homes4u 

Very poor customer service. They do not reply to email communication. Guarantors are required to cover the cost for all tenants in the flat rather than the person they are guaranteeing to pay for if said person fails to pay. Don't use I would give zero stars if it was an option.

Took months to fix a broken boiler and water leak.

Lots of cost for petty things deducted from deposit.

Don’t go with this agency. After multiple failed attempts to be accepted for a guarantor (and hundreds of pounds charged for this process) me and my flat mate finally got accepted to rent a property. We shouldn’t have been turned down as every other place accepted us first time therefore, we think Homes4u has a mutual agreement with the guarantor checking company to screw us students over. Upon receiving our keys, not only were multiple keys missing (for the postbox, windows and a very vital fob to enter the gated car park!!!) but they also didn’t work leaving us stranded outside. Once we finally got into the house it was filthy, mouldy, furniture was broken and not functioning at all. We addressed these issues with Homes4u but its taken them 5 weeks to even reply to me initially. Now I’m being told that the landlady doesn’t have an obligation to make our living conditions bearable and that they cant get a hold of her and this is it. WE’VE PAID RENT FOR 2 MONTHS AND CANT EVEN PROPERLY MOVE IN?! Never making the same mistake again by going with homes4u. Please avoid, especially if you’re a student! Every student ive spoken to has been neglected by this company.

Avoid if you want to get your deposit back.

My daughter and her friends been waiting over a month for deposit back. Ignoring emails and calls until they said they are complaining to Landlord deposit scheme. To eventually come up with a cleaning cost of £360 amongst other costs as well. They left the house much cleaner than when they moved in.

They had a broken dangerous couch with a leg missing when they moved in. Also they were left without a washing machine and fridge for 3 weeks incurring laundry and wasted food costs.

Workmen sent by Homes4u show up unannounced - not great if female and in nightie.

They verbally told landlord about broken light not long after moving in to then find that this is being deducted from deposit- Landlord should have fixed it as that is what paying rent is for.

One girl had hangers in her wardrobe when first moved in so left the same ones in wardrobe to be then charged fir their removal.

Charge for an empty plastic bag inadvertently left in a room to be removed.

Preying on students. Still not got deposit back.

A few tips for any students considering renting digs through homes4u. Before you agree to the tenancy, ask if a professional clean will be carried out - in my experience, they’ll tell you it will but it won’t. And before you move in, take as many photos as you can (walls, window cills, skirting boards, floors, kitchen surfaces, sink, appliances (including inside), bathroom fittings, etc, etc). If your house is dirty and needs repair, contact homes4u and get them to sort it.

When my wife and I moved my son into his house in Fallowfield, his room wasn’t clean and repairs were required. We cleaned (cobwebs everywhere, carpet covered in debris and hard surfaces were filthy, turning cloths black when wiped) and repaired things like curtain tracks to get him settled in.

When we moved him out, we left his room spotless and found the rest of the house to be cleaner than when he and his friends moved in. However, they were hit by a £120.00 charge against their deposits for cleaning. The photos produced by homes4u to back the claim showed the same stained and poorly maintained surfaces that existed before they moved in.

Upon complaining and asking for pre-occupation images and details of sign off of the house as being fit for occupation, I was told that the house had been cleaned and subsequently checked by home4u’s property manager - no photos were provided.

Beware - this is a scam that is no doubt commonplace.

I already wrote this on google reviews, but might as well post it here, so more people see this.

Where do I even begin... If you can avoid this company, PLEASE DO SO AT ALL COSTS!!! First of all, communication problems arose even before signing the contract. Firstly, they need 10 days to process documents before moving in, and even though we started the renting process earlier than that, there were delays of the contract and even a 1 week delay of moving in (we had to crash on the couches of our friends while working and studying) because they were unresponsive and stated multiple incorrect things. First we were told we require only one guarantor, then the night before we were supposed to sign everything, suddenly we need to find 3 guarantors over night (which is hard for students when you don't know anyone in UK), then our contract length at first when talking to them was 8 months or so, then we came and they told us it's 12 months (once again, awful communication even among the company employees themselves). And these were just a few things.

Then when we finally get to move in, the place is dirty, there is grease above the oven, the appliances and the fridges are masivelly dirty (we even found a bunch of mould in the fridges), dust everywhere you touch or see, there seemed to be no vacuuming in the property for ages. So we had to do the thorough cleaning ourselves. ALSO THE FLAT WAS INFESTED WITH MICE.

Then, when leaving the property AND ACTUALLY CLEANING IT THOROUGHLY AND LEAVING IT IN MUCH BETTER CONDITION THAN WE FOUND IT they now wish to claim a significant portion of our deposit. We got them to send us the price breakdown and the things written on there are ridiculous, such as "wiping the back of the drawer" or "wiping behind the toaster" (which was a breadcrumb mess when we moved in) or even "wiping the door", a cleaner could fix these things in an hour for 30 pounds if not even less. They even want to charge us for them needing to remove a few hangers from the house!!! This is just ridiculous.

In short, terrible communication among them and with us, incorrect claims which caused delays, dirty property for us, and now they want to take our deposit for literally nothing.

Do. Not. Rent. With. Them. If you do not have a choice, upon moving in take as many photos of the property as you can so that they do as little wrong to you at the end of the tenancy as possible.

Will never rent with homes4u again. Ever.

Avoid this agency. They absolutely do not care about students. I am an EU student who rented a flat with them and booked my tickets to come back to the UK after summer. The one and only thing I asked them (after having paid all fees and the full rent upfront) was to have someone bring me the keys at the property in case that I don't make it on time before the office closes. I should be able to make it to their office unless there was any unexpected flight delay. They of course denied so I asked whether I can send a trusted friend to their office to pick up my keys (I also offered to give them my friend's ID number) and they denied. One can not imagine how difficult this is for a student who lives away from home. I had nowhere else to stay that night apart from the flat that I ALREADY PAID THE RENT UPFRONT FOR! After this I realised what kind of agency they were. They just care about your money and have no sympathy for students. I heard numerous stories of their moulded flats filled with mice. Once you rent with them they will be quick to ask you to leave a nice review for them on facebook and that is the only reason they have more than one stars. My new agent is great and offered to bring me the keys at the property without even having to ask. Trust me, when you are a student it's important to find an agent who cares and understands the struggles. Do yourself a favour and avoid this agency.

They were absolutely useless in the face of a horrible landlord, and were happy to sit by while we lived in mouldy damp conditions with a whole host of other problems because they couldn’t contact the landlord for weeks on end. What’s the point of a lettings agency if not to protect you from situations like this. After all our email exchanges they’d ask us to review them; well here’s the review...AVOID AT ALL COSTS.

**SCAMMERS**

This company scammed me of a £250 ''reservation fee''. I was told that £250 deposit would secure me a rental property. I paid the fee and heard nothing for 2 weeks despite numerous calls and emails. I was then told, 3 days before i was planning to move in that i had failed a credit check, that the move had fallen through and that the company could not help me any further. They have not responded to correspondence since.

Processes went well and replies were made in a timely manner, we are in the process of getting our contracts set up, after referencing being done we were requested to send over the Deposit and the first month's rent. From here it went downhill, the emails and requests for these were littered with typo's first of all, the amount for our rent was filled in incorrectly, I spotted this and asked if this was indeed incorrect, which they confirmed.

I also saw that the deadline for the first month's rent was strange as it is after the day we would move in which would be very strange to be called advanced rent. In the same email, I pointed this date out and asked if they could confirm if this was correct. They emailed back stating that it was indeed correct. later we find out that was wrong and that I did have to send the money earlier, which we luckily spotted and inquired about before the actual due date.

Lastly, we have been updating the person dealing with our payments with every step we have taken, including when we sent the deposit. When this person got informed that they had received payment from me, the person was not capable to put 2 and 2 together and assumed that I made a mistake in payment. I then received an email stating that I made a mistake and sent too much money, as I had already spotted many errors I assumed that the amount provided to us was just another one and we set up that we would pay less for the advanced rent.

We later get an email telling us we have not sent enough money now. one of them being the difference we confirmed with this person and the other one being my advanced rent which I was informed had to be paid with a deadline 2 months later.

I called in to inform and confront this person as I was clearly very unhappy about being misinformed multiple times. I did get an apology but it was followed by the person defending themselves and then also putting the blame on us. During this call I have been interrupted many times and when I then interrupted the interruption, I get rudely called out for it and requested to let them finish first.

The whole reason I called in was to make clear where the faults originated from and multiple times the person interrupted me to tell me the same thing over and over. I will be filling in a complaint form and hope that it helps because nobody should have to deal with this. I understand that typos happen but when they are pointed out to you it should be rectified and not made into a further mess.

Referencing process is a joke. If you work for small businesses you have no chance. After submitting excessive amounts of evidence of income, still refused. Waste of time and money.

Been living in their property for a month now.
Since day one they have been very efficient, we booked two viewings, we had many issues to solve before we entered the property and they sort it all quickly and to our satisfaction.
Out property manager Emma, rapidly replaying all of our emails, get things done and seems to be very nice.

I would recommend homes4u as a satifisfied former tenant of one of their properties. My property manager Matthew Butler was prompt in his responses and my end of tenancy coordinator Katie Cannon was there to answer any questions I had.
Finbar Coyle

Horrible Horrible, avoid using them, they will try to do anything to deduct from your deposit even if you return the home in a better condition, I would highly advise you to stay away from doing business with Homes4U.
If I could give 0 Star I would have given them 0.

I had a very bad experience with this letting agent, please take pictures of every spot when you rent from them as they will try to nock your deposit on ridiculous things, I will take it to the financial ombudsman as this is ridiculous.

Didn't have keys to half the bedrooms during viewings. When I agreed to take a house and paid fees they forgot to set up the tenancy and had to be prompted a few weeks later. Eventually dealing with Tarin Entwhistle who kept sending guarantor and tenancy agreements to incorrect email addresses. Had been told that it was okay with the landlord to move in over summer, although this was a complete lie as they had never actually asked him. After moving in I found out that I had been tricked into switching energy providers, with a direct debit set up for a gas/electric meter even though the property didn't have one! Altogether lots of completely unnecessary hassle that would have been avoided if Homes4u had done their jobs properly.

Tracey was our property manager for our student house and was very helpful and got things sorted for us quickly. However, DO NOT RENT WITH HOMES 4 U IF YOU WANT YOUR DEPOSIT BACK!! It has been eight weeks since we moved out and the person dealing with our deposit has emailed us ONCE in those eight weeks. She completely ignores us, never answers emails, never answers the phone, or is out of the office every single time we try to get in contact with her. Homes 4 U owe us upwards of £1700 (which is a disgusting amount to begin with). They're charging us £120 for changing light bulbs and taking rubbish out. They treat tenants like absolute mugs and are the most unprofessional people I've ever had to deal with. It's got so bad I am now seeking legal advice from my solicitor colleagues. Never rent with this company!!!!!!

Absolutely terrible customer service. Nothing is ever their fault. Takes them days, sometimes weeks, to reply to an email or call and you’ll speak to someone different everytime. I had an issue with my boiler, it took them over 2 MONTHS to fix, all the while chasing me for rent money! I have a young son and had to find alternative accommodation for 7 weeks. They are absolute cowboys and shouldn’t be in the industry. The staff act more like barmaids than professionals. Going by other reviews, they will only reply to Landlords, not former tenants. Pretty much sums them up to be honest. AVOID!

Passed around between disinterested managing agents throughout the year of renting with Homes4U. Service consistently slow, communication shockingly poor, and decisions taken without our input. At one point in the year plumbers ripped up the floor to our house to fix a pipe and an open hole – soil and all – was left in our living room for at least a month longer. They had no plans to get a separate contractor in to replace the floor, and ended up having to re-floor the whole room because of how it had been taken up.

Never once had a good experience with them – and have heard similar horror stories from others who rented with Homes4U.