"Unfair Charges and Misleading Practices – Disappointing Rental Experience"

My recent tenancy with Northwood has been a frustrating experience from start to finish. Despite following all instructions provided at the end of the tenancy, including using their recommended professional cleaning service, I was still met with additional charges and deductions that felt excessive and unjustified.

Communication during the checkout process was particularly disheartening. Despite my efforts to provide evidence showing the condition of the property at the start of the tenancy (including existing damages), these were largely dismissed or minimized. The agent's stance felt more focused on extracting additional costs than on fair assessment.

To add to the frustration, I later discovered that it is actually illegal for agents to require professional cleaning services at the end of a tenancy. Yet, they insisted that we use professional cleaning service and even demanded an invoice as evidence.

Overall, this experience has been marked by disappointment and frustration. I cannot, in good conscience, recommend Northwood's services to anyone seeking a smooth and fair rental experience.

"DO NOT RENT FROM THE SALE BRANCH"

I was unfortunate enough to be in a position where I ended up in a property managed by Northwood for 12 and a half years. To add to my misery, the branch owner DANIEL HARRIS bought the property that I was in around 6 years ago. Now this is where all of my problems really escalated. Daniel likes to use what can only be described as bullying tactics in order to force you into submission. Back in 2018, I had the audacity to raise a formal complaint to Northwood about the damp and mould. This had been a long standing issue since I moved in back in 2012. I escalated my concerns to the environmental health department. During their visit to my home, Daniel showed up. He proceeded to argue with the environmental health officer and accused me of causing the damp. After this visit, a workman came and put a bit of plasterboard on the roof in the pantry and used some anti mould paint. That was it. And so the damp and mould continued. Along with the this there were constant slugs and silver fish in the property. And I continued to complain. However, Daniel refused to address this properly and instead reluctantly sent a contractor to re paint the affected areas with mould paint. The bullying aspect comes in the form of threatened evictions and intimidation. If you can't afford a rental increase and ask if you can negotiate, he'll send you a section 21 notice. If you still don't agree, he'll send you a section 13 to legally force the increase. It's not the increases that cause me to leave such a scathing review. It's the way in which Daniel conducts himself. As a single mother with two young children, I was told on two occasions when I'd been served that I would end up in a dingy horrible BnB with my kids and it'd be my fault. So after having had enough of this bullying and berating from Daniel, I decided that should I receive another notice, I'll risk the horrible BnB. So at the start of 2024 when Daniel wanted to increase the rent by 25%, He was crafty and actually had the work done to fix the damp that should have been done YEARS ago. After that, I didnt agree to the rise, I was served and this time I let it play out. I'm now in a beautiful property with no damp, mould, slugs or silverfish! Even though they didnt maintain the property as they should have over the 12.5 years, they have had the cheek to claim almost all of my deposit! The man has literally no shame. Steer clear of any company that this man is affiliated with. You only have to google his name and Northwood Sale to see what people think of him.

"Stay well clear from Northwood Benton, Newcastle if you're renting or selling"

If you're renting, stay away from Northwood Benton, Newcastle. They are rogue and unprofessional. Go for some other reputable firm.

Northwood treat their tenants like dirt, they forget the fact that it's the tenants who pay the rent and help pay off the landlord's mortgage. The agent gets a cut from the landlord when the tenant pays, so shouldn't good customer service be provided to the tenant? Not quite with Northwood.
They're more focused on keeping the landlord happy and look the other way when the landlord does any violation but expect the tenant to fully comply.

Stay well clear of this rogue agency, you'll regret it after you sign up with them. With such malpractices in place, don't give away your hard earned money to them as a tenant or as someone who wants to sell their property. Find a more ethical agency that deserves your money, you'll be doing the public a favour.

"Rude"

Rude, incompetent & incredibly unprofessional.
Attempting to increase the rent by nearly 20% then when an agreement is reached, attempt to revoke and change the terms (estoppel).
All staff members will speak to you like you’re dirt, with no regard for the stress that comes with potentially having to move out of your home.

Avoid at all costs. God help this unscrupulous company when the Rent Reform Bill passes into law. I can’t see it ending well for them.

"Keep away from this company "

We had Northwood to manage two properties over the last 7-8 years but I can honestly say what a complete waste of time they say they will inspect and send you a report every three months this didn’t happen they allow contractors to carry out work without your permission and charge extortionate prices we said no pets and allowed three gunea pigs in a run in our newly carpeted living room that had the run of the house they allowed two snakes in a vivarium in the bedroom when they sold my property an agreed 1% commission was not applied and charged me more I also ended up selling the property myself as there sales representative did not show up for the prospective buys if I could give this company 0 stars I would anyone reading this please think twice about renting or buying please find another estate agent

"This is a woeful estate agents!"

This is a woeful estate agents. Where do I start just never rent a house from them! Poor attitude to tenants. Slow working to provide information. Come into your house without providing any information when they are coming. This includes unlocking the door where my wife was in a towel. House fixing is slow had a bathroom floor what dropped and it took 8 months of leaking to fix. When trying to get hold of them it’s impossible or it the I call you back but never do. I see they aren’t getting as many houses to let most likely due to there poor attitude across the board. Now waiting for my deposit back but nobody is calling back. Would add more but I be here all day typing about this shocking place. Stay well
Clear

"We recently sold our house using…"

We recently sold our house using Northwood Estate agents. From start to end they went above and beyond to make the sale of our house smooth. We cannot thank Leanne, Sadie, Sam and the team enough for the top class service they provided. From the respect and interest shown in our house to the commitment given to keep the sale process going as smoothly as they could was impressive. Leanne's interpersonal skills are very refined. She is diplomatic and caring yet knows when to say what needs to be said, including with us! The team is always at the end of the phone ready to help and offer advice. The patience and experience of the team is calming in the stressful process of sellling houses. Thank you all.

"Useful for TENANTS to know "

Northwood wigan
I hope this review will be helpful especially for the TENANTS as my experience was as a tenant

It started with our move in date; I called 2 days before moving to confirm the time, when they told me the move in was cancelled blaming the landlord. Northwood said they didn’t know until late which is why it happened this way. However it took ME to call THEM to find out about it. This could have been true but in my opinion it looked like the reason was because their paperwork wasn’t done. The following week they were asking my guarantor to go to the office to sign paperwork that needs signing before they will give me the keys. On top of this they sent me all of the documents i needed to sign whilst I was sat in front of the house waiting for the keys. Even for this the manager couldn’t turn up on time.

Some months went by, we always paid on time etc. In the end we had to leave after being given a section 21. We don’t know the reason for it but ultimately that’s the business of the new landlord who had just taken over the house.

There was a dispute about paperwork as we weren’t given a gas safety certificate which is a legal requirement for the section 21. Whenever I managed to get hold of the manager who was always ‘out of the office’ when I called she said I don’t need one, which is a different story from what I heard from ‘shelter’, ‘citizens advice bureau’ and the local council. I don’t know if the reason was because our gas certificate was out of date or something else, but I feel Northwood will tell you anything to get you off the phone. I was told I’ll get it via email, fobbed off for weeks, then told I don’t need one. Eventually I got one weeks later.

After leaving we waited almost 3 weeks for details of the checkout inspection which happened apparently 3 days after receiving their keys.
Their inspection showed many inaccuracies, things ‘missing’ that were found in the house and things ‘left’ in the house which were there when we moved in.
More than a month later they sent their quote which was did not fully match the problems from their ‘inspection’.
Months later, another quote coming from the landlord this time. The prices had changed a lot, for example the cleaning went from £335 to £90 in order to make space in the budget for new kitchen drawers £232.43 as now (3 months later) they are broken which wasn’t seen by us before we left or in the ‘inspection’ by Northwood.

You can say almost the whole list of problems was different than the other two we had received from Northwood but luckily this would easily be proved wrong by the before and after photos.

I told Northwood I want a dispute on Tenancy Deposit Scheme as I was SURE about the evidence I had for everything.
They acknowledged that they knew I wanted a dispute however they did not let it happen.
They failed to respond over a month to my repayment request, then following that they failed to respond to the statutory declaration so in the end I got the deposit back.

I wrote a complaint to Northwood, mostly about the manager who is the one who dealt with the complaint. I tried to get in touch with the director Sean Farrah. I was told he was looking into my case and he will phone me so I can only assume he is still looking 3 weeks later

"Keep away or get burned."

Having have this company control my property renting for a long time I was made aware they were increasing the rent and not passing any on to me. When I took back the property it was not in the state that they took control of. Cupboards had been removed carpets taken up and so many other concerns not to mention health and safety by having the gas fire flue taken away and bricked up. I could go on but beware and warned they don't have your interests at all. No compensation and arrogant staff and management. Stay clear or get burned like I did.

"Harrow Weald branch staff always…"

Harrow Weald branch staff always mis-communicated and was committing to anything to get contract signed.

Please stay away from them if possible.