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Reviews 227
Tash
May 02,2018We moved to Garton Jones after having a bad experience with our previous estate agents selling our flat in Vauxhall. I met with Riaan who came to view the flat at a time that suited me and he assured me that they would be able to help. Him and Joe remained professional and approachable throughout the entire process, from keeping us informed on any potential buyers through to completion. Thank you for your hard work and determination in helping sell our flat quickly and at the right price.
V.A.L
Apr 30,2018Five years ago we sold our L ondon apartment through Garton Jones, no fuss and quickly. We then rented a new build flat through Garton Jones whilst we waited for an off plan property to be built. We found Kieran to be straightforward and helpful, arranging visits to new developments and even accompanying us to a development of which he was not the agent. Holly Butler found us a property to rent where we were very happy. Michaela Garton was the senior property manager and could not have been nicer nor more helpful. We had one or two initial problems with our rented property as it was brand new and experienced a couple of minor incidents with the junior letting staff (hence four instead of five stars) which Michaela quickly resolved. Both Holly Butler and Michaela Garton are professional yet at the same time charming. I enjoyed dealing with Garton Jones, compared to many agents they are fair and do not overcharge. I would not hesitate to use them again for either selling or renting.
peter weil
Apr 24,2018Garton Jones are a great company and it has been a pleasure to do business with them over the past year. Twelve months ago I moved to Northern Ireland but kept my flat in Westminster. Garton Jones have found me two good tenants and handle all the admin and financial issues. The results are a happy tenant and everything is taken care of. Nothing is too much of a problem for them. I'm delighted to have renewed my contract with them for a further year and see our relationship very much as a long term partnership.
Denis Chan
Mar 08,2018I’m an overseas investor. Through GJ, I had rented out an apartment in Central London to 2 tenants. I have highlighted below my personal experiences with GJ agency for the past 18 months. For ease of reference, I have also broken the key characteristics of my case into sub catagories: Contract / Miscellaneous - To begin with, the contract was not correctly and clearly drawn up insofar as the referencing is concerned. One of the tenant claimed to be on high salary although this individual did not contribute to the rent payment. I was blinded by this fact but urged to sign the contract. It rolled over as usual in the first 9 months. There after, problematic situations and incidents arose. For instance, non paying rent on time, suspicion to have been sub-letting etc. This was on top of the consistent incorrect monthly statement from GJ which were full of accounting errors. If I had not double confirmed the figures, I would have obtained and received less rent! On a separate note, there was an agreement between myself as the landlord, the developer and GJ for all charges like residential ground rent and service charge to be cleared from deduction of rent received. Some months ago, a member of the GJ Agency who was responsible for this agreement had departed, and she has not made the payment prior and as a result the developer had imposed a late payment fee for which GJ made me clear the charge, when it was clearly their error of oversight. Approaching the break clause period at around month 12th, Riaan Kruger, The Head of Sales and Lettings reassured me that he would be able to handle and resolve all upcoming and ongoing problems. Who then asked myself to extend the contract. I extended the contract as a good will gesture and then the nightmare began. Loss - From month 13 onwards, the tenants refused to pay any rent. As a result, they have not been paying rent for 7 months straight. To-date, I have suffered and am loosing out on over £23,660.00. Eviction - During the course of eviction, one of GJ’s agents filed a section 8 for eviction of tenants but had the date incorrectly calculated. This had only been identified by my lawyer and as a result another section 8 was resubmitted causing a delay of 6 weeks. Throughout the 7 long months of non payment, GJ remained neutral about the severity of the situation and only acted passive and did absolutely nothing, Riaan Kruger claimed the tenants wouldn’t speak to him. Despite numerous requests, the intention to step in and handle and resolve the situation was never present. There were no visit to the apartment as required to investigate the situation further. Reaching the 7th month of non payment, on a Friday night, the tenants suddenly sent me an anonymous email saying that they had vacated the apartment and left the door unlocked and open with no keys returned. I immediately contacted GJ but there was no response until a few hours later but Melisha Pall, The Property Manager would not do anything until the coming Monday. So I then called the developer's management company and let them know the exact situation and requested for emergency assistance. I then contacted Another Agent of mine for assistance who immediately came to the rescue and made a visit to my apartment the same night who also made sure everything was reviewed throughly. It was late Friday evening and a relatively breezy night and I was grateful to that particular Agent. The next day on Saturday morning the other Agent also changed the lock for the main door (Melisha Pall refused to do so, claiming the email might be fictitious despite the apartment was confirmed vacated and door opened), took photos and carried out inspected to the damage and defects to the apartment. The next week, GJ visited and claimed the apartment was in good condition, despite the factual truth of the apartment was in a terrible state with broken items and residue lying about, missing dining table/chairs, in extremely poor state and shape about the apartment with deep stains all over the beds and carpets. But still, all Melisha Pall cared about and kept on questioning was when I would instruct GJ to re-market the property. Court Day - Nearer to the court date, I connected GJ to my lawyer. Being overseas, I could only rely on GJ as my management agent for court attendance. Melisha Pall initially agreed to attend but only a few days before the court day she informed how she would not be able to attend and even questioned if I myself could attend. I replied, No I would most definitely not be able to attend as I was not in the UK and then after some persuasion, she somehow then re-agreed to attend. On the day of the trial, GJ only produced a piece of paper for 7 months’ rent arrears totalling £23,660.00 to the court case. But this was wrong because they forgot to add the overdue charges as stipulated in the contract. When questioned, GJ replied it was the responsible of the lawyer to inform the court on the charges as they have a copy of the contract. Could you believe this? Claim of Management Fees - Would you believe GJ also requested for their management fees in for the 7 months of non a payment tendency, when I have not acquired a penny! They also wish to do so by deducting the fees sum ‘illegally’ from the deposit, which is kept for specific purposes, rather than for payment of management fees. I voice out all of my personal experience above as a break-through, I do not wish any landlords or tenants in future to suffer such horrid experiences with GJ letting agency. The above case is factual and authentic, nothing but my traumatic experiential truth. Being an overseas investor, and not being able to personally be on-top of your investments, this is truly a horrendously horrible experience, I have lost all faith in GJ agency. For which I hope to share my disgusted experience with fellow readers so that hopefully none would struggle the familiarity for such a distressing experience like my case for the past 7 long months.
Robert
Jul 19,2017They kept an unacceptable amount from my deposit claiming damages which were totally imaginary. I eventually had my deposit back in 3,5 months.
Jean-Charles Koch
Jul 03,2017Unacceptable experience with the Nine Elms branch. I visited a flat, made an offer which got accepted, paid the fees for the flat to be "taken off market". 4 days before the moving date they tell me the landlord has accepted another offer in the meantime and that i won't be able to move in if i don't increase the rent by 10% vs the initially agreed rent.
Hadley
Jul 02,2018Extremely incompetent, rude, and home to one of the UK’s poorest management departments. Provided absolutely no help during the tenancy but were quick to bill us for repairs to their poor quality fittings that they refused to assist with throughout the time we lived in their flat. Strongly recommend to avoid.