Boydens Estate Agents
Why are Boydens so Incompetent?
In my experience, estate agents are the most unctious, unscrupulous people it has been my misfortune to meet but Boyden's Estate Agency is a league of its own. It is interesting to note that Googling 'Boydens' we find that there is a part of the bile duct that is known as Boyden's sphincter and I certainly agree. They are definitely sphincters. They cannot organise a simple viewing without being late and/or messing it up completely.
My wife and I made an appointment to view a house in Colchester, Essex. We arrived on time and were left waiting. I had to take time out from my lunch hour. When the girl arrived to show us the property, she had left the keys to the property in the car and so had to go back to get them so we were left waiting outside again for a further ten minutes.
She arrived with the key and tried to enter the property but could not because it was the wrong house. There were two houses with the same number but they didn't know that, I had to tell them. We tried the other property and found that we were able to enter. After being shown around we noticed that this property had two bedrooms and was not a studio flat. It was a completely different flat to the one specified in their information.
Had we just broken into somebody's house? We were not sure, and neither were they. Someone was clearly living in the house, but no one was at home. If I had been the tennant of that flat, I would have been outraged that people could come into my house while I was out.
She phoned up the office, but they didn't seem to know what was going on either. We had to leave the property without knowing which one was available for rent. She said that she would definitely let us know but of course they didn't. It took them more than a week to change the details for the property on the internet. I have also made appointments to see other properties after I finished work and they have been so late that I just phoned up to say don't bother coming.
Some people might think that this is rather trivial revenge and to some extent it is but there is also a serious point, if you are going to rent a property, you are signing a contract for twelve months and if they can't even get to the appointment on time or don't know about the property they are showing you then what hope have you got when something goes wrong.
From the point of view of somone thinking about letting Boydens manage their property then I would say that Boydens Estate Agents are just incompetent fools. I would certainly not recommend Boyden's Estate Agency at all. They are rubbish. I also have work colleagues who have their own stories of Boyden's remarkable incompetance.
Reference Fee's
My second rant isn't just to do with Boydens, it is a feature of all estate agents I have dealt with. This is reference fee. When you rent a property with estate agent you pay money which they call a vaguely a 'legal check'. Basically, they charge you nearly £100 to make sure that you have enough money to pay the rent for the duration of the contract. I think that this is a rip-off because I am sure that the true cost is much less than this. To further squeeze the tenant, they charge each person that is going to live in the property. I am married and so I would have to pay this dubious legal fee twice.
I put it to the estate agent that I though this was unfair because my wife and I are a single unit, I will be paying the rent. I could have said that the property is just for myself and when the contract is signed my wife would continue to live in the property. Who you live with after the contract is signed is none of the estate agent's business and this is why I feel that the reference fee is unfair and just lining the greedy estate agent's pocket. So if you are looking to rent a property for two people, just say it is for one person and cut this stupid fee in half.
My advice is to ditch estate agents and their extortionate fees. Look for property in your local paper instead.
