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I have written this post in hope that it will be informative to the other people; I am certain some people have more-than-satisfactory experience with Foxtons, and this incident alone cannot condemn the entire organisation. But this is what happened to my sister.
My sister works for an overseas firm as a "sourcer"; she sources items in demand in this country for her clients overseas. Her home is her office and the internet and the telephone are the tools for the trade. She explained this fully to Foxtons, informing how important it was for her that the property she moves in is fully equipped with telephone line ready for activation. When she found the property, the Foxtons negotiator "swore" that the property had a phone structure. Before signing the contract, she requested a written confirmation on the phone line aspect. The negotiator pointed out how the contract was written as if the line was definitely there (i.e. "The tenant must not change the telephone provider", etc.), and promised her that the line was there. She told him that she still would like a written confirmation. The negotiator told her: "Leave it to me, that can be arranged. But you need to sign the contract and pay the money before noon. Otherwise the property might be gone by tonight".
After she signed the contract and paid the money, it was revealed that the phone line did not exist; no cables behind the wall, the telephone socket was there to make the wall look pretty!
She asked Foxtons to release her from the contract, but they told her "Once you have signed it, you must honour(!) the contract." They assured her the phone will be connected before she moves in.
Next problem; after the move in date was agreed, the release of the keys was delayed and delayed. It reached to the point that she had 5 days left before her previous tenancy expired. She called every day to make sure that she will obtain the keys at least 3 days before her vacate date. The negotiator assured that she will.
The day before her move-out day, at 4pm, the negotiator rang and told her "Bad news, you need to wait three more days for the keys". She told the negotiator she already had booked the Van and Men the next day, and professional cleaners the day after. We had already packed and all her belongings were in boxes.
Then the negotiator made the most unbelievable suggestion of the decade: "I have a solution for you; why don’t you hire a storage space, there are a few that I can think of, Safestore Self Storage, Access Self Storage... to put your stuff in. And you can stay at a hotel for a few nights." She thought the negotiator was joking. Unfortunately, he was serious.
It turned out that the gas safety test was not conducted, and for Health and Safety reasons, she could not move in. In the end, Foxtons allowed her to move her belongings into the property, but she had to find a place to stay. She has two cats and my building does not allow animals. I told her nobody would find out, but she chose to stay in her then-empty old apartment with her cats. She slept on bare floor and worked using a cardboard box as her desk for three days.
Once she moved in, all hell broke loose. The property was not registered with the council, the porter service the negotiator described was non-existent, the landlord refused to connect the property with telephone line saying "it was up to the tenant". Then my sister tried to obtain a written permission to drill a hole through the wall for the BT to run their cable. This simple written confirmation took forever. She tried to work with a plug-in internet stick, but the speed and the connectivity was not good enough for constant usage. She stayed up all night to work (as the connection was slightly better after the midnight), she was exhausted - until she got suspended from work for not being able to provide timely service. When she rang Foxtons to ask about the progress on the phone line installation, she told them what had happened, sobbing. The property management team came up with yet another brilliant suggestion:
"Why don't you go to an internet cafe and work from there? Or go to your friend’s place and use their computer?" She was outraged; clearly they did not take her profession seriously. No idiot goes to an internet cafe to make £50k transaction. She told me, "My work is not some school children’s coursework that needs finishing". It took a month for the line to be installed.
More of Foxtons' dishonesty, rudeness and general sloppiness ensued, and I can go on and on... but I'll stop here.
After we made some persistent noise, they gave her back the commission she paid (which covered for approximately 2 days worth revenues she had lost during her 3 and a half weeks suspension). The most irritating trait Foxtons have displayed is the way they apologise; "We are sorry that you are unsatisfied with our service." They have not once apologised for making mistakes or for their poor performances.
We have reported this incident to The Property Ombudsman, and an investigation is currently taking place. However, the investigation is being hindered by the fact that the negotiator who dealt with her case has legged it - he left the company and became out of touch. Foxtons is refusing to contact their ex-negotiator saying they "feel it would be an inappropriate thing to do". My sister was especially devastated by this, as the negotiator had originally told her that he "would stick around to make sure that her problems will be resolved" telling her that he "felt partially (??) responsible" and was "really sorry". She had believed in his sincerity, and even defended him saying "He probably did not mean to misinform, he was probably just too busy and made mistakes of cutting corners."
I personally have no sympathy towards this man. Mr. A, wherever you are, you made her life miserable. She cried every night during her suspension from work.
If anyone is interested, I will report the outcome once we hear from TPO.
We both feel we cannot trust any estate agents after what had happened with Foxtons, and feel very anxious about moving. She says her mistake was not researching the company before choosing to use their service, and taking their showy office and well-dressed negotiators as the indication for service quality.
So there we go - I hope this post will help people in making decisions on whether to use or avoid Foxtons in future.
I wish I had seen this site before I used Foxtons! Would have not used them at all!!
I recently rented an apartment through Foxtons. Not only were they full of lies and excuses, and never answered a phone call, but agent (or 'negotiater' as they'd like to inaccurately refer to themselves)paid absolutely attention to my affordable budget (which I specified in no uncertain terms) and continuously tried to push me for apartments far above my budget. As can be expected - after payment of their fee I have not received one single phonecall regarding follow up queries such as mistakes on the inventory check in (provided by their company), whether or not my deposit has been paid into the deposit scheme, etc. The manager is as non-responsive as the agent that reports in to her.
I thought it was just my bad luck, but a friend of mine went through the same experience last week.
Bad bad dreadful company! No peace of mind. DON'T USE THEM!!!
As a landlord I cannot agree more about this company. The lies, underhand ways of achieveing their goals, and as someone else pointed out you can never speak to the same person twice or get a reply to your e-mails.Recently they valued my flat at £225 per week but now due to the 'credit crunch' they are trying to advertise it at £195 and fully managed(pushing the cost up to 17%!)which I didn't want. It just seems as though they are trying to fleece me for all the money they can in the shortest possible time. I don't feel like I'm getting a service, just a kick in the head! Also does anyone know if you have signed their Foxtons Fresh form over 4 weeks ago but haven't got a new tenant yet you can still cancel the agreement?
my experience with Foxtons has been a total nightmare. I rented my property, and paid a huge amount of money to get Foxtons managing the property. However, not only they have done nothing to manage it, but also they have lost the keys to my property and never told me. Additionally, they lied in several occasions to me and to the tenants, who decided to leave the flat before the end of the contract because they were completely disgusted about the lack of service and the continuous lies.
I strongly recommend not to use them if you do not want to waste your money and your mind.
Following is an email I wrote to a manager at Foxtons following receipt of a letter from them informing me that my tenants hadn't paid their rent.
Ref: Foxtons' letter to me of 19/03/06.
Dear xxxx,
The above letter regards the non-payment of rent from our tenants. This is a situation that was inevitable, but that I hoped would not occur - especially so soon. The main reason for its inevitability is that the tenants cannot afford the rent, while another reason is the timing of their rent payment. Had your sales team's focus not been solely trained on the bottom line, we, the client (whose interests Foxtons was serving, apparently) would not be left with real uncertainty regarding paying my own accommodation costs.
Of course as estate agents, you would have heard this kind of complaint before, but it gets worse, for this dark cloud of uncertainty is based on LIES and will seemingly remain overhead for TWO YEARS. Our agreeing to this TWO-YEAR contract was based on the TENANTS insisting on it. We weren't best pleased with this, but succumbed to the agent who insisted we'd be mad to turn down "perfect" tenants who'd be "trouble-free", only to be later asked by the tenants why we had insisted on the two years! Did XXXXXXX just hope that it wouldn't be discussed between us and the tenant?
Furthermore, we weren't quite ready for the tenants to move into the property and therefore I had to take paid leave to get things in order as the agent insisted that everything was in place and the tenants were insisting on moving in at that particular time - in fact, "now or never" may have been the term used, but I cannot be sure. Again, upon speaking with the tenants, they were lead to believe that it was in fact us who made the demands! As well as not being physically ready for the move, the tenants are paid around the 20th of each month so they wanted to move in at a time that tied in with their salaries.
These two issues we and the tenants agree on. But there are others, such as mention of the tenants' parents being guarantors (they don't even live in England) among others. Your profession has a bad reputation, so we thought that by going with one of the high profile companies we'd avoid such underhand activities, but we was clearly wrong.
Before all of this of course, Foxtons valued our potential income at £300.00 pcm, which we thought ridiculous so instructed the agent at the time to advertise the property at £270.00 (before he was replaced by XXXXXXX). So when we were called about a tenant offering nearer £200.00, you can imagine our reaction. Obviously, the tenants were then coerced into paying much more than they could afford. We sat with them a fortnight ago and they were horrified to learn of the bills they were responsible for in addition to their rent.
So, here we are now, Foxtons' are getting paid two years worth of commission up front (ah, now I see the two-year thing...), you also hold and gain interest on their deposit and credit control sends me a letter to tell me the tenants are a week late with payment. I called credit control today and was told that messages were left etc and not been replied to. He also told me that we aren't to see a penny until mid May, which must be a mistake. Perhaps I should chase the payment myself and charge Foxtons my fee upfront!
We'd be interested to learn of your views on the above as well as what you think may be a solution to the problem. Apparently, you are quite high up, so we trust that means you have an appreciation of the wider picture that XXXXXX himself or his line manager will not. We were prepared to put this whole saga down to experience so long as the money came in, but as we sit here now with the prospect of seeing not a penny after having your screened and vetted individuals live in our house for over two months, we intend to ensure that something is done both for our financial peace of mind as a matter of principle.
I look forward to your prompt written response.
===============================
I never received a written response, but eventually a phone call defending their man and suggesting the tenants themselves may have been dishonest (believe me, they were not lying - they'd need a motive - something to gain from the lie). I was eventually faxed a copy of a document they signed which had '2 year contract' ringed - Foxtons claiming it was by the tenants. Given they are two young foreigners (one of who's wife was to arrive months later before they embarked on their life's journey, what would they gain by tying themselves into a long contract?).
Of course, there were other things (like the fact the tenants weren't even taken to the door on their first day - let alone shown how things worked /itinerary etc - because the agent knew the place wasn't ready) but they are too numerous to go through.
Oh yes - I was faxed copies of the prospective tenants' bank statements. Now, call me foolish, but surely doing so is against some kind of law or business ethic.
All I can do is warn potential clients to steer well clear.
We were left without hot water on numerous occasions and an extractor fan in our combined kitchen/ living room that never worked - despite notifying them about it in the first week of the tenancy.
They are now charging us £200 for a mark in the kitchen left by the kettle, that if the extractor fan had been working - would never have happened. They also charged £70 for checking us out!... and £95 for "time spent"
Calls/ e-mails and letters are never returned and your agent is always on the phone.
They're all about 15 years old with no experience and no morals...
I also want to warn everyone off using Foxtons. We used them to manage our house while we were travelling, as the agency we wanted to use fell through at the last minute and we had no other choice. Not only did they lie about providing us with regular statements by e-mail ("Yes, absolutely, we can do that" . . . "No, we never said that, we can't do it"), which was one of our conditions for choosing an agency, but they charged exorbitant fees up-front for doing next to nothing. They then lost all our keys but, of course, couldn't be bothered informing us until we chased them. They claimed they had been put in the post but not by recorded delivery because, quote, "We don't want to be responsible". So what were they taking our money for? Moreover, the person managing our property, N, had no skills in dealing with angry customers and only succeeded in making me more furious with her 12-year-old voice and complete denial of any responsibility. When I look at their slick offices, I feel violently ill to know that I helped pay for them.
Like the vast majority of people here, I'll never be using Fuxtons services again. The first time I used them, I suffered their utter incompetence because they were the only agents in my area to view properties late into the evening, but I'd frequently travel an hour to a viewing for the agent to leave me waiting, tell me that they'd cancelled, or both. I was wary the next time, but took the chance as I was looking a long way from the previous office.
This time we compiled a clear list of our requirements (suitable for a baby, garden, etc), and gave it to each of the agents we dealt with. None of them took a passing glance at it, taking us to totally unsuitable, gardenless and mould-ridden flats that in no way matched our requirements or budget.
The last house they showed us was the house of our dreams. Despite it being over our budget I put in an even higher offer to secure the deal over an offer thru another agent. The landlord kept us waiting several days, but Foxtons assured us we'd get it. My girlfriend started packing. She practically created a shrine of photos to it on our computer. We got the call - it had gone to the other agent. The reason? The landlord didn't want to deal with Foxtons anymore. The charges were ludicrous, for him and us (£300 agency fee? WHAT?). I found out the house had been on the market with the other agent for 2/3 the Foxtons price! We still drive past that house and sigh.
The house we found was with another agent for £2100/m, and accepted an offer of £1800/m. Foxtons had the same house on for £2400/m, and hounded our landlord with higher offers after ours had been accepted.
Our agent told us that when Foxtons landlords refuse to pay their exorbitant fees, Foxtons simply add them to the rent, which is partly why Foxtons price their rental properties considerably higher than other agents.
If you find a property through Foxtons, use their website for the pictures, information, and floorplans, then use www.rightmove.co.uk and www.propertyfinder.com to find the same property through another agent at cut-price! If they take you to a viewing, make a note of which other agents it's on the market with from the boards outside, then compare prices with them.
Our experience with Foxtons has ranged from the generally lacklustre to the rather poor. I won't go on too much yet as I am here for a purpose, and that is to rally anyone who has been charged £47 for an arrears or other silly letter from the Foxtons.
UK banks have been told off in courts for excess overdraft charges and admin costs for letters and other related correspondence for amounts between £20 - £30. People have been successfully claiming their charges back. Foxtons are only allowed to charge the admin costs, and if they are high, they have to prove it cost that much. You can claim upto six years after any illegal charges. How great would it be if everyone who had been done by Foxtons like this demanded their fees back and started a chain reaction that would cost the company thousands, if not more?
There are loads of pages on the web that provide information about how to claim back excessive overdraft charges. Is anyone interested? Spread the word on all the forums you know where people have been let down by Foxtons. Go for it!
One of the biggest mistake I made. I thought that the Foxtons is one of the professional in the market place. It did not take too long to realize the fact that they were not at all.
They rented out my property but never manage it properly; therefore, the tenant vacated the place after five months. Me being overseas, I could not correct it. Altough they deducted whole their commission upfront for the 12 months, they never bother returning the commission back. Million othe problems including submiting wrong meter readings to utility firms (being invetigated under fraud), disclosing my details to the vendor. My two cents comment, keep away from them.
O
I paid over a holding deposit for an appartment
at Spectrum Place, London SE17 and cancelled
the next day after I broke my ankle, so couldn't
get to see it. They neither acknowledged receipt
of it, nor got me to sign anything (I paid off my debit card). I discovered they lied about (a) distance of flat from tube (0.7 m, they said
0.4 m), the view of Big Ben, London Eye and the City .... Oh yeah, on the horizon ... and about the rent I could collect. They say fee is non-returnable because it was paid to the Developer. I say they took the payment so they are liable to return it. Surely there's a cooling off period. What is the status of holding deposits in Law?
I can only reinforce opinions on this site that Foxtons are the most evil company I have ever had the displeasure of doing business with. I am a landlord and have several properties let with different agents. By comparison, all are honest and trouble-free except for Foxtons. Right, where to start?
1. They forced me into accepting a 'fully serviced' tenancy agreement which was a further 7.05% (inc. VAT)deduction from the rent because 'the tenant said that he only wants a property that is fully serviced'. Checking with the tenant later, he stated that Foxtons said that the property was 'only available on a fully serviced basis'.
2. Despite their appalling service, they charge an unnacceptably high commission - 12.9% (inc. VAT) compared to other agents' maximum of 11.75% (inc.VAT).
3. Worst of all, buried in the small print of their tenancy agreement was the fact that they take ALL of their commission UP FRONT!!!! How outrageous is that? - My tenancy agreement is for a long-term let, so for the first year I received no income whatsoever as they skimmed their fat commission right off the top. And what if they go bust? Then they've got their commission and you're left with having paid for a service that hasn't been delivered. Actually, I think I'm coming to the view that I would happily give up the commission in order to see them go bust - except for the fact that it would be the poor staff in the front line that would suffer the consequences, not their fat cat partners who would no doubt have been able to squirrel enough away before allowing the whole enterprise to collapse.
4. When I called to complain (about the up front commission, the 'tenant-specified' service charge and their general attitude), several things were remarkable. Firstly, the fact that it is impossible to speak to the same person twice. This I think must have something to do with their 'battery-farming' attitude towards their staff. They seem to attract them on the basis of high potential earnings but then cut their salary after a few months, then put them on high-pressure commission based remuneration packages which of course is designed to get blood out of a stone and clearly most of them find it humanly impossible to cope. I've had the most riduculous and patronising excuses for their behaviour and charges, stooping to 'we're open on Saturdays'.
5. Late payment - most agencies collect rentals on time and remit to Landlords on time. Every single payment date for the last year has been missed. When chased up, the problem of never being able to find the last person you spoke to rears its ugly head. Then there's the excuse 'the tenant hasn't paid us' which is not only not true but their problem not mine, especially on a 'fully managed' basis. Then when they finally admit to having the rental (possibly all of the time), any attempt to get it remitted with haste is greeted with the 'It'll cost you for a bank transfer' - again, not only not my problem, but an appalling attitude to customer service.
On the whole, if you are a Landlord, DO NOT be even tempted to call them. If you are a tenant, then be prepared for trouble that they will no doubt blame on the Landlord.
Let's hope that the power of the internet will eventually prevail in the housing sector which will join client to principal without the greed and unethical behaviour of companies such as Foxtons. The estate agent will still have a role, but based on good customer service, knowledge and ethical behaviour which has a value to everyone.
If you are a former Foxtons tenant having difficulty recovering your deposit (assuming there is no valid reason for them to retain your deposit) call Foxtons up and calmly advise that unless a cheque for the deposit is returned to you within one week, you and a large number of friends will visit one of their busiest offices at peak time and hand out leaflets to potential customers outlining the difficulties you experienced.
Then make a promise to yourself that in future you will only lease/buy/sell property through members of the estate agents Ombudsman scheme. Extraordinary and very telling that such a large firm of estate agents wouldn't be in that scheme.
I had a similar incident with Foxtons in Richmond. They signed an agreement to let my flat in 2003 but never managed to get any tenats. I Managed to get tenats through other agents in Twickenham area. Foxtons demanded 1 year commission for a tenat they never signed but through a different agent. They claimed that this particular cliet used to be theirs. I contacted the tenats and the agent who found them and the tenat said that they were not happy about the Foxtons services and decided to go thorugh a different agent. Foxtons have filled a case against me in the county court through small claims. Has anyone had similiar experience with them? Would appreciate your commets. my e-mail: perera70@hotmail.com.
Unfortunately, I now have to agree with all the bad reviews Foxton has received. Today we were supposed to sign a contract to purchase a property and after much paper work between the both lawyers, our lawyer concluded that the seller of the property did not own the property he was selling!!! Also, that his lawyer was in lieu with him. This whole thing was done via Foxtons. Don't they at least check to see if the seller owns the property before letting him do so?!? What a waste of time and money!
"what wrong with foxtons i sold 8 flats with them and im still doing my business with them. ok"
Did watch the BBC TV programme concerning this company? Are you sure you got the true market value for those flats, or were you persuaded to sell at well below market value as a result of 'phantom' buyers putting in 'phantom' low bids to try to persuade you to drop your asking price???
if anyone is prepared to talk about foxtons, sales, lettings, admin or anything, whether you be vendor, purchaser, landlord or tenant, for a tv documentary, please contact me at ktv91@hotmail.com
I cannot believe what a useless bunch of b@stards Foxtons are. At every point in my dealings with them they have proved to be (at best) incompetent and (at worst) sneaky and underhanded.
Having signed a tenancy control with them they charged me £300quid for the privilege and then took my deposit money off me. A week later they came back to me saying that they had got the deposit figure wrong and could I resign another contract and give them the extra deposit money that they had now wanted. Having not dealt with them before I thought this was a one off problem and agreed.
6 months later I got and email from them telling me that I had only paid 10% of my rent rather than the full amount. When I got home I found that they had also sent me a letter, exactly the same as the email but with an additional paragraph that said that I owed them £40 for the letter. I immediately contacted my bank and they said that this must be an administrative problem (a missing decimal place). They ran a trace and told me that the full and correct amount had gone into Foxtons' account. I then spent a month trying to get hold of the person at Foxtons who could help me. Eventually I got hold of someone who told me that my bank was wrong, that they got daily statements from their bank and that I would have to reclaim the £40 from my bank as Foxtons would be taking it from my deposit. After another round of calls to my bank they assured me it was Foxtons. I went back to Foxtons to be told that it was a mistake at their end, that they had credited my deposit account (they'd obviously already taken the £40 out of it!) but they hadnâÂ?Â?t felt that they should call me and tell me.
I'm now moving out to a flat I'm buying. Before even speaking with me to tell me they were coming round Foxtons simply burst in one Sunday afternoon when I was in the bath with prospective new tenants in tow to show then the flat. I had to throw on a dressing gown and tell them to p!ss off. They went away for 20mins before coming back, knocking on the door and asking if they could show the flat viewers around in 30mins. For some reason I said that this would be ok (now that I was dressed).
The final nail in the coffin was that the flat my girlfriend and I are trying to buy has had a few problems and so has taken a bit of time to complete. During the week when we hoped to exchange, we got a call from our estate agent to say that the vendor had put the property back on the market after having received a phone call from Foxtons telling him that he could get a higher offer from some of their buyers. So to top it all off Foxtons have been instrumental in us being gazumped when we tried to escape their evil clutches!
I HATE FOXTONS - THEY ARE EVIL - BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE I ADVISE YOU NEVER TO USE THEM!!
I just can't believe that an organisation exists like Foxtons - ruthless and sly. I am a landlady and I would never use them again. For those of you who are considering using Foxtons please READ and READ OVER AND OVER AGAIN THE TENANCY AGREEMENT AND TERMS AND CONDITIONS. I have been scarred by them!
Seems that they are desperate for business now too. I own a website, first4sale.com, which gives vendors the tools to sell privately without paying commission. In London we have had good success and recently one family sold 2 properties worth £1.2m within 5 weeks with us, at a cost to them of £100 a property. This week Paul Rowland from Foxtons Ealing registered as a buyer with our site to send messages to two sellers in West London in an attempt to gain their business. He should have realised that people using our site do so because they don't want to pay exhorbitant agent fees and many are also disillusioned with estate agents. One of the sellers he contacted had actually been with Foxtons before coming to us and was not best pleased with being contacted by them.
I'm not at all surprised when reading these negative posts, as Foxtons are without a doubt one of the worst companies I have ever dealt with.
After showing us some of the dirtiest, smallest flats I have ever seen, I had to point out to the 12-year-old agent that we were not in the market for a flea-infested home. He then actually managed to find us a nice place at a reasonable price, and so we signed on.
That was the end of the positive. The admin fee was extortionate and then throughout the entire year's tenancy they were impossible to get hold of. Not only that, but they kept telling the landlord to put the rent up as, if we couldn't pay it they would find someone who would. In the end we moved out because we couldn't afford the rent anymore.
Our landlords wanted us to stay and stop using Foxtons, but Foxtons threatened them with legal action if they did that - apparently as they found us for the property it would be a breach of contract.
So, six months ago we moved out. Have we got the deposit back? No. After our landlord gave the go-ahead for a full refund, Foxtons are continuing to hold on to the money. The reason? The people who are dealing with it keep leaving and not passing it on to anyone. Now, apparently, it is being processed through accounts...
It has got to the point where we are thinking of bringing legal action against them to get our own money that we were owed six months ago.
I would absolutely advise anyone thinking of using Foxtons to run like hell. They are the absolute, absolute worst.
We rented a Foxtons property for a year. The entire year was an unutterable nightmare. None of the appliances in the kitchen worked when we moved in, for example, and it took literally *months* to get them repaired. It also took several months for Foxtons to remove their To-Let sign.
The list of problems we had on moving in was enormous, and the weeks after moving in were spent calling and emailing in a vain attempt to get something done about them. Eventually we wrote to demand our £300 fee back, on the basis that Foxtons had apparently done *nothing* to warrant the fee. They hadn't even provided us with an up-to-date inventory.
The fact we still didn't have an inventory a year later made Foxtons' announcement that they/the landlord would be retaining our *entire £1,500 deposit all the more surprising. The flimsy excuse that we hadn't kept the flat in a presentable condition during the last eight weeks of the tenancy was apparently enough to remove an whole month's rent from the deposit. The rest, unbelievably, were claims against the non-existant inventory and things like repairing locks that didn't exist, and cleaning curtains... that did not exist.
We would have been utterly astonished by their cowboy behaviour, were it not for the fact we'd already spent a year suffering their complete contempt for their managed tenants. They took all our money because they knew they could, and it left us penniless as we tried to find somewhere else.
Every time I see one of those f**king minis now I want to ram it.
What a bunch of pr!cks. Having found a place to live with another agency (KFH) and paid a deposit, Foxtons approached the landlord and told him he can get more money. Sunsequently, the landlord has decided to allow them to try get rid of the place for more money and left us with no where to live in 2 weeks. This is not business, dirty underhand kn0bs. Hope they all crash in their stupid mini's.
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Comments:
My sister works for an overseas firm as a "sourcer"; she sources items in demand in this country for her clients overseas. Her home is her office and the internet and the telephone are the tools for the trade. She explained this fully to Foxtons, informing how important it was for her that the property she moves in is fully equipped with telephone line ready for activation. When she found the property, the Foxtons negotiator "swore" that the property had a phone structure. Before signing the contract, she requested a written confirmation on the phone line aspect. The negotiator pointed out how the contract was written as if the line was definitely there (i.e. "The tenant must not change the telephone provider", etc.), and promised her that the line was there. She told him that she still would like a written confirmation. The negotiator told her: "Leave it to me, that can be arranged. But you need to sign the contract and pay the money before noon. Otherwise the property might be gone by tonight".
After she signed the contract and paid the money, it was revealed that the phone line did not exist; no cables behind the wall, the telephone socket was there to make the wall look pretty!
She asked Foxtons to release her from the contract, but they told her "Once you have signed it, you must honour(!) the contract." They assured her the phone will be connected before she moves in.
Next problem; after the move in date was agreed, the release of the keys was delayed and delayed. It reached to the point that she had 5 days left before her previous tenancy expired. She called every day to make sure that she will obtain the keys at least 3 days before her vacate date. The negotiator assured that she will.
The day before her move-out day, at 4pm, the negotiator rang and told her "Bad news, you need to wait three more days for the keys". She told the negotiator she already had booked the Van and Men the next day, and professional cleaners the day after. We had already packed and all her belongings were in boxes.
Then the negotiator made the most unbelievable suggestion of the decade: "I have a solution for you; why don’t you hire a storage space, there are a few that I can think of, Safestore Self Storage, Access Self Storage... to put your stuff in. And you can stay at a hotel for a few nights." She thought the negotiator was joking. Unfortunately, he was serious.
It turned out that the gas safety test was not conducted, and for Health and Safety reasons, she could not move in. In the end, Foxtons allowed her to move her belongings into the property, but she had to find a place to stay. She has two cats and my building does not allow animals. I told her nobody would find out, but she chose to stay in her then-empty old apartment with her cats. She slept on bare floor and worked using a cardboard box as her desk for three days.
Once she moved in, all hell broke loose. The property was not registered with the council, the porter service the negotiator described was non-existent, the landlord refused to connect the property with telephone line saying "it was up to the tenant". Then my sister tried to obtain a written permission to drill a hole through the wall for the BT to run their cable. This simple written confirmation took forever. She tried to work with a plug-in internet stick, but the speed and the connectivity was not good enough for constant usage. She stayed up all night to work (as the connection was slightly better after the midnight), she was exhausted - until she got suspended from work for not being able to provide timely service. When she rang Foxtons to ask about the progress on the phone line installation, she told them what had happened, sobbing. The property management team came up with yet another brilliant suggestion:
"Why don't you go to an internet cafe and work from there? Or go to your friend’s place and use their computer?" She was outraged; clearly they did not take her profession seriously. No idiot goes to an internet cafe to make £50k transaction. She told me, "My work is not some school children’s coursework that needs finishing". It took a month for the line to be installed.
More of Foxtons' dishonesty, rudeness and general sloppiness ensued, and I can go on and on... but I'll stop here.
After we made some persistent noise, they gave her back the commission she paid (which covered for approximately 2 days worth revenues she had lost during her 3 and a half weeks suspension). The most irritating trait Foxtons have displayed is the way they apologise; "We are sorry that you are unsatisfied with our service." They have not once apologised for making mistakes or for their poor performances.
We have reported this incident to The Property Ombudsman, and an investigation is currently taking place. However, the investigation is being hindered by the fact that the negotiator who dealt with her case has legged it - he left the company and became out of touch. Foxtons is refusing to contact their ex-negotiator saying they "feel it would be an inappropriate thing to do". My sister was especially devastated by this, as the negotiator had originally told her that he "would stick around to make sure that her problems will be resolved" telling her that he "felt partially (??) responsible" and was "really sorry". She had believed in his sincerity, and even defended him saying "He probably did not mean to misinform, he was probably just too busy and made mistakes of cutting corners."
I personally have no sympathy towards this man. Mr. A, wherever you are, you made her life miserable. She cried every night during her suspension from work.
If anyone is interested, I will report the outcome once we hear from TPO.
We both feel we cannot trust any estate agents after what had happened with Foxtons, and feel very anxious about moving. She says her mistake was not researching the company before choosing to use their service, and taking their showy office and well-dressed negotiators as the indication for service quality.
So there we go - I hope this post will help people in making decisions on whether to use or avoid Foxtons in future.
I recently rented an apartment through Foxtons. Not only were they full of lies and excuses, and never answered a phone call, but agent (or 'negotiater' as they'd like to inaccurately refer to themselves)paid absolutely attention to my affordable budget (which I specified in no uncertain terms) and continuously tried to push me for apartments far above my budget. As can be expected - after payment of their fee I have not received one single phonecall regarding follow up queries such as mistakes on the inventory check in (provided by their company), whether or not my deposit has been paid into the deposit scheme, etc. The manager is as non-responsive as the agent that reports in to her.
I thought it was just my bad luck, but a friend of mine went through the same experience last week.
Bad bad dreadful company! No peace of mind. DON'T USE THEM!!!
I strongly recommend not to use them if you do not want to waste your money and your mind.
Ref: Foxtons' letter to me of 19/03/06.
Dear xxxx,
The above letter regards the non-payment of rent from our tenants. This is a situation that was inevitable, but that I hoped would not occur - especially so soon. The main reason for its inevitability is that the tenants cannot afford the rent, while another reason is the timing of their rent payment. Had your sales team's focus not been solely trained on the bottom line, we, the client (whose interests Foxtons was serving, apparently) would not be left with real uncertainty regarding paying my own accommodation costs.
Of course as estate agents, you would have heard this kind of complaint before, but it gets worse, for this dark cloud of uncertainty is based on LIES and will seemingly remain overhead for TWO YEARS. Our agreeing to this TWO-YEAR contract was based on the TENANTS insisting on it. We weren't best pleased with this, but succumbed to the agent who insisted we'd be mad to turn down "perfect" tenants who'd be "trouble-free", only to be later asked by the tenants why we had insisted on the two years! Did XXXXXXX just hope that it wouldn't be discussed between us and the tenant?
Furthermore, we weren't quite ready for the tenants to move into the property and therefore I had to take paid leave to get things in order as the agent insisted that everything was in place and the tenants were insisting on moving in at that particular time - in fact, "now or never" may have been the term used, but I cannot be sure. Again, upon speaking with the tenants, they were lead to believe that it was in fact us who made the demands! As well as not being physically ready for the move, the tenants are paid around the 20th of each month so they wanted to move in at a time that tied in with their salaries.
These two issues we and the tenants agree on. But there are others, such as mention of the tenants' parents being guarantors (they don't even live in England) among others. Your profession has a bad reputation, so we thought that by going with one of the high profile companies we'd avoid such underhand activities, but we was clearly wrong.
Before all of this of course, Foxtons valued our potential income at £300.00 pcm, which we thought ridiculous so instructed the agent at the time to advertise the property at £270.00 (before he was replaced by XXXXXXX). So when we were called about a tenant offering nearer £200.00, you can imagine our reaction. Obviously, the tenants were then coerced into paying much more than they could afford. We sat with them a fortnight ago and they were horrified to learn of the bills they were responsible for in addition to their rent.
So, here we are now, Foxtons' are getting paid two years worth of commission up front (ah, now I see the two-year thing...), you also hold and gain interest on their deposit and credit control sends me a letter to tell me the tenants are a week late with payment. I called credit control today and was told that messages were left etc and not been replied to. He also told me that we aren't to see a penny until mid May, which must be a mistake. Perhaps I should chase the payment myself and charge Foxtons my fee upfront!
We'd be interested to learn of your views on the above as well as what you think may be a solution to the problem. Apparently, you are quite high up, so we trust that means you have an appreciation of the wider picture that XXXXXX himself or his line manager will not. We were prepared to put this whole saga down to experience so long as the money came in, but as we sit here now with the prospect of seeing not a penny after having your screened and vetted individuals live in our house for over two months, we intend to ensure that something is done both for our financial peace of mind as a matter of principle.
I look forward to your prompt written response.
===============================
I never received a written response, but eventually a phone call defending their man and suggesting the tenants themselves may have been dishonest (believe me, they were not lying - they'd need a motive - something to gain from the lie). I was eventually faxed a copy of a document they signed which had '2 year contract' ringed - Foxtons claiming it was by the tenants. Given they are two young foreigners (one of who's wife was to arrive months later before they embarked on their life's journey, what would they gain by tying themselves into a long contract?).
Of course, there were other things (like the fact the tenants weren't even taken to the door on their first day - let alone shown how things worked /itinerary etc - because the agent knew the place wasn't ready) but they are too numerous to go through.
Oh yes - I was faxed copies of the prospective tenants' bank statements. Now, call me foolish, but surely doing so is against some kind of law or business ethic.
All I can do is warn potential clients to steer well clear.
They are now charging us £200 for a mark in the kitchen left by the kettle, that if the extractor fan had been working - would never have happened. They also charged £70 for checking us out!... and £95 for "time spent"
Calls/ e-mails and letters are never returned and your agent is always on the phone.
They're all about 15 years old with no experience and no morals...
How they sleep at night I have no idea...
Please, please, please boycott!
This time we compiled a clear list of our requirements (suitable for a baby, garden, etc), and gave it to each of the agents we dealt with. None of them took a passing glance at it, taking us to totally unsuitable, gardenless and mould-ridden flats that in no way matched our requirements or budget.
The last house they showed us was the house of our dreams. Despite it being over our budget I put in an even higher offer to secure the deal over an offer thru another agent. The landlord kept us waiting several days, but Foxtons assured us we'd get it. My girlfriend started packing. She practically created a shrine of photos to it on our computer. We got the call - it had gone to the other agent. The reason? The landlord didn't want to deal with Foxtons anymore. The charges were ludicrous, for him and us (£300 agency fee? WHAT?). I found out the house had been on the market with the other agent for 2/3 the Foxtons price! We still drive past that house and sigh.
The house we found was with another agent for £2100/m, and accepted an offer of £1800/m. Foxtons had the same house on for £2400/m, and hounded our landlord with higher offers after ours had been accepted.
Our agent told us that when Foxtons landlords refuse to pay their exorbitant fees, Foxtons simply add them to the rent, which is partly why Foxtons price their rental properties considerably higher than other agents.
If you find a property through Foxtons, use their website for the pictures, information, and floorplans, then use www.rightmove.co.uk and www.propertyfinder.com to find the same property through another agent at cut-price! If they take you to a viewing, make a note of which other agents it's on the market with from the boards outside, then compare prices with them.
UK banks have been told off in courts for excess overdraft charges and admin costs for letters and other related correspondence for amounts between £20 - £30. People have been successfully claiming their charges back. Foxtons are only allowed to charge the admin costs, and if they are high, they have to prove it cost that much. You can claim upto six years after any illegal charges. How great would it be if everyone who had been done by Foxtons like this demanded their fees back and started a chain reaction that would cost the company thousands, if not more?
There are loads of pages on the web that provide information about how to claim back excessive overdraft charges. Is anyone interested? Spread the word on all the forums you know where people have been let down by Foxtons. Go for it!
They rented out my property but never manage it properly; therefore, the tenant vacated the place after five months. Me being overseas, I could not correct it. Altough they deducted whole their commission upfront for the 12 months, they never bother returning the commission back. Million othe problems including submiting wrong meter readings to utility firms (being invetigated under fraud), disclosing my details to the vendor. My two cents comment, keep away from them.
O
at Spectrum Place, London SE17 and cancelled
the next day after I broke my ankle, so couldn't
get to see it. They neither acknowledged receipt
of it, nor got me to sign anything (I paid off my debit card). I discovered they lied about (a) distance of flat from tube (0.7 m, they said
0.4 m), the view of Big Ben, London Eye and the City .... Oh yeah, on the horizon ... and about the rent I could collect. They say fee is non-returnable because it was paid to the Developer. I say they took the payment so they are liable to return it. Surely there's a cooling off period. What is the status of holding deposits in Law?
1. They forced me into accepting a 'fully serviced' tenancy agreement which was a further 7.05% (inc. VAT)deduction from the rent because 'the tenant said that he only wants a property that is fully serviced'. Checking with the tenant later, he stated that Foxtons said that the property was 'only available on a fully serviced basis'.
2. Despite their appalling service, they charge an unnacceptably high commission - 12.9% (inc. VAT) compared to other agents' maximum of 11.75% (inc.VAT).
3. Worst of all, buried in the small print of their tenancy agreement was the fact that they take ALL of their commission UP FRONT!!!! How outrageous is that? - My tenancy agreement is for a long-term let, so for the first year I received no income whatsoever as they skimmed their fat commission right off the top. And what if they go bust? Then they've got their commission and you're left with having paid for a service that hasn't been delivered. Actually, I think I'm coming to the view that I would happily give up the commission in order to see them go bust - except for the fact that it would be the poor staff in the front line that would suffer the consequences, not their fat cat partners who would no doubt have been able to squirrel enough away before allowing the whole enterprise to collapse.
4. When I called to complain (about the up front commission, the 'tenant-specified' service charge and their general attitude), several things were remarkable. Firstly, the fact that it is impossible to speak to the same person twice. This I think must have something to do with their 'battery-farming' attitude towards their staff. They seem to attract them on the basis of high potential earnings but then cut their salary after a few months, then put them on high-pressure commission based remuneration packages which of course is designed to get blood out of a stone and clearly most of them find it humanly impossible to cope. I've had the most riduculous and patronising excuses for their behaviour and charges, stooping to 'we're open on Saturdays'.
5. Late payment - most agencies collect rentals on time and remit to Landlords on time. Every single payment date for the last year has been missed. When chased up, the problem of never being able to find the last person you spoke to rears its ugly head. Then there's the excuse 'the tenant hasn't paid us' which is not only not true but their problem not mine, especially on a 'fully managed' basis. Then when they finally admit to having the rental (possibly all of the time), any attempt to get it remitted with haste is greeted with the 'It'll cost you for a bank transfer' - again, not only not my problem, but an appalling attitude to customer service.
On the whole, if you are a Landlord, DO NOT be even tempted to call them. If you are a tenant, then be prepared for trouble that they will no doubt blame on the Landlord.
Let's hope that the power of the internet will eventually prevail in the housing sector which will join client to principal without the greed and unethical behaviour of companies such as Foxtons. The estate agent will still have a role, but based on good customer service, knowledge and ethical behaviour which has a value to everyone.
Then make a promise to yourself that in future you will only lease/buy/sell property through members of the estate agents Ombudsman scheme. Extraordinary and very telling that such a large firm of estate agents wouldn't be in that scheme.
I had a similar incident with Foxtons in Richmond. They signed an agreement to let my flat in 2003 but never managed to get any tenats. I Managed to get tenats through other agents in Twickenham area. Foxtons demanded 1 year commission for a tenat they never signed but through a different agent. They claimed that this particular cliet used to be theirs. I contacted the tenats and the agent who found them and the tenat said that they were not happy about the Foxtons services and decided to go thorugh a different agent. Foxtons have filled a case against me in the county court through small claims. Has anyone had similiar experience with them? Would appreciate your commets. my e-mail: perera70@hotmail.com.
Thanks.
Cham
Did watch the BBC TV programme concerning this company? Are you sure you got the true market value for those flats, or were you persuaded to sell at well below market value as a result of 'phantom' buyers putting in 'phantom' low bids to try to persuade you to drop your asking price???
thanks...
this is genuine....
Having signed a tenancy control with them they charged me £300quid for the privilege and then took my deposit money off me. A week later they came back to me saying that they had got the deposit figure wrong and could I resign another contract and give them the extra deposit money that they had now wanted. Having not dealt with them before I thought this was a one off problem and agreed.
6 months later I got and email from them telling me that I had only paid 10% of my rent rather than the full amount. When I got home I found that they had also sent me a letter, exactly the same as the email but with an additional paragraph that said that I owed them £40 for the letter. I immediately contacted my bank and they said that this must be an administrative problem (a missing decimal place). They ran a trace and told me that the full and correct amount had gone into Foxtons' account. I then spent a month trying to get hold of the person at Foxtons who could help me. Eventually I got hold of someone who told me that my bank was wrong, that they got daily statements from their bank and that I would have to reclaim the £40 from my bank as Foxtons would be taking it from my deposit. After another round of calls to my bank they assured me it was Foxtons. I went back to Foxtons to be told that it was a mistake at their end, that they had credited my deposit account (they'd obviously already taken the £40 out of it!) but they hadnâÂ?Â?t felt that they should call me and tell me.
I'm now moving out to a flat I'm buying. Before even speaking with me to tell me they were coming round Foxtons simply burst in one Sunday afternoon when I was in the bath with prospective new tenants in tow to show then the flat. I had to throw on a dressing gown and tell them to p!ss off. They went away for 20mins before coming back, knocking on the door and asking if they could show the flat viewers around in 30mins. For some reason I said that this would be ok (now that I was dressed).
The final nail in the coffin was that the flat my girlfriend and I are trying to buy has had a few problems and so has taken a bit of time to complete. During the week when we hoped to exchange, we got a call from our estate agent to say that the vendor had put the property back on the market after having received a phone call from Foxtons telling him that he could get a higher offer from some of their buyers. So to top it all off Foxtons have been instrumental in us being gazumped when we tried to escape their evil clutches!
I HATE FOXTONS - THEY ARE EVIL - BASED ON MY EXPERIENCE I ADVISE YOU NEVER TO USE THEM!!
The agent showed us the flat as they would accept our offer. The manager refused to put the offer to the Landlord. The flat was vacent for months.
Now we have moved it. Stand up argument with them over the lease. They are ignorant of Tenant/landlord law. Tried illegal clauses.
Now months later no inventory, no copy of signed lease.
Crap, crap, crap. The worst ever.
After showing us some of the dirtiest, smallest flats I have ever seen, I had to point out to the 12-year-old agent that we were not in the market for a flea-infested home. He then actually managed to find us a nice place at a reasonable price, and so we signed on.
That was the end of the positive. The admin fee was extortionate and then throughout the entire year's tenancy they were impossible to get hold of. Not only that, but they kept telling the landlord to put the rent up as, if we couldn't pay it they would find someone who would. In the end we moved out because we couldn't afford the rent anymore.
Our landlords wanted us to stay and stop using Foxtons, but Foxtons threatened them with legal action if they did that - apparently as they found us for the property it would be a breach of contract.
So, six months ago we moved out. Have we got the deposit back? No. After our landlord gave the go-ahead for a full refund, Foxtons are continuing to hold on to the money. The reason? The people who are dealing with it keep leaving and not passing it on to anyone. Now, apparently, it is being processed through accounts...
It has got to the point where we are thinking of bringing legal action against them to get our own money that we were owed six months ago.
I would absolutely advise anyone thinking of using Foxtons to run like hell. They are the absolute, absolute worst.
The list of problems we had on moving in was enormous, and the weeks after moving in were spent calling and emailing in a vain attempt to get something done about them. Eventually we wrote to demand our £300 fee back, on the basis that Foxtons had apparently done *nothing* to warrant the fee. They hadn't even provided us with an up-to-date inventory.
The fact we still didn't have an inventory a year later made Foxtons' announcement that they/the landlord would be retaining our *entire £1,500 deposit all the more surprising. The flimsy excuse that we hadn't kept the flat in a presentable condition during the last eight weeks of the tenancy was apparently enough to remove an whole month's rent from the deposit. The rest, unbelievably, were claims against the non-existant inventory and things like repairing locks that didn't exist, and cleaning curtains... that did not exist.
We would have been utterly astonished by their cowboy behaviour, were it not for the fact we'd already spent a year suffering their complete contempt for their managed tenants. They took all our money because they knew they could, and it left us penniless as we tried to find somewhere else.
Every time I see one of those f**king minis now I want to ram it.
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