Poor external service providers
I engaged Halliday Homes to find a new tenant for my vacant rental property. While they did a good job, the overall experience was tarnished by poor quality external service providers to whom Halliday Homes contracts out reference taking/checking and inventory reports.
The inventory report fell well short of the standard expected. The clerk failed to account for my garden tools or to take photos of the shed. He confused the meter reading with the meter's serial number (a meter reading cannot have any letters in it!), and the meter reading wasn't visible in the photos but was merely stated in the report. The photos were useless as they were too small and couldn't be opened in my browser as a larger version, which is standard practice with other inventory providers.
This means that my position as landlord would not be protected in the event of any dispute arising over the condition of the property on the new tenant's entry, and this could potentially cost me my claim to a deposit at some future stage.
There were problems too with the documents supplied by the company doing the reference checks, as they were illegible and unusable, with photos of my tenant's bank statements having been crammed onto a single page. My tenant then kindly supplied me the information directly which apparently was not to Halliday Homes' liking.
The poor quality of these two service providers detracts from the good service and communication I received from Halliday Homes. Mark and Chloe dealt with my rental and communication from them was excellent. I was regularly updated on how many inquiries had come in, how many viewings were booked and got feedback from these viewings. Few agents do such a remarkable job.
I feel it is a mistake to subcontract to an external provider that does not upheld your own professional standards, but works in a slapdash manner resulting in a service that is not customer-friendly or of any value. I do not support businesses that do not work well and prefer to spend my money to get the right service from the right provider, even if this costs more. Despite asking for my concerns to be forwarded to the owner/managing director, I never received any response or reaction from the company which is disappointing. As such, I'd hesitate to use Halliday Homes again.