Review Time
Do not believe everything they tell you! Was Let an apartment having been shown around it twice. Both occasions told it came with a parking space. Upon key collection told it did not have parking. Further to that, discovered the block was designated "car free" so no residents parking permit available. Complained to no avail, their response was I should have checked despite being told to the contrary. Spoke to another resident who Let through them and he had experienced exactly the same scenario.
Purely my experience but as a consumer landlord or a landlord with a small number of properties I would not use this company and know many landlords who have left or avoided them due to the reasons below.Linley & Simpson recently acquired Hop due to their, "Aggressive Growth Strategy" and since then communication, customer service, familiarity with properties & tenants and proactiveness have been poor and only improved once notice was served. It's entirely fine to buy from other companies but if you haven't the infrastructure, and staffing and your target market is student properties and bigger portfolios then smaller properties are quite rightly not their focus - don't manage 800 new properties if you can't or manage their exit or have a dedicated manager.No one at the company visits the properties so didn't know what I was speaking about so 'local knowledge' isn't quite correct, 'putting people first' chasing people and communications doesn't fit this either - I could go on. This is based on facts and first-hand experience and I am changing letting agents to ensure I get the service that Linley & Simpson offers & markets but doesn't provide. Instead, choose a local letting agent with reasonable fees and direct communications.
We are delighted with the service provided by the Letting agency of Linley and Simpson ,Horsforth.We are particularly grateful to Meghan for her help and support.She was competent and knowledgeable in having things done promptly.We are also appreciative of Kate ward in sorting out the new tenant.Our sincere thanks for their effort and help.
I have just handed the keys in for my rented flat of two years.For the first time in 20 years of renting I have been advised that I have to pay for a clean & paint in order to get my deposit back.The flat -3 Kensington House,York had damp & rats which I complained about but the landlord refused to do anything about the damp.Rentokill killed the rats then my flat was full of thousands of flies which was I also complained about-I was told to buy fly killer.I have offered to go reclean & add 2 lightbulbs but apparently I am not allowed back in due to Linley & Simpsons policies.
The worst company Ive had the displeasure of dealing with, judging by the multiple one star reviews, it seems we are not alone in our experiences.When we moved into the property, myself, my wife, disabled son and two young children were greeted to our backyard being full of unsafe construction materials which included razor blades, nails, buckets of dry cement, a hearth and a dirty old toilet and cistern. After months of asking L to clear it away, we were forced to do it ourselves, at our own expense. I drew the line at the toilet and cistern and they are still sat at the property 2 years later.It took a year for L to repair a loose stair carpet despite it being a trip hazard on the stairs and we were forced to threaten to go to the council for them to do it. It was a five min job to tack down.It took L 15 months to rectify exposed wiring which was hanging out of the wall next to the hob, another health and safety hazard which was only rectified after we threatened to go to the council.We have also experienced workers tuning up in our garden un announced, on one occasion the work entailed breaking out the concrete in the garden using Jack Hammers and Sthil Saws around 1ft from our back door. It was unsafe to let our children in the garden and we couldn't get the pushchair out the house due to the size of the hole. As this is the only entrance and exit into our flat, this presents another safety concern and the fact they didn't think they needed to make us aware despite having 2 young children, a baby in a pushchair and a disabled son, is absolutely shocking.We are currently in the process of complaining about all of the mismanagement and malpractice and the staff don't even keep to their own complaints procedure which states an acknowledgement of the complaint will be given within 3 working days and a response given in 15 working days. One of my complaints was completely ignored for weeks and it was only after I complained that the procedure wasn't being followed that I received a response.Staff are generally rude, sometimes replying with angry emails, sometimes ignoring your emails entirely. In some instances they seem to be pleased we are being mistreated, with a member of staff even laughing at my wife over the phone. We also personally know someone who owns three properties who are managed by L and they are experiencing similar issues, and looking at the recent reviews, it seems this is becoming the standard of management to expect with L. Avoid at all costs, the staff are rude, unprofessional and seem incapable of performing their duties. This applies to regional management as well (it was an area manager who didn't keep to L's own complaints procedure!).EDIT after L reply to my review:While we do have a meeting agreed for next week, which is the result of almost two years of unresolved grievances, we are STILL continuing to experience issues with L staff ignoring emails regarding additional maintenance issues as well as dangerous work being undertaken outside our property without given notice. When we complained about this we were told by L maintenance team that they didna ? ?t have to make us aware of any disruptive and dangerous work being undertaken 1 meter away from our front door (installation of a manhole which included two deep holes, breaking out concrete with a jackhammer and stihl saw). Instead, we were told by a member of the maintenance team that L only needed to give notice of such work as a courtesy. As someone who has previously worked in health and safety, I know this to be completely false and considering L have a duty of care to tenants as well as us having a son with a disability and small children, this is an absolute disgrace.. We also had to complain about the manager of the branch (Amy) who looks after our property due to her negligence and malpractice. When we had these additional issues with heavy duty construction work going on as well as issues with the roof leaking and windows letting in water next to an electrical socket, these were completely ignored for four weeks.Upon complaining about the lack of response from Amy, we then informed she had been told not to communicate with us any further (probably due to the angry and unprofessional email she sent).No one even informed us that she had been told not to speak to us and another point of contact wasna ? ?t offered.Despite this, Amy hasna ? ?t passed on these queries to other members of staff to deal with and when I asked who our point of contact now is with regards to maintenance, this email has also been completely ignored.It seems they can respond to a negative review quickly enough though, while emails regarding health and safety hazards are completely ignored. Just shows they only care about their public appearance and not the safety of tenants.
Big thanks to all the staff and management at Linley & Simpson Willerby branch for your help over the years.Special thanks to Stephen his prompt attention to the check out procedure and fair accurate and detailed reports.Recently I have been in regular contact with Rebecca in the property maintenance department she is always polite and helpful when talking about repairs and quotes she has received from the various contractors.
I had a terrible experience with Linley and Simpson at the Bingley branch. We let a property out through them and completed a tenant check out for the previous tenant. Although they did find a tenant quickly, the communication was non existent. During the let out process I had absolutely no contact and no updates for 5 weeks. I eventually phoned the office to find out what was going on to discover they had a range of issues which they had not informed me of. At this point I began contacting the office regularly to gain updates and found that both my calls and e mails were regularly ignored. On 2 occasions where I was waiting for money to be paid to me I waited over 2 weeks past the point it should have been paid and on both occasions I had to send several e mails and make phone calls to chase the money they owed me. I found the staff rude and unhelpful. Will not use them again and would not recommend them.
We had an issue with our internal alarm system which we notified linley and Simpson .We were extremely happy with their fast response time and the efficiency at which they were able to solve the problem. We could not have asked for better service, thank you much appreciated.
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Linley & Simpson are leading property experts, property managers and mortgage providers with properties in Yorkshire.
