Northwood Edinburgh

Absolutely disgraceful company. I've rented for the past 8 years and in all my experience of reasonable and difficult letting agents, Northwood UK is by far the worst.
Where to start?
-As not all the tenants are UK Citizens, we were charged double the standard deposit.
-A handyman was given the keys and entered the property without notification from Northwood UK. So my partner came home alone to find things moved and thought the place had been robbed.
-We were charged 50 pounds because the outside of the windows had not been cleaned. This is absurd given the state of the flat when we rented it, but as we didn't have photographs to prove otherwise, we has this deducted from our deposit. When I asked for the third time for the receipt, Claire simply re-sent another image of the 'dirty' windows, without any accompanying text. I expect this sort of petty behaviour from a teenager, not someone who is supposedly a 'professional'.
-After our lease ended on the agreed date, Northwood attempted to charge us 78 pounds because the flat was not filled for three days after our lease ended. They had 7 weeks notice to fill the flat, and were attempting to charge us for their own inability to find a suitable tenant!
-We were told we HAD TO take out insurance for the furnished property (with the expectation that we would use the company they supplied the details of). Surely the landlord is required to insure their own belongings? It certainly sounds like Northwood will be making money from unsuspecting tenants through referral money for a service that is not compulsory.

My tips for dealing with Northwood Edinburgh if you are already unlucky enough to hold a lease with them and have any problems with return of your deposit:
-Clean outside of windows and take photos after you've cleaned them.
-Check the tenancy agreement for details stating they can claim (whatever price they want) to have things such as the above addressed.
-Take them to the Property Ombudsman.
-Take your grievances to their Director.
-Leave reviews here and on alltenants.

My tips if you're looking at renting from Northwood UK.
-Don't.

Never had such a horrible experience renting.

Had 2 properties with Northwood. Nothing but issues. In the first property for 6-8 months before they moved us out due to owner wanting to sell. Not their fault, but we were faced with more hassle than it was worth thereafter.

The property was not clean when we moved in. Cleaners equipment still in the hall. When I mentioned this to Northwood, they simply offered to send cleaners back to finish the job, while we were living there. The oven had dirty trays covered with tin foil , the oven door did not have a seal on it and we couldn't use it for 2 weeks until they sent an engineer out. Not a great experience for people moving in to a new home.

When it came to moving out, things only got worse. In both properties they found things to pick out that were not checked on move in to charge for. Like dust on top of the skirting boards behind the couch. When we moved in, there were no pictures taken behind the couch. When we moved out, they did things like pulling the couch back and noting the dust on the skirting behind it.

They were looking to charge us for a burn in the carpet that was hidden under the bed when we moved in, claiming that it was our fault. When I asked them for proof in pictures of before and after, they sent me pictures of 2 different spots on the floor. When I questioned this, they then changed the tune and started talking about us not amending the inventory for the burn when we moved in. The burn was hidden. That is why.

Terrible experience overall and there isn't enough time to go through everything but it's all documented in pictures and emails. I'd be interested to hear their public response to this.

Incredibly slow at fixing things. Arguably the worst agency I've rented from. (Out of 5 agencies.)

Update: I raised a bunch of issues with them in an inspection 10 weeks ago. They agreed to fix them. Heard nothing for ages. Had to chase them up. Still nothing done.

If you rent from these people, realise that you're giving up a lot of your basic rights as a tenant.

There are far - far - better agencies to rent from in Edinburgh.

I've been tenant with Northwood Edinburgh for past several years and I have had fantastic experience with Northwood letting agency.

The staff members have through knowledge on letting business and they are always helpful to the tenants as well as landlords. All of their staff members are friendly and supportive and I am enjoying being a tenant of Northwood for quite long time and would like to keep continue the relationship further more in future :)

I would definitely recommend any tenants to go through Northwood letting agency in Edinburgh for taking property on lease, you will be at right stop for property management solutions :)

Cheers
Tejas

I have used Northwood for a number of years to rent out my property and have always been highly satisfied with the service they have provided me with, from working with the tenants to ensure repairs are done to keep my property in top condition and also working with other tenants to ensure common repairs are done they have taken these burdens from me and I would highly recommend them to offering recommendations when new legislations introduced for landlords. The staff are always pleasant and respond quickly when I have had queries and to ensure I have full paperwork for my tax returns. Will certainly be staying with them for my duration as a landlord.

Very helpful and efficient staff. I have been a client for a number of years and Northwood Edinburgh have been extremely professional from the outset. Highly recommended

Overall Northwood was easy to deal with. They were professional at the initial viewing and conducted individual viewings rather than group ones which shows they actually care about the tenants they choose. The agency was generally quick to respond to emails and phone calls, but there was no particular person assigned to my property so I never knew who to call. Also, when there was a maintenance issue with the boiler, I was required to call the insurance company, which I would have thought was the landlord's responsibility. My main issue was that an initial 150 pounds was added to my first month's rent to cover the landlord's "expenses" without any warning. Northwood framed it as the landlord's decision; however, as a letting agency I don't think they should allow their clients to be taken advantage of in that way. Other than that, however, there were no unexpected charges.

Brilliant letting agency, I'm happy to rent another flat with them. Fiona (our agent) is incredibly nice and quickly handles all of the problems (like electricity shortage). When there were issues with the flat they have quickly arranged for people to fix stuff like oven, shower etc. And now she found us a really perfect flat - I couldn't have been more happy!

Terrible opening hours and flexibility for anyone who works office hours.
Really hinders the likelihood of them being able to rent out your property.

I have been using Northwood for over 5 years they been excellent would recommend them to anyone

This the the best agency i ever dealt with. Fab flat and great communication. Def recommended

The best agency in Edinburgh. Very helpful and friendly people are working there.