Leaders

Do not use this Lettings agency if you are a landlord. There is absolutely no staff accountability, no adherence to policy or procedure, unbelievably poor communication with clients and completely unprofessional approach to Lettings. There are many alternative good agents to choose from at a much lower percentage fee so please beware if Leaders.

The estate agent and landlord left my partner in a home that had mould, fungus growing through the ceiling, blocked drains at the front of the property and it has now come to the attention that there is asbestos present. The actions of the company have gone beyond poor customer service and are in fact criminal. When my partner made the complaint and eventually withheld the rent to try and make them repair the property they threatened her with a section 8 notice. This was after her reporting the problems for six months! The complaint that was made was also not taken seriously and they avoided any responsibility for any wrongdoing despite clear evidence of laws being broken.
The estate agent is one to be avoided at every turn as the customer service is poor and their attitude towards a tenants rights is highly negligent and at times dangerous.

We rented with Nichol & Co, Landlady decided to change to Leaders, reasons unknown. Loyal tenants for 5 years, 18 year old carpets, threadbare and the place in need of redecorations. We offered to do a professional re-paint (Our job) plus fit new carpets for no rent increase, guess what ? The rent can stay the same if you sign a new contract, no repairs or re-freshing, we estimated £3700 value we were offering. No chance to reply, 4 days later (According to Leaders), "The Landlady has changed her mind and now wants a rent increase", by the way it'll only be a 6 month contract. Landlady wants security ? Why only a 6 month contract. I could talk all day, this company do not work with the tenants or landlords, their only focus is to make money for themselves. They changed our utility supplier without our knowledge, even set up an account in our name, their password, data protection are concerned and looking into this. Please listen, they are dishonest and duck and dive all the time, basically if you're a tenant, you're the lowest of the low, council people, not human beings whose circumstances in life have changed. I could go on, not a good company to be renting from. They're all deaf and ignorant.

Following up from Leaders reply, quote " We strive for nothing less than excellent service, and we always take it very seriously when we hear of any dissatisfaction from our customers. We are concerned by your feedback", so you should be, Leaders are breaking lots of rules in the book, just to reach targets, staff/employee's lie to tenants, I/we have evidence. Data protection law breakers, they closed our account at British Gas, set up a new account on-line with SSE and even had password set up in my name. Wow. Excellent service, not, do they take complaints seriously, "No" we were forced out of our home, we're glad that we are not customers anymore, maybe we can get on with our lives now, they caused so much stress. The rate they are going, they'll have no customers left. We work within the lettings market (To a very high standard) and we're sure to be informing perspective tenants (Lots of them) and purchasers alike of their gross incompetence and lack of, quote "Excellent Service". ?

Leaders:- Your local branch is in Worcester, they do not deserve any custom, as a 5 year tenant, we were treated like scumbags, lies and false promises, data protection laws were broken, big style, my/our personal data was spread everywhere Leaders could make commission, worse of all, they didn't give a damn. I could go on forever, our solicitor feels we have a good case of Landlord Harassment and/or Constructive Eviction. On that note I'm going to bed before I get my hair off, Leaders did threaten us with eviction if we did not agree to a rent increase, not bothered about redecorations, threadbare carpets, maintenance issues, no shower, failed tiles, failed worktop sealant, a property in need of re-freshing (We offered to do it, our job, still got to pay more rent though), "???? off" I could go on, not bothered Leaders just put the rent up and come out with lies about similar properties.
Please trust me and read the poor reviews because that is what they are about. Okay, maybe not the companies policy, it's maybe the braindead staff they employ thinking about Christmas bonuses.

Sorry Leaders, at this stage we are advised not to give our new address to you, our old one was (Apt 2, WR1 1QX), you cannot be trusted to keep our details safe.

The warning signs were there early on in the tenancy, namely not receiving the tenancy agreement to read, and return until 5 pm the day before we were due to move in. This was after days of repeat chases from myself, ideally, I would've liked more time to read the full document in order to make sure any concerns were addressed but sadly we were robbed of that chance.

Their behaviour during the COVID 19 situation is the real driving force behind this review and its quite frankly astonishing. We were due to move out on the 16th of April, around 3 weeks prior to this when the lockdown first became enforced and it was advised not to move unless absolutely necessary we reached out to Leaders for some advice and just general guidelines as to what sort of options/processes were in place should we be unable to move (legally or otherwise). We were met with very blunt 'you are moving, just be careful' type responses initially but were offered a call with the branch manager which did at least spark some hope that we could get some guidance.

Sadly this was not the case, after a frustrating back and forth where I repeatedly tried to explain I wasn't looking for you to solve the lockdown crisis but merely wanted some general advice/guidance I was told 'I don't know I'm not a politician'. Great, cheers Scott, big help there. I work in the property industry, the amount of my clients that have come to me for COVID related advice is obviously quite high, I wouldn't dream of responding to any of them in such a manner. After concluding the call by establishing we had no choice but to move, we were then repeatedly sent email reminders asking us to confirm this was the case. We responded to some, others we ignored due to the fact we were just repeating ourselves during an obviously stressful time. No compassion whatsoever, it's obviously very easy to sit at home sending emails when you know your living situation is fine. It's a sheer lack of empathy quite honestly.

Throughout the tenancy, we only had few reasons to contact them but mostly this fell on deaf ears. We raised an issue of damp by a window, someone was said to be coming round to have a look, obviously from my tone you can tell that didn't happen. We realised quite early it was easier to deal with our landlord (who was really nice) directly, which begs the question 'what does he pay Leaders for?'.

Presumably, he pays them to make sure he has a tenant and market the property... oh wait they couldn't even be bothered with that part. As I said we moved on the 16th of April, we had to tell them at the start of March that the tenancy was due to end and that we were moving out, at which point they organised a flurry of viewing. Makes you wonder if we had left it until the last minute would my landlord have just been left with an empty property?

As part of the moving out process I was forced to then return to the property, during the lockdown, to carry out a checkout process as they deemed it unsafe to send someone round to do it on their behalf (yet somehow its fine for me to get a removal company and professional cleaners in?) only to find out a day later my landlord went and carried out an inspection as well (he then contacted me, settled up the deposit and that was that). Again no real 'management' on their end and my checkout inspection, photos etc were clearly just waste of my time and an unnecessary excursion which goes against government guidelines.

All and all it's just been poor and the lack of any real empathy is consistent with a lot for the recent reviews on Trustpilot, particularly relating to COVID.

I'm going to save you a job and copy the generic response to this review in here myself, you seem to like letting others do your work for you.

Hi, we are saddened to see that we have received a low star rating regarding the service you have received from Leaders. Email us and we can continue to ignore you and your concerns. Thank you from the Customer Service Team

this is very very worst service.i never seen this type of cheating in whole 6 years of UK stay.especially milton keynes property management service is very very bad.
they take money at the end of tenancy purpose fully.they charge me £460 only for cleaning.
one lady is there in property management she never support at the end of tenancy.
they purposefully do like this and they cheat like this.i am explaining below.
at the check in time they will said we cleaned house professionally.at that time they don't clean windows ,oven,fridge,garage,outside lawn and stream cleaning of carpets.so the cleaners will charge less amount.for them cleaners charge only £280.
in the check in report they will mention professionally cleaned by cleaners.they took sign for u need to whole house by end of tenancy .by end of tenancy they will charge £450.see how they are cheating.if we ask that lady what works we need to do simply she said I don't explain .at the end of tenancy only I will do otherwise I don't talk to you.she had a responsibility what works need to clean by tenants at the end of the tenancy.otherwise cleaners will charge more amount. they don't do it for free.we stayed only 1 year 4 months in that house. we lose half of the one month rent.plz....plz...plzz..don't go with the leaders .especially Milton Keynes property management.
she did like this purposefully.
please ..plz ..plz don't go with the leaders.
you will lose very high volume of money.

this is regarding property 9 turnside street ,buckingham

Shocking service from start to finish, staff misinform you with incorrect information, rude staff and manager, reported issues never dealt with promptly, data protection breach where my personal number was given out to numerous different contractors when I gave my notice to the property without asking my permission first, try to rinse you with costs, gone with another letting agent in Stamford and straight forward professional process straight away

Leaders are actually nothing but bullies and will day light rob you of every single penny! My house was left in the exact condition it was found in, after the cheapskate landlord hadn't replaced the carpets or decorated the house in 20 years yet are trying to make me pay over £300 in costs and have received a letter today in the post taking me to COURT! I am currently totally out of work due to Covid-19 yet they are still harassing people disgusting BEHAVIOUR! I will certainly be disputing this! Every other letting agent has not behaved in such a MANNER! If I could give them zero I really would stay away EVERYBODY!

Paid my rent on the 18th of March we moved out on the 19th of April 2020 ( we’re responsible for the house) meaning I would of owed one day in rent, to receive a text today saying that I owed over £200 in rent I emailed my leaders branch and they told me I was responsible up until the 30th of this month and they wanted the rent to be paid. Little did they know I had proof of leaders that I was only responsible up until the 19th of April 2020 sent this attached proof and poof suddenly I didn’t owe anything. I am currently heavily pregnant and out of a job due to Covid 19 meaning I would of had to struggle to pay you. This is bad communication on your behalf and I am sincerely not happy at all.

worst estate agents going ripped off 2 oap , 1 aged 82 and 1 aged 69 left them with damp and mould reported it loads of time no cooker for 2 weeks don't trust them

I’ve delivered 10000 leaflets for leaders not receiving 1p if this is how they treat me how do they treat people who want to rent or sell. Thieving company I’m out of pocket cause of them

Have let my apartment solely through Leaders ( formerly IMS) for the past 13 years and have nothing but praise for each and every member of staff I have ever dealt with....I have found everyone efficient, friendly and professional and always willing to go “ over and above “....I’m genuinely shocked to see the negative reviews as none of this has ever been my experience....special thanks to the lovely Emma Wood and her team who re- let my flat within 90 minutes and also special thanks to the wonderful Clare Page ( formerly Nelson ) who is absolutely just the best Property Manager I am blessed to have been paired with.....thanks to you all Berni x

10 days it states on the government website, 10 days....to release your deposit and here I am 34 days later and STILL waiting. Leader's also take it upon themselves to deduct money for 'bulky items' left by me and my partner....without of course contacting either of us to find out, so going by hearsay Leaders have conned me out of £220. If they had bothered to contact me, they would have found out that there have been 'bulky items' there for months and not from me.
They prey on vulnerable people and knowing my ill health and due to the current pandemic, loss of income, they still have not given me any of MY money back.
They blame the landlord entirely of course and having read reviews on here, it makes me wonder if the landlord knows anything about the disgusting way his tenants have been treated???
Please Leaders, don't reply with one of your generic replies. I'm not interested. You have all the information required and still... haven't admitted your wrong doing and it's not just this incident, I have a list as long as my arm and you're still not interested.

Leaders, Stroud Branch, were extremely efficient/professional, helpful and courteous from the outset, particularly Sarah & Daniel, who dealt with everything so well & so swiftly in the lead up to moving to our new home.

Leaders Western Road Sales - Cameron is actually a nice lad which is why I'm giving this review 2 stars and not 1. Andy Russell to me is everything a decent person hates in an estate agent for the way he handled the purchase I made through them. Andrew Hovey his boss seems to have a very high opinion of himself but I found him mediocre. Loser Club. (I bet someone from elsewhere will now cut and paste a patronising response)...

17 days after getting the report back from the end of tenancy check-out inspection where nothing detected was tenants responsibility and we still haven’t received the deposit back... 8 days ago we received an email from the TDS that the money had been released by Leaders and still no deposit back... if you want to get your deposit back quickly you’re better off not paying rent for the last couple of months

I emailed the branch on 5th of April, and sent an email again couple days ago no response until today,
I emailed rentaccounts, neither anyone is replying nor picking the phone.
oh wait, rentaccounts actually sent an email demanding money! before even checking or reading my emails!! like whats wrong here!! this is how you deal with customers in a crisis, we are all in this together not only your staff!!!
This is extremely annoying and disappointing.
Thank god I am leaving the apartment by the end of April. I wish it does not go worse before that day!!!
LAST BUT NOT LEAST,
After my property manager left the work, everything started going worng. I APPRECIATE YOUR SERVICE MRS. ELISA NORTON, YOU LEFT A BIG SPACE BEHING YOU.

I am renting with Leaders for 4 years already. This is four years of misery. They are totally unresponsive, simple things like fixing the leaking shower take months and require 4 (!!!) attempts; lack of CO detector, urine smelling carpets in all toilets upon moving in, filthy curtains and carpets in all the room (alledgly it was all cleaned before we moved in), 1 year of bragging for re-stonning of the front of the property which was massively overgrown by weeds and beyond the state one could expect from tenant to maintain tidy, not issuing the visits reports so the faults are not acknowledged and so on and so on..... The house is nice, locatition beatutifull so whatever, I was putting up with this patiently until now.
Leaders currently owe me 700 pounds. With the law change, effectively from 1st June 2019 the deposit is limited to 5 weeks' worth of rent. In my case, this should be 1130 pounds. Leaders hold 1800 deposit for the property with monthly rent 980. Because I was nearly bullied to extend my rental contract week before the new law came to an effect, the surplus of deposit was retained for the duration of the new 1-year contract. This has expired on 17 May 2020. Not later than 10 days from that day Leaders were supposed to return surplus of deposit. Despite my many requests that's still not done. Instead, it was sugested that this will be paid back to me upon signing a new renewal contract. Hear this people, you will get back your money only if you commit to another year!!!! This is disgraceful. I am asking anyone for advice where to bring this!

Adrian Burch ( manager at Leaders in Bromley) and Stefanie Reefs (in the Sales Progression Team) where fantastic and very responsive, supportive and calm. They really helped to push my sale through at many times when the solicitors were being slow or at logger heads. Thanks!

1 Star I felt was too much for this estate agents after hearing about there No deposit Scheme I thought it was a brilliant idea and an easy way to leave home and stand on my own two feet at a young age. On first arrival to the property in November 2018 a few things we're not up to scratch, for example no hot water upstairs or downstairs, back door didn't lock, window seals had blown, with a baby on the way due (April 2019) I felt certain things needed addressing ASAP (Water, Doors, Windows) again I persisted to contact Amy (Leaders Property Manager) it wasn't until the end of April nearly 3 weeks after our baby was born the hot water issue was fixed meaning we would have to travel to our parent's house to bath our newborn! Crazy I know! The house was inspected at 6 Months at which point I mentioned there was severe mould in the kitchen due to a pipe that had burst in the wall causing the wall to become saturated and damp constantly, I was told it wouldn't be addressed as the landlord had been informed before but due to the cost wouldn't have it completed ???? finally another 6 months passes and we can leave the property ???? upon leaving the property a thorough clean was completed by a Third Party company even the carpets were cleaned as per the agreement! This is where things become interesting!!!!!!! We never had any pets in the property as it started on both the 6 month check and inventory check? Amy at Leaders persisted that they wanted to claim for a carpet clean due to the smell of dog at £100.00 which in actual fact was damp that had been left for nearly 7 months at this point from a leaky pipe you can imagine the amount of water in this wall!! They also hit us with a fee of £160.00 to have 2 curtain poles screwed back into the wall and a battery fitted in the smoke alarm as we took them down to re paint the property to make it look new again for the following tenants! And one more fee of £50.00 to clean the toilet as there was a bit of lime scale totalling of £310.00 I explained to Amy at Gosport Leaders branch that I wasn’t prepared to pay for the carpet cleaning as it had already been done and there was no dogs present as per the 6 month and 12 month reports said at which point I received an email stating that if I took responsibility for the cleaning and repairs she would speak to the landlord to see if she would remove the costs for the carpet clean, failing this it would be sent to there arbitrator costing me £120.00 on top!! At which point I wouldn’t admit liability so they just raised a complaint of course when this was raised due to the supporting evidence I had immediately the carpet clean fee was waived just like I knew it would be ???????? but leaders got what they wanted as I still had to pay £120.00

Morale of the story is 100% avoid this company like the plague do not fall into there NO DEPOSIT SCHEME as you will get stung and certainly don’t trust a word that their property “MANAGER” says you will regret it

Thank you for my tenancy Leaders ????????

Having lived in an apartment in Brighton for 5 years and paying over £60,000 in rent, Leaders recommended my landlord increase the rent again. They did this every year (to reflect ‘fluctuations in the market’). The recommended increase they made to my landlord at the beginning of the year was beyond what I could afford as my wages do not go up each year, and I was obliged to give notice. An endless parade of prospective new tenants arrived at my door, none of whom were interested, resulting in a rent reduction to the original rate... which also proved unachievable. At this point my landlord (who was equally frustrated with Leaders) asked if I would like to stay on by arrangement with Leaders; very very frustratingly and inconveniently I had arranged to move temporarily back to my father’s house in London, and paid deposits to movers by this stage. As if this wasn’t astoundingly cavalier enough, Leaders then communicated they would not return my full deposit as they had had to write me letters (that I did not receive) amounting to approximately half of my deposit! £42.00 per alleged letter, described by Citizen’s Advice as ‘scandalous’. The amount they stated as my deposit was also less than the deposit I originally paid, the TDS have confirmed this. As a piecemeal gesture I was offered a further £200 to go away, which I refused. I am now being obliged to pursue my case via the TDS and the FOS. The individual at Leaders tasked with corresponding with me began ignoring my messages. I fully intend to relentlessly push for the return of my full deposit. I am appalled and disgusted by the Leaders Roman Group and their nefarious and utterly unethical business practices. Neil Sillery

After seventeen years with Leaders managing my apartment in Wellington, this is to confirm that I have absolutely no complaints. Any requests from the tenants have been actioned efficiently and promptly by Leaders' staff, and the apartment has been maintained in excellent condition throughout. This has enabled it to recently being advertised and successfully sold at short notice. My sincere thanks to Leaders for their efficiency as property managers and for their regular and prompt communication during the past 17 years.