barnardmarcus.co.uk

Part 1: Avoid if you're looking for a rental through Barnard Marcus, everything is made into a huge

I locked myself out in slippers, no phone, no payment method. Had to use my neighbours phone to ring BM. Spoke to a rude agent who said they wouldn't be able to give my key without ID. How am I meant to have ID when I'm locked out.You ask for many documents during reference that can be used to verify identity. Even my name is enough, how would I know what name to make up to match your system if I wasn't the tenant?Staff refused to bring the key over despite it being a 4 minute ride, I don't believe for a second no one had a car to use.Luckily my neighbour drove me to the office.The whole ordeal was so unnecessarily tedious & no one could even fake empathy - a reoccurring trend with all maintenance & SECURITY issues.You're not doing me a favour by giving me the spare key you're doing the service that you're paid to provideI've paid 27k to date to live in this cesspit, the least you can do is help & not make it such an inconvenience & have attitude.I don't ever message about small maintenance, every issue raised has been a big deal & you always air my emails & ghost me. You say people are coming for appointments and no one shows and no one contacts. The only thing I have reported in the last 18 months has been: - A sewage leak in the garden, flooded the whole garden and biohazard waste was not properly removed. My personal items were used and contaminated - brooms and mops were used and left behind, no substitutes given. Which I then had to dispose of.- Someone tried to BREAK IN to my garden and kicked a massive hole in my door and busted the lock. I'm a single woman living alone, not only was that a scary experience to happen on its own but it was exasperated by BM not taking it seriously. I had to repeatedly call the phone line to beg someone to be called out to lock my property & protect my belongings.- The garden fence is precariously balanced on crumbling brickwork. Every time there was strong wind it would fall lower and lower until it collapsed. didn't use the garden for the whole time I lived there as it was such a crappy environment to be in, biohazard pun intended.The fence issue was reported by the neighbours on the other side, I reported it, it was left for months until the other neighbours had enough and came to my door to complain and ask for the landlords number directly. It put me in an awkward position with the neighbours as they thought I wasn't reporting it/ didn't care.Eventually the fence completely collapsed and only then was someone booked.This wasn't the end of the saga.BM sent a random company round who had no idea what they were there for, they knocked on my door and said they were here to fix a LEAK in my ROOF??? that was leaking into the neighbours. No issue existed. I had to refuse this contractor coming back when they had the correct information, what sort of trust does that build with a client when you need to come into their personal space. Finally the fence was repaired and painted but again my objects were defaced and my items were used as a paint pot and left to dry on the side.- I've lived for the last 18 months unable to take my bike out and use the street door because when it was finally boarded, the whole wall build and repair was deemed too expensive to work on. My bike does not fit through the hallway so I've had to leave it there and not have an experience I enjoy for my whole tenancy.The last few weeks I have had to harass BM until they came to unboard the red door so that I can remove all of my belongings, sofa, bookcase through the garden which is the route it came in. The days got closer and closer to the van date which I've booked a deposit for & left me in so much stress thinking I wouldn't be able to get my furniture out.On top of all of this terrible service and unnecessary stress - the property is grossly overvalued for its condition. In colder months all the heat is sucked out of the poorly insulated kitchen (which connects to the garden). It means I have to pump the heating out year round, even in June!I could no longer afford the astronomical council tax which is somehow in the highest bracket for the borough, as well as bills and the insane rent of £1,550.I had to take 4 jobs and work nights to keep paying to live at this place, when I fell behind on rent (you'd think there would be some empathy-right?)Wrong - I got called &text by Anton who was so unbelievably rude, I had to block him. Going off about how I could possibly be late on rent, when it was gonna be fixed, why didn't I tell /him/, their last tenant had this issue. I took appropriate steps & had a payment plan with FINANCE at the time. I do not appreciate the way he spoke to me and made me feel worse about a situation that was already making me feel sick. This is not appropriate pressure to apply to someone in a bad financial situation under enough stress. Surely an estate agent would have awareness of the cost of living crisis

Date of experience: Jun 30, 2024