Romans - Camberley Reviews 23

I have no complaints at all with the service I have received from our Tenancy Manager Kaitlyn Young and the team at the Camberly Office.
I have been kept informed at all times and in a very professional manor.

6 very unfortunate years dealing with this joke (wish it was funny).
Diabolical letting agency to deal with avoid at all costs. On their shiny outside they seem caring, efficient and honest. behind the scenes they ignore, forget and plead ignorance and when called out they hide behind their terms and conditions and don’t really want to do their job, just promise the earth to the next unsuspecting sucker. I will never be renting a property through this poor excuse for a company ever again, and if I could give zero stars, I would
The only time they actually do their job is when the annual smoke alarm and carbon monoxide testing is required and they all run around like headless chickens this is only because they are responsible for something and accountable. If you have a problem they push you into the fixflow app which once they sent a solitary email off, they are convinced of their responsibility has been adhered to. There’s no effort to call back, follow up or even give a shit. Everything about them is repugnant deplorable and unacceptable and they are bordering on breaking the law at every turn.
They outsource all the difficult parts of their business model so they don’t have to deal with it in their shining buildings. They are the epitome of over promise and under deliver.
Whatever you do if you decide to rent through these cowboys, NEVER use their zero deposit scheme. You pay around £70 month more to have no relevance or security towards any costs incurred that they feel like imposing on you. It’s very similar to prepayment meters for utilities and only sold to help but actually raise the overall rent to those who haven’t got adequate collateral. I was encouraged to opt for this at inception
In my experience go through a much smaller letting agent that may care about your concerns, desires and health and safety fears.
edit After writing this i called the helpline and got put through to Leaders (parent company). They couldn’t have been more helpful and after looking into my case, highlighted Romans complete inadequacies and simply showed due diligence. It did feel nicely strange to be validated.

Since my review below, Samm Hooker from Romans has been in touch and he’s been very professional, helpful, and easy to deal with. I really appreciate the way he handled things, and I think he’s a great example of how Romans or any estate agent should be represented.

Original post
I had a very disappointing experience with Romans estate agents. Their lack of professionalism and basic customer care is astonishing. I had arranged an appointment for a probate sale viewing, only to find out after leaving work early and turning up that they had cancelled it without properly informing me.

Instead of calling (despite having given the correct number to someone named “Alphy”, who was quite patronising on the phone), they chose to send an email to my personal account, the laziest and most inconsiderate way to communicate something time-sensitive. I work full time and don’t have the luxury of checking personal emails during the day, so a simple phone call would have saved me significant time and inconvenience.

Their excuse was that they “couldn’t get hold of the sellers,” despite the property being clearly empty. This either shows incompetence or a complete disregard for their clients’ time. To top it off, it seems that my contact details were either ignored or never properly updated.

This experience showed me that Romans has very poor customer service, little regard for clients, and certainly don’t act with customers’ best interests at heart. I would never use Romans to buy or sell a property.

Think twice before using Romans Estate Agents.

Excellent service - listening, responsive and helpful throughout. Once an offer was accepted, and especially in the delicate closing stages before exchange of contracts, Alison who managed contacts between the various parties was brilliant.

So poor. The inability to communicate and keep myself as a tenant updated is well below the standard expected. Emails not being responded to and appointments (multiple) canceled with hours to go with no explanation or apology is simply awful. As a previous landlord and now some experience as a tenant I won’t be recommending or returning to ROMANS. I hope for the sake of the company that it’s just the Camberley branch which is so poor. Customer experience is everything and sometimes a little apology goes a long way.

They're objectively the worst estate agents we ever had while we rented. If you consider renting a property from them (and I can't blame you, since it is important to find a property you like), read below to make sure you're not caught off guard.

1) Beware of the contract. Ours assigned a compulsory +5% increase Year on Year on the rent, with no room to negotiate. So take the time to calculate how much that represents in terms of rent in 3-4 years. For us, it added about £200/month over the course of 3 years.

2) Beware of the tenancy notice clause! Our contract requested 2 months notice TO END ON THE DAY RENT IS DUE! That means, if rent is due on the 5th of January and you give notice on the 6th of January, then your notice will end on the 5th of April, which would basically be 3 months notice, not 2! I let you imagine the headache in terms of aligning dates if you are moving elsewhere...

3) Checking In: Make sure you take lots of date-stamped pictures (we did) and also videos. It will come in handy at the end of the tenancy. Read on.

4) In the first year, they'd warn us of an upcoming property check almost every 2 months. I checked in the contract: there is no mention of what is a reasonable amount of property checks. To add insult to injury, they'd say they'd come at some time between 9AM and 4PM (nice and vague, not helpful). 3 times, they didn't turn up. 3 times! When I got in touch to ask them to stop booking property checks, or to actually turn up, and to at least apologise for not turning up, they simply replied "yes we will be there next time". They eased off the property checks, but never apologised for wasting our time, waiting at home for them to turn up. Again, this happened 3 times.

5) Checking out. We checked the contract. Nowhere did it mention that it should be professionally cleaned, so we spent several days cleaning the house to a point where it was cleaner than when we moved in. Yet, because we did the cleaning ourselves they didn't bother checking the state of the house and tried to charge us nearly £500 for deep cleaning. £500!! A good cleaner charges £12/hour. Did someone really spend 40 hours cleaning a house that had already been cleaned?

The irony of it is that the cleaning company they used states: "As a minimum, you need to
return the property as you found it (with some allowance for fair wear and tear). If the property
was not cleaned to a professional standard when you moved in, you will generally not be
obligated to professionally clean the property when you move out. Landlords cannot insist that
you return the property in a better state compared to when you moved in." Needless to say we disputed this charge and won our case. I bet the landlords weren't pleased to be £500 out of pocket thanks to Romans!

I hope this review will help you avoid these nasty pitfalls, if you rent with them. In the 3 years we rented with them, we must have had nearly 10 property managers. Make of that what you will...

Abi (@ camberely) should not be dealing with customers
Customer service from her end is not good at all !
Contacts me with only 2 days to go for tenancy asking for extra paperwork ! Could have been done way before this
Filled in all paperwork by the allotted time I was given to get keys for the next day - no response at all ! I’ve had to email back and forth - found the information has been submitted but no response from her from 2pm ……. Tenancy was booked for the 1st - that’s now been missed !
Now it’s costing me more money as I have to pay to stay in hotels as she didn’t pull her finger out and get the correct paperwork in place

Every one else I have dealt with to do with the property has been polite and informative - just the paper work side not at all !
Not impressed as now I have to spend more money out of my own pocket on hotels !

It was a long haul with everyone doing their bit to ensure that we finally sold the property. Lots of ups and downs but we always felt the team were there to support us .

Romans are great. I bought, let and am now selling through them and I’ve never been disappointed. Great, friendly and knowledgeable team. Special shout out to Alfie for all his help.

My experience of Romans has been nothing but professional. The respect and courtesy afforded me was second to none. Mike and Luke went above and beyond. Their communication was succinct and they did not play games. They really have the balance right of acting for the vendor but also working with the purchaser to find acceptable middle ground.
I have nothing but praise for Romans, its a pity that other estate agents are not as supportive and transparent.

PLEASE BE CAREFUL if you are a tenant looking to rent with them.
From the beginning they were underhanded and sneaky, trying to push you to buy insurance and force you onto their no deposit scheme and they make you feel like you have no choice and will lose out if you don’t agree.
It’s shameful really and what they’re doing is ILLEGAL agencies are NOT allowed to pressure or force you onto any schemes or pay any extra fees. But of course they EARN COMMISSION from selling you insurance and the fees from the no deposit option go to them NOT the landlords. PLEASE do research on these schemes especially if you’re being pressured into one as unless you really can’t afford a standard deposit it’s a big SCAM and a literal waste of money.
It’s shocking really that even senior staff including Charlotte the lettings manager will ACTIVELY LIE and pressure you as well. These guys don’t care about tenants only about fleecing you for as much money as possible.
Someone should investigate them because these guys are clearly void of morals and desperate for a bit of extra cash and will apparently bend the law to get it.

Romans Camberley - terrible

Arranged 4 viewings for Saturday morning (I live 60 miles away from the properties and communicated this when arranging). Speak to Romans Friday morning to confirm. Travel 60 miles Saturday morning to attend the viewings. Get a call 30 mins before to inform you that 3/4 properties are no longer available and 1 cannot be viewed due to unforeseen circumstances.

Less offended by the 1 unforeseen (ill tenant, these things happen) more about the 3 other properties that mysteriously were no longer available within 24 hours - Romans could have told me this at any point on Friday. Avoid them if possible. I will steer clear of any property marketed by them. Judging by some of the other reviews on here, seems like a near miss.

Kim Shanks has been a brilliant property manager! Has kept me updated, checked in regularly and her overall manner is warm and friendly. Kim has also been empathetic to the issues I have had with property and eager to get them resolved asap.

Shevaughn was so helpful and sweet and friendly through my entire process of getting my new home. It was a pleasure working with her

The selling of the service is excellent; once that process has been completed, the communication is sometimes poor, always by email and automated. I pay for a service, but I'm still required to carry out all the work eg assess inventory report pre and post tenant. I would expect them to inform me of the issues, recommendations etc and then let me decide whether I need to address, accept, decline etc. I dont apportion any blame to the inexperienced people I deal with, but its clear the support mechanism or training is not in place to assist these individuals development.

Really good communication. Was concerned we weren’t informed the sellers had an onward chain however once we spoke to Romans they were quick to react and resolved for us within a matter of hours. Very pleased with service received

Excellent service. Super speedy. Very polite, knowledgeable and helpful. Very pleasant to deal with. Thanks Matt.

Barnaby Coles our sales agent has been fantastic throughout, a great support and an excellent communicator. Whilst being super accommodating and helpful, he has been a delight to have as a sales agent.

Alison Savva, has been our shining light on the dark frustrating days with our solicitor. She has taken so much time out of her already busy schedule to help us push the exchange and completion through, provide advice on how to deal with the process as first time buyers. She has constantly gone above and beyond and believe we would not be in this position now if she had not been our move manager. Absolutely exemplary service that I cannot fault.