Dowen Surveyors & Estate Agents Reviews 

I just wanted to commend one of your agents, Lynne Cumiskey. I met with her this morning to view 2 rental properties. Every contact up until this point was via phone and email and all of those showed Lynne to be very knowledgeable in her field of expertise. She set out exactly what she was going to do and completed everything in impeccable time.
The viewing this morning was no different. Lynne has such a wonderful attitude to her work and her/your customers and has easily been the best agent I have dealt with over the last month or so whilst I have been looking for property. There was no awkwardness, as I have found with majority of company representatives recently, and she answered all of my queries questions without hesitation.
She incorporates her sense of humour into her work in the most appropriate ways possible and this is heart warming and very endearing and certainly put me at ease after the debacles over the last few weeks of property searching!
Overall I think Lynne did a fantastic job for me and I have now started the process of renting as a result, no hard sell, no pressure, just a very nice and personable lady who clearly knows and understands the property market.

An absolute asset!

👏🏼

I’ve been renting off Dowen estate agents for 3 years , never had a problem, if you have a repair of any kind , they get in touch with whoever and with in a few hours , the problem is sorted . I can’t thank Caroline Ryan and her staff enough, for all the hard work they put in to keep us tenants happy . Once again thank you David Y

Really poor experience with Dowen, absolutely would not recommend.

Rang to arrange a viewing of a property, and advised two separate members of staff my partner has an IVA and enquired if this would be a problem as we have a guarantor who is a home owner with great credit. Advised on both occasions with a guarantor we should be fine.

Booked a day off work using my holidays to view the property, to be then advised upon application that we have been rejected because my partner has CCJ's. This is not even true, my partner does not have a single CCJ but Liz from the Peterlee felt it was appropriate to speak down to him - I was unaware having a CCJ made you a second grade citizen? Her lack of empathy, and snappy unhelpful tone was appalling.
After trying to explain several times to Liz and her continuing to speak to my partner like he was a dog that had just done it’s business on the carpet, she finally accepted he does not have a CCJ, but we would need a guarantor AND six months rent up front anyway.

I then rang myself to enquire if this was correct. I was transferred through to Liz who greeted me with an immediately confrontational tone and did not even give me an opportunity to speak. When I questioned why we were not told this two days ago when we had asked so we could have avoided wasting ours and Dowens time, she responded with an appalling attitude "well I wasnt here two days ago was I". I have to agree with her - it was a shame she wasn’t there two days ago, as if I had interacted with Liz and sensed her hostile tone from the beginning it would have been enough to put me off pursuing any kind of rental property with Dowen.

Attitude aside - at what point does data protection come into play. Liz was happy to discuss my partners circumstances without his permission? I didn’t realise it was appropriate to discuss his circumstances with any Tom, Dick or Harry who called…

I think Dowen need to get there policies in order, and Liz needs to go on a customer service course.

Paying six months rent in advance is not a problem, we expected something like this may happen due to my partners credit history and saved to prepare. However after being given incorrect information from the off, and experiencing the appalling attitude from the staff member who obviously thinks she is cut above anyone who has ever faced financial difficulty in there past, I would be reluctant to hand over a single penny to this company.

Dowen acted for the seller of the home we have purchased in Durham. Sarah was most helpful, kept us informed and helped manage the whole process - which is never easy and, towards the end, was pretty frantic. Very grateful.

I have just collect my first buy to let property key from Dowen this morning. Dawn Ferguson spent more than one hour to help me out for all information what I need. She is absolutely brilliant and friendly to supply exceptional services. I am very appreciate for her help. This is my first but not last BTL property, I am quite confident it will goes well with all staff of Dowen. At the same time I will give a big thanks to Kelly who brought me for the first viewing. She is quite frankly for all information what I was concerned, this helps me to make decision to purchase this property. Highly recommend. - Feng Li