Leonard Leese Reviews 17

Do not use Leonard Leese. We rented with Leonard Leese over a 12 month period. During our tenancy we notified Leonard Leese on multiple occasions that we were having issues with the hot water in our flat, they did respond to these notifications with any attentiveness whatsoever. Furthermore to this following a mid-term flat inspection where mould issues were raised in two of rooms, we were told to try and scrub the mould off ourselves! Following this we were told someone would be in touch to come and address the issue, months passed with no contact. Though this may sound bad enough to put you off renting with Leonard Leese, the worst thing about this company following the end of our tenancy they swindled us out of a significant proportion of our deposit. Upon moving into the flat we made Leonard Leese aware that the flat had not been cleaned to a professional standard, which they acknowledged and made notification on the inventory check in report of this fact. Upon checking out we were charged a professional cleaning fee out of our deposit by Leonard Leese, siting that when we left the flat is was not cleaned to a professional standard. I would urge everyone to give this duplicitous company a wide berth and stay to more reliable trusted letting agents.

Do not rent from this agency – disappointed with the experience.

I rented a furnished apartment through this agency in London, and unfortunately, the experience was far from ideal. When I moved in, the contract stated that the apartment would be clean and that all appliances would be in working order. However, I was left without blinds and lights in most rooms and the bathroom for months, despite repeated requests. Many of these issues were still unresolved 14 months later when I moved out.

To make matters worse, they have used outdated and unclean images to justify deductions from my deposit, despite the fact that I paid around £400 for a professional cleaning service, and I have photos showing the condition of the apartment after cleaning. I’ve tried reaching out to resolve this, but unfortunately, I haven’t received any response.

I would advise caution when dealing with this agency, as my experience has been very frustrating.

Worst estate agent I've ever dealt with. We got an offer accepted on a house, paid a holding deposit & completed all the referencing, and then were ghosted by the agent (Toby) and office for 3 weeks. They stopped picking up our calls, or just told us they were 'dealing with it', but gave us no information or timelines. Incredibly unprofessional. Some of this was the landlord being not great, but the communication from LL was zero. After the 3 weeks we were told the landlord changed his mind (it sounded like LL did not communicate our original offer properly), and it took a further 2 weeks to receive our holding deposit back. We lost 4 weeks of looking for housing due to this. Probably for the best we didn't rent through them given this terrible experience and the other reviews.

Prepare to be chasing them constantly for everything. Completely unproactive, will flat out ignore your calls. I have been trying to reach my agent to schedule the handoff of the keys for the property I bought for the last 4 days. Every time the only people I can get is the reception who promises to send my message and someone will call me when "they are free". They have been telling me this for the last 4 days and yet nobody ever calls. Male receptionist also extremely rude when I pointed this out saying that is all he can do. Stay away!

I am writing to share my experience with Leonard Leese, Borough Office, which was unfortunately less than satisfactory. My aim is to provide an honest account of my tenancy to aid future tenants in making an informed decision.

Delayed Response to Urgent Repairs: Within a month of moving in, we faced a serious water leakage issue. Despite promptly reporting this, the agency's response was slow, taking over a week to resolve the matter, which was not only inconvenient but also worrying due to the potential damage caused by the water leak.

Mold Concerns Poorly Handled: A significant concern was the presence of mold on wooden windows, a matter that took the agency over two months to address. Considering the health implications of mold, this delay was particularly disturbing and indicative of a lack of urgency in dealing with health and safety issues.
Intrusive and Disruptive Practices: The agency’s practices were often intrusive, especially the early morning calls from an agent, Dominic, and the frequent property viewings arranged at short notice. This was particularly disruptive and felt disrespectful, given that we were only a few months into our tenancy.

Deposit Dispute and Financial Transparency Issues: At the end of our tenancy, there was an unwarranted attempt to deduct £300 from our deposit for damages that were not our responsibility. After a protracted dispute, where we had to provide evidence from the initial inventory check, the deduction was reduced to £45. This experience raised concerns about the agency's transparency and ethics in financial dealings.

In summary, my time with Leonard Leese, Borough Office, was marred by delayed maintenance responses, intrusive practices, and questionable handling of the deposit. I advise potential tenants to consider these issues seriously when deciding to rent a property managed by this agency.

Moved into a new home which clearly hadn't been checked over beforehand.
No functioning shower for almost a week now, a window doesn't even shut, 2 blinds don't work, stained mattress, missing kitchen cupboard door.
You'd think the amount of money we spend on rent this would be checked before having us move in.

Absolutely fantastic service. I would highly recommend Leonard Leese. Prompt and efficient, always keeping you up to date with viewings and sale progress. Fantastic customer service and excellent communication.

If you need a reliable and friendly agent to let your property in the area of Southwick \ Borough then Leonard Leese are the go to people. Toby Bailey will not only give good advice but on going support when other walk away when a deal is done. I have been with them for 10 years + and can only say good things.

Sam was very helpful and answered all my questions in detail

Toby Bailey and the rest of the team at Leonard Leese have recently helped me to get new tenants for my rental properties. The service and communication has been clear and timely. Thanks to Toby and the team!

Absolutely DISGRACEFUL service, the worst I have ever experienced from any agents!!
My partner is disabled and was 5 minutes late to a viewing last week due to the rail strikes. Dominic Ogun then left just before she arrived, and he never called her or anything!
This has happened AGAIN today. He was not there when she arrived, as she was only 3 minutes late. There is no consideration or empathy from Dominic, it's disgraceful.

First day , agent name : DOMINIC OGUN took me to the house. He asked me to pay £300 deposit to keep the house. I asked him everything , he said yes no problem to everything. He acted so nice to make you pay the deposit.
After I paid the money, he turned bad and rude. He said NO to everything that he said YES (before i place the deposit).
The guarantor did not approve the application, which meant the house cannot be rent out . So Leonard Leese must pay back the deposit because the document for renting could not go through. BUT NO , they NEVER PAY MONEY BACK. They took my £300 and turned their face acted so bad and rude.

These are the worst estate agents in the area avoid like the plague!

Claudine who runs lettings is the most unprofessional person I have ever had the misfortune of meeting/ dealing with and have reported her to trading standards. During the pandemic things with my flatmate got very toxic and the police had to get involved. Because my flatmate in his infinite wisdom contacted Leonard Leese first they basically just took his word as gospel and never asked me what happened. I felt like I was completely ganged up on and they made a very toxic situation even worse.

I caught covid just before I was due to move out after all this horribleness and because this inconvenienced Claudine she was rude and dismissive about the whole situation even went as far as to insinuate I was lying, I have messages from NHS to prove that the only time I left the flat was to get tested for covid. She put pressure on me to move out even though I was very ill and only stopped once I threatened to get local authorities involved.

She has made no allowances for me having covid and made a very difficult situation even worse, it’s like she doesn’t know or care that the world just went through a global pandemic and it’s affected people ie renters, I was late with the rent once due to the pandemic and she later brought that up when I asked for a good reference, so I lost the place I was meant to move into. Every time I’ve spoken to Claudine on the phone you can genuinely hear the absolute hatred and contempt she has for me even though I have done nothing to her. Please do yourself a favour and AVOID these people.
It’s not normal for a estate agents to have this level of bad reviews that all say the same thing. There is something fundamentally wrong with the way they do business.

1. They rip your head off when you request your deposit back even if nothing is broken and the property has been professionally cleaned (yes, I mean the lady called Paige).
2. They pretended to be friendly before you move in. However, they ignore your reporting action about mould (growing before move-in) and even ridiculously charge you, regardless that you’ve tried your best to clean and ventilate the property.
3. No peaceful enjoyment during your stay at all.
Press “Useful”/ please and I’ll share more stories.

The female agent was not pleasant, not happy to greet us when we met to view 1 of the 2 properties we viewed. These were 2 different properties just happen, from same letting agent on different properties.

The other man was not wearing facemask as his excuse was he left his in the office to rush in.

The next day, i saw a property we liked, when I called their office, the man in the office taking calls, refused to book for a viewing as he said, he will not let us view the property as it is over our budget. Insulted and deprived,I felt disgusted and the man on the phone was RUDE not even waiting for me to finish talking.

If there would be a negative STAR... these agents deserved it/ should not be given any at all and they talk in between themselves, when my partner tried calling, they said the same thing.

Really BAD agents experience.

Was really disappointed in my experience- agent did not wear a face mask when entering my property, even though I requested this 5 times during covid outbreak and have a roommate in the high-risk category.

Gave less than 24 hours' notice for tenancy viewings.

Have not responded to my complaint about the above when escalated to management.

I had a extremely bad experience with them.
I had secured a property to rent through them and I had been asked to pay holding deposit until next day but early next day someone calls me (Dominic) saying that I must immediately pay over the phone, I thought it was a scam, he was still pushing me do it but I said not in that way, very unprofessional and unfriendly person. After one hour I transferred the money as it should be, then I got an email saying thanks for the payment. I was happy with the new property, I rejected other offers and I also told my kids.
Next day they called me saying someone else paid before me, sorry? I had secured the property, this wasn't a bidding system, I am still waiting my money back.

Agent was rude and inconsiderate, cancelled last minute and then was sarcastic about it.