Parker Property

Received horrendous treatment from Parker. Rented a property through them for a year and a half with little issue as we mostly dealt with any problems through the landlord directly. However when they were required to act in absence of the landlord they were completely useless and insulting. The bathroom in our property was refitted by a cowboy contractor provided by Parker who did a terrible job, leaving holes in walls and gaps in sealant. A few days later we realised the pipes had been leaking into the wall (as they had not been plumbed correctly) and we immediately notified them. They were slow to act and used the same contractor who didnt fix the problem, claimed he had, and as such the adjacent wall became sodden and consequently mouldy. The problem got worse and worse, Parker didnt seem to understand the severity and urgency of the issue and left us to live in mould and with a bathroom resembling a building site for months. We told Parker this was significantly affecting our health and it was not acceptable to expect us to live in this condition. In reply the maintenance manager Gillian insisted that mould wasnt bad for us and that our health problems didnt exist! In the news at the time was a boy who died from living in a mouldy flat, which we notified Gillian of, explaining that mould was in fact a health risk and she still claimed it wasnt an issue. It was so bad that clothes/shoes left in there would grow mould in a day, of course we werent compensated for damage to our belongings. Considering how petty they were about cleanliness on their monthly inspections we would have expected them to realise a sodden mouldy wall was an issue. Gillian decided that leaving the windows open in the house and running a dehumidifier would fix the mould (at this point serious structural damage was done to the house). This was during winter in an energy crisis and she didnt seem to understand the implications of her request and how we were now expected to foot a bill to repair damage they had caused. Eventually they provided us with a small lump sum towards bills but it didnt fix the issue and we were living in a freezing house with one of the rooms uninhabitable. At one point a window in our house became jammed open, it being below zero meant this was very uncomfortable. Again Parker didnt act on this for weeks until we felt we had no option but to withhold rent, at which point the problem was fixed the next day. Eventually we felt forced out of the property as Parker were making no effort to fix the problem, insisting on using the same cowboy contractor despite him causing the issue and being unable to fix it on multiple occasions. Got to the point where we werent even being told he was coming round, letting himself in, only realising someone had been in the house as it was left dirty. They were petty about the checkout, dust on lightswitches and such, and had to argue our case to receive our full deposit back. Maybe initially you could argue they were just clueless or that the bathroom being fitted incorrectly was just one of those things but by the end it was wilful negligence. Refusing to fix a window till we withheld rent and insistence by the property/maintenance manager that mould was not a health risk is truly disgusting behaviour. Parker caused us much distress over a period of months and would urge anyone considering dealing with these crooks to avoid them. Absolute stain on society.
Mar 11th, 2023

Lovely people, always super helpful. Fast with repairs and managed tenancy swaps smoothly and effectively
Dec 28th, 2022

Dec 27th, 2022

Nov 17th, 2022

Parker Property had managed my property for over 8 years. The first several years everything was fine and Parker Property did addresses small issues, and I went along with all their recommendations. However it all depends on a tenant, while, my in experience, the Parker Property did not really look after my property. For example, an expensive refurbishment of my property could have been avoided if Parker Property really managed the property and reported the issues to me at earlier stages. Lack of inspection and property management control led to serious problems with the property. The summary that I received from the Parker Property when they returned the keys back to me was along the following lines: "your property is currently not in a good condition". I believe no landlord wants to hear these words from a property management agency they hired to manage their property. I could not even get the deposit back to finance the required renovation, because somehow it was all my fault that the issues had not been reported to me until there was a serious problem with the property. I had to wait for some expensive job to be completed for more than 6 months virtually without any updates on when the job would be carried out. Only after I arranged this job to be done by someone else I received a call from Parker Property where they insisted that I had to go with their contractor. This was despite the fact that I had asked Parker Property to cancel this job because of the long waiting time, and they initially accepted my request. There were also issues with the letting contract as well that resulted in a problem with the Council Tax. All that I learned the hard way and I wish I would have moved to another letting agency sooner. If you're looking for a property management agency that would give you a peace of mind and that would take care of your property then I would strongly suggest avoiding Parker Property services. PS after the update below: apart from windows there were discussed several other items in the emails and on the phone. At the end of the day Parker Property was managing my property and now I have to go through expensive refurbishment that could have been avoided if the problems had been reported to me eralier to give me a chance to address them before they would develop into serious issues. Regarding "We suggested you meet the contactor there to take a look, but you declined this." - after fixing the immediate problem, Parker Property privided photos of the issue on 18.08.2021, and arranged the property inspection in September. Before spending large sum on the bathroom I wanted to understand the extend of the problem. That was confirmed in the email on 10.09.2021. The only reason I did not go ahead with the contractor after that was because the tenant was moving out, Parker Property suggested in a telephone conversation to wait with major bathroom work until the property is vacant, while the contractor advised that immediate actions were not required - this was confirmed in the email on 29.09.2021. We were also discussing another problem at the same time - mould in both bedrooms in amount that could not happen overnight. Again I was totally unaware about this issue until there was a leak in the bathroom. There was just one piece of furniture that the tenant returned, but Parker Property could not keep track of that and provided a wrong inventory to the Council Department. We discusses this issue in the email on 25.05.2022. Regarding the windows work - I received an update from Parkers Property on 29.10.2021, while the contractor contacted me on 01.04.2022 to install the windows - 5 months later, luckily not after one year.Is it unrealistic to expect a property management agency to provide updates more often instead of keeping landlords totally in the dark about the date when work will be carried out? Is it also unrealistic to expect a management agency to inform a landlord that a tenant installed a satellite dish, which I found out only after getting back the keys to the property?
Jun 22nd, 2022