One of the worst experiences I had with…
One of the worst experiences I had with this agency. I rented a house from them and verbally agreed and emailed confirming my extension of my stay. But suddenly the agent left the agency and the landlord changed his mind and evicted us by using no fault eviction. Not only that, they rented the place for less than what we were paying. It's a scam to get your deposit money. They charged us £1700 for property damage but the court ruled in our favor and we got our deposit back. Be careful.
Lauren is absolutely fab!!
I had a great experience with Lauren Foster from the John Shepherd team as she helped us with arranging to have a pet in our tenancy. It can be a bit nerve-wracking asking for a pet but from the the first interaction Lauren was friendly, supportive, and helpful in her approach and was just as enthused when our Landlord agreed as we were!! Our emails were responded to quickly and she was able to pass on all information efficiently. An absolute star 🌟 and we hope to have more interactions with her in the future
Stay away from John Shepherd
Centrick used to manage my property, and I never had any issues with them for 7 years. Once John Shepherd Birmingham Branch took over my property, the experience was very different. So, if you are looking around for a letting agent, please refer to all the one-star ratings on Trustpilot. There must be a reason why landlords/tenants are so upset with John Shepherd. If John Shepherd is your current letting agent, I will advise landlords to be more hands-on, even though you are paying a full management service fee for John Shepherd to manage your property. As I used to be very hands-off when Centrick managed my property, I had a very costly lesson when my property was managed by John Shepherd. To be fair, their senior management staff (Chris, Stuart, Julie, Jack) are all very responsive and professional. They gave me their full support during the formal complaint process. I was just very unfortunate to bump into a very absent-minded property manager. Just to name a few - he forgot to deduct the final month's utilities from my last tenant's deposit; forgot to inform Ginger Energy of a new tenancy, and all expenses were charged to me; forgot to sign on a Section 21 notice and when my eviction consultant would like to submit court papers to apply for a possession order, the unsigned Section 21 notice was invalid and the whole process had to re-start again; forgot to inform the Birmingham City Council of a new tenancy and I received a huge bill for council tax. As a landlord who is paying a full management service fee, I don't expect that I have to check the work done by my property manager. Those are just their "bread and butter". Right? I can't imagine so many things can go wrong. So, if you are looking for a letting and management agent, please read all the 1-star ratings on Trustpilot. I think comments on Trustpilot are very reliable. When I was very desperate to look for an eviction company last year to evict my tenant, I read comments on Trustpilot and found a very good eviction company with all 5-star ratings.
