Forum Topic

Ludlow Thompson - Deadful

I am at a loss for words to express how terrible their service is.

Zak Aaron ● 5814d18 Comments

Dreadful even.

Zak Aaron ● 5814d

Oh go on, try.So far not enough to go on for other consumers/potential customers.

Sara Nathan ● 5813d

Used them to try to sell our house 18 months ago.  They suddenly closed down their sales department in Acton and tried to sell our house out of Kilburn!  Now, I get up to 3 calls a day asking me if I want a free valuation or if my house is now ready to let!  If their service had been satisfactory in the first place, I wouldn't have minded, but I'm just fed up of their constant harrassment now.

Zak Aaron ● 5813d

Has anyone tried Grimshaw recently?  (near to Ealing Common Station) - an old established firm.

Dee Cook ● 5813d

They've just sold a house in our road and seem to remain popular; maybe not so flash as the youngsters.

Susan Kelly ● 5813d

Out of all of the estate agents I've tried during my time in Acton, Ludlow Thompson were by far the worst at taking no for an answer, and leaving me the hell alone once I'd rented through another firm!  Literally months of harassing phone calls... Plus they never seemed able to grasp my - admittedly miniscule - budget, a figure which they seemed able to hold in their minds only long enough to inwardly scoff and pull out a sheaf of really expensive places which they entirely believed they could smooth talk me into mortgaging my soul for.Plus they refer to their cars as 'Property Response Vehicles' which makes want to vomit.

Cas Baker ● 5810d

bump

Zak Aaron ● 5713d

Brilliant, I once nearly rented with Ludlow, but after they gave me the wrong tax band, which had I not double checked would have left me with a surprise extra £300 or so to find, and then managed to accidentally offer a higher rent to the Landlord than I had made. And seemed to scoff at the suggestion they ring the landlord and apologise at their mistake as they couldn't possibly offer a lower rate now! So I told them to stick it. All in all I would have found myself around £600 a year worse off due to the expertise offered by 'Ludlow Thompson. Don't you love 'em!!!

Guy Campbell ● 5713d

I am going around the shop very soon as their bloody 'To Let' sign has been in front of my flat since November!!! Surely this is illegal and flipping free advertising for them!

Lucy Walker ● 5713d

Anybody know whether there are laws against removing these signs?  I was so fed up with three signs on a communal fence that I removed all three last weekend, and today they were taken away by the rubbish collection.This was only after I contacted all three estate agents and asked them to remove them (several months ago!).

Paul Scullion ● 5713d

I hope so, I want to throw the book in their face! These are the impossible to move ones, with the iron straps, even my neighbour couldn't move it (and he was planning to walk down Berrymead Gardens and dump it outside their shop - HA! love my neighbours!!! :)

Lucy Walker ● 5713d

There was a long thread ages ago on this very topic but I can't remember what it concluded - I think that they had to have a genuine place to sell/let and they had to take down the sign a specific time later. Will try to find it as am not sure.

Sara Nathan ● 5713d

Richard Jennings - who always knows - posted this a year or so ago"there probably are no planning regs on 'for sale' signs outside houses."Yes, there are.  The Town and Country Planning (Control of Advertisements) (England) Regulations 2007 lays down various rules, such as:- Only one board (or two boards back-to-back) per property (flat, house)- Board to be removed within 14 days of completion of sale or grant of tenancy- Limits on size of board, height above the ground, size of lettering or symbolsThe Planning Enforcement team of the council should be told if you want a board removed and the agent isn't cooperating.Boards that advertise a school fair, rather than a property for sale or to let, are rather different.  Not sure if there are any controls on those."

Sara Nathan ● 5713d

Thanks for this - went into their office yesterday morning, waited around a minute to get seen to (their 'meeting' was obviously more important)Some bored chap took my number and property address, whilst trying to ask me if I was interested in anything else (not looking to sell/let yet mate!) and I still haven't heard from them. If the sign is still up when I get back tonight, I'll tell them about the below... My friend has told me they apparently have to pay for getting the signs put up/taken down, but this is no excuse!!

Lucy Walker ● 5708d

We let our house through LT when we went on a 3 year posting overseas from 2005-8. To their credit they found tenants from day 1 for the first 18 months but among the nightmares we had to endure, without any prior explanation:No rental income received for first 3 months as LT deducted their fees for the full length of the tenancy from the first 3 months rent;Management of the let outsourced to a another company based in Northampton; almost impossible to communicate with them except by e-mail; often ignored;Charge of £250 to replace a tap washer;Charge of £400 to replace a cracked tile in the bathroom;Substantial damage done in bathroom and kitchen; none of which was logged in the agent's inspection at the end of the tenancy, so we refunded the tenants' deposit in good faith.LT's tenant for the second 18 months had previously defaulted on rent payment with another LT let, although they told us she was an exemplary tenant. She moved in with a child and a partner, neither of whom were mentioned on the tenancy agreement; the LT agent who recommended her was subsequently promoted to manage another LT branch; OK for the first few months, then she paid no rent for 4 months; she then decamped before the end of the tenancy owing another 2 months rent and taking various fixtures and fittings; for months afterwards we received letters from bailiffs, banks, phone companies, car HP companies all chasing thousands of pounds of debts;LT's To Let board was in the front garden for the entire 3 years, despite repeated requests to remove it.LT dreadful is an accurate assessment.   

Peter Millman ● 5708d

Crikey, hope my fellow freeholder has known what he's got into. He's off travelling for a year so decided to let his flat out. And that sign won't be up for 3 years, I'll get the council involved! (although that doesn't fill me with confidence either ;)

Lucy Walker ● 5708d

The block of flats for sale in Horn Lane, corner of Brougham Road, has no less than 7 For Sale signs outside! Surely this would put off prospective buyers - sounds like they are really desperate!!!

Jean F Fernandez ● 5708d

I'm renting a place through Ludlow Thompson, and they've been worse than dreadful. The only reason I went through with it was the other people (shared house) had to move out of their place and had nowhere else to go, and we like the house.Roughly in order* No replies to voicemails or emails. Turned out they'd sacked the staff member, but they didn't tell me, and didn't redirect his email to someone else.* Couldn't spell my email address correctly, even after three phone calls to confirm they had.* Sending my retired father emails every day asking to be a guarantor, when they'd already confirmed I didn't need one.* Landlord met two tenants while I was out of London. LT said he didn't need to meet me. The landlord was cross because I seemed unreliable.* Lying to the landlord about our references -- LT said they were perfect/exemplary/etc, even before we'd completed them! (He showed me an email from LT + attached document produced by their web system. The hand-typed email said the reference was great, the document said no reference had been provided.)* Lying to use about the delays getting a tenancy agreement to sign. They were blaming the landlord; in fact they had staff problems in their office.* Making pointless appointments they knew they couldn't keep. Three times I took time off work to get to Acton before 6pm to sign the lease, three times they said it wasn't ready. The second two times I phoned at 5pm to check it was ready, and was told it was printed and ready to sign!* Finally arranged to sign the lease at 10am on a Saturday, the day two tenants *had* to move out of their existing place. The lease wasn't ready until 2pm! Then they tried to hurry us up!Post-move-in problems:* Continual problems with keys. LT had lost three sets of keys, but wouldn't admit it until the landlord found the receipt they'd given him for them. Instead, they told us every day for a week that they were ready to collect at their office.* They signed a piece of paper saying they'd provide some extra furniture. It wasn't provided, but they claimed that piece of paper was nothing to do with the lease we eventually signed.* We weren't present for the inventory, and they took ages to provide a copy.Since then, I've not bothered contacting them with problems, I just email the landlord. Whatever cut LT take really isn't gaining him much.LT are the most unprofessional, incompetent, deceitful, mismanaged organisation I've ever dealt with.Admittedly, I've always rented privately before.

M Blissett ● 5706d