"Would not recommend"

Once paying the holding deposit for a 'fully furnished' property, the estate agent then tried to sell us sofas and beds from the past tenants. When we went for a second viewing the agent was rude and made out we were lying when we referred to the furniture situation, despite us having screenshots. The house was also not double glazed as advertised on the site.

"Students beware"

Thanks for the reply (below). It is, in common with your other communications, barely coherent and only 5 months overdue! I don't know why you can't just try and improve your service rather than seeking to justify your grasping, impersonal business practice. I am leaving you a star on here, but I'm not sure you merit it. Honestly! These are young people who have it hard enough without your nonsense. Just be kinder.

My son and his friends had a similar experience to many of the reviewers here. Gareth James were at least consistent in their very slow responses to any questions asked of them. I dropped my son off in their new student home and noticed that the front garden had boxes and bins full of rubbish in it. I advised them to take photos of the property in case and sure enough when it came to the time to recoup the deposit, they were billed over £100 to clean the garden. Similarly they were asked for £60 to replace a bulb. When you consider that over the year, the landlady had almost £40k from my son and her friends, this seemed rather insensitive, particularly during such difficult times for students. I tried to communicate with Gareth James to air my concerns but was routinely ignored and had to email every person in the company just to open up a line of communication. I will be complaining to the University and advising that this lettings agency are scrutinised and vetted and that students are forewarned. They are clearly very keen on cultivating the student market as unfortunately they are easy prey. So. My advice as a more experienced and less easily intimidated person would be to avoid dealing with this agency who seem to spend more time making excuses and avoiding issues than doing the job they profess to love.

"Good expectation, Big let down in the end"

- My property was let on an assured shorthold agreement by Gareth James and the agreement which wasnt worth the paper it was written on as the tenants broke it 6 months in without agreeing a surrender.
- I was informed by the agent one of the tenants had lost his job and both wanted to leave the flat at the end of the week, only to find out when I asked for proof he had not lost his job but that wished to move out regardless. The agents did not get factual information from the tenants and only did so when I suggested getting an official letter from the tenants employer. The agent then confirmed the tenant had indeed forged a job termination letter, the tenants moved out netherless.
- The management service is a joke as they allowed the tenants to vacate the flat without ensuring my keys were collected. I had to pay a locksmith to change the lock as the Gareth James distanced themselves from me by ignoring my multiple email request to get my keys back.
- Rather than taking the tenants to court for breach of the tenancy, I agreed to the tenants proposal to release the tenancy deposit to me, and for the tenant to release the agreed one month rent. Gareth James had the authority as a member of TDS to submit a proposal to release the deposit but they refused and ignored my many emails requesting this. I would also leave numerous for Cameron the Sales and Letting Manager to respond but he did not respond.
- When the TDS finally released the deposit to me via Gareth James, the estate agent had the audacity to take over 200.00 from the deposit which was agreed with the tenants be returned to me.

- This is the worst estate agent in peckham as they basically wash their hands with you if a tenant moves out before the tenancy ends, or if you no longer are using them to relet the property. They are not bothered even to get your keys back when managing a property.
- The reference agency which gareth james use are not accurate, a false reference was given to me.
- The estate agents advised both tenants had permanent jobs and this was shown on job references at the beginning of the tenancy but I came to realise both were contracting and one tenants profession was different to the job evidence information that was given to me initially.
- The sales manager (Cameron Cummings & Tomos Lloyd) see you as a moneybag and doesn’t care about the basic concept of providing a good service to ensure repeat business.
- The experience I have had with this agent has been poor I have been passed from person to person, in fact I feel I have been robbed blind by them, I basically have not got what I paid for. They source unreliable, uncertain tenants, I would not use again or recommend gareth james to my worst enemy

"Awful experience"

Awful experience! Would not recommend!

I was a tenant at one of the (overpriced) properties managed by Gareth James 3 years ago and it's been my worst renting experience since I came to London.

They do not care about their tenants, only about making profit and satisfying the landlord. Extremely poor communication and rude members of staff. It was almost impossible to communicate anything to them and it seemed as if they just didn't care about our well-being and the state of the house (so watch out if you're a landlord too). For example, when we first moved in, some of the furniture in the house was absolutely awful and basically falling apart. My questions about this were ignored for a while and when I got tired of asking for replacement and got my own items, they refused to remove the old ones and said I'd have to pay a massive fine if I was to throw them out. It took a meeting with an extremely condescending member of the property management team to agree on a compromise, however, all of this could have been avoided if the property manager made effort to communicate with us, the tenants.

It would take them weeks to fix some of the issues we had and some of the other ones were not fixed over our whole tenancy (we spent a year with a broken extractor fan in the kitchen). The house was also poorly isolated and extremely humid which resulted in a large amount of my housemate's clothes getting mouldy beyond salvation.

At the end of the tenancy at first they didn't return our deposit and were ignoring our questions about this issue. It took an email to the owner of the company and the management staff from the head office to finally get our deposit back.

It's more of a scam than a letting agency. And if you want to move in into one of their properties I strongly discourage it.

"I really appreciate your services"

I really appreciate your services. Quick response to customers and good communication and always ready help whenever I call. Thank so much.

"Response to a reported issue"

The team responded well to a reported issue and provided a really prompt service. Everyone I spoke to was understanding and really helpful.

"Straight forward"

Straight forward, quick with communications and easy to work with. Recommended!

"BEWARE"

BEWARE - Don't make the same mistake we did renting through this company. Only out to make as much money from you as possible!

There is a reason, Gareth James prioritise being a 'student housing' client basis. Its because they're able to get away with overcrowding, the naivety of first time renters new to London, taking large deposits without question as students have a 'bad reputation' so everyone will assume its because they've recked it. They then clearly use the deposits to fund more properties and maximise income over quality of how these tenants are living.

Where do I start with our rental...
On looking round the potential rental, Gareth James are all smiles and promises of how great of landlords they are and how they're 'not like the bad guys', when infant they're much much worse. Once that contract is signed, expect pretty much 0 contact from them unless its a reminder every month before your rent is due, that without doubt will send on the dot.

When trying to report serious issues over the year tenancy, every single time you call you're passed from person to person, with no one able to resolve anything. On occasions the staff even laugh to each other in the background while you're explaining the issue. Our boiler was broken for 4 MONTHS over Christmas, not at all the time period you want to be having an ice cold shower before work. On calling over 5 times and emailing numerous occasions, I had to resort to calling the council, who dealt with the issue within 5 days.

The house was completely infested with mice and in the worst condition Ive personally ever had to live in. Theres no living rooms in a lot of Gareth James properties as they prioritise getting more people and more money over the tenants actual wellbeing. The whole house was covered in severe mould that was giving us all breathing difficulties. The stove was broken on the day we moved in, and we were informed instead of it being fixed we should just use a lighter!!

Gareth James had the audacity at the end of the tenancy, after all the problems we occurred and having to contact the council numerous times as they wouldn't fix a thing, to then try and take the whole deposit.

I've made a short video of clips of the property's condition at the START of the tenancy, to show how horrendous It is that they wanted to take our £3000 Deposit at the end for a CLEANING FEE!!. There was a lot more charges to the deposit on leaving that mysteriously all disappeared when we sent Gareth James all the evidence we had on them. For example an £10 Ikea shelf, that we thankfully have a video of falling off the wall with a mear touch. This shelf was so badly put up it fell off the wall, and we actually thankfully had video evidence. Gareth James being the money grabbing scammers they are, tried to charge us £150! for that tiny Ikea £10 basic shelf. They also insisted we paid for new carpets throughout the building costing upwards of £800!!! I know for a fact there are students already moved into that property so I only assume that money would have been pocketed as those carpets hadn't been changed for 20 years!!

My biggest advice, would be to take a video of the whole property on arrival, as god forbid you end up having them as your landlords, they will try and take as much of the deposit at the end as they can, for things that were there on your arrival.

They're complete scammers and thankfully we got the majority of the money back after going through a very lengthy process to do so, one Gareth James hopes you won't have time to do.

After a year living in this nightmare house, that damaged my health and my mental wellbeing I am now renting through a much better company in an amazing house in Peckham. There are much better landlords around Peckham so please don't feel you have to accept going with someone as awful as Gareth James, you will regret it after the contract is signed and you can't get away.

Here is the video we had to send to the Deposit company to show the condition, Gareth James supposedly 'amazing house' was in at the start.
https://www. youtube .com/watch?v=u3abiYThAz8

"friendly staff, top estate agents"

friendly staff, resolve issues quickly. no complaints!

best estate agent I've dealt with in 7 years of London living.

"Excellent service from the Gareth James…"

Excellent service from the Gareth James team. I’d recommend them for finding quality tenants and managing your property