Braemore Sales & Lettings Reviews 

I am a long term landlord with Braemore. I had a vacancy and received excellent advice from Paul Davis re work required, market dynamics and best strategy to achieve re-let. All helpful, advice taken and re-let achieved. Just what you want. Fantastic. Thanks. Mark

Our experience with Braemore was somewhat different than most of the reviews here. From the start to the end we did not have any issues (can be accounted for the fact that the flat did not usually had any issues where we had to report maintenance or so as it came newly refurbished). The only issue we had was our CO alarm went off one day suddenly and after informing they were very quick to send the maintenance people to check (within few hours). We did used end of tenancy cleaners when we move out and got our full deposit back without any issue.

If I could give zero stars I would. This is the WORST agency I've dealt with in Edinburgh. They are totally unresponsive, they don't answer our emails or return our phone calls. Sadly we didn't got them by choice as our previous agency got bought over by Braemore. But we knew they were bad as we had friends and previous neighbours who rented with them and had really bad experiences with the lack of response and action from Braemore.We wait for months and months (and still waiting!) after reporting repairs that just don't get fixed. Maybe they have won awards for their services if you are a landlord, but as a tenant I urge you not to rent with this awful, awful agency.

Outrageously horrendous service and severe incompetency and lack of professionalism in handling urgent business with a long term tenant. I would not recommend Braemore to anyone. Appalled.

Terrible service from start to finish!!
I had been with the company for more than 10 years. Over the past 2 years was really let down!! Service was terrible and I had to move to another agent!
Please do not use this company!! You will be disappointed and let down!!

AVOID THIS COMPANY!!!!

In the last week, I've made enquiries about a flat three times. No reply, not even an acknowledgement, so I'll go elsewhere. Think I dodged a bullet there.

I rented my property through Braemore. Despite the tenancy ending in December I still haven't had my keys back or closed down my account, despite numerous attempts to do so. They are simply shocking. They frequently quote excessive costs for simple maintenance costs through their partners Lomond Property. They never push back on unreasonable requests eg rooms being too light. And repairs are shoddy to say the least. Ever six months or so they try to increase rent, without consulting with the landlord first. Never, ever, ever have any dealings with them. It is all about the money.

Dreadful company. Kicked me and my young son out of the house, saying the owner wanted to sell. It never had a for sale sign. The agent that did so, rented the property after. I saw her at the door when checking for post.

Only the second letting agency I’ve ever used but oh so bad. Hard to get the flat from them, then just frustrating while we lived there. You’ll have to push them for them to slightly lift a finger but then act like they’ve solved all your problems and given you two months free rent. Zero chance will I ever rent through Braemore again.

Braemore are the worst lettings agent I have ever had by a country mile.

Firstly they try to make you pay for references, which is an illegal practice. They routinely try to withold as much of your deposit as they can. I was only able to secure my deposit in its entirety because I kept time-stamped photos throughout my tenancy and has insurmountable proof that the flat was left in a far cleaner state than it was found in.

However, more specific to my case was their complete negligence regarding a leaky boiler. We emailed and called every week multiple times and for 3 months they did nothing. Until eventually (and unsurprisingly) the boiler broke and we were without hot water. For the next month we were visited by probably every boiler company in Scotland, whilst the landlady continuously decided that her saving a little on fixing a problem that would have cost a mere fraction had she decided to show any responsibility months prior, was more important than her tenants living in a habitable property.

After complaining for weeks that we had to boil 3 kettles to do the dishes and we were freezing, it was a drafty flat in the middle of winter, we were told by Braemore to not worry because we had an electric shower so that at least wasn't affected.

They only eventually got round to ensuring that the boiler was replaced because I cited legislation at them and threatened them with legal action. Our property manager then visited the flat to "make ammends" and to be on the same page, but all she did was point out all the ludicrous things that she expected us to do at the end of our tenancy, that would somehow entitle her to steal our deposits.

Throughout our time renting with Braemore we routinely were forced to threaten them with a law suit for them to actually take any action and whenever we had a problem, they just blamed the land lady and said they had no power to do anything about it.

Whilst I have certainly had other letting agents that have been incompetent Braemore is the only company whom are not only neglectful but malicious, whose business model is clearly set up to profit from exploiting their tenants whenever possible. And from the looks of how many negative reviews they have, the majority of their other former tenants share my feelings towards them.

STAY AWAY

My fiance and I are due to move into a Braemore let next week. From the start, the process has been effortless and I really praise Braemore's customer service in acknowledging customer needs and requirements from the get go.

We had two viewings of the property we decided to go for and both Christine and Paul were very patient and helpful at the viewings. We were even more surprised to see Braemore had services in to redecorate and tidy up the flat which definitely helped to seal the deal.

Since moving forward with the flat, Gill has been a delight to engage with. No question is too daft and the organisation and information that is provided when on-boarding as a tenant is fantastic. Our current agents seem to fall quite below the standard hence one of the reasons we felt it was time to move on.

Keen to see Braemore has their heads in the 21st century with a dedicated app to report issues too.

The reason why I gave 1 star because it is not possible to give 0.

My wife and I just relocated to the city when we rented a flat from this agency. Everything was so smooth in the beginning, they processed our application very quickly (as we also requested to speed up the process, since we ran out our period of staying at our temporary accommodation). It was so easy to reach them via phone and the communication was also nice.

Then came our move in date. The flat was so in terrible condition. The carpet flooring was dirty, it was smelly and humid, the heaters and toilet did not work. The vacuum cleaner was broken so we had no option to sleep in a flat with disastrous condition. We called the property manager and his boss, but both of them are a*hole. I think it is reasonable for us to be frustrated with the whole condition, but instead the guy talk back to us impolitely.

No one came to fix the toilet until 4 days later. We had to move back finding another temporary place to stay. We demanded them to clean the floor, but they argued the carpet was just old. We even called a professional cleaner, and they told us, the flat was not even vacuumed (no surprise). Finally, the property manager agreed to provide basic cleaning service, but we had enough, so we then gave them our 28 days notice immediately. As expected, they guy also cancelled the cleaning service even though we still had to live there for another month.

Couple days later the smoke alarm started chirping. We reported the issue through the website but received no response. We called the property manager again, no answer. Every time we called that guy it always go straight to his voice mail and he never returned the call. Once, I asked a basic question: where are the dumpsters, the so-called property manager replied: I don't know, you can ask your neighbors they should know.

Having said these, if you even think about renting a property from them, please think again. Avoid them at all cost, there are other agencies that have nice houses and flats with better customer handling.

Braemore "manages" one of our properties, not by choice because we used them once and would not recommend them. They acquired the agent that was managing our property and ever since heaven help me if I try and actually get anyone from Braemore....we were sent an email from our new "property manager"
Hello as you are aware Braemore Sales & Lettings have recently acquired XXXXXXXX and we have been working with XXXX, XXXX, in integrating the business into ours.

I am your designated Property Manager and I am literally here to help you with anything you need relating to your property 26/5 Leven Street (didn't even get the address correct in the email!) Please take a note of my email and direct dial (doesn't matter because they dont answer their phone or emails!) should you need to contact me directly.

I will also be introducing myself to your tenant XXXXXX (tenant hasn't been able to make contact either - I am basically managing things myself while paying Braemore) so that they know who to contact should they also require any assistance.

On a final note welcome on board and if I can be of any assistance then please do not hessite to speak to me.

Regards

Pauline

They have charged us for things not authorised,
I called our "property manager" number again today, got directed to someone else who's voicemail is leave me a message - sorry you cannot leave a message as the voicemail is full!"

So far I have had a positive experience. I recently did a zoom viewing with Paul and he was very professional. After a few technical difficulties we changed to WhatsApp and the viewing was very brief but overall successful. I have put down a deposit and that staff have all been very helpful, especially with working around my lunch breaks (as I was trying to organise all this during work hours). I’m looking forward to seeing the flat in person and I hope the agency continues to be as helpful and professional as they have been so far.

One Star is too good a review.

Myself and my husband have been trying to terminate our tenancy for the last week. We have sent numerous emails to every available address, called all of the landline and cellphone numbers we could find and still not received a single response. During our tenancy we had the same issues when our radiator broke and honestly i wish i had seen the warning signs sooner. Im not sure what sort of operation this is but it certainly in not functioning as a letting agency. perhaps its a front for laundering money because i cannot fathom how so many people can complain about the same thing and still the Braemore team is happy to operate as usual.

AVOID AT ALL COSTS

In a Braemore letting, had numerous problems getting them to repair or renew things. The latest one is boiler leaking badly and giving neighbours downstairs water all over their ceiling, been in touch about half a dozen times and keep saying someone will come out, still waiting since Wednesday, just going to put heater back on, because the don't give a toss

My partner and I moved into a flat with Braemore in October 2020, and we are moving out this week.

We were told before moving in that all appliances were working; when we moved in the boiler, oven, hob and washing machine all didn’t work. The whole flat was covered in black dirt and thick hairs. There was mould growing in the washing machine and we spent the whole of the first night trying to fix the boiler after we were told by our property manager to ‘follow a youtube tutorial’. They took two months to get us heating, hot water and working kitchen. During this time we had to use electric heaters and lived off microwave meals and ended up ill. After threatening legal action we were offered £70 ‘goodwill refund’ which doesn’t actually exist, and hasn’t been given three months later.

We made a complaint about our property manager in October and he faced no consequences for this. They never pick up the phone, reply to emails after three weeks only when you send multiple messages.

The worst part was we had to leave in December as we had a family emergency back in England. The night before, our smoke alarms stopped working and we called the emergency number on the website. The person who picked up claimed we called the wrong number and told us to try sticking a knife into them and if that didn’t work to turn the mains off til someone comes round. We were emailed whilst away and told they had been fixed, to come home to find smoke alarms on the table. They lied and still haven’t come to fix the issue so we are leaving as we feel unsafe.

I beg you to avoid Braemore at all costs.
Due to lack of affordable choice in Edinburgh, I unfortunately rented from braemore twice, and both experiences were awful. First property, upon receiving our keys and arriving at the flat for the first time, the place hadn’t been cleaned, with an old couch covered in dirty laundry blocking the hallway. The floors and surfaces were filthy with even cigarette butts on the ground, and all walls covered with blu tac. The toilet brush was covered with old faeces and the was an entire dead mouse under the fridge (not joking or exaggerating!!!) We called the office to have this dealt with, but unfortunately waited HOURS to have anyone come out and to have cleaners do a rough clean of the place. Staff were also rude and not understanding, one of who shouted at me on the phone because she was stressed dealing with a different issue. On top of the basic cleaning which should have been a minimum requirement before moving in - we discovered damp and mould on walls which were covered with posters when viewing the flat initially. One of the mattresses was also damp in various areas to the point where it wasn’t usable. This meant we refused to move into the property until at the very least some mould was treated and the mattress changed - this took over two weeks and of course we had no refund for the entire time we couldn’t move into the property but had already paid rent. Many issues were never resolved and the property was overall unpleasant - I’m furious to say that we paid £850/pcm for this.

Second property was less problematic as it was a new build, however still general issues such as fridge breaking down which took braemore 6 MONTHS to fix - yes, we spent 6 months keeping milk on the balcony as it was colder than the fridge. Again, braemore were not understanding and dodged calls regarding this. When we were moving out, braemore also tried to have us leave the property for a day in order to have someone come in and take photos of the place, in the middle of covid.

All above issues aren’t even the half of it, please avoid braemore at all cost.

As per many other reviews my personal experience of renting with Braemore has been nothing but hassle. Tenants are made to feel like an inconvenience and it's extremely difficult to get any issues sorted. I've been living in a property with a faulty boiler for over a month now, and nobody seems to care. STAY AWAY

Do not recommend to use this agency as a tenant. Takes them ages to respond to your questions, when they eventually do it's absolute minimum with unfriendly manner and lack of any goodwill. Charges for reference if they decide to give it to you at all, 100 departments you are thrown to waiting days for response from each of it. They organized viewings while my property was still occupied during COVID pandemic, didn't notify us about time of final inspection however in the vacating form they recommended tenants to attend it. Now for over4 weeks after vacating the property I'm waiting for my deposit to be returned.