reviews » Advice & Opinions on Property

The controversial review website, Allagents.co.uk, has released league tables of estate agents and letting agents, with the best and worst performers ranked according to customer ratings.

Unsurprisingly, the site has received a barrage of criticism from agents, complaining that reviews are one-sided and are often posted by tenants, landlords, sellers or buyers who have a grudge against them or want to settle a score. There may be something in that of course; hotel owners have made similar criticisms of Trip Advisor. But as the number of reviews of each agent increases, the distorting effect of individual malicious entries should be minimal and a reasonably accurate reflection of the satisfaction (or otherwise) of customers should emerge.

The league tables show that the smallest, single-office, agents have done the best. Jorgensen Turner, established just a few years and with a single office in Shepherds Bush, for instance, comes in at number 8 in the best rated agent in the country and number 3 in the branch ratings. This does not surprise me: I have used Jorgensen Turner myself and have found them to be very efficient and helpful on every occasion. South London agency, Streets Ahead, takes the country’s number one spot based on 382 reviews. The highest rated branch office in the UK is Paramount Properties of West Hampstead.

Only one firm with more than 30 offices makes it into the top 500 -the Midlands firm, Whitegates.

The ten worst rated agents in the UK includes well-known chains Your Move, Bairstow Eves and Countrywide Residential. Solitaire Property Management of Luton also gets a big thumbs-down.

Judging by the interest the reviews have attracted in the agent community, it is likely that some agents may soon be forced to sit up and take notice of what their customers are saying about them. Good.

You may have read our post on letting agent reviews: angry tenants and landlords sounding -off about their experiences with agents. On a similar theme, Harry Hill (no, not that one, the man who set up RightMove) has launched a conveyancing website, publicised by that affable property hunter, Phil Spencer. The site includes an online game – “Angry Buyers” – in which you can vent your anger by firing estate agents, mortgage brokers and property lawyers out of a cannon to knock over houses. It may be simply a clever marketing ploy but it’s certainly very satisfying to play and, like Angry Birds, very addictive.

“I am astounded at how bad these people are. Rude, unprofessional and unqualified...”

“the majority of the staff at … are unhelpful, rude, dishonest and above all incompetent”

“The worst letting agency I ever came across. Arrogant and rude…also they are useless at their job”

“they did nothing. Absolutely nothing.”

“lies after lies”

And those are by no means the worst comments. All the above are taken from the review section of uklettingagent.co.uk, an online directory of letting agents. To be fair, there are one or two positive reviews but I suspect they may have been posted by the agents themselves. The overwhelming majority of comments are negative, very negative; you can feel the anger in the reviewers’ words. Entertaining and definitely worth a read.

Let us know of your experiences with letting agents, good or bad. If there’s enough interest, we’ll set up our own review section for you to let off steam. Ludlow Thompson would be top of my list.

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Advice & Opinions on Property | the RentFair Blog

Letting Agent League Tables – the results are out!

Harry Hill launches “Angry Buyers” game

Letting Agents Slated on Reviews Website

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