Martin & Co Stirling Reviews 

people that work there are unbelievably rude, particularly the woman who is in charge of keys, we were accused of losing a back door key when we were only given 1 which was returned. Not to mention the house we moved into WASNT cleaned, and when we moved I had carpets cleaned and the whole house was scrubbed top to bottom with the help of 3 other people, yet they charged me because it wasn’t clean, which was a lie. I was also told I was allowed to paint which they denied when doing the move out checks, AND was going to be charged £350, to paint 1 room which after speaking with a couple of decorators that this should only cost £150 inc materials, once challenged they dropped it to £250. I saw the house was up for sale, and the whole house had been repainted, clearly just trying to scam out of money so they could take less money out their pockets.

A few years ago i was a self employed handyman who was used by Martin & Co in Stirling. I only worked for them for a few months. There were a few reasons I stopped doing work for them. First was, I was told to add 10 percent to my work invoices that their client would receive. I did not receive this 10pc it was deducted before I was paid. Therefore they were being paid each month to look after the properties but were also getting 10pc of any repairs carried out. My second gripe was i was told that my invoices would be paid monthly depending if i had them in by a certain date. Even though i did this i found i was lucky if i was paid before the sixth week. But what really finished me was when i was asked to purchase beds, bedding etc. I thought I`m a handyman trying to make a living not a furniture supplier. I said I would go and purchase the beds etc and pick them up if the monies were advanced but was told no, That ended it for me because i could have laid out lots of money doing this with no guarantee that Martin & Co`s client would reimburse me. My reason for writing this review is to make clients of this or other letting agents aware that they may be paying extra money to the agent through their use of tradesperson. Make sure when you sign with any agent you know exactly what your paying for.

We have a long list of grievances with this company, the Stirling branch.

First of all when we arrived with our moving van to sign the lease they told us they had forgotten to prepare the documents and we were to come back the next day. When we told them we had all of our furniture in a hired van and that we travelled hours to get there, they just said there was nothing they could do. They eventually told us to leave and come back in an hour and the documents would be prepared, but only after we complained for a long time. It turned out this could have been done right away.

When we had given our notice and they were conducting viewings they showed up with viewers without informing us, Additionally, on 3 occasions they arranged viewings and then did not show up for them, so that my partner had to show strangers around the flat. Finally, on one occasion they lied in detail about having discussed a viewing with me on the phone which simply didn't happen.

Our landlord was good and we often dealt with him directly rather than going through Martin & Co., so we managed to avoid more potentially disastrous situations.

Finally, when we moved in they advised us there was no inventory procedure and I told them I was not happy about this. They assured me that if I took pictures this would be fine. They have now said pictures will not suffice, and we are facing having charges being deducted from our deposit due to problems that existed before we moved in, and mould and dampness that persisted while we were there, despite us buying 2 dehumidifiers and making every effort to keep the mould at bay.

I don't see any way the tenant can protect themselves in this situation and we have fallen victim to this. Our case has now been referred to Safe Deposit Scotland.

Regarding your reply: We did not arrive early to sign the lease. Your team had simply forgotten and had nothing prepared, they admitted this to us at the time. Viewings were organised by your employee Rosie on numerous occasions at specific times and she failed to turn up; the prospective tenants told us this and Rosie admitted this to us. Additionally, there are at least 3 viewings that we were not in formed of. We have records of this on email. I am shocked that your reply makes these false assertions. We can also document the occasion that your employee Eilidh lied in detail about informing me of a viewing on the phone, as I have the phone records.

Regarding the inventory issue, your colleague told us that if we took pictures of any issues this would cover us, and now it turns out this is not the case.