Monday, 28 February 2011

Beware the demon letting agents / Estate Agents

Manchester has loads of reasonably priced student accommodation and increasingly a glut of top-end flats and pads for the more affluent academic. In this section we focus on South Manchester, simply because that's where the majority of students choose to reside.This website for example has a complaint against one of them: philip james rentals.co.uk

Manchester Student Homes (MSH) is the Universities’ only official source of student accommodation in the private sector. Click here to visit our site
The Manchester Student Homes Code of Standards is a voluntary accreditation scheme for landlords and managing agents of student properties.Landlords who commit to the Code of Standards benefit from preferential advertising on our website and in our office.
Registering with MSH means much more than buying advertising space. When you register your properties, you are entering into an agreement to provide quality housing and follow good management practices. As a registered landlord you will be part of the MSH community, with the opportunity to participate in housing forums and keep abreast of government policy and developments relating to the private rented sector, as well as receiving impartial information and advice on all aspects of renting property to students.

Thursday, 24 February 2011

Are "anonymous" really Philip James staff ?

Hahaha her......hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahhahahahahaha! You sound like you were the worst tenant in manchester. The world would be a better place without assholes like you wasting everyones time. Bet you don't post this comment.
By Anonymous
bet this comment supposedly posted on 22 December isn't even real!! you are a real loser!
By Anonymous
Are you still going on with yourself?! See you can't think of anything new to say, so now you've just re posted the old stuff. Get a life dickhead! Do let us know what happens with your so called 'court case'...more like waste of everybodies time!! bet when you lose you still won;t stop will you because you are too sad to accept things the way they are. Bet you don;t post this comment. WHich means that you have no idea what you are doing and are the spineless idiot you come across as. Shame on you! I hope they absolutely tear you to shreds if it ever gets to court.
By Anonymous  

What these "anonymous" people are forgetting is that NOTHING is anonymous in cyberspace. There are many many trails left behind to the clever people in the world of IT


Stay lucky it's a scary world out there

Bridgfordslettingssales
731 Wilmslow Rd, Didsbury, Manchester, M20 6WF
0161 434 9719

Wednesday, 23 February 2011

Worst letting agents in Manchester, Didsbury and Stockport

Here are some more of Philip James claims "de-coded" for those of us that don't use estate agent double talk. You know like "handy for the airport" meaning " it's at the bottom of the runway - with 24 hour noise.


Laura Kilbride, 
" a combination of good customer service from us combined with the fear many tenants have of absent landlords. Tenants want to be sure when something goes wrong they’ll be looked after properly" -  Well if good customer service means having to sue them for your deposit back in the Court and being reported to the Police for complaining about it.
“And landlords choosing to have their properties managed by us are happier too –Who says so? Certainly, the landlord of the property I am suing over is hardly likely to be "whooping with delight" at the prospect of appearing in court, over something he has little or no knowledge about is he?


Stay safe out there - The sharks will bite you hard!!

philip james rentals.co.uk

Friday, 18 February 2011

Manchester Students and landlords are being targetted by Philip James

By Philip James - the self proclaimed lettings and estate agents of choice. The company is promoting itself via e mail, declaring how well it is doing on the behalf of students and landlords.

As usual with this type of unsolicited trumpet blowing you should probably stick it in your blocked senders and spam folder.

For landlords considering using this firm you should read this blog very carefully. The landlord of the property I had the Miss Fortune to rent from is named as a joint defendant on the current lawsuit. He probably did nothing wrong, however it is highly likely he will be called to court to give evidence.

At the moment landlords can probably get a great deal from most letting agents in Didsbury, Withington and the surrounding areas. Claims such as these (below) should be treated with caution - for example:


Laura Kilbride, Student Lettings Manager, Withington: “Properties managed by us have been flying out the door this year -  in the first six weeks of 2011 we’ve successfully let over 50% of our managed properties.


Can be interpreted as "in the first six weeks of 2011 - half of our managed properties are empty"  and as for properties "flying out of the door" could be interpreted as ----- Well you work it out.


Stay careful out there there are many perils and sharks trying to fleece you.





Monday, 14 February 2011

The complaints keep coming in about Philip james Didsbury


Even over the holidays we have been amazed by the number of people who have contacted us. Because of the sheer volume we are dedicating more staff and resources to assist you all. We are in the process of designing two brand new websites: trottersville.co.uk and philipjamesrentals.co.uk.

We aim to get these live as soon as possible, but in the meanwhile, please keep coming back here and using the "comments" section to get in touch. Some of your complaints have been forwarded direct to the relevant authorities.
For those of you with problems with Philip James, we hope to be having a "surgery" with our solicitor shortly.

Stay safe and take care

Thursday, 3 February 2011

How landlords rip off tenants: deposit scam that means a lost pan can cost a fortune


After years of leaky roofs, dodgy heating and other Rising Damp horror stories, students seemed to have stumbled into every available pitfall when moving into rented homes.
After years of leaky roofs, dodgy heating and other Rising Damp horror stories, students seemed to have stumbled into every available pitfall when moving into rented homes.
But yesterday the costly scandal of disappearing deposits, which sees hundreds of millions of deposit money disappearing each year into landlords' pockets - and reappearing (if at all) after months of delays and obfuscation - was laid bare.
A fifth of private tenants complain that all or part of their deposit has been unreasonably withheld, according to a report by the housing charity Shelter and Citizens Advice Bureaux.
The organisations said £800m of tenants' money was swilling around the system without stringent controls on how it was controlled. They have compiled a catalogue of abuse by landlords who have taken advantage of the relative powerlessness of tenants and refused to return deposits for spurious reasons.
Tenants are often unwilling to pursue cases through the courts because of the cost, the time it takes and the need for a landlord's reference to secure sought-after new properties.
Tenants, often among the less well paid and unable to get a foot on the property ladder, can be forced into crippling debt or in extreme cases forced to become homeless.
Students are among the worst hit, with 35,000 facing a summer cash crisis because of the difficulties of getting their deposits back from landlords, according to the study.
Verity Coyle of the National Union of Students said: "The arbitrary holding back of students' deposits are unfair, done with very little accountability and adds to the financial pressures students are under."
Among the cases charted in the study is a tenant who was charged £850 for "cleaning carpets and curtains and a missing saucepan". A Methodist minister who relocated with his wife and three young children was landed with a £1,346 bill that included £1,000 for cleaning and redecoration. The bill was eventually withdrawn but there was no evidence that cleaning or redecoration was needed or had happened.
Two students, aware of the problems of dodgy landlords took photographs when they moved in and arranged for the flat to be professionally cleaned before they left. Five months were needed to get their £700 deposit returned. Other stories have included a £55 bill for a broken plastic towel rail and a £250 deposit withheld because of a hole in the wall made by a drawing pin.
"Too many landlords treat rent deposits as their money, instead of money handed over to them in trust," David Harker, the chief executive of Citizens Advice, said. "Many do not even bother to give tenants a proper reason for failing to pay it back."