Property Genius Reviews 65

Property genius manage a property we let, they have some good systems in place for reporting problems but sadly these are let down by poor management and a lack of knowledge of how to tackle problems.

We had a broken ventilation fan which took nearly two months to get fixed (identified on 27/1, new fan installed 17/3), we have had issues with three out of the four heaters in the apartment, two were fixed after 1 month, the third is still broken and doesn't adequately heat the room, this repair job has been closed with the landlord acknowledging it is faulty. This is illegal but property genius refuse to act.

Our shower has been intermittently faulty for a month, we've had no communication with property genius for nearly two weeks.

I even went through their internal complaints process, unfortunately the only person you can refer things to doesn't seem able to grasp the problems at hand and doesn't respond to points raised within a complaint.

If you do have a problem, speak to the local council Environmental Health teams, they are good and can force your landlord to act if nobody else bothers.

To respond to Graeme's comments below, you're publicly lying about the full history of the problems we've had. And it's fantastic that the landlord is going to refurb things after our tenancy ends, but we are still stuck with heating that isn't sufficient for the space, a shower which works part time (often fails in mornings and evenings, the times when people need to shower) and ventilation that barely works at all. Putting a smiley face on things doesn't fix the faults or change the dire service that has been provided.

Agent was immediately on the case, even in the late evening. Contractors came quickly, did a great job, and a plan of action was formulated. Good communication, and Graeme was great at keeping me calm and level-headed through what was doubtlessly a stressful experience.

Spoke to Graham on the phone and found him to be very rude, patronising and condesending. Sadly a very unpleasant experience. More professionalism would have been appropriate and it costs nothing to be nice.

Once again I’m having to write a terrible review due to no one offering a solution, landlord is CHARGING ME for the removal of there stuff! When I have sent proof in that a collection was made and no one turned up on there behalf, rang up the agency and obviously nothing was noted down so we put in the outhouse no one contacted us in regards to setting up a new collection date etc, now where moving out there charging us £100 for a new £30 door! £255 for removal charges of 9/10 of it was there stuff I offered to pay £100 for the things I left behind due to it being accidental but had limited time and space to move out! Landlord and the agency has left me exhausted from the situation and no one has ever been on my side from the off set! People have been rude to my mother who has tried to help me due to the stress behind this! If you want someone in your corner then I would look somewhere else at a different estate agents or go bloody private because they cause nothing but stress!! We are now over 3 months of not living there and they have only just brought the deposit amount of being deducted and now having to go through tenancy deposit scheme to try and get this resolved which can take months and I offered like said to pay £100 (not a 100 worth of stuff) but thought I would be generous even though I shouldn’t have to be! They are really going to put me in a early grave!

Rang up to enquire about a property for let, asked if the landlord has stipulated whether pets were allowed in this property to be told there wasn’t any information on this, when asked if there was any way to communicate with the landlord to find out whether pets were allowed or not I was told that if a landlord does not state their stance on pets in the property they are to assume it is a no, when i informed them that the property i am living in at the moment didn’t stipulate whether pets could live in the property or not (resulted in the landlord agreeing to a pet), i was told to please hold whilst she asked the property manager, who in less time than it took for me to take my phone from my ear to check the time, had informed the agent i was speaking to it was in-fact no pets allowed, i then questioned how this was discussed in less than 3-4 seconds, and why the property manager would have different information to the agent who would be holding the property viewings and receiving enquiries about the property, to be told that the reason the property manager has this information and the agent i was speaking to did not was due to the fact that they are the property manager (I would’ve assumed the property manager would want to communicate all information on a property to let to the agents who will be holding the viewings but i guess not, and I should also assume the property manager passed on this information telepathically due to the record breaking speed they communicated) Most letting agents require this information from landlords prior to putting a house up for let, so for one agent to tell me that the landlord never said yes or no to pets, and for another agent to have informed them that they infact listed it as no pets seems semi-unprofessional, and may be the reason this letting agent seems to have a mixed set of reviews in its communication and experience from current tenants, looks like I may have had a lucky break.

Absolutely shambles! We were given 2 months notice to leave even though they new about the landlord selling the house way before Christmas so they could of give us months and months worth of notice as they knew we have children! Made the experience even worse by constantly calling me everyday and emailing me in between, harassing me at all costs and now blaming me that the keys arnt in their hands when I offered them to come and collect them but THEY said put them in the post! Yet I maybe charged! Towards the last year of the tenancy they did no work to the property and we had a leak coming into the kitchen that they pretended to ignore, a door kept coming off and got someone in that didn’t have a clue what they were doing! I told them I had a pre booked holiday and a hospital visit yet they still rang which was inappropriate and certainly unprofessional! If I could give them no stars I would!

Fantastic service again from PropGen - The staff are on the ball, the paperwork is sharp - the best letting department I have seen. Try them!!! James P

I have been using Property Genius for many years to manage me rental property and only have good things to say about Graeme and Niels. As a I am a remote owner they have gone above and beyond to ensure my property and my tenants are well looked after.
When I came to sell the property recently, they were professional, knowledgeable, supportive and clear in their dealings with myself and my solicitor.
I wouldn't hesitate to recommend them.

Property Genius have managed our tenanted property and we found them to be very professional, approachable and responsive. We chose to use them to sell the property recently and they found a buyer very quickly. We are very impressed with the staff at Property Genius and we would highly recommend them for lettings and sales.

Property Genius have been looking after my properties for over two years. They always provide a first class service. I wouldn’t trust anyone else. Highly recommended! *****

Judging by the reviews on here they seem like a bunch of cowboys. A lucky escape if you avoid these people. Even their replies are full of sarcasm and arrogance. I will come back for my £161 from you personally Vicki.

This agency is a disgrace we have been left for over a year with damp issuss at a flat we rent on urmston lane still waiting for this to be sorted bed room had bad damp and so dose the living room we have a 5month old baby living in a damp property and the ageny do not care at all but they are happy to take the rent money every month without fail we have now been left 4 days with no heating and hot water after the boiler broke we are still waitng for heating and hot water we have a 5month old baby and are in winter with all the stormes we habe just been having aswell disgracful we cant wait for our crontract to end in a years time so we can get the hell out of this place and this agency

This company should be fined under the trade description act, as Genius's they certainly are not !! Terrible customer service, terrible attitude to customers, late replying to emails, very unprofessional, will never use them again........avoid like the plague !!

Edited 19/06/2021 - Graham from Property Genius contacted me yesterday to discuss my review in detail. He explained that the choice to pursue the full charge wasn't his or Property Genius but it was driven by the owner. I explained that while this may be true, as I don't deal with the landlord my point of contact is his company and the experience still wasn't great. Graham took this on board and said he would look to consider how they could better communicate with tenants at the end of the tenancy to ensure both parties know where the request for the charge is coming from.

We also discussed how I found any attempt to discuss additional quotes for the cleaning being completely dismissed. Graham apologises for this and asked why I hadn't escalated the issue to him earlier, which is a fair point, if I'm honest I didn't really understand the hierarchy within Property Genius and Vicki had been a key point of contact since we rented the property so I assumed I was speaking to the top brass. In hindsight potentially could have avoided heartache had I had this escalated to Graham earlier, but it's not like I sent 1 e-mail and gave up, did ask several times if we could come to a reasonable solution and got nowhere.

As described below - the actual tenancy period was fine for 6.5 years, it was simply the moving out process that left an extremely bitter taste. I can't change my rating to give some 5/5 rating due to having quite such a poor exit experience. But in hindsight 1/5 was harsh, especially since I do feel Graham did sound genuine that he'd look into this to improve the tenancy service, specifically the move out process.

Original comment unedited below:-

Following a 6.5-year tenancy Property Genius attempted to apply charges of £480 for professional carpet cleaning and general cleaning.

To set the scene, when we moved into the property they informed us that the carpets were on their last legs and needed to be replaced, which we were fine with not overly picky on how they appeared. Six and a half years later, they were basically down to the thread and needed to be replaced.

During the tenancy, the first-floor toilet leaked and the carpet was destroyed, their plumber said he'd put in a report to get the carpet replaced, and we asked at each inspection if this could be done, was never changed in 5 years. Again I'm not massively picky so just let it go without moaning too much.

We did put in a good shift cleaning the property, it wasn't spotless by any stretch but it was certainly passable and the kitchen especially was cleaner than when we moved in. When we moved in the previous tenant had left a rotting fish down the back of the freezer which hadn't been noticed so you can imagine the smell, but we didn't make a fuss about it, these things happen.

After being what I'd consider pretty good tenants for six years and a half years, upon exit, I expected to be treated fairly but Property Genius had other plans. They hit us with a £480 claim against our deposit for the professional carpet cleaning (of the ruined carpets) and general cleaning of the property (some dust).

I raised my objection to the value with Vicki and suggested we meet halfway at a more realistic amount, but greed seemed to be their only motivation and they refused. I assume they are used to bullying tenants and just stealing their deposits.

Unwilling to let this go, I raised the issue with the Tenancy Deposit Scheme who in turn offered Property Genius another chance to come to a resolution, but they were unwilling to be reasonable. The case when to arbitration who found the £480 charge to be unjust, and set the figure at only £130, which is less than I originally offered to settle at.

While I wouldn't say Property Genius were a great tenancy agency, I certainly wouldn't have said they were awful either until this experience. The dismissive arrogant tone that they held with me when I tried to resolve their unjust charge claim directly made the experience extremely unpleasant. The final contact with a company generally shows their true colours, and Property Genius showed they only care about trying to get as much money off you as they can.

I would recommend avoiding rental tenancies with Property Genius, unless you are willing to accept you will need to fight for your deposit back at the end and don't expect to be treated civilly.

My review basically reiterates what a number of other renters who've been unfortunate to deal with this agency have said. Very slow to respond if there's a problem with the property you rent from them but as soon as they want something from you, you'll be hounded! The manager Graham, is very patronising and condescending and has been from day one; I suspect that the mere tenants get this kind of treatment and the arrogant landlords are treated like royalty! Money talks hey! They have no problem in representing rogue landlords who have their hand out for the rent, living off the back of other people's hard work yet when there's a problem with the property they'll do anything to avoid putting their hands in their pockets. They need to remember that it's their responsibility and not the tenants, to pay for repairs etc and if they don't like it, they shouldn't be landlords. Decent landlords don't rent out properties in the state this one was in and when we dared to ask them to replace anything we were met with sarcastic responses. To be fair, most of the blame falls on the rogue landlord in this particular situation, but the above comments I've made, which echo what a lot of other previous tenants of this agency have said, are justified.

Every time we had an issue it would take weeks for agency to contact us back, and sometimes months even for somebody to actually come and fix issues. They usually message when they need something from the tenants but not when tenants need them. We reported a problem and even called them about it and they didn't reply for a few days but messaged when they had to inform about the changes in the deposit scheme, and then not reply about the issue again. We have been dealing with this for the past year and a half and I feel this agency is one of the least reliable ones that don't quite care about the tenants. Hopefully we just got a bad branch 🤷🏽‍♀️

Very easy and pleasant experience from start to finish. Staff have always been polite courteous and attentive. Graham is always responsive and prompt to respond which is rare in my experiment in the renting game. Helpful from day one to the return of my deposit. I would highly recommend property genius to anyone. Keep up the good work!

Lived in a property first managed by south Manchester flats and then rebranded/taken over by property genius. I had no problem with the landlord who lived next door but the process of moving out was very poor. Emails that didn’t make sense and dealing with Graeme who I believe is the owner was not a great experience. He was incredibly rude and patronising. I got my deposit back in full but I wouldn’t recommend as the service is pretty poor. I’ll take proper customer service over a flashy website any day thanks.

My visit was quickly scheduled. The agent was very attentive and answered all my questions. I received clear instructions by email to make the application. I felt very welcomed and well attended. I recommend!