Castles Estate Agents - Nottingham

Our tenancy was a shambles from the minute we arrived at the property - we didn't expect conditions in a rented property to be amazing, but we certainly didn't expect to have to clean up vast amounts of animal excrement from the previous tenant's pet. It even shocked Castle's own representative upon our arrival, who promptly requested professional cleaners whilst we were there. Apparently the property was subsequently professionally cleaned as a result - not that we could tell - yet unfazed by this, we moved in.

It really wasn't long before the problems started pouring through thick and fast. Literally. First, we were promised a replacement cooker, which took two weeks to materialise. We then found that the property couldn't be secured adequately as numerous window locks were missing or broken. This wouldn't have been a massive problem, had we been able to secure the property with the alarm, but again this took numerous requests to obtain working codes for. In the end, I had to point out that because of these security issues, the very household insurance that Castle Estates had insisted we have prior to moving in, would be invalidated in the event of a burglary. There is also an extremely odd situation with utility bills, whereby two flats have a shared boiler and metering system administered by Castle Estates, which is again something we were not told about prior to our moving in. I made numerous requests for copies of the bills which never materialised, quelle surprise...

As autumn drew close, it soon became apparent that there were far bigger problems, namely damp and mould. Again, Castle estates proved themselves well-versed in excuses and blamed previous tenants for not ventilating the property adequately, so we persisted armed with a de-humidifier, bleach and fungicide. Well, at least we tried to. There's only so much you can do when on wet days, the water literally runs down the walls on the INSIDE of your flat.

So, we complained. A lot. For six months. Castle's own surveyors agreed that the conditions were untenable and so recommended we abandon part of the flat until they could address the fundamental structural problems. Nothing got done, and the manager has confessed that he has been totally undermined by the landlord, who it transpires employs Castle's to 'manage' numerous properties in the area (money talks, or so it would seem). Well, that is on the occasions when we could get hold of the manager, or that he could be bothered to return our calls. I'm not altogether convinced that the office even has an outside line, so frequently were we promised callbacks which failed to ever materialise.

After two months of sleeping on a mattress in our lounge due to the appalling conditions in the main bedroom, we could take no more and left the property. We continued paying rent until the 6-month contract was completed. The manager assured us that our exit from the property would be expedited due to the poor service he acknowledged we had received, and that our deposit would be returned to us in full within three weeks. Six weeks later, we are still yet to see the promised return of our deposit, despite numerous phone calls (not returned, naturally) and e-mails.

We aren't unreasonable people. We have been patient. Ultimately though, we have been totally shafted. And still it continues...

I am left very angry about the service I received from Castle Estates in Nottingham. I do not feel that the service provided to me whilst I was a tenant there was even remotely acceptable and since I have left the property I have had to take certain matters further.

I would not recommend.