John D Wood & Co. Reviews 

I would thoroughly recommend John D Wood's Earls Court office - being involved in any property purchase/sale is generally a pretty stressful experience but Sophie (Ling) and Fee (Henderson) have guided me through the labrynth of paperwork and processes with great professionalism and expertise and most importantly kept me calm whenever I began to panic about something! Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Do NOT rent with John D Woods in London (specifically Notting Hill). For most of my tenancy I was left without an oven and a bathroom door. They have been extremely rude and aggressive on the phone & I never received any compensation or empathy for not having an oven to cook. Or a bathroom door in a studio flat...

But most importantly - I left the property a year ago and STILL have not received my deposit back. They do not reply to email or provide answers on the phone - always saying they will investigate.

Please please can someone get in touch to send me the deposit, I have nearly £2,000 stuck with John D Woods.

Lisa Knight, Head of Sales in the Beckenham branch posted a letter to me dated the 17th February. It said, “If you would like to arrange a no-obligation market appraisal, please do not hesitate to get in touch..” I rang the office and made an appointment for the 7th of March. I was clear that I was not putting the house on the market right now.

Fifteen minutes before the appointment on the 7th March Lisa rang and asked if I still wanted a market appraisal and I said, “Yes, please.” I am in my 70s and had spent days tidying and rearranging furniture!

Lisa arrived at the door and I took her around the house but she didn’t measure the rooms, which surprised me. She said it was a unique house and she couldn’t give me an off the cuff appraisal so would Monday do. I don’t have an English accent but I have lived in the UK since Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister so I am aware when someone is taking the micky but let it pass. In the past estate agents have valued this house without the passive aggressive tones I’m now feeling.

I said that would be fine. I am not thinking of selling this house right now but at my age who knows what the future will bring? My family were interested in knowing and they will likely be dealing with selling it.

Lisa did not send me an appraisal or reply to the short email I sent her at Monday close of business. She didn’t note anything during the entire visit but I am a trusting soul and thought it would be general.

I get letters all the time from estate agents, including today, as the road is convenient. Countrywide Estate Agents must be very aggressive with their employees if Lisa found my request so insulting.

Thank you John D Wood for providing a fantastic service for the last 3 years when I rented a flat from one of your landlords.

From the first inquiry, viewing, communications and paperwork, the process was smooth and easy. I didn't feel pressured or rushed, but supported by the Wandsworth Common branch (initially Olivia). The team were proactive to provide any paperwork I asked for.

JDW provided their end-to-end management. Any requests, issues or special requests were accommodated for quickly. Thank you to the maintenance and operations team in Nottingham for your initial introduction, quick responses and support throughout the contract. When an engineer visit was required, the contractors you used were professional, friendly and respectful. And when the assigned property manager moved into another role, he proactively contacted me to let me know and introduced my new point-of-contact. These little but important touches make all the difference.

I felt at home. So did my 3 kids.

After the first two years, I then extended the contract - which again was an easy process.

When the time came for me to leave, Tom (Wandsworth Common) was helpful and friendly - Thank you, Tom.

The inventory check/deposit return took a little longer than I hoped but all the paperwork, outstanding queries and matters were cleared up very quickly by the Richmond office (thank you, Armela for your attention to my account and your updates - much appreciated)

Overall, very happy with the service I received and in 11 months time when my current tenancy agreement ends, you'll be the first agents I get in touch with.

Tom has been an absolute pleasure to work with. His communication was clear, transparent, and efficient throughout the entire process. He kept me well-informed at every stage and was always quick to respond to any questions. His professionalism and dedication made the experience smooth and stress-free. Highly recommend!

I recently purchased a property marketed by JDW Earl’s Court and managed by Fee Henderson. Fee was v professional, knowledgeable, and incredibly responsive. She made the entire process smooth and stress-free (as much as it could be), providing clear communication at every step. Would recommend!

Just to update my last comment - as a landlord I'm now told by J D Wood that I am tied into them and therefore paying them until my tenant leaves, whenever that is.
My excellent tenant will have to leave in July and start again to get away from this un professional company. Unfair on him and his family as I'm a good landlord trapped by an appalling, greedy bunch.
Landlords beware - even if J D Wood don't pay you in timely fashion you are tied to them, so they claim.
I'm taking this to Radio 4 You and Yours because I just want nothing more to do with them. Being a trusting person I tried to negotiate an amicable agreement but the greedies kept lying to me!
Turns out when I checked T and C’s that they have actually being lying to me and I can release myself from the contract by giving 3 months notice. I have a recording of Bea Piazza telling me I’m tied in until my tenant leaves even after this was pointed out to her. She is a very greedy liar, lied constantly to me about the contract T’s and C’s and also about my client. This has caused an immense amount of stress and wasted a huge amount of time.
This is obviously company policy - you have been warned…

Paris was able to help me find the ideal flat in record time. He was very responsive and provided personalized service.

While there are pockets of excellent service and friendly staff at JDW, overall our tenancy management experience was “hands off” at best and irresponsibly poor at worst. We had multiple managing agents throughout our three year tenancy, but nobody bothered to inform us when our point of contact would change, I only found out when emails would bounce. The landlord even switched away from agent management and nobody bothered to tell me that either. When I’d call for tenancy queries our initial managing agents were helpful, but others almost made me feel as if I was inconveniencing them. This isn’t to take away from great letting agents and certain great staff, but overall experience and keeping tenants informed leaves a lot to be desired.

The John D Wood team in Herne Hill led by Sarah Dirilen did a brilliant job on my sale and I couldn't recommend them more highly. They achieved a really great result having found several suitable prospective buyers and multiple offers, and all quicker than I expected. The whole team were excellent - very responsive and available, professional and a pleasure to deal with throughout.

AGREE completely and would never, ever use again, I only wish I had read reviews before using. Customer Service is non existent and one star is still too many.

Do not use- worst experience ever. None of them know what they are doing or how to communicate with each other or me as the customer. Dreadful dreadful service , no service.

Toby Nalder at the Earl’s Court office was extremely helpful and professional, making sure I always was informed of any new property and handling any request swiftly.

This company make an appearance of disorganization, but could not possible stay in business, if they were, indeed, as disorganized as they appear. Having managed to fend me off for three days whilst I was house-hunting in France; I finally found that the gem of a house I had found - in Perpignan - was taken off the market; in order that it could be purchased by a relative of one of the partners/directors of John D Wood. Worse than inefficient and unprofessional ... very close to fraudulent! DO NOT TRUST THESE PEOPLE!

John D Wood Lettings and Property Management Richmond Branch, are extremely unprofessional and constantly lying. They fail to manage properties, and never accept any accountability for their constant service failure. Stay away!

Very unprofessional, extremely hard to get hold of when you want something done.

Denise at the Beckenham branch was fantastic at keeping me informed of progress throughout the sales period from initial offer to exchange and completion. She was very proactive in following up and assisting with the resolution of outstanding queries. Thanks Denise

Delighted with how the Chelsea office managed my sale, in particular Sema and Jamie. Calm, responsive, proactive and showed real belief in the project. Head and shoulders above their competitors.

If I could give zero I will!
Awful experience starting from when they gave me the keys and then literally disappeared!
Then the inventory was totally different from what I found in the house and when I contacted them they said contact the landlord we can’t do anything! Glad that the landlord was cooperative.

Now after leaving the house it took them 10 days to send me the inventory checkout and I called them everyday and they gave a different story every day!
Now I have been chasing the deposit for 1 month!

Literally awful experience, avoid at any cost.

If I could give 0 stars I would.

I've rented 10 years in London and I have honestly NEVER been treated so awfully or experienced such unprofessional conduct. I truly wish I'd read all these reviews before I accepted a property through them because how these people are even in business is beyond me. They are useless, lie on tap and speak down to you at every opportunity.

The onboarding process itself was bad enough - they (Alexandra, Emily and Samantha) were rude throughout, moved my move in date multiple times causing me to lose money and ignored any of my queries when I tried to get clarity on what was going on. But the second they wanted an answer - or for me to pay something - they would harass me relentlessly (including when I was at a funeral, which they were well aware of at the time).

The property, which for context was fairly new and modern, was then handed over to me uncleaned (i.e. black surfaces, gunk in the shower, tea stains all over the floor). In itself this was bad enough and a breach of contact on their side, but I then quickly learned the drains were completely blocked too. They left me for months unable to use my own shower as the tray was completely full by the time the water would even get warm, rendering it inaccessible (thankfully I had an alternative via the gym but no compensation or apology was given for months of no access). Throughout this, they would either ignore my emails or respond with stupid comments like 'oh I think we just need a new shower head' (?) every time I tried to chase.

I eventually had a (dodgy) plumber sent round who clearly made the problem worse as despite fixing the initial 'block', the shower began leaking shortly after. A different (and this time decent) plumber managed to fix it but told them they would need to carry out follow on work as it was soaking underneath the floors and they would need taking up to dry out properly. Of course they ignored this and within weeks the flat was COVERED in furry black mould spanning across the kitchen, bedroom and bathroom.

The smell was literally unbearable and they didn't bother actioning anything until I threatened to contact environmental health (not that they ever properly fixed it, just painted over it). I literally spent my own birthday sleeping freezing cold on the floor (so I could be next to the open window) just so that I could breathe outside air. I had to throw out so many of my clothes as they smelt so bad afterwards, and they had the audacity to send some btec handyman over after telling me they were sending specialist mould removal people. This guy literally wandered over to Tesco to buy some own brand mould removal spray and asked to use my cloths (which obviously then had to be binned) to try and clean it. Clearly that failed given the scale of the issue and after smearing it all over the place and ruining my cloths, he then helped himself to my hoover and stupidly tried to hoover up gunky chunks of mould causing more damage to my personal property.

There's a thousand other stories I could tell including them refusing to tell me where the meters for the property were so that I could take readings (on move in day they told me their inventory people had taken them and they would be sent to me - this turned out to be a lie), nor would they give me a key to my own letterbox for over THREE months. Turns out the meters were inside a locked cupboard that I needed a code for but despite finally getting access thanks to a neighbour, I still couldn't even set up my own electric bill as I needed the letters inside the postbox to do so.

I left as soon as the break clause kicked in because I was making myself ill with the stress of dealing with them. I also knew they were going to act up and try and scam me out of my security deposit when I left. The flat was given back to them in pristine condition, and a thousand times better than it was given to me in, so they had zero authority to try anything but I was one step ahead just in case. I also got in contact with the LL behind their back and let her know everything that was actually going on without her knowledge. Turns out she hated them too.

Quite literally the worst company I've ever encountered.

(Just want to add that Gina was the only person I encountered who was ever polite but sadly I didn't meet her until the point I was leaving!)