fix that either I'd be finding a new place to live and as soon as you get your deposit sending a strong letter to the old landlord.
Man of Honour
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My niece and her fiance rent from Martin & Co, totally useless in dealing with problems or repairs.
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Caporegime
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You made the right choice for you at the time. You sought advice and were considerate of your and their situation.
Put this down to you doing the right thing and the other party not doing that. It happens.
I think the important bit is to move on and just put it in the 'drama over' pile which we all accumulate.
Keep on keeping on
The front and back door locks look similar to this:
And I know someone has definitely entered the front door, due to the way the front door was locked. It wasn't locked how I usually lock it.
Probably already been said but those are about the easiest locks to replace ever. There will be a screw in the plate that's hidden when the door is closed, out comes the barrel (slides out in either direction) in goes a new barrel, 1 screw to secure it, done.
Barrels are here: http://www.screwfix.com/c/security-ironmongery/euro-cylinders/cat810288 (just check the length you need).
Leading from this, the damp that was reported 5 months ago when I moved in. - It appears to have been getting worse.
Here is the damp in one of the bedrooms.
Martin and Co claim that this is dodgy paint work in the contract. Strange considering it is still wet 5 months later. And in some areas the paint is coming off.
When looking under the stairs, it is full of MOLD.
Still no urgency to sort this out.
The response from Martin and Co was "The landlord had this fix before you moved in".
Basically the same reply to the locks, "The landlord changed the locks before you moved in".
Martin and Co seem to be a bunch of lies. - Even if they are not lying, why are they not fixing any issues?
I moved house 5 months ago, because of a boiler not working for 6 months. And I move to another house with a different agency, and still have problems.
I arranged a house inspection on Friday. - They are not going to like it. They probably wont turn up anyway.
Here is the damp in one of the bedrooms.
Martin and Co claim that this is dodgy paint work in the contract. Strange considering it is still wet 5 months later. And in some areas the paint is coming off.
When looking under the stairs, it is full of MOLD.
Still no urgency to sort this out.
The response from Martin and Co was "The landlord had this fix before you moved in".
Basically the same reply to the locks, "The landlord changed the locks before you moved in".
Martin and Co seem to be a bunch of lies. - Even if they are not lying, why are they not fixing any issues?
I moved house 5 months ago, because of a boiler not working for 6 months. And I move to another house with a different agency, and still have problems.
I arranged a house inspection on Friday. - They are not going to like it. They probably wont turn up anyway.
Ergh no wonder landlords get a bad rep.
I don't understand the justification of charging you to change your own locks.
Because "The landlord changed them when you moved in".
Any report I make it appears that the excuse and the non-urgency reply is "It was fixed before".
Load of ******** though. As long as you don't throw away the old set and refit them when you leave I can't imagine they have a leg to stand on. The landlord doesn't have any associated costs with you changing them yourself.
Have you spoken with a legal advisor?
Not yet, that is the next step. But I am quite busy this month with work over this period. Being Christmas and all. I cannot afford to be taking time off work. But I shall be taking this further for sure, especially if they don't pull their finger out.
Yeah guess it will be extremely busy for you. You might be able to arrange a phone call on your lunch break to get the ball rolling.
Not sure if you've already stated this but does your contract actually prohibit changing the locks? If not they can't do **** until your contract is up for renewal.
This is why I don't miss working with landlords and agencies, only decent ones I've encountered in 2 years were the ones who actually owned the property so cared about the condition.
The "buy to let" lot were mostly just useless plonks who fancied themselves as real businessmen thinking it's an easy buck and thought that houses will run by themselves. Agencies were mostly an unnecessary overhead that added to the cost of rent and did little to resolve anything.
Replacing barrels is easy as pie so personally would have done it myself as soon as they played funny, but then again I understand why you'd tell them and tried to be honest and reasonable. On a bright side if they contacted you asking why barrels were changed, you'd know they were trying to gain access to the property without your permission
Try your local CAB for advice and Ombudsman is a good shout.
The "buy to let" lot were mostly just useless plonks who fancied themselves as real businessmen thinking it's an easy buck and thought that houses will run by themselves. Agencies were mostly an unnecessary overhead that added to the cost of rent and did little to resolve anything.
Replacing barrels is easy as pie so personally would have done it myself as soon as they played funny, but then again I understand why you'd tell them and tried to be honest and reasonable. On a bright side if they contacted you asking why barrels were changed, you'd know they were trying to gain access to the property without your permission
Try your local CAB for advice and Ombudsman is a good shout.
We've just moved out of a property that we were renting through Martin and co. Let's just say that I'm glad we no longer have to rent a property. They were an absolute bunch of cowboys from the moment they took our money up until we got our deposit back. Watch out for them trying to hammer you for a massive checkout fee when you leave.
Hope you get this sorted.
Hope you get this sorted.
Just to add Martin&Co is a franchise operation so experience at one is not necessarily the same as experience at another.
(it probably is though because they're a letting agent and in my experience all letting agents are equally bad)
It's best to name a specific branch so people know which one when posting comments about them
(it probably is though because they're a letting agent and in my experience all letting agents are equally bad)
It's best to name a specific branch so people know which one when posting comments about them
Just to add Martin&Co is a franchise operation so experience at one is not necessarily the same as experience at another.
(it probably is though because they're a letting agent and in my experience all letting agents are equally bad)
It's best to name a specific branch so people know which one when posting comments about them
Martin and Co, Stoke on Trent branch in Hanley.
http://www.martinco.com/lettings-agents/stoke-on-trent