Top Properties Ltd

My experience with this property management company has been nothing short of diabolical. Throughout lockdown, they showed no sympathy towards us as tenants who had to stay at home all the time, allowing no excess on the already strict electricity and gas tariffs, which proved to be of great nuisance because we studied from home too. The property was not in the condition promised upon our arrival, and they weren't particularly efficient in fixing any issues we brought up with them. Furthermore, the landlord then tried to keep all of our deposits despite half of the issues claimed by them to not be our fault: instead these were existing problems when we first moved in.

They then backtracked when asked for the invoices of the apparent work they had done, giving us the majority of the deposit back as requested. I'd encourage no students to rent from Topproperty until the quality of the service they provide is vastly improved upon. Despite my frustrations, I do believe that Elle was helpful whenever we emailed her directly about a problem, and hiring more people like her would be the ideal way to help improve the issues we faced.

Topproperty has been useless from the beginning. First of all, when we were trying to sign our contracts, only half the tenants were sent the contract and we struggled to get the remaining ones sent to us as Topproperty would not respond to their emails. After we had moved into the house we had many maintenance issues. There was no key for my bedroom door lock, even though Topproperty gave me lots of different keys, none of which were for my door.

When the locksmith came to change the locks he was rude and condescending when I told him what was wrong with the door. After he had fit the new lock, I tried to lock the door, however it would not lock and he had to come back again. This was only the beginning of half done fixes around the house. Secondly I needed my shelves to be fixed as they were wobbly and I knew they could not hold any weight.

When the contractor came to fix the shelves I told him they were missing brackets but he "knew better" and fixed them by adding a longer screw. After he had left I put two of my university files on the top shelf which did not hold the weight and fell off the wall and onto my desk. My desk had my personal items on it, including plants, which were squashed and damaged.

They were "fixed" later that day, but they still didn't have brackets under them and still wobbled. I could not put any weight on them after that incident. I could go on with all the half done fixes of maintenance issues and rude contractors, however I don't want to bore anyone. The worst issue of all is the lack of communication from Topproperty.

They very rarely respond to their emails and, even when they do, it takes a very long time. I am currently trying to get my deposit back for the house. Topproperty did not contact us at all so we went through the Tenancy Deposit Scheme on the 25th July to request our deposit back. On the 27th July we got an email from Ellie about our deposit and charges that needed to be taken out of the deposit.

I have been trying to appeal these charges, especially the one for the bathroom clean, because I deep cleaned it before I moved out, and I took pictures and videos of the bathrooms just in case this happened. I sent my first email on the 27th July and heard nothing back. One of the other tenants called the office about this and was told to email them again.

I sent a second email on the 4th August and again no response. I have called the office three times now and there has been no response to my calls. To sum it up, do not rent from Topproperty because they do not respond to your emails and in my opinion they are not a competent lettings agency. Edit on 10/09/21: Many weeks later and several ignored emails later, we have finally got part of our deposit back.

Throughout this whole process Topproperty have ignored my emails and have charged us for damage which was there before we moved in. When I emailed with evidence that the damage was there when we moved in, Hannah said she would speak to the landlord, and then proceeded to ignore my emails asking for an update. Other reviews have advised to take pictures of damage when you move in and send them to Topproperty, however this was not good enough and I was unable to appeal these charges due to Topproperty's lack of cooperation.

Although to begin with there were a few problems with the house and I was a bit apprehensive, communications with Hannah and Elle particularly were helpful and responsive which really made a difference to moving in easily. All the problems I've had have been reported and are on their way to being sorted.

Would not recommend this company, make sure you take plenty of photos when you move in because they will charge you 50 for simply binning a bar of soap and cleaning floors which had already been cleaned. They are unresponsive at most times and we struggled to get a reply from them on many occasions. I wouldn't recommend this company. I am now with luxury student homes and have been very impressed with their professionalism so far.

By far the worst agency I used, purely because of the landlords and them giving our contact information to the landlord to harass us. I used Topproperty to rent a flat with friends in second year of uni (2018/19). We had a very stressful time with the landlord letting himself in through the locked front door with no notice or knocking whilst I (a female alone) was washing up - I had never met the landlord before that moment so it was terrifying for me to turn around and see a middle aged man had let himself into my house!

Also the landlord would harass us with 20+ phone calls in some days trying to extort us for 2,000 because we 'had illegally streamed Jurassic World and he could see and Virgin were going to fine him' when literally none of us were at home that evening and certainly never watched Jurassic World in the flat. He also suggested inappropriately to one of the female housemates that us three housemates engage in *certain relations* with each other which was wrong and inappropriate.

It got so bad we had to tell topproperty to ban the landlord from communicating with us as it was verging on harassment (bare in mind the landlord should never have been allowed to contact us in the first place - hence the use of the agency!). Overall it was a very distressing experience and has given us anxiety in future rental situations.

My experience with this company has been nothing but negative. To begin with, when viewing the house there was wallpaper coming off every wall in the house. the sofas were full of rips. the back garden was FULL of rubbish, Including electrical appliances and bin bags. I was told all this would be sorted before we moved in. Of course when we moved in in september absolutely nothing was done, and we were met with an unusable freezer as all the drawers in it had been smashed to pieces.

Meaning we couldn't even store food. The fan on the oven was also broken making cooking food a nightmare also. To make matters worse, emails weren't answered for days, sometimes weeks at a time. AVOID THIS COMPANY!

STUDENTS, AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS! One star is too high but it was the lowest option. When viewing this house last year, we were told that it was possible to store some of our things during summer to save us taking everything home. The company then told us if we JUST wanted to move our things in, we would have to pay full rent, despite us not getting student loans till October.

A couple weeks after moving in, mould started to appear in some bedrooms, which appeared to have been painted over for when we moved in. The mould has caused an infestation of woodlice, particularly in the bedrooms worst affected. In one room, the mould is so bad it has transferred onto the back of a wardrobe, through the wardrobe onto our clothes.

The house is clearly damp and has been for some time but we were obviously not made aware of these issues so didn't do anything to prevent it from progressing. We were informed the house was 'newly refurbished' yet major issues have just been painted over and ignored in the hope nobody would notice them. It gets worse - we can't even wash the mouldy clothes as the washing machine has been broken for weeks.

This meant going to a laundrette and paying out of our own pockets. The company's maintenance team is below adequate and take weeks to respond to anything, even minor jobs. There have been issues with the heating; a radiators in don't work which Top Property classed as an 'emergency'. It has now been nearly a month since the initial request was put in and we have still heard nothing back.

Our experience with this letting agency has just put a massive downer on our last year of uni and we would warn anyone considering using this company. UPDATE: radiator and washing machine have been sorted. BOTH were 10 minute jobs, if that, but still took the company weeks to even review these issues (months for the radiator). The mould has come back, the contractors said they had been in to sort it and the job was completed, despite us being in the house all day and not seeing them at any point.

We are concerned about leaving the house over Christmas and what state we will find it when we get back. One wardrobe is beyond repair, the mould keeps coming back but there has been no mention of getting a new wardrobe and we have been told we are not allowed to remove the wardrobe from the house. If you look on the new contract, you can clearly see 4/5 of the tenants are NOT living here next year, and have advised others to be weary of this company due to our experiences.

We have been renting our property through Topproperty Student Homes for four years and have found the service received to be excellent. Staff have always been helpful and supportive and they work hard to keep our property well maintained. There have been no problems with letting the property through them and I would recommend Topproperty as a letting agent to both prospective tenants and landlords.

Took me 6 months to get a less than 50% refund on a lock that broke whilst I was there. Elle was helpful so she is the reason this place even gets 1 star at all. It's a joke. I've heard from so many students that they wished they never went for TopProperty. I found them difficult to get replies from, constantly having to chase up emails and phone calls to actually get an answer.

The house itself had a huge damp problem, it literally stank when we first moved in. The fire alarm had no batteries in even though they delayed our move-in date to do fire and safety checks. There was also an infestation of moths? Didn't know that was even a thing before that. I moved out early.

What a sham of a letting agency. My daughter had the misfortune to rent a property from these people. Why do they think they can get away with treating students like this? Take the money every month and do nothing. Why did I have to step in, but my concerns were not welcome as a parent! A broken boiler for several weeks in winter with no heating or hot water.

A smoke alarm with an annoying bleeping noise day and night! Repeated requests for an emergency phone number. What did they give as an emergency number? 999! Office hours OK, but what if out of office hours? Answer; unlucky. What a sham! The deposit which they are legally obliged to return within 10 days, took 40+ days. With the threat of taking them to court had the result, and believe me I would have happily done this and claimed for out of pocket expenses (numerous phone calls, loss of interest by withholding money etc.).

So pleased my daughter didn't sign up with this company for another year. I have tried not to give any stars at all, but this feedback will not allow me to, so with great reluctance, I give one start. If you are considering using this company; good luck!