Astute Estates

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Reviews

• 

  Neal Somaia

  Helpful

  17-03-2023
• 

  Keeley Shaw

  The worst customer service you will ever get. I have spoken with Jennifer the whole time which who was extremely ignorant. You are lucky to get a reply from her and if you do she makes you feel like you’re privileged. If I could give them 1 star I would. First, we applied for a flat and it took them six weeks to give us a response, they lied about sending references to our landlords and the entire process was prolonged for no reason. Once being told we were unsuccessful, we were advised a similar flat was coming available in the next 3 weeks and we would have first refusal. It has now been a further 6 weeks (12 in total) and still nothing. I haven’t heard anything from Jennifer for a month so I gave her an email and apparently the landlord may be selling the property instead. They are awful, avoid at all costs

  17-12-2022
• 

  Aadil Hameed

  ☺️

  17-12-2022
• 

  alexander

  I strongly advise AGAINST using this estate agent’s services. Absolutely shocking behaviour as the tenancy was coming to an end. Very nice and welcoming upon moving in but attitude and organisation from staff worsened as the tenancy went on, to the point where they would try and incite an argument by making irrelevant, sly comments during our deposit claim. After moving out of one of their properties me and my flatmate were hit with a ridiculous amount of charges for fabricated/unsolved reasons. Tried to charge us £130 for repainting fair wear & tear marks and marks that were there prior to my tenancy that they were aware of. Secondly, my flatmate was originally charged £112 for a new mattress that had nothing but a small dye stain on from their bedding. Additionally, another £120 for cleaning after accusing us of leaving the flat in a disgusting state when it only needed a light clean. This estate agents was so hungry for money they focused on the irrelevant (so called) “issues” instead of focusing on the actual issues after moving out. I informed them I lost my key but instead of charging me for a new one, they were too busy trying to dispute and argue if a hard water mark was a permanent BLACK urine mark in the toilet. In which they insinuated that they removed the stain from the charges even though it was unavoidable, as well as the moulding walls due to the lack of ventilation in the bathroom - which may I add is sensor activated, meaning the fans turn off as soon as you leave the room = more mould = more money for them to try and take. Our neighbours also informed us that they had mice within the walls of their flat which eventually crawled into our walls and nothing was done, even after both flats asking Astute several times about the issue. Additionally, I also had a slug problem in my room that was reported and never solved - luckily I didn’t see many after January but still made me feel uncomfortable sleeping in the room. If you are renting under this estate agents, make sure to take pictures and don’t be afraid to talk back as they have a habit of rushing through things, ignoring important issues and urging you to just accept their deposit return amounts. Make sure you go through DPS after your tenancy as they were able to help me and my flatmate get over half the money back that they tried to claim for the issues mentioned! The only positive point I have was they were understanding when I was facing financial hardship due job difficulties and a family grievance and allowed me to pay my rent at a later date on a few occasions. Overall I wish I could give this review 0 stars. Please don’t fall for their “half-rent” scams, they will gaslight you into believing you were imagining things. Also, don’t fall for their copy & paste responses under everyone’s reviews claiming they have “no record” of anyone who leaves a bad review - seems like an easy cop out from a guilty conscience! This company seriously needs looking into in my opinion.

  17-11-2022
• 

  Marcus Williams

  Firstly please look up the meaning of “‘astute”. It means "having or showing an ability to accurately assess situations or people and turn this to one's advantage." This is really telling of how this business operates! As a first year trying to book my first proper house after uni halls, I wasn’t sure what to look out for when dealing with a nightmare landlord. Astute has kindly taught me all the tricks of the trade they have to offer! A hellish experience from the start, when corresponding over email they would typically email my housemate and not forward anything to me, including information about important documents that would need to be signed and would then use a rude tone when I would turn up to appointments uninformed. They also falsely advertised the flat as having reduced rent over the summer, to then gaslight us and tell us no such thing happened when signing the deposit. Moving into the flat, there was a broken cupboard, the kitchen floor was separating. This was fixed within a few weeks of moving in. the sink was broken and would leak black fluid onto the floor every time water went down the plug, perfect home for the fruit flys over the summer (this got fixed over the December holiday btw!). The bathroom also had a motion activated light and extractor fan ( no extractor window ), meaning mold was frequent in the tile grit, and would also smell if not aired out constantly. Pest control was not dealt with during our whole tenancy either. One bedroom was prone to slugs and the upstairs flat reported a rat, never a single visit about these issues. During my tenancy I faced a lot of financial hardship as Covid was relaxing and astute were mildly considerate about this, allowing me to pay my rent later than the due date sometimes. The main conflict with astute arose during our moving out process. A month before our end date we were told by email that a estate agent ( I believe it was Laura) would be coming to the property to check if we needed to repair or fix up the flat before we vacated. All we were told was that it needed a general tidy up. After moving out we were faced with a whopping £360 deduction. (£80 cleaning, £130 redecoration, £112 “replacement” mattress, £40 carpet clean). We agreed to the carpet clean as we did not have time to hire a carpet cleaner. While trying to query this with them they were very pushy to us paying it without contacting the DPS, and would avoid our questions while trying to accuse us of things like stealing the shower head. After waiting for a response from the DPS the charges were dropped as follows (£28 cleaning, £60 redecoration, £40 mattress clean). The fact that they tried to charge me for a whole new mattress when it needed a clean is absolutely abhorrent especially when dealing with students during a financial crisis. As we were moving out we also moved some of the furniture for the first time since we’d move in ti see black mold WITH FUR growing about 12 inches up the wall. When raising this health and safety concern (which should be checked between each tenant) they tried to turn it around on us and say it was because we didn’t ventilate the flat enough which is a very poor and shallow excuse as if we don’t open the windows like every other normal person? They also tried to add that we left the flat with “ a smell “ which could be attributed to the mold you left to fester up the wall!

  17-11-2022
• 

  Oliver James

  Very good all round service. Must mention the expert advice regarding the local area, also that the property was always let and very well maintained.

  17-06-2022
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  J C

  17-06-2022
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  J&B

  Seem to enjoy finding anything possible to deduct from you deposit. Poor service.

  17-06-2022
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  Nataliya Balabanova

  17-06-2022
• 

  M333NUH Hu

  17-06-2021