Morgan Douglas Ltd Reviews 37

I had a genuinely happy and positive experience living at Apartment 25, Three Tuns. Throughout my tenancy, whenever there were questions or small issues, Gemma Young was always incredibly efficient, responsive, and helpful, providing clear and high-quality support.
Even a year later, when I needed a rental reference while applying for a property in Australia, Gemma was just as proactive and supportive, responding quickly and kindly. I truly appreciated having such a reliable and professional staff member during my time renting in Durham, and it made my experience living there even more reassuring and pleasant.

Pleasure to deal with. Would strongly recommend. Gemma and team do a great job.

Professional and patient. Looking forward to working together moving forward.

Completely shocking company which simply exploits innocent students. WE have successfully challenged their ridiculous end of contract cleaning charges through the Tenancy Deposit Scheme so would advise everyone to do so. Communication is terrible with the company policy being you "need to email us" but they do not reply to complaints, obviously in the hope you give up. Student accommodation in Durham is a challenge anyway but the whole situation is compounded by a company such as Morgan Douglas. Hopefully they will either listen and act on the countless poor reviews (including on Google Review) or go out of business. AVOID, AVOID, AVOID

I have just had the pleasure of dealing with Gemma young from this company and I can honestly say what a genuine and lovely person she is. Professional from the start right through to the end of what was quite a stressful process (my making not hers) the owners of this company should be very proud of having such a great ambassador for their company

The team were absolutely lovely and helped us to find the perfect house in the perfect location! It matched our budgets and the responded quickly and helpfully with any enquiries.

Wow, all bad reviews! Ours is no different & on going. My daughter rents a property in Durham with 3 others. My first bad encounter with this firm was when my daughter was due to sign the contract 8 months prior to the lease commencing. Their generic contract is heavily weighted towards the themselves and the landlord. DO NOT SIGN IT without demanding clarification on many points. Here are examples. You will be liable for excessive replacement costs of furnishings eg: fridge/freezer£300-£800. The model in the house is £80 at Curry's! Wardrobe £800-£1000 The ones in the house are held together with masking tape! The list goes on, none of the furniture in the property is worth more than 5% of the replacement costs the contract states, most is scrap. You'll be liable to clean gutters 8 meters high! Liable for extra security costs if the house is unattended for more than 2 weeks! I insisted on a document clarifying these points and others. Such as, no gutter cleaning, furniture like for like, door and windows only closed/locked if house is vacant etc. However, it took weeks and lots of effort to get it. Karina at Morgan Douglas said she sent an email twice confirming the changes, never arrived. I went to the office personally to request the email that was sent to me, be printed. She turned a bright crimson, obviously embarrassed to be caught out on a lie. She said, it may take a little while to figure out how to print it..really!!! I was gracious and allowed her time to actually write the document and print it. It took 3 weeks to get the keys after the tenancy start date, they're too busy!! On inspection the house was filthy, oven door broken, toilet lid, window blind, holes in walls etc. Morgan Douglas was informed in person. We were told it would be cleaned & repaired. The receptionist reply "they have a 2 week time scale cleaning policy" this was at 3 weeks. Besides, there is no such policy! 2 weeks later, told again it would be cleaned and things repaired. 2 months later some repairs done. Still not cleaned. We invited them to inspect, they declined. Their manager said "the house was habitable as it has toilet and cooking facilities" She couldn't care less about the condition. My daughter and friends are paying £3000 a month during this time for a broken filthy property. I threaten them with legal action, Niamh at their office sent me emails promising to clean, never happened. The property is inhabited now, daughter and friends cleaned the place. We have lots of photographic and correspondence evidence. Story not over, their manager informed me all policies are on the Concurrent app. The only things on there is the contract, copies of the government guidelines to tenancy and the fire assessment. This leads me to the "matter of life & death". They are in breach of fire regulations and shown a complete lack of due diligence. The assessment was carried out in Feb' 2025. It stated improvements must be made within 3 months, still not been done 7 months later. It stated Morgan Douglas carries out frequent fire regulation inspections. They do not carry out any inspections. This serious breach of safety regulations confirms Morgan Douglas' policy of lying, denial, lack of regard for it's tenant's safety and basic standards of living. Zero respect for anyone. Totally lacking in professionalism. Anyone dealing with them now should do as I have, contact Safeagents.co.uk who provide their accreditation. They have requested a complaint procedure from Morgan Douglas (so far not received but I think the 3rd request delivered as urgent should gain a response as Safeagents are not taking this lightly now they know it's a safety breach). I have also had the environmental health & safety officer inspect the property, he is in the process of demanding the fire regulations are met. The only way this business survives is due to the shortage of properties and the lack of experience of students. If you must rent, ensure you get advice, clarify the contract. Demand your rights and when they fail, use all avenues of complaint. Keep all evidence and take pics of everything. CHECK YOUR FIRE ASSESSMENT, they are probably in breach at other properties. Your life may depend on it

Avoid at all costs.

We signed with Morgan Douglas during the 2022–23 housing crisis in Durham, pressured into committing barely three weeks after starting university. Over two years we paid close to £100,000 in rent between us. Despite this, the pockets of both our landlords and cheap estate agents were not satisfied. We expected at least basic professionalism. Instead, we got the opposite.

When we moved in, the property was in disgraceful condition: filthy kitchen and bathroom, broken doorframes, disgusting mattresses and a garden overflowing with rubbish. All of this was only amended later in the summer, whilst we were already paying rent. Yet when we left the house in a far better condition than we received it, we were charged £240 of our deposit. The most absurd part was £180 for “professional cleaning”, apparently justified by a speck of dirt on a countertop and dust on the top of an unreachable cupboard.

The money itself isn’t the issue, it’s the handling of our deposit. It took nearly two months, countless phone calls, and weekly chasing just to get our deposit back. The entire process is designed to wear tenants down. After pocketing nearly £100,000 from us, this agency still attempts to squeeze every last penny it can.At this point, we’re pursuing the dispute not for the £240, but out of sheer frustration at their obnoxiousness and on principle. It’s not about the money—it’s about the way they treat tenants with contempt and delay, hoping you’ll give up. One agent in particular either receives commission or thrives off taking money from students

If you value your money, your time, or your sanity, do not rent with Morgan Douglas. Other students have said the same on Overheard, Durfess, and right here on Google reviews. We ignored the warnings and paid the price. Don’t make the same mistake. We implore you to heed our warnings.

Please Please Please choose any other letting agents. They are unresponsive, and have excuses for any request you have. I have had the most awful experience with them and have spent the entirety of summer attempting to get my deposit back. I urge you to avoid this letting agency.

Can’t recall one positive experience I had whilst renting with this company. Allowed us to rent a house deemed unsuitable by the council, and then renovated it throughout our entire tenancy. On top of this they took around £500 of our deposit despite our deep clean of the property before departing. I struggle to understand how a company can consistently get away with this.

Stole £500 of our deposit despite returning the room in a better state than when I moved in. The room was also uncleaned before I arrived.

POOR Communication, No Support, WARNING - students/tenants considering renting through Morgan Douglas - They are unwilling to assist with ANY problems throughout tenancy! CAUTION! If something goes wrong, you'll find yourself with no support whatsoever!!

Stole over £500 from our deposit for 'cleaning charges', despite the fact we cleaned it to the same standard that we moved in. Managed to win all the money back through ADR and high quality evidence. Would recommend recording before and after the houses condition and using a more ethical letting agency, if possible. If they don't get you to sign a check in and check out report, then that will work in your favour too

We never--or hardly ever--receive notice of the maintenance team arriving to our accommodation. All residents in our apartment (or whole block in fact) have complained before as a collective and some members have resorted to desperately creating anonymous posts via Durfess and Overheard seeking advice. We keep being woken up at early hours in the morning, without sufficient 24 hours notice, no clear plan of intention of why the maintenance is here. THESE VISITS ARE NOT AN EMERGENCY WHICH THE CONTRACT STIPULATES AS THE ONLY REASON FOR VISITS WITHOUT 24 HOURS PRIOR NOTICE. We are realising this is not a problem unique to Three Tuns as this is also appearing in other Morgan Douglas student properties. I am very sorry to be writing an email in frustrations but is there any way this can be resolved across Morgan Douglas?

We have contacted the DSU and Unipol as this is repeat and becoming--quite frankly--disgraceful.

Absolutely horrible experience renting from Morgan Douglas. Unhelpful in resolving any issues THEY caused. Moreover, our house was dirty and a tip for 3 months after we'd moved in. Would strongly advise against renting from them unless you enjoy pulling your hair out.

NEVER RENT FROM MORGAN DOUGLAS!!

What a nightmare our accomodation has been all year. We rented a 3 bed 2 bathroom terraced house this year from them. We experienced no WiFi and no hot water upstairs for longer than we had it for.

My friends ceiling collapsed on her, whilst she was sleeping and the ceiling was full of mould. They offered her no other accomodation, she had to go to the hospital due to respiratory issues several times throughout the year. In the end, after several months of reaching out about the ceiling, they did a patch job, which continued to fall throughout the year, without any apology.

They then had the nerve to try and not give a full refund based on damage to the ceiling that was there before we arrived!!

Communication with Morgan Douglas is practically none existent, with in person staff at the offices being unbelievably rude. When I pointed out the work that was completed on the ceiling didn’t meet legal or liveable standards, they simply said it was maintenance’s fault. Maintenance won’t do any work unless it gets signed off by office staff.

When we saw Maintenance staff attending another issue down the street, I grabbed them to show them that our front door will not properly shut and lock and hasn’t for weeks. They said they were aware but the office wouldn’t sign off on it for another month. We had to wait until Morgan Douglas decided it was worth fixing. Pretty sure it’s illegal to leave students without any doors that they can lock their house with!!

We found making a fuss around new students looking around was the only way to get anything sorted by Morgan Douglas. Suddenly when we highlighted to the future students that there was active black mould growing and that we had no internet for 8 months, they suddenly wanted to claim that they were sorting work!!!

Avoid at all costs!!

!!DO NOT RENT WITH THIS COMPANY!!

I've lived in a Morgan Douglas property for the last year, and I can confidently say this: never again!! We had endless issues with our house. When the agent showed up late to give me my keys when I moved in, I should have known better. When we arrived, the property was in a deplorable state. Mess and dirt everywhere, multiple belongings belonging to the previous tenants (including dirty dishes in the disgustingly dirty dishwasher that were not removed until CHRISTMAS--as they were mouldy when we arrived, we refused to touch them as it was part of Morgan Douglas' job to do this), and even worse: rotting food in the broken freezer. The house absolutely stank!

Despite having all summer to sort out the new fridge-freezer (due to a fridge and a freezer being broken in a 6-person house), they did not do this until we'd already been living in the property for a few weeks. We've been without internet for longer than we have had it, and even when it was "working" it regularly dropped out and stopped working. Despite numerous emails, they did nothing. We resorted to going into the office multiple times, which they told us not to do because "it won't do anything", but what else were we supposed to do when our emails were going ignored!?

We were told on multiple occasions that the only way to get stuff sorted was to contact the property manager. So we asked for his contact info. "Oh, no, sorry, we can't give you that", but then wouldn't fix anything?

They actually broke rental law multiple times--the rental law states a 24hr notice period before entering the property for any reason, and this was regularly ignored. If anything breaks in your property, good luck getting it fixed!! We were without lights on the middle floor of our 3-storey house for a solid 2 weeks before they finally responded to our email and sent someone out, only to find extremely dangerous electrical damage in an extractor fan in one of the bathrooms. One shower door was broken, and it took them until the new year to fix it when we reported it in December. Personally, the funniest one for sheer audacity for me is when I asked for the bed in my room to be replaced because it was so dirty. They did so--but left the new bed in the middle of my room and did not remove the old one until Christmas!!

The "garden" (a few squares of paving slabs) has been inaccessible the entire time we've lived there due to the sheer amount of brambles out there. It was one of the first things I asked them to sort. As of when I moved out at the end of March due to not returning to Durham for summer term, this still wasn't done!!! I have absolutely no doubt they will blame us for this when it comes to giving us our deposit back and say that we should have "provided upkeep". What upkeep? Do they really expect us to clean up a huge mess of brambles they "promised" they would sort?

I am currently waiting to hear how much of my deposit I am going to get back at the end of my tenancy, and I am not hopeful. I have no doubt they are going to blame half of the damages which were already present in the property on us. Luckily, I had the foresight to take around 70 photographs of the preexisting damages when I moved in. I would highly recommend you do the same!!!!

These people are scammers who apparently get joy out of stressing students out and ruining their experiences at uni due to the deplorable state of the accommodations they offer. I hope they have their downfall, and am quite frankly considering contacting the ombudsman to demand some rent back for the internet issues (we had a bills-included contract).

Heed my warning!!!! Go with any other student rental company, or seriously consider looking into private landlords!!!!!

One of the worst companies to deal with.
Leave students without wifi for 7 months and then continue to tell you that it is your problem and not theirs.
No issues have been resolved whatsoever, having to stress through exams seasons and summative seasons without being able to work at the desk in your room.
They tell you that you can move in one date then delay it a month leaving you homeless, when you move in 3/4 of the stuff will not be in the apartment and the apartment will also be dirty.
I highly advise not to use this company, especially if you’re an athlete coming from overseas!!!!!!!!

Morgan Douglas are a very unprofessional company. I write as a Landlord (and owner of several properties), with a daughter who recently left Durham University. They do not fulfil even their basic obligations as a Letting Agent. Morgan Douglas will happily find you a property to live in (and take your money) but then you are on your own, if any issues. Communication is appalling. The main thing, in my opinion, is to ensure a full check in AND check out or money will be taken from your deposit without agreement. Keep a written record of any issues. Good luck if you are a tenant and try to work with them....

Where do I even begin. I have had the worst experience with Morgan Douglas from start to finish. The property we moved into was in a state - rubbish build up, broken furniture in the hallways, holes in the walls that slugs would enter through and infest the kitchen. After repeatedly going in to complain, nothing was actually done about these issues so we had to solve them ourselves. Their complete and utter lack of empathy for our situation was horrifying. After dealing with these issues (among others) for a year, they had the nerve to deduct a large sum of money from our deposit for ‘damages’ that did not exist. We are still fighting to get some of our deposit back. In the rush to get student housing in Durham, don’t cave and sign with them - you will regret it.