Strutt & Parker Morpeth Estate Agents

Strutt and Parker provided an excellent service in our recent purchase. They were honest when issues arose, and found solutions thanks to their positive, cooperative attitude and extensive knowledge. They could not have been more responsive and have been a pleasure to deal with.

I had expected a service at least equivalent to other estate agents from Mayfair based Strutt and Parker.

After viewing, then subsequently purchasing a property through Strutt and Parker, my home, I found they had made many misstatements. There were many inaccuracies, but one in particular would have changed my transactional decision, one that would have negated my viewing in the first place.

When moving in the misstatements became apparent. On informing them they argued that my surveyor or solicitor should cover it. But one, a historic feature demolished after viewing would have required skills in clairvoyance that neither profession had.

Other misstatements included claims of luxury and refurbishment by the "best developer in the northeast" who they knew well as a business associate. The central heating, fireplaces, egress of waste not only failed but caused ruin of everything I owned. It became equivalent to surviving a complete flooding. I lost my lifetimes heritage which changed the course of my life. Sorting through everything was distressful and coming on top of disruption of moving home was intolerable.

After an exchange of letters of what they later called treating me with 'decorum' Strutt and Parker refused further correspondence hiding themselves behind the hearsay of their vendor developer Stone Homes. They offered me the property ombudsman who I used, who didn't award against them. I later saw why a few days before trial. Being economical with the details Strutt and Parker had also misled them making a mockery of the ombudsman system.

As anything I said was deprived of relevance, my only option was to take them to court. Financially I was limited to small claims where the threat of their legal costs became higher than the claim that could be awarded. They knew I didn't have funds for higher court but they argued for it, adding further insufferable pressure. Taking a national company to court is daunting. Why go to court, as a layperson when the stress is unbearable? Like so many fighting for their homes there's a sense of loss of everything and not much more to lose.

I had to understand my point in law, understand court procedure, and learn quickly any practices of bedevilment they might use. And use them they did. But they would never mediate even when ordered by the court at a preliminary hearing. The process has been long one with Strutt and Parker referring to it as my "continued dissatisfaction"; it wasn't, it was devastation, my whole life's heritage gone.

My small action against this national company was won against them for the demolished historic feature, receiving the maximum award at that level but it could never cover the losses or stress they caused. The district judge immediately dismissed their appeal, but I had to wait to see if their miserable approach to me would continue with an appeal from them to the circuit judge.

Through them I couldn't settle and need to move again as quickly as possible in the now worsening basket case housing market. So I'm still searching for a home and trying to sell a dwelling with disclosures patched up as best I could. No trust left, exhaustion, illness, less money and no cushion for the thousands it costs to move, they have added years to my age rendering me from a supportive mother to one that requires support.

To date Strutt and Parker are yet after more than two years on their books are still to sell the personal home of Dale Robinson, Stone Homes.

I trusted Strutt and Parker and placed reliance on them to get their home selling details correct. Both Strutt and Parker and Stone Homes project and hold themselves as something they are not, fronting and holding themselves up with pretences of care. With passive aggressive assertiveness they fob off anything said to them with hearsay and as nonsense.

It is impossible to make a valued transactional decision if you're given incorrect information.

I had trusted Strutt and Parker, they abused that trust.