Stirling Ackroyd Estate Agents - Shoreditch Reviews 

Sarah Jones has been extremely helpful, professional and pleasant to deal with.
She makes herself available to answer and return calls, and has even helped when dealing with other departments.

If I could give zero stars, I would.

Our experience as tenants with Stirling Ackroyd (Shoreditch branch) was extremely disappointing from the day we moved in until long after we moved out.

The property was handed over in an unacceptable
condition. We arrived to find dirty plates and kitchen utensils covered in grime, mouldy curtains that we had been assured would be removed before move-in, and rubbish left behind by previous tenants. Despite being told these issues would be dealt with before our arrival, the rubbish remained for weeks. All of these issues were documented in the inventory.

Within the first month of our tenancy, the washing machine broke and the kitchen sink became severely blocked. The sink issue was described as urgent by the plumber who contacted us, yet when we followed up with the Shoreditch branch we were told there was no guarantee that an engineer would attend and that nobody had informed them one was required. The result was weeks of inconvenience and a clear lack of coordination between departments. This meant that we had no way to clean our dishes.

Communication throughout the tenancy was consistently poor. Emails often took a week or more to receive a response, phone calls frequently went unanswered, and issues that should have been straightforward to resolve dragged on unnecessarily.

The most concerning problems arose after we moved out.

We were charged over £100 for the removal of items that we had discussed with a member of Stirling Ackroyd staff during a viewing. We were left with the clear impression that leaving these items would be acceptable. When we later requested evidence supporting the charge, no invoice was provided for more than two months. When an invoice finally arrived, it was dated after the charge had already been communicated to us and showed a different cost. Despite repeated requests, we never received a satisfactory explanation for the discrepancy.

We were also charged nearly £200 for cleaning, despite Stirling Ackroyd's own post-tenancy inspection reportedly identifying only minor issues such as "light dust". This was particularly surprising given the condition in which the property had been handed over to us at the start of the tenancy, which included mouldy furnishings, dirty kitchen items and rubbish left behind by previous occupants.

We accepted responsibility for genuine tenant-related issues during the tenancy and at check-out. However, many of the charges we were presented with, together with the lack of transparency surrounding them, left us with serious concerns about the way our tenancy was managed.

Based on our experience, I would strongly advise prospective tenants to think carefully before renting through this branch.