Bread & Butter Collective Reviews 

Avoid if you’re a young student unfamiliar with renting.

Genuinely one of the hardest renting experiences of my life, absolute negligence and 0 care for tenant wellbeing. Customer service is great at the start until you realise you’re dealing with a random person every time, it makes any issues you may have extremely drawn out and inconvenient, making you constantly repeat issues and making contact.

Dodgy deposit scheme that leads room for them to overcharge you on your leaving date and they’re essentially encouraging you to pay over £100 to secure not being charged for cleaning fees even if you provide evidence of the state of the building pre and post your tenancy. Quote: “This option means you’ll definitely not have any additional cleaning costs after you’ve moved out.” In context to a £110 “Super Clean”. - they state adding extra fees for cleaning but how it “Does not apply if you have chosen to pay for the Super Clean” this cost is per tenant.

Other points:
Excessive viewings all week from 10 am till 7 pm, pretty much all year around. Expect to be walked in on. and general disregard from those hosting viewings, they are oftentimes fellow students. They say they have to be with a letting agent , but a strong majority of the time there was none present.

They do not provide recycling bins

The website portal is atrocious and is oftentimes too laggy, so expect to worry if you can even pay your rent as it is so slow it won’t allow payments to go through !

The website also reads like Chat-GPT generated slop, full of emojis and lacking in genuine writing. Does not feel up to a professional standard, just adds to the aspect of Bread and Butter being completely out of touch with the cost of living.

We had multiple issues with marks, stains and quality of appliances in our flat - leaks and stains forming from poorly installed shower heads and stuff, I’m not technical so can’t explain that better. But to give context, we where told the flat was professional cleaned and essentially refurbished, but we found countless examples of stains and marks - like black fingerprints on walls from what I assume is either previous tenants or contractors.

You will also not be informed on your local environment, letting agent was unfamiliar with the area and couldn’t point us to any nearby amenities- this led to us putting up with insane amounts of noise from nearby businesses which continues into late hours.

Expect to be crammed into your new accommodation like sardines which just the bare minimum of things to keep you going, no space, no peace because the walls are paper thin.

AVOID AVOID AVOID

About 3 years ago myself and 2 others put down a holding deposit for a place, secured a viewing and then due to change of circumstances and time had to go for another property. We had to agree to an online form to get to the next step which was the holding deposit. We did not sign any contract only pressed a few buttons to get to the next step.

Apparently on their terms this is legally binding. We then have been pestered with emails about payment ever since, even 3 years later. We never got given keys and we never moved in! We were told it is our responsibility to find a new tenant and the ‘contract’ would remain in place until we did.

We were unsuccessful in finding a tenant and so they then started pressuring our guarantors as well as ourselves for money.

When sent copies of our ‘tenancy agreement’ we could see they forged a signature on our behalf, which is illegal.

We are still dealing with the pressure and emotional turmoil all these years later which is disgusting. The online process mean we were trapped in this situation and then we were never able to reach an actual human to reach a solution, just automated email after email.

They also rebranded a year later which has made it impossible to find a root to the problem. The only way out is through taking them to court which I strongly encourage anyone else with the same experience to go ahead with.

The directors of this company are also directors of hundreds of others. We are now collectively in 18k of debt and I imagine a large part of their wealth is dirty money through scamming vulnerable young people that aren’t experienced enough to know any better. I feel relief in the other 1 star reviews as it confirms we are not alone in our struggle. These people are so incredibly out of touch with how the cost of living, among other things, make it impossible to reach a realistic solution.

Would give it 0 if I could- avoid at all costs. Absolute cowboys. First I booked a viewing for a 3 bed flat, it was booked for nearly a month. They cancelled the viewing the morning of because it had been let over the weekend and they don’t hold properties unless you pay. Convenient. Next they gave us a 6 bed house with exclusivity of all rooms for a good will gesture. To then tell us our 3 bed was back on the market and if we wanted it. We told them no we wanted to keep the 6 bed house. Unfortunately we didn’t have a say in it clearly. It was a polite way of telling us we and have the 6 bed because it was t financially viable for the landlord. I completely understand it from the landlords perspective. But that’s not my issue. I couldn’t give a sh*t how much money the landlord does and does make. After this we agreed we’d have to go into the 3 bed after all because otherwise we’d be homeless. The woman named ELLA, who is the only human I interacted with at this company stated we could book a viewing because we hadn’t seen it the first time. I received an email a day later from Ella claiming I had declined the offer to move. Sorry??? And that another team saw the email I had sent saying we didn’t want the 3 bed we wanted to stay in the 6 before before we realised we didn’t get a choice. Ella promised me first refusal and a prompt viewing for the 3 bed because of all the time wasting. THAT WAS A LIE. everything that comes out of Ella’s mouth and the companies is a lie. I’ve tried ringing them today 12 times and have received answer machine every time. Sack this woman. Empty promises all round, messing around, LIARS, DONT TRUST, ABSOLUTE COWBOYS. Ripping off uni students they should be ashamed.

Awful company - extremely shady

We are trying to leave as we have only put our holding deposit down as a group. Due to changes in finances we can no longer proceed with the house. We haven’t even moved in! They say we have to and we have to continue paying rent. This is genuinely ridiculous and is causing a lot of emotional upset for us and especially me I have had so much mental distress over this.

This company has a lack of humanity and compassion and no one on the phone is able to answer my questions. They just say “put a message on the portal” but they don’t respond to it for days.

Me and my group are going to talk to the university and council for guidance as to how to escape this horrible company

The positives are real: refurbished units, a pet-friendly policy, and a prime location. The customer service team usually replies quickly, and the tenant portal is genuinely impressive — clear records, easy maintenance requests, and payment visibility.

However, over the past six months there have been recurring issues that affect basic comfort: water outages, laundry room problems, Wi-Fi going down, and false alarms. These aren’t one-off teething problems — the pattern has made the experience more stressful than it should be at this price point. I’m not fully sure the overall value has felt fair for what I’m paying.

I’m leaving this review because the foundation is good, but reliability and preventative maintenance need to improve.

If I could give 0 stars I would. Very nice accommodation but they will scam you as soon as your tenancy is over.

Customer service:
Sarah has been amazing at helping me sort out things with the house. She is polite, understanding and tries her best to solve problems with minimum disruption. Couldn’t recommend her enough. 10/10 thank you so much!

Honestly the best experience i’ve ever had with an agency. They replied basically within the hour (if not quicker) of every email I sent. They replied after working hours too !
Super helpful and accommodating.
I would highly recommend. Especially for students.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS. My partner rented a house from Bread and Butter and has since had nothing but problems with this disgraceful company. She has experienced house viewers being given access to the property without a housing agent, allowing them to roam around her house without her knowledge and with no warning. She literally found 2 women looking around her house alone who had been let in by a tenant of another flat at the instruction of B&B. Agents and maintenance men let themselves in without letting her know. This has been a terrifying experience for her as a young woman living alone, finding random men wandering around in her house with no explanation. This company is beyond unprofessional. The house was also FILTHY when she moved in, there was human waste around the bathroom, footprints on the dining table and hundreds of spiders. There had clearly been no attempt to clean the house after the last tenants moved out. Also, there is mould around the house and in her bedroom. And there was a gas leak at the property when she moved in, which she discovered. This has happened twice! The bins outside the building were not collected for over a month, causing rubbish to be piled up on the floor, almost touching the front door of the property. Bread and butter wanted to take no responsibility for resolving this, even though the council made it clear that it was their responsibility. Due to this negligence, there is now a problem of people going through the bins, spreading the rubbish around even more and creating the perfect condition for rats. She is not given the courtesy of being informed of major changes in a timely manner. Just the other day, she was sent a message saying, "By the way, a man is moving into your house TODAY". Why was she not given advanced notice?! Even worse is that the man moving into her flat came from a different flat in the same property and had been literally forced out of his home by B&B for no good reason. We have made MANY formal complaints about this business to the council and will continue to do so. Since my partner moved into this property, she has had nothing but uncertainty and anxiety. Bread and butter think that because their tenants are young people, they can treat them however they want, and that tenant rights don't apply to them. SHAME ON YOU! If you want my advice, buy a tent and live outside; you'll have more peace than renting from this organisation.

The team was patient and attentive to my requests, they provided prompt and informative responses along with providing alternatives to solve my problems.

Had a wonderful experience asking about adopting a cat! Keri was very quick getting back to us and seemed super lovely!

Awful company to live with. Do not send any contractors out to the house despite saying they will. Will scam you out of money at the end of your house contract. Our house wasn’t livable for months after we moved in but they didn’t seem to care at all. Another student housing company that’s trying to scam students. Go with anyone but them.

They were quick to respond to our complaints and also provided the necessary procedures should in case they couldn't show up. I had a lovely stay as the house is warm and cosy ☺️

We had no WiFi for 2 months in an awful house with water and mold damage. After months of complaining we were moved to a new flat. Now after moving out we are being over charged. Awful company they don’t care about you avoid at all costs.

Our experience with Bread and Butter Collective as landlords for our university accommodation has been nothing short of a nightmare. I would strongly advise any student or tenant considering this company to look elsewhere – you will save yourself months of stress, frustration, and being completely ignored.

From day one, communication has been appalling. Repeated emails and requests for maintenance or general enquiries were often ignored for months. It’s clear they either don’t care or simply don’t have the systems in place to manage basic tenant communication.

When something breaks – which happens often due to the overall poor quality of the accommodation – don't expect a timely fix. We waited months for broken appliances to be replaced, and even then, they weren’t replaced like-for-like. Instead of receiving equivalent or functional replacements, we were given subpar alternatives without any consultation or apology.

The property itself was poorly maintained, with issues that should’ve been addressed before we moved in. To make matters worse, Bread and Butter Collective is now trying to charge us fees for damage and conditions that were clearly there when we moved in, despite this being flagged early on and documented. This feels like nothing short of exploitation.

It’s painfully clear that this company is more interested in extracting money from students than actually providing habitable, well-managed housing. If you're considering renting through them, don’t. Save yourself the endless back-and-forth, the stress, and the financial risk. There are better, more reputable landlords out there who treat tenants like humans rather than walking wallets.

Do not make the same mistake we did.

Very easy company to deal with. Property accessed when promised and cleaned to a very high standard. Wear and tear issues reported and sept with efficiently. Staff are very friendly when you ring up. Would definitely recommend.

Cannot get in contact directly - no response to messages - my daughter never took up the room - just stopped for the one night - we have paid the whole term but the least they could do is respond!!!!! Now after end of tenancy costs - if they took their time to respond to issues - they would know this, whilst there is an agreement and yes i know the terms, I would have expected a response given the circumstances!!!!!!!!!

I never write reviews, but I wanted to share the outstanding experience I had with Sarah Wan at Bread and Butter Collective. From my first phone call, Sarah was incredibly professional, understanding, and genuinely cared about supporting my daughter and I through a difficult situation.
Even though this is the companies busiest period her communication, and willingness to go the extra mile – even outside of office hours was amazing.
We were so grateful for all her and her teams help (Victoria was also amazing) they were genuinely caring and passionate about supporting us.

If you're looking for university accommodation I found Bread and Butter Collective to be a trustworthy, efficient, and compassionate company and I can’t recommend them highly enough.

Thank you again – you really helped when we needed it most 😊

We live next door to a house managed by this company and they (Yes the company NOT the students) graciously dumped leftover trash in front of the house with open bin bags and rotten food. This is attracting flies, rats, people going through the bin bags and a fox. Quite the variety! Called multiple times over the past two days and the best we get is 'we'll let the contractor know could be today could be tomorrow they're really busy'. No reason to leave it outside it should be inside the property and we even had employees visiting the house and jokingly commenting to us 'you had messy neighbours this year', zero issues with the previous tenants, it was company that dumped the rubbish outside. Unprofessional, uncaring, useless service. All i can say is don't live next door to a house managed by this company they will dump all manners of trash outside and be in no rush to get rid of it despite there being mouldy, smelly, rat-infested rubbish. Absolutely vile.

Being an older student, I have been with many different letting agencies in the past, and it is absolutely expected that those catered to students are especially bad and exploitative. However, this one is undoubtedly the worst. The house had dead bugs lined up on the windowsills when I moved in (and I am sure that if they remain there the agency will deem that to be cause not to reimburse the deposits). They do not answer and they blame you. They take advantage of the fact they don't answer, and this (again this is in my humble opinion) all in an effort to be, in my mind, even more exploitative. I am uncomfortable detailing a situation I am in regarding the agency but just know that it is extremely bad and just profoundly unprofessional. It is to the extreme that when I saw good reviews I was astounded and managed to (very wrongly I assume) convince myself that they could not possibly be true and thus written by the agency itself (to be clear, I am in no way asserting this is the case, rather pointing to how their behaviour has seemingly eroded my ability to think fairly in regards to their capabilites). Personally, I find it especially disquieting to think that they mostly deal with very impressionable 18 year olds and most likely take advantage of their very apparent naivety. Truly, for the good of your children (or yourself) I would really advise you to pay for a better company. They are truly awful and just really quite bad at their jobs. One must assume they do better in other locations or I would imagine their business model to be extremely deficient (though I am no expert, perhaps this incompetence is their business model, who am I to say?). I am in no way trying to be unfair or facetious, but am genuinely really upset and just so exhausted at having to deal with them at all. Honestly? I had a private landlord last year who used to walk into our all girls house, go to our rooms without any notice and walk in while we were in our underwear, and the Bread and Butter Collective is still worse. I mean really, one might be inclined to conclude that the bar is beyond hell and in a realm inacessible to man. I wish had never had the misfortune to end up with them and I truly, truly hope this review will dissuade any unlucky person to end up relying on them. In particular, I hope this will dissuade any parent. Unless you'd like to punish your children in which case I believe this is the company for you. I'm honestly ashamed, I never write reviews usually because I'm not a Karen but these guys are TERRIBLE.