written by juliafr on 31/01/2013
Wensum Property Management:
If you don't have any problems with the property, you're fine.
If you do- don't expect to have anything sorted out.
We had problems with the boiler and the same guy that turned up to show us around the flat at the beginning of tenancy turned up with a spanner...
He said 'that'll do it for a while' - to which we asked when someone would coem to fix it properly. This never happened. So we never had a properly functioning boiler and often couldn't shower as it would stop working altogether for a day or two. After 2-3 calls a day to Wensum (also they rarely answer the phone...) and 2 or 3 visits other a few months - the problem was never resolved.
The worst part however was when they tried to withhold our deposit. I have rented 4 properties in total and never once had a problem, if anything we sorted out the mould problem that the property had and left it cleaner than it was! We contacted the deposit protection scheme to register our dispute with that they wanted to withhold (something ridiculous like 140 quid for cleaning charges - which they are not legally allowed to charge for if they have an in house cleaner, which they do).
After the deposit protection scheme contacted wensum about this they withdrew their order for cleaning charges and our money was returned. However, we were out of pocket for 4 months while the process went through and caused us unnecessary hardship.
I had a friend who rented with wensum who also experienced the same thing with holding back some of the deposit for no reason. I think they must just try their luck hoping you won't dispute it in order to get your money back straight away.
I have been looking for flats on rightmove and any that say wensum property management I won't even bother to look at even if they're cheap and look like nice properties - and this is from someone with fairly low standards as I don't have much money to spend on rent! Please avoid, you can't guarantee you won't have anything go wrong and when it does they won't be of any use!