“Let my flat out to them about 4 years ago. The first year or two they were very good with keeping me up to date with things such as annual boiler check and electrical check and informing me of any other repairs etc. Also did there regular spot checks every three months or so and reported back to myself on there findings. Earlier on they were great as I said earlier but things started to change even before covid 19. The regular checks literally stop to a point where I had to keep chasing them with what’s going on as I wasn’t directly involve with the tenants. It got to the point where the tenants got my number off my neighbour just to inform me that things there needed fixing and I wasn’t been made aware of from the agents even though they were telling them things needed doing which I don’t blame them for in that aspect. I felt that I had to get so involved in the running of the letting to the point where I said to them what was the point of paying you for full management of the place when I didn’t want the stress of it. This carried on for a number of months of me chasing the agents up on what’s going on with the place, leaving messages and NEVER get a call back from them regarding an issue. Even when it came up to eventually getting the tenants out by giving them three months notice and them not willing to leave William H brown were no help at all. It felt like they washed there hands of the situation and left it with my solicitors to deal with. I find there business as a whole was acted very unorganised with no help to me whatsoever and that I would NEVER use or recommend them for letting to anyone. It took exactly a whole year from August from the first initial letter of eviction to finally get the tenants out. Now with the tenants out this whole thing has costed me a lot of money and to even get the deposit back now is another issue. This is certainly a lesson learned and to be weary of estate agents such as William H brown by giving them full control of your property and given in to by there lies.”
“I had 2 viewings of a property in Fakenham Norfolk , I proceeded to make an offer after second viewing which was then accepted by the vendor , next day I heard that they had let another 2 viewings take place and an offer was put in by the second viewer who then started gazumping by the office , I lost the property the following day , absolutely disgusting service , will never use them again”
“W H Brown service is going down hill since Ammi left . ovcharges and false promises. They go ahead to my teannat to move in without the contract, my tenant was coming from spain and had pets with them. I and tenant was ringing office but the office had no clue whats going on. When the contract was ready it was full of spelling mistakes and important information was missing. They were asking me to sign the contract as it is.
Than my first rent come with their huge unagreed reductions. I am holding my own deposit when they still included charges.
Ruksan and other staff make fun with unpleasent comments and get rude.
its a complain and a review for William h brown!”
“Sat in a chain for 14 months and then it fell apart. The halstead branch of William h brown were useless. They lied continually. They told you what they thought you wanted to hear rather than the truth. They never chased unless prompted. They never returned phone calls.
Resold my house with a different local estate agent and the sale was completed within 7 weeks.”
“The office was overworked due to the stamp duty waiver . However that was not our problem , the job.was to sell the house and get the best price. Along with the solicitor they recommended to me they were both culpable of creating an unmitigated disaster.
1. The house is in a much sought after area in Barnsley. They take no selling.
1 They failed to get.out the photographs onto the Internet and it was sold before it went live. They were sending g me some lonely back in January . It as still not arrived.
2. They arranged plenty.of site visits from a portfolio they all ready had . They never turned up.for 1 of them .
3. I requested a no for sale sign.i never got compensated for not having this.
4. We were given a wrong date for completion , meaning.we cancelled care for our elderly parent , sold the stairlift, cancelled carers , cancelled WiFi for the security cameras , cancelled night care alarm, cancelled energy services, cancelled.removal men . What a disaster. All these had to be reinstated but she lost her jiggt care slot.
5. The house took 6 months to complete the paperwork. I accepted €5000 below bottom value for a quick sale before Christmas. The sale actually.went through at the end of April.
6 I expressed my anxiety that the houses had gone up since October and my acceptance was a winter price. I was never advised to re value the house..I would say she lost.in the region of £20,,000.
At.the early.stages phone calls got ignored and I was even asked to take a Tar 1 to the post office for special delivery from.their office. When I refused the paperwork was.left in the office for a further week.
Completion date meant they had taken 6 months with their solicitor to complete the paperwork and we were given a rimeslot of 3/4 of a day to remove everything.
7. The solicitor paid them £4050 against my will and they have never returned any correspondence. I have asked the solicitor to give me a breakdown of the bill and he states its a fee.
Ombudsman is coming their way”
“They called me asking if I was interested in a property. I said yes and would like to see the video tour and was told it would be send via email later that day. Just before closing still had no email so I rang them to ask. They said they would get on it first thing in the morning. Next day I heard nothing so rang at 12pm to check, they said yes sorry we are on it you'll get it soon. Got to before closing time. I rang them again to ask, same response again. That they'd do it first thing in morning. I check on the site next day and the property had let agreed. Very unprofessional. I'm looking for a place to rent and am ready to move due to abuse but there's no point me even trying with these people!”
“The worst estate agent ever. No communication. The office in Essex is appalling. Due to oversight and bad advice to their clients my whole chain fell apart. DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE. They are a disgrace!”
“AVOID AT ALL COSTS!! This is so bad you probably won’t believe it. Never ever again will I consider using William H Brown!!!! Absolutely disgusted with the service and shocked how unprofessional Diane was when it came to dealing with my complaint.
1. I was told by the salesman that the property would be sold through the Norwich branch, (I was particularly happy about this as it was explained to me that this branch had far more resources to sell at a higher price and much faster than the smaller branches which have only two staff to deal with this) yet it was transferred to the Hellesdon branch.
2. WHB Forgot to market the property for 3 weeks until I notified the Norwich branch.
3. To my amazement, somehow, they missed key benefits of the property and that it was to be sold as OIEO as discussed, taking three attempts to get it right via email before going live. Ultimately, I had to point out the important missing features on the marketing material, when in fact I should be the one being advised.
4. After completion the buyers spoke to me face to face, explaining they were never made aware of the garden to the right elevation of the property or to the left of the drive way and that the boundaries of the property were never pointed out on their viewings. If I had known this while in the negotiation stages, then obviously I could have come in with a counter offer or refuse the offer of £120,500 while at the same time explaining that they are not just getting the garden to the front elevation but also the garden to the right elevation, which can easily be used as a private garden if a fence it erected as there are no windows overlooking. This shows there was clearly scope for negotiating a considerably higher price than £120,500.
5. I then researched local estate agents for similar flats, this is when I found a 1 bed flat on Pyehurn Mews with exactly the same layout and a very similar sized rear garden that completed with KT Estate Agents for £135,000. Again, this shows there was clearly scope for negotiating a considerably higher price than £120,500.
6. When I called the Hellesdon branch and spoke with Diane explaining. Before I had a chance to finish, Diane became aggressively defensive, denying my claims, insinuating that my mother was a liar (as she heard the same from the buyers) and immediately threatened me with debt recovery instructions. I was overwhelmed with this approach and the conversation soon ended with a debt collection threat. Like any other customer complaint to a business, I was expecting to be able to have a conversation about my experiences, then for Diane to at the very least say something to the effect of “I will look into this before I pass comment and I will be in touch shortly”. Because this did not happen, there has not been any conversation to attempt to resolve my complaint, only legal threats.
7. The next working day I had a debt recovery company chasing me.
8. I have potentially lost a few thousand pounds for the incompetence of the Hellesdon branch.”
“Seriously the worst estate agent I have ever dealt with. Lies from beginning to end. Never call back, never update me. Wendy and lee the most useless individuals I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with. And to top it off don’t pay rent on time, and a week later when it’s paid it’s £750 short. No one cares, no one takes responsibility - area manager Andy not in the slightest bit interested in helping. Do yourselves a favour and stay clear”
“3 complaints from start to finish of the process, apologies after apologies but no improvements. Bad practices , poor advice. even their complaint team can not handle it at all. They don't even acknowledge their mistakes!
My advise id to avoid at any cost”
