John Shepherd Estate Agents - Birmingham Reviews 178

One of the worst experiences I had with this agency. I rented a house from them and verbally agreed and emailed confirming my extension of my stay. But suddenly the agent left the agency and the landlord changed his mind and evicted us by using no fault eviction. Not only that, they rented the place for less than what we were paying. It's a scam to get your deposit money. They charged us £1700 for property damage but the court ruled in our favor and we got our deposit back. Be careful.

A shoutout to John Blythe (Renewals Clerk) for being prompt, professional and cordial

Centrick used to manage my property, and I never had any issues with them for 7 years. Once John Shepherd Birmingham Branch took over my property, the experience was very different. So, if you are looking around for a letting agent, please refer to all the one-star ratings on Trustpilot. There must be a reason why landlords/tenants are so upset with John Shepherd. If John Shepherd is your current letting agent, I will advise landlords to be more hands-on, even though you are paying a full management service fee for John Shepherd to manage your property. As I used to be very hands-off when Centrick managed my property, I had a very costly lesson when my property was managed by John Shepherd. To be fair, their senior management staff (Chris, Stuart, Julie, Jack) are all very responsive and professional. They gave me their full support during the formal complaint process. I was just very unfortunate to bump into a very absent-minded property manager. Just to name a few - he forgot to deduct the final month's utilities from my last tenant's deposit; forgot to inform Ginger Energy of a new tenancy, and all expenses were charged to me; forgot to sign on a Section 21 notice and when my eviction consultant would like to submit court papers to apply for a possession order, the unsigned Section 21 notice was invalid and the whole process had to re-start again; forgot to inform the Birmingham City Council of a new tenancy and I received a huge bill for council tax. As a landlord who is paying a full management service fee, I don't expect that I have to check the work done by my property manager. Those are just their "bread and butter". Right? I can't imagine so many things can go wrong. So, if you are looking for a letting and management agent, please read all the 1-star ratings on Trustpilot. I think comments on Trustpilot are very reliable. When I was very desperate to look for an eviction company last year to evict my tenant, I read comments on Trustpilot and found a very good eviction company with all 5-star ratings.

Mel has been absolutely awesome, super helpful and responsive with anything regarding maintenance etc

Looking back over the years, I am saddened to think how long we left our apartment in the hands of John Shepherd. With one or two exceptions I will not name for fear of embarrassing them, the people we dealt with were slapdash and unreliable, costing us money and creating unnecessary levels of stress. Worst of all, despite promises to "investigate and get back to you," our attempts to pursue complaints up the management chain led only to our subsequent messages being ignored. My advice would be to stay away from this company.

They manage my UK property. Very professional (do not turn circle). I am from Asia.

Just visited Colmore Row office and wanted to say that my dealings with Megan have been amazing. Very professional, very well informed and goes way beyond what she needs to. Would highly recommend.

Gemma has been very helpful and professional! She made the renting process so much easier. Thank you Gemma!

I had a viewing with Millie. She was so helpful and kind, explaining everything very well, and following up with all details I asked her. Eventhough the landlord didn’t proceed with my application, but I am completely happy with Millie’s help and support.
Thank you dear Millie🌸🌸🌸🌸🌸

What a professional firm John Sheppard is Sam Elisha and Melissa at Birmingham city centre office we’re all fantastic explained everything clearly to me and what can sometimes be a stressful time moving they made it all smooth and enjoyable would definitely recommend John shepherd in the future thanks guys

I would strongly advise against using these as a letting agent. I cant speak for their sales side but the lettings side is a massive let down and ive found them completely unprofessional! I'm actually astonished they even asked me to do a review because it was never going to be a good one and even more so now that my dad has just signed up to a rented property with them unknown to them that we are related and he's having more issues than I did! I was being pushed to hurry and sign my contract but I told them I wanted to read through it all which took time as its a massive (unnecessarily) contract...when I pointed out a few clauses I wanted to query I was then told I'd been given the wrong contract!!!! So it's a good job I do read stuff, sadly not everyone does so I wonder how many poor unfortunate people were pushed to sign and did and have maybe signed up to something they are not aware of! I had to chase for a response from the person I was dealing with for him then to reply after 2 days telling me he was off sick (and? That isn't my problem, someone should sort his emails in his absence, what kind of unprofessional reply is that). They lie and cover how they lie, their contracts are an absolute joke and it's completely changed to previous. The lady who I dealt with before this company took over the existing one used to be really good but once the John Shepherd company took over she was moved on which is very sad as she was always the best one. Not sure if the John Shepherd company have tied her hands but either way it's very sad to have gone the way it has! I can't wait to save enough to be able to move eventually because them and the landlords are just beyond greedy and the letting agents are all for the landlords and don't give an absolute ounce of care or help towards the tenants! Any communal areas they blame on the residents, why should we all be tarred with the same brush, I've given specifics of where issues lie but they are not interested! As long as they get their money from the landlords they clearly do not give a crap at all! They have no compassion, no care and are not interested, as long as your paying that's all they care about! STAY CLEAR AWAY and use a different letting agent or you will definitely find out the hardway, trust me!! Proves they like to hide because I can't even chose the right branch to review against!! This is against the Birmingham branch (the guy I was getting emails from about my renewal contract). (**Just adding to this, dont believe that they sort their problems either by messaging people back on their bad reviews because you email them as they ask, see their reply to my review and they dont even bother to reply!!!**)

Fantastic experience dealing with John Shepherd. In particular, with Harry Moore and the team, who are always on hand to help with a wealth of knowledge and experience.

Gemma helped me with the whole process and got everything ready in less than a week. Can’t express how happy I am with her work!

Worst letting agent ever, utterly unprofessional, avoid at all cost!

They have kept my deposit for more than one month and still no sign of returning it at all. I hired a cleaner to clean the property professionally, and they agreed that if they are not satisfied with the cleaning they can reach out to the cleaner for extra cleaning. However, they refused to do so in the end and they tried to reduce my deposit for this. Obviously I would not accept this and they stopped communication. I can only conclude that they just want to get some extra money from the deposit, utterly disgusting letting agency.

The living room sofa was broken when I moved in, which I reported later to the property manager. After over half a year of chasing, I'm still stuck with the same damaged furniture!

Every follow-up gets the same generic responses: waiting for landlord confirmation - yet nothing ever materialises. This is completely unacceptable for a professional letting agency.

Avoid.

From ther very first viewing right up until completion Turkay Hasan was very helpful and answered all questions.

Thank you very much

Good morning ,

I currently rent one of your properties and I just wanted to share my gratitude to Faye Nichols your Repairs Co‑Ordinator, for going above and beyond this morning for helping me with an issue with my property I had mentioned it to her which she said to leave it with her and she got straight on it and followed it up with a phone call to let me know what was going on. Very greateful for your kindness and support - thank you so much for your help Faye!!

After an awful experience with another company, I am so glad we found John Shepherd. Moving can be a stressful time but our agent Turkay was the most helpful go-between us and our buyer. He was extremely professional, calm and good for the nerves! Thank you Turkay and John Shepherd. We are really grateful.

Our experience with this branch has been disappointing. While they do eventually address issues, the response time is extremely slow. Recently, we ended our tenancy, and despite over a month passing, we still haven’t received our deposit. We’ve repeatedly emailed and called, but the responses are vague, and the management seems to change frequently. The lack of proper communication and accountability makes the service frustrating and unprofessional.