CrookandBlight

Great experience! We have been looking for an investment property for nearly six months now and meeting Anthony at the property was a nice surprise. He answered every question we had and was clearly well prepared (believe us, this is very unusual for most of the agents who feel that the house will sell anyway so they do not need to make any effort!!!). We wish that we come across Crook and Blight earlier!

What an amazing estate agent. Anthony was amazing - after experiencing pinkmove (who were vague and unclear), this was a breath of fresh air. Anthony knew everything we wanted to know about the house we viewed, and it almost felt like we were being shown around by the owner.

I have absolutely no doubt in my mind concerning crook and blight, and Anthony was so good and so informative we made an offer there and then.

If only more estate agents cared like these. We look forward to completing our journey with this estate agent.

Recently had two viewings with crook and blight by a lovely friendly gentleman named Anthony, kept us up to date with viewings and very informative. Would definitely recommend using crook and blight as an estate agent

Anthony showed us around a lovely house. He was very professional and friendly. Called before the viewing to confirm the appointment which showed great communication. Amazing representative for an amazing estate agent company

I would avoid if possible, for lettings at least.

The security deposit and first months rent was requested before the Tenancy Agreement (TA) was provided. So this was before I had seen the terms. At the very least, this does not seem like best practice. Usually the tenant hands over these funds on signing of the TA. This was the first red flag.

The TA itself was poor. It was a website generated (as evident from the footer) "standard template". It had poor formatting throughout, and almost no punctuation, thus many of the terms and details were vague. There were duplicate terms as well, which simply seems unprofessional. It was as if no one had proofed read it before sending it my way. Either that, or C&B simply have low standards, it's hard to tell. I have had several TAs in the past and this has been the worst.

Email commutations were somewhat poor. It seems that the agents sometimes forgot what was last said, then they repeated what they had already said one or two emails ago. It was clear that on a couple of occasions they lost track of the conversation, despite the replies being directly below. I appreciate they are probably very busy, but it still seems unprofessional.

Even my ex-Landlord had communication issues with C&B when they asked him for a reference. He provided one, but they chased him up unnecessarily days afterwards.

I asked for the TA to be improved, and at the very least, for vague terms to be clarified. But this never happened. It seemed that C&B could not get a hold of the Landlord (or anyone) for several weeks in order for them to get permission to modify the TA. This caused a lot of stress for me during this time. Eventually, time ran out and I had sign the original TA regardless as I had to move out of my current flat. After all, beggars can't be choosers in this rental market.

It was only the day before I moved in when I was informed that the property would not be managed by C&B and instead it would be managed by a separate company, unlike what I was told when I first viewed the property.

I imagine this is why C&B could not get a hold of someone to confirm modifications to the TA, I assume they were barking up the wrong tree for weeks, until the very last moment. They admitted there had been a miscommunication between themselves and the other parties. I imagine if this miscommunication never occurred, then I would have not had so much trouble with the TA etc. But here I am speculating.

I'm not sure who was responsible for the inventory, as it was conducted by yet another third party, but it was not accurate. After receiving the keys, then coming back to the property later that day, a fridge had appeared in the flat. This was not on the inventory and I did not authorise someone to let themselves in to install this. I believe this was an fault on the part of Management, but they claim C&B were aware of this. If this was true, C&B failed to inform me about this. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case, but it's unclear really.

Also, due to the last minute revelation by C&B regarding who was managing the property, the TA had to be modified anyway as I would not longer be paying rent to C&B, but to Management directly. This was done after I moved in. I don't think it would have been difficult to make minor amendments to the TA at this time to clarify the vague terms and to bring the quality of the TA to an average level, but this was not done.

Overall, this has been but of a mess, and the situation made me feel like a student again. Would not recommend.

Anthony showed me around today. He not only showed me what I booked but thought about what would suit my need and found another property that was more suitable for what I was looking for.

Without Crook and Blight I think our sale would have fallen through. We had a nightmare with the Solicitors of the buyers and if it wasn't for Lara I think I would have lost my sanity. She was incredibly patient and definitely went the extra mile in helping sort things out.
I cannot recommend Crook & Blight and Lara enough!

Great service from Crook and Blight. Quick sale achieved and smooth process to completion. Particular thanks to Lara who was great and very responsive.