Connells Reviews 

1st Floor Carina House Sunrise Parkway, Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, MK14 6LS
Tel:01525 213723
I don’t usually write negative reviews, and I want to be clear that this isn’t about naming or shaming any individual. However, my experience with Connells’ mortgage advisory service has been deeply frustrating and disappointing.

When I first took out a mortgage 5 years back through Connells, I was charged a £500 fee with the assurance that I wouldn’t need to pay any further advisory fees for life. Fast forward to my recent remortgage, and I was unexpectedly hit with a £150 non-refundable documentation fee, contrary to the earlier promise. Most of the other advisors do not charge any documentation fees or advice fees like L&C Mortgages, Adept Mortgages, etc. When I questioned it, I was told the cost was non-refundable.

To make matters worse, I decided to shop around and found another mortgage advisor who didn’t charge me a single penny. He secured me a better rate, with no documentation fees, no hidden costs, and a far smoother process.

This experience has left me feeling that Connells’ mortgage advisory service is overpriced and not as competitive as they claim. I’m not convinced they offer access to the whole of the market, and based on my experience, there are certainly better, more transparent advisors out there.

I would strongly urge others to compare options before committing. Some professionals deliver better value without the unnecessary fees. Avoid Connellsgroup for Mortgage services.

I was with an independent letting company for 10 years and was reasonably happy with the service, then, out of the blue, I got an e-mail telling me they had sold the company to Connells at Torquay. Having checked the Connells website, I saw that their monthly management charge was 7% higher than I was currently paying, so immediately gave my 3 months notice to leave (as, I suspect, many others did). The changeover from one company to the other was very rough and it was difficult to get a response through out. There were only a few days left on the contract left after the final payment from my tenant but Connells deducted the full monthly fee and, so far, have not refunded the outstanding amount. The BBC programme from 14th July 2025 says it all...

Terrible experience from Connells Dudley Branch

The sales person turned up with a very convincing pitch, gave us a great high selling figure with what seemed legit background evidence, but once we had signed up with them to sell our house they very quickly started to ask us to reduce the cost,

we only seemed to get the very occasional viewing and these were mostly dependent on the buyer seeing or going through the Connells mortgage adviser.

as soon as we swapped to another company to sell our house it sold (at a more realistic price) quickly,

I personally would not recommend this company.

Landlords, look elsewhere! Rent collection works, but everything else with Connells Property Management has been a shambles. I experienced falsified inspection reports, requests to approve unlawful actions, ignored rent reviews for over a decade, questionable inventory and reference practices and unauthorised spending. Communication broke down to the point tenants dealt with me directly, making Connells fees a waste of money.

If I could give 0 stars I would. Stay well clear of the Winton, Bournemouth branch. Our letting agent didn’t have clue about the property we were looking to rent - when we had further questions about the property, it was ignored or palmed off with wishy washy comments. We went weeks without useful communication regarding our tenancy agreement then right before we were about to sign said tenancy agreement they ‘realised’ the price was going to be £100 more expensive per month. Utterly disgusting handling of the whole process and the sooner this business goes under, the better.

Oh my gosh they deserve 0 stars, what a complete rubbish of a company

We requested a valuation for our shared ownership flat, to sell it, it was very urgent for us to receive it, they came, literally spent 2 minutes in the flat only to send me this ridiculous report showing the value of the flat is Zero, and claiming that it was to remortgage even though I specifically said it was to sell the flat, I emailed them they never replied so I got another valuation with another company, days later they replied saying that because of The cladding we needed an EWS1 as the cladding was dangerously, it’s a brand new building! We have the EWS1 form, they refused to amend the report or refund the money, this company is a disgrace, AVOID!!!!!!!

By the time you manage to get a reply from these estate agents, the property you are enquiring about has already had an offer accepted. Horrendous service. Had to chase them three times before getting a reply. Then they say the earliest you can view is 4 days after the call to then on the day be called to say the property has had an offer accepted. Shocking service.

Highly unprofessional branch manager at Connells Hitchin (Paul), who resorted to bully mentality and refused to deal with us when things didn’t go in his favour. He was pushing for us to go with a specific buyer because he was selling their house as well (meaning he would get double commission - obvious conflict of interest here which we saw straight away). When we ultimately decided to go with a higher offer from a different buyer, he shouted at us down the phone (clearly angry because it meant he loses the potential commission of the other house) and said he did not want to deal with us for the rest of the transaction. When we had to call the office for the team’s support, he would pick up the phone and immediately cut us off, then get someone more junior to call us back. Utterly disgusting behaviour especially as they would still be getting commission from the sale of our house. The more junior agents are great though and hopefully they never pick up their manager’s unacceptable behaviour and deserve to work for a better leader.

If I could give less than 1 star. I would. Literally the most incompetent surveyors you could imagine. They made an obvious error on their report which resulted in the sale of our property falling through. Wouldn’t discuss anything with me, had zero interest in investigating my complaint and concerns. They have caused a huge amount of emotional distress and you should do everything you possibly can to avoid them.

Should be shut down for their horrendous tactics. Stealing potential profitability from a seller to line your own pockets. Poor very poor

Awful company. I paid for a RICS survey the valuation was based on comparable sales that were a year old and another that was 9 months old. And not even similar properties. Complete waste of money and you can’t talk to them you have to email details of any issues and get a generic response to say they won’t look into it! You have to appeal and do the work yourself, If I could give them zero stars I would! Use anyone else!

Lmao,
This agency is the worst just after HAART Lettings, I lived in the property at metropolitan house for over 2 weeks without electricity( a pending bill the landlord refused to pay), being bounced around on calls, with no clear communication, mind you I was pregnant at the time, had to go stay with a friend just to have access basic living conditions. no apology, no consideration, no compensation, NOTHING!!

Run away please.

Stay well away. Pushy incompetent staff as well as non cooperative. Do not answer calls or emails. Refuse to transfer tenant’s deposit to a new account. Lots of excuses. If you use The Stevenage branch, they will make sure you lost money as a landlord by giving bad advice and not chasing bad tenants for unpaid rent. Avoid at any cost!

Awful, do not use Connells Exeter. 3 months on market 7 viewings of which 5 were cancelled last minute and never happened. Absolutely disgraceful, offered open days - nothing happened, customer service was poor. Told us to reduce price and still nothing, now leaving them. After seeing Panorama they should be thoroughly investigated.

All experiences have been rubbish. I would never use them to sell my house. Just to get viewings is a shambles

We were asked to quote them for some windows in the NG2 area of Nottingham, we agreed a price, I informed them that we needed a contract signing and a deposit paying, I was asked to send the paperwork to a totally different email address, it was a maintenance companies email, we then received a call from a finance company asking if they could buy the windows directly from our suppliers, this immediately rang alarm bells, so I informed them that we would no longer carry on with the work, we then received a 1-star review on here, awful to deal with, phone calls to my mobile at 9pm, constantly messaging on whattsapp, I genuinely believe that we have had a lucky escape.

Let's face it, most estate agents are somewhat shady but Connells take it to the next level! Unbelievable. stay WELL away!

Absolutely disgraceful service, won't give back deposit after long time partner passed away. Told to put a dispute In but will only get half back as not married. Been going on over a month backwards and forwards to different departments will no good outcome. Do not use them they are disgraceful and diabolical company.

Absolutely the Worst Experience — Avoid Connells Birmingham at All Costs

Our experience with Connells (Birmingham City Centre branch) was nothing short of appalling from start to finish.

1. Phone Calls Ignored for Days
Trying to get in touch with the branch was a nightmare. On multiple occasions, I called the office over 50 times within an hour, and not once did anyone answer. Emails would go unanswered for days, sometimes over a week. Even a formal complaint to Connells head office about this was completely ignored.

2. Withholding Offers and Acting in Their Own Interest
We later discovered Connells withheld a cash offer from us and never informed us. When questioned, they initially denied it — only to later admit it after being presented with evidence. Their excuse? That they were “acting in our best interests” because the buyer was part of a chain. This was a major decision made without our consent, and it's hard to see it as anything but unethical and manipulative.

3. Pressure to Stick with Buyer They Could Profit From
The buyer whose offer we had accepted was using Connells for both their mortgage and conveyancing, and we were too. Once we raised concerns with Connells about the withheld cash offer, they strongly pressured us not to reconsider or back out of the current sale. In hindsight, this was clearly because Connells stood to profit significantly from keeping that particular buyer in place — through commission, broker fees, and legal referrals. Their priority was never our best interests, only their own pockets.

4. Viewings Seemed Rigged Toward Investors
The first 10+ viewings arranged were exclusively from investors, all making insulting low-ball offers and planning to convert the property into an HMO. It felt like Connells were hand-picking investor buyers, possibly due to financial incentives such as referral fees, rather than matching us with serious residential buyers as we had requested.

5. Attempted to Overcharge Us
Connells also tried to overcharge us on fees, and only when we produced the original email agreement did they reluctantly honour the correct amount. Had we not kept written proof, we would have been forced to pay hundreds more than what was agreed.

At the very start of the process, Connells were extremely helpful and couldn’t do enough for us. But the moment we signed with them and the listing went live, everything went downhill. Communication became poor, their conduct turned self-serving, and their attitude shifted to being dismissive and manipulative. Their actions undoubtedly cost us a better sale and made the entire experience far more stressful than it needed to be.

Save yourself the stress and stay far away from Connells Birmingham.
If you need further proof, watch the BBC Panorama documentary “Undercover Estate Agent” — it reflects our experience almost exactly.

They over state value of your property then get you to reduce.
They promise they have enough interested parties for open days.
But after months and 2 price reductions they fail to even produce one viewing. Avoid these scam artists.
They have no ethics and then tie you in to a 26 week sole agency contract that means you miss serious buyers who are not beneficial to their sales bonus incentive programmes.
Plymouth