"BEWARE NORTHWOOD WIGAN."

BEWARE NORTHWOOD WIGAN.
They are vile, rude and unprofessional.
They have lied to us from day one, fixtures and fittings were placed to look good but on the day of moving in everything started falling down. We suffered head injuries, black eyes, cuts and bruises. They claimed they knew nothing of any repairs but we have statements from neighbours and contractors saying otherwise. After more than 3 years we are still trying to get repairs completed. We have environmental health, our local MP and the ombudsman involved but still it's impossible to get these people to do their job.
Avoid at all costs.

"AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE"

My husband was in the Royal Navy and we had a lovely house in Plymouth (and loved Plymouth) so when he was posted to Portsmouth (and we both moved into married quarters there) we decided to rent out our home in Plymouth through Northwood, in case we moved back - BIGGEST MISTAKE EVER.

Whilst the house didn't have brand new everything, it had been freshly plastered, painted, carpeted and decorated. We were assured that they did regular visits and the reports on our home that they sent us were all positive. We visited about 2 years into the rental period and could see some wear and tear, but nothing too drastic. As we were potentially going to move back there (as well as not being horrible people) whenever they got in touch with an issue, I replied immediately so it could be sorted out.

However, when we decided to sell our home and notified Northwood, we came down (we had moved to Yorkshire at that point) to have a look and see what we might want to do before putting it on the market.

Suffice it to say I was in tears when I saw the state of it. I'm not an especially emotional person, but there were so many great memories in that house, I was unconsolable when I saw the state of it. I kid you not, it looked like they'd let a tiger claw the wooden floor in the living room. I'm not going to go into every single thing but if you are looking to rent out your home - DO NOT USE NORTHWOOD.

That unfortunately wasn't quite the end of it, my husband spent a fortnight there fixing things and when he spoke to the Northwood employees they expressed concern and made it clear that the cost of most of the work would be paid by them / the tenant. This did not happen.

It still makes me so angry (3 years on) that I think I'm going to end this now with one final thing - from reading the reviews (which, OMG, I wish I'd done before) regardless of whether you are a tenant or landlord - DO NOT USE NORTHWOOD.

"ZERO STARS!!!"

ZERO STARS!!!!

Being told you can't view/ rent a property because you don't work FT, despite the fact you have over £50k in the bank, can prove your salary with payslips and bank statements and offer to pay 6mnths rent upfront!
I'm fortunate enough to be able to not work all the time and as a high earner l'm being penalised/ discriminated against!

Absolute pathetic, as was the repeating of
" can't arrange a viewing" over and over again from the staff member!

Ask you're bloody Landlord if they'd like 6 mnths rent upfront ( accompanied by the evidence of income/ financial stability to back it up)
Discrimination as it's core!

"Not returning deposits"

Not returning deposit when flat is spotless. Don't use this company

"Worse experience EVER!"

Worse experience EVER please do not use this agency if you have to sale a flat. I should look at Trustpilot!
If I can avoid for you to do this mistake I made!
So unprofessional, I was selling my property with them and let me tell you what a mess, they manage to loss the buyer on the way….. Unbelievable

"WARNING **Do Not Use These Scammers**"

WARNING ***Do Not Use These Unscrupulous Agents***

I urge anybody considering using Northwood to run a mile!!

I rented with Northwood for nearly 6 years. Throughout the tenancy they were completely incompetent. Terrible communication, not fixing and resolving repairs in a reasonable timeframe or not at all, and just unprofessional in all aspects of a letting agent.

I decorated the property we rented myself to a high standard, because they were unwilling (see above). I spent my money and time doing this. When we moved into the property it was absolutely filthy.

The landlord decided to sell the property this year (Probably because we had decorated it and it looked so nice). Luckily enough we were buying our first property anyway.

When we vacated the property, we made sure to leave it in good condition throughout, however, Northwood tried to take 95% of our deposit for unjustifiable reasons. Thankfully our money was protected by the DPS and luckily they went with the FACTS and evidence I provided and not Northwoods erroneous and incompetent effort to steal our money.

So please, trust me when I say, avoid these swindlers, there are far more capable letting agents out there.

"Hereford branch !landlords beware!"

Hereford branch !landlords beware!
I’ve ended up with drug using subletting tenant !
Absolutely crap agents

"If I could give minus 5 stars I would"

If I could give minus 5 stars I would, I’ve never met such a cowboy estate agents in my life. I arranged for change payment date and got locked out of my email as people do forget passwords when you get a new phone… the company then failed to alert me there was an outstanding balance and instead issued me with an eviction notice right before Christmas. P1ss poor communication and blatantly ignoring several basic maintenance requests for example having a safe boiler and walls that don’t leak! Oh and by the way you won’t even get a name of your landlord nevermind a face to go with it.

"AVOID - the flat is NOT worth it."

AVOID at all costs.

On 23 August I made an offer for a 1 bedroom flat. I went to view it and was told by Mark Jarret that the property was was immediately available. I sent over my holding deposit, completed referencing and heard radio silence for 16 days straight. Each time I called no colleague could give me an update as Mark was “on annual leave” and his cover had covid. We’ve been living with Covid for almost 3 years now and I know that they have enough staff to do appropriate handovers.

The tenancy agreement I received was full of illegal clauses and completely unreasonable terms, so unfortunately I couldn’t continue.

Have been emailing for my holding deposit to be returned but silence. Complaining to the Property Ombudsman next. These people are crooks and enjoy wasting time.

"Northwoood Carlisle branch - be warned."

Northwoood Carlisle branch.
I've been approached by this agent regarding 2 bedroom bungalow in Carlisle (45 Pennine View)
Agent (Matthew) invited me to view the property.

I live over 6 hours away from Carlisle and was looking for a property for short term as I've bought a new home in Carlisle area, which isn't going to be ready until later this year. Matthew was fully aware of my circumstances.

During the conversation with M.A, I expressed my worry over driving several hours to see the property and not securing it due to the proposed short term tenancy, however I've been reassured by the agent that 45 Pennine is in under so called management scheme and that Northwood acting as the landlord, so they will have a say on decision making.

So, on Friday (02.09) I naively drove down for 6 hours, handed copies of mine and my husbands' passport, application form and expressed the proposal to pay for the entire duration of my tenancy in advance.

Matthew said that decision will be made the following week on Monday or Tuesday at the latest. I felt under pressure of time, as I was selling my house and my buyers wanted to move in asap, which meant I had to move out as soon as possible. Again, the agent was fully aware of this.

The following Monday, nobody has got in touch, so I've rung the agency. I've been told that Matthew is on holidays all week and that somebody else will come back to me....

Several hours later, still haven't heard anything, so I've made another call. This time, somebody else has answered who advised that the landlord of the property received 3 applications for the bungalow but also wishes to see the application from somebody she has has chosen as she knows them in person. I've been also told that if I was the only applicant, 'maybe the bungalow would be mine' but as there are other 3 applications, the landlord will go for the longer tenancy contact and more than likely for somebody they know.

My final thought on this is:

- Why do Northwood waste people time ?
Are you really that desperate to please registered landlords that you go to the extent of purposely misleading applicants and filling them with false hopes to accumulate more applications ?
- Do you have at least a tiny bit of respect to people, who made every effort to see you and showed up on time after a long travel ?

After all that, there was not even a courtesy email (which I have specifically asked for) to confirm the final outcome of my application form.

This is disgusting and I truly hope that with upcoming recession and your very poor customer service, you will all do yourselves out of jobs. I would certainly never register with you, made another enquiry as a tenant, or do any business as a landlord. You are the worst letting team I have dealt with.

The landlord of aforementioned property also needs to think twice about her selection methods, if she indeed is the one who was making decisions. If believing Northwood's story, she has completely undermined other applicants and wasted everyone's time.

Be aware of this.