Tenants are actively reviewing and rating local letting agents across Britain on a new website.
Marks out of Tenancy was launched in March by Bristol-based entrepreneurs Ben Yarrow and Tom Dickinson.
Renters can score agents, landlords and properties out of ten, and leave reviews.
Tenants can review agents overall, and also evaluate them on six different themes: communication, attitude, speed, value for money, quality of repairs, and check in/out.
Many of the reviews cover Bristol, but clearly tenants in other locations, from Aldershot and Guildford to Cardiff and Ormskirk, are becoming increasingly aware of the site.
Yarrow told EYE: “The site isn’t just being used to leave bad reviews – it’s a really useful tool for landlords, letting agents and tenants.”
He also said that new features will be launched shortly.
A letting agency product called House will enable agencies to customise their profile page, display their score on their website, and use an email marketing campaign tool to invite tenants, and have access to market statistics and analytics.
Yarrow said: “Agencies will be able to track changes in scores, reply to reviews, compare themselves against their competitors and make improvements based on that information.
“The cost for that will be £75 per month per branch.”
A cheaper product for landlords called Home will similarly allow landlords to reply to comments.
Yarrow said that the site had been well received by landlord associations.
He said checks are in place to ensure reviews are legitimate, and that new features will include allowing agents and landlords to respond to reviews.
Yesterday, reviews of letting agents were mixed. The Letting Game in Bristol had ten-star ratings and Moginie James in Cardiff had nine. Some agents got just one star.
EYE said back in March that this could be one for agents to watch: three months later, it looks as though that remains the case.
Marks out of Tenancy is now set to be rolled out overseas to Ireland and the United States in the next few weeks.
For years I’ve tried to avoid negative reviews, we’re a good agent and respond to any issues quickly, however simply am sick of the “but I left it cleaner than it was when I moved in” comments, which are obvious lies when you’re surrounded by their filth on checkout and have clear inventory photos. Tenants use leaving a review as a threat now, which really makes you think what’s the ****** point in trying to appease everyone.
This new website can **** off, unless agents are allowed proper right of reply and to delete fake reviews.
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OK, anyone invested in these sites is clearly all kinds of broken and should be monitored at all times. Watch list even. Jeez nobody wants to hear bad news right? Like when my wife says ‘where’s my kiss’ and I go help her look for it. Dude how long before bad news scorches the earth. The obligatory gerrymandering followed by a shake down for cash money just to put things straight. Oh wait…
Jeez the guys in the office said I had to put on pants. This whole day’s ruined so word em up Jrsteeve. F *ck these guys. And tenants, those b*tches be crazy. Always spitting fire like someone just threatened their Khaleesi; and why? Because of a sum total deduction of £35! Yeah you know who you are.
Dude we’re all about raising standards and improving agency (where you at affiliation) so reviews are front and centre. But fake reviews, not so much.
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What a load of garbage. “Expanding to America”… how about they expand to London first. These guys are delusional. This is a poor mans RaterAgent.
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Just had a quick look, a landlord has been given a 2/10 for serving a section 21. The point JRSteve makes above sums it up.
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Their terms and conditions contradict what they say. This is nothing more than a commercial venture for financial gain? “The cost for that will be £75 per month per branch.” As an agent I would stay far away from them. You have been doing business without them, you still can.
All Submissions are provided by users of our site (including tenants, landlords or agencies) and not by us. We cannot reasonably verify the accuracy of each one. We take no responsibility and assume no liability for any review or other material submitted by any user of our site. We are not responsible for any mistakes, defamation, omissions which you may encounter, or for any infringement of intellectual property rights by any such material.
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Couldn’t have said it better, Jrsteeve
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Maybe it is about time that there is a review website that reviews review websites, you know, to sort the wheat from the chaff. I best not name the chaff, but we all know who they are!
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Give me back my deposit back or i’ll post a bad review.
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Considering the idea is to influence the public opinion, isn’t it about time that consumer protection regulated Review sites?
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Well what do you know? Yet another way to demonise and burden landlords, as if it isn’t enough that their mortgage tax relief has been scrapped along with now having to be immigration officers (cue the Right to Rent legislation) and customs officers (a plan put forward for them to check for any illegal activity going on in the property). As for the latter, that’s fine as long as the landlord goes to the property every day to check up on the tenant (claims of harassment and breach of quiet enjoyment by the tenant spring to mind). More compo money to be made there! Not to mention the fact that non-payment of rent (effectively theft as not paying for goods received would be seen as in other contexts) is merely treated as a “civil matter” and not a crime as non-securement of a deposit on the part of the landlord would be (even though the landlord has not actually stolen any money).
So now this latest thing, where tenants now have free reign to demonise and defame landords. It makes my imagination run riot. Woodentop and Jrsteeve couldn’t have highlighted the dangers of this portal more clearly. What makes it worse is that landlords have no right to defend themselves (cue the fact that: ” Renters can score agents, landlords and properties out of ten, and leave reviews”. Unless said landords have the financial means to take all the liars and blackmailers among the bloggers to court (fat chance).
So how about a review platform about tenants and a blacklist of them which would be the equivalent of of Mayor Sadiq Khan’s plan to draw up a blacklist of (London) landlords? Because it really irritates me how one-sided all this criticism and legislation is, and how it gives carte blanche to tenants who can get away scot free with everything a landlord would be jailed or fined for! No wonder the small-timers among the landlords are selling up and leaving the market. Tenants have sh*t in their own basket there, haven’t they? No private rental properties and sweet FA otherwise given the huge lack of social housing. Oh, and the build to rent figures the PM is proposing for the next few years is woefully inadequate.
No doubt where tenants are concerned it is a case of the minority making the majority look bad and yes, there are bad landlords (same would apply). But the way things are going, what with poor social housing supply, inaffordable private rental properties and unfair, one-sided regulation against landlords, I envisage tent cities springing up everywhere..
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Their accounts are 5+ months overdue with Companies House.
Clearly great at admin, eh!
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