Felicity J Lord - Hackney Estate and Letting Agents Reviews 26

We are so appreciated for the service from Mr Charlie Saville and Mr Ridwana Al-Hoque they are so nice and kindly to answer all my questions and explain so clearly when we don’t something 👍👍👍👍

We worked with Felicity J Lord to help us find and manage a short-term let of our home while we are away. We thought having an estate agency manage this would reduce stress and admin while we were gone. We couldn’t have been more wrong, and we are kicking ourselves for not finding tenants ourselves and having a direct relationship with them, as Felicity J Lord’s tenancy management has caused far more headaches and stress than self-management would have.

FJL quoted us a service and then we found out in the first month’s bill that they significantly overcharged us on this fee, and we have been told for 2 months+ that they will “get back to us” on this point, with no progress.

Most troubling, it soon became clear that a key point of the tenancy was not properly sorted out by their team during the negotiation. It is either a major mistake committed by their team or they blatantly lied to us and the tenants during the negotiation/tenancy set-up phase - and it is now costing us money.

After the tenancy agreement was signed, we were passed on to the property management team at the Bow office. They took ages to respond to us and then passed us back to the Hackney lettings team, who are supposed to get in touch with us about this issue. We have not heard anything from them over the weeks we have been trying to get this issue sorted. The complete lack of communication leads us to believe that their agents lied to both sides during the tenancy negotiation, and they don’t know or care how to provide a solution that will rectify this situation.

We have no idea how the tenants are being treated and if any of their issues or concerns on the tenancy beyond this particular issue are receiving any kind of timely response, and based on how Felicity J Lord are treating us, we can only imagine that it is not satisfactory.

We would advise anyone looking to work with Felicity J. Lord as a tenancy manager to just do it yourself, as the agency seems to take money from you to lie to and ignore you. It is not worth it.

Unprofessional

Terrible property management as a tenant. Issues in the flat not resolved for almost a year, emails and phone calls routinely ignored, promises made with total lack of follow through. Totally incompetent and disinterested.

Even asking for 5* Google reviews after taking 10 months to send a contractor to resolve an issue.

I had a very good experience with Charlie Saville (Hackney Branch). I asked him to value our house. He was personable, thorough in his research of the area and sent me all sorts of helpful information to help with the sale of the house.

Charlie is friendly, patient, realistic, considerate, very informative and knowledgable and very responsive by phone & email. Charlie also has considerable knowledge and experience of Shared Ownership properties.

First experience of FJL was in 2007, when getting a valuation to staircase our shared ownership house, FJL was thee only agent out of four that gave us a realistic valuation. This is what prompted me to contact them first when looking to sell same house years later.

Charlie first valued our house in April 2022, not knowing if we would be selling up or one of us buying the other out. He gave us no pressure or hard sell tactics.

He provided a revaluation opinion in April 2023 but again no pressure. After a buy-out failed due to a short lease, I contacted him again in Nov 2023 for a formal consultation.

Whilst I was sure I wanted to go with Charlie, i used my head and sought two other Agents for comparison. I sent them all the five must-ask questions for any estate agent (google youtube "moving house with Charlie"... **a completely different Charlie)!!

The other two Agents gave very brief to poor, uninspiring replies whereas Charlie took the time to give full, detailed explanations giving me everything i was hoping to hear and showing he had really thought about how best to sell our property in that specific type of market.

I loved their special Flink app, and Charlie explained the percentage of increased sales it generated since they started using it. He filled me with confidence that he knew what he was talking about and cared about doing the best for us. He is always quietly confident and enthusiastic.

The staff that sorted the photos & video were also great (separate feedback for them!), the house went live on a Tues, viewings on the Sat, we immediately had four offers and Charlie was really helpful and objective going through each offer.

Sadly, our circs changed just before Exchange and despite losing out on any remuneration for all the time, effort and money spent on the marketing, Charlie remained the consummate professional, thanking us for explaining the situation and despite the disappointment, was sensitive to our feelings of guilt about us letting the buyers down and FJL not making the sale.

Typical of Charlie, he still asked if there was anything else he could do for us.

Working with Charlie has definitely changed my perception of Estate Agents for the better.

Cannot recommend him and FJL enough. Many, many thanks.

Our point of contact Hamzah Hussein totally ignored some major issues we raised with him, forcing us to liaise with contractors ourselves. We had no hot water for most of the final month of our tenancy, so we complained and sought compensation, at which point we realised the poor service and lack of communication was company-wide.

When we first raised the complaint Anthony Szabo said if we wanted compensation we'd have to wait for the outcome of FJL's “robust” complaints process which would take 15 working days - but 20 working days later nobody had got back to us. I eventually spoke to Natalie Carter who admitted the Property Management team never forwarded our complaint to the complaints team. She acknowledged poor service and committed to providing compensation, but more than a month later we were still waiting for details of this, despite regularly emailing for updates. At one point someone at FJL triggered a 15-day investigation even though they’d already investigated and promised compensation.

About 11 weeks after our initial complaint, FJL finally provided a small sum of compensation for their poor service, but claimed our landlord had refused compensation for the 24 days without hot water on the grounds that supply problems meant his contractor had been unable to source a part. I’ve asked Natalie multiple times for the landlord’s contact details so I can take this further, but she’s not responded.

Throughout the months it took to resolve our complaint I felt like I had a part-time job trying to get FJL employees to do theirs. Emails are ignored unless senior employees are CC'd. Phone calls go to voicemail, and if someone picks up at the office the person you need is always “in a meeting” (don’t bother leaving a message). You get the feeling no one at FJL is interested in tenants unless they can make money out of them. All in all a truly shocking lack of professionalism and respect. I'm not surprised to learn our former landlord is no longer using FJL.

No doubt someone will reply to this and say they are very sorry to hear we “felt the need to complain”, but multiple people were CC’d into many emails about this over months, so if FJL really cared about customers they had ample opportunity to prove it when nobody was watching.

Felicity J Lord is the worst letting agent ever. Their incompetent team are never in the office, don't answer their phones and ignore your emails, even when it's about something urgent such as a leaking sink or broken toilet. We have been passed from agent to agent seemingly with no handover between team members because none of them seem to know anything about our property. They have spent their money on company cars that have their naff branding all over the side rather than on hiring smart individuals and focussing on customer needs. Avoid at all costs otherwise you'll be left with broken household items for weeks on end.

I am seriously concerned how this agency is still in business! The WORST experience we have ever had with an estate agent & looks like we're not the only one.

We had a serious leak in our roof and our emails and calls were ignored for over a month, they owe us 2 days rent back but since they do not reply to ANY emails and you can never get hold of them we've had to go through the Property Umbusdman on them.

To add more insult to injury, they told us we had to leave the property on a certain date (which we did) then a week later messaged us to say we owed £400 because they had us down moving out later, even though they told us to move out! Still waiting on our deposit back 2 weeks later and still chasing them which is an impossible task.

Dreadful, awful experience with them!! The amount of stress and money they have caused is crazy. Would give minus stars if I could. Landlord & tenants avoid like the plague!

refusing to give my security deposit passing me from pillar to post with no update this is currently day 6

The Hackney branch is full of rude, ignorant, and non-contactable people. Multiple promises of dealing with my deposit, which has now resulted in me having to file a dispute to the TDS. They are very quick to get people into the property, but when you’re moving out, nothing but pure ignorance. Everybody is apparently always in a meeting (or hiding). Don’t touch them with a barge pole. I will be taking this further and advise anyone to avoid them like the plague.

Update on my last review...
As you can see, the manager of FJ Lord in Hackney promises to reach out and resolve the outstanding issues immediately. Nothing has happened. I received an automated email reminding me to renew the tenancy (which ended 6 weeks ago and notice was given several months ago. They clearly haven't registered this on their system yet, unbelievably)
This shows clearly how there is ZERO followup with this company unless there's money in it for them and they simply do not act or behave in an honest manner towards landlords (and presumably tenants too) Avoid...

Charlie Saville at FJL Hackney provided us with an excellent sales service. I can highly recommend him. Professional, courteous, knowledgeable and always promptly answered my calls. A very trustworthy gentleman estate agent. Thank you Charlie.

great experience renting with Vivien and Faisal at Felicity J Lord in hackney and stoke newington respectively.

They collectively made me feel informed as the rental process unfolded.

Faisal Hussain has been extremely helpful with all our queries. We had some issues to which he dealt with to our satisfaction.

Excellent service
A huge thank you to Charlie Saville and the team at felicity Lloyd.
The support and guidance that Charlie and the team have shown us on the sale of our late mothers house was given with empathy and passion
Charlie Saville listened and understood our thoughts feelings and made sure this was reflected on the potential buyers who came to view the house. Charlie made the whole process stress free and was always at the end of the phone. I have over the years had many contacts with estate agents but none could compare to Charlie. I would recommend felicity Lloyd for anyone needing a reliable, professional, attentive trustworthy estate agents

Mrs Janet orchard

I moved out of a flat managed by the hackney branch of Felicity J Lord. After a few initial calls and emails to hand in my notice they stopped communicating at all. I was not given a check out appointment, nor given any details on how to hand back my keys.

About a month after moving out I started receiving letters telling me I was in rent arrears, though I had definitely paid all the rent I was due.

Getting in touch with FJL to sort this out was impossible. Nobody ever answered the phone number or email address on these letters. Whenever I called the hackney branch nobody would pick up the phone. When I emailed the staff I'd previously spoke to, they would not reply.

After I'd received a few of these letters, I received emails from FJLs insurance company that strongly implied I was about to be taken to court. This was very stressful and again nobody from FJL would even speak to me never mind let me know what was going on.

I did eventually manage to bypass the agent and speak directly to the landlord. The landlord also struggled to get in touch with the agent, but eventually managed to get it resolved - FJL had somehow put completely false information into their systems.

I'd advise any potential tenants or landlords to find another agent - doesn't seem like FJL are capable of providing a good service to tennants or landlords.

The way this company treats its tenants is absolutely disgusting. I’ve lived in my property for two years now, over that time I can’t count how many times I’ve been ignored and let down.

No one at F J Lord replies to you about anything. The day I moved into my property I noted 10-15 repairs that needed fixing - in the two years I’ve lived there I have been promised that “it will be done next month” over and over again. Not one thing was fixed. Nothing.

My flatmate spent hours crying on the phone, begging them to fix her bed as she was sleeping on a broken mattress on the floor. This went on for months.

Our front door broke, leaving us locked INSIDE with no way out. I called 30+ times asking for an emergency fix. They never came, I changed the lock out of my own pocket and was never compensated.

Now I am trying to move out, all I need F J Lord to do is reply to my new landlord to verify my references. And still they won’t reply! I don’t know what to do. I have called and emailed over and over again, all you have to do is verify my references! I am about to lose my new apartment and continue to be trapped here.

If someone at F J Lord is reading this, PLEASE can you get in contact with me to complete my referencing. I just want to leave now.

This company continue to provide a poor service as managing agents. They either do not answer their phones or continue to not respond to messages left to return calls. I have been trying to get basic things fixed round my rental for months now. I would strongly suggest anyone looking for managing agents in the hackney area to avoid this company.

Have been working with felicity j lord hackney for many years
Have had many communication with Leona who is a top notch property manager.