Saint Andrews Bureau Reviews 65

SAB have been a valued service partner to our business for over 15 years and are first-class in lettings and management.
There has been no stress in letting our properties, from finding tenants to estate management dealing with issues or repairs. We have experienced a wide range of letting agents, and SAB stand out by comparison.

On top of all the details, gets things organised very quickly, very friendly and easy to deal with, and service performed at reasonable price. Pleasure to work with SAB

Absolutely appalling. I am selling my flat which is managed by SAB and the Estate Management team have provided the incorrect documents (which I had to pay £380 for upfront!). Despite their error, nobody is replying to my emails and their phone lines say their offices are closed. Extremely frustrating as moving house is stressful enough without having to handle this as well.

Really clear communications and swift response as always.

this company is litterally so useless and inattentive to their tenants. they honestly don’t care about anyone but themselves and getting their payment. they’re horrible.

I would give 0 stars if I could.

They are utterly useless. I agree with the previous comments about staff member NF. She is extremely rude and has a really nasty attitude and doesn't know how to talk to people in a nice way. I was shocked at the way she talked to me. Her boss surely can't think this treatment is acceptable.

The rest of the staff are equally useless. They consistently lie, don't respond and are extremely slow at dealing with anything.

I would not recommend them to ANYONE. The reviews speak for themselves.

Avoid, avoid, AVOID!

I would avoid renting from this company. They charged me a £330 fee to change the name of one of the named tenants on our contract. When asked for proof of these costs they would not provide any. 2 years ago we did a similar name change and were charged £175. When asked why the fee had almost doubled they said 'Landlord’s contract and their fee has been reviewed since then'. When asked if we were notified of these changes they avoided my question, instead referring me to a clause in the contract stating they can charge a £50 admin fee plus any 'reasonable' costs incurred by the name change. When asked, they failed to provide a justification for the increase in 'reasonable' costs for the name change between 2022 and now. Because I am the one 'breaking' the fixed term contract without a break clause (despite the fact a replacement tenant has been found) they are threatening to not change the named tenant unless the fee has been paid. I'm not sure if this is legal (see Tenant's Fees Act 2019) but I have given in to their demands to make life easier for my flatmate. I would strongly advise avoiding using this company in the future and if you have no other choice, ask for a break clause to be put in the contract.

Agree with the comments on SAB (Cambridge) especially the rudeness of NF. I had to deal with SAB in early April was because of a water leak from a property managed by them which affected my apartment and which the owner of the offending property took no direct responsibility. SAB's emergency hotline was not managed at the weekend, had to leave a message and someone eventually calls back. There was no urgent action by SAB to get in contact and I was directed from their letting department to estate management had hence Noreen Farrow. She demanded I obtain insurance quotes for the damage caused by their clients' apartment and refused to consider compensation for damage to the electrics and the fact that I had to use alternative accommodation. SAB were not even initially interested in viewing the damage for their own assessment but later, reluctantly, obtained one quote through their preferred building contractors (Hadley Property Services). These contractors quoted £3676, the lower of two insurance quotes. Hadley Property Services then subcontracted the work to an unvetted semi-skilled builder (and unskilled assistant) who informed me the work was valued at £2k. The partial reinstatement work was extremely poor and took many days longer than originally stated. The main contractor never visited to check the work had been completed (still not complete and its now October) and SAB has never been in touch. SAB's insurance company may wish to get in contact to find out how much they have been ripped off. If there's a next time then I will follow a legal route directly with the owner. The mismanagement and rudeness of SAB means as an owner I would never ever consider to have property managed by them as I would not want them treating neighbours like they did with me. I will never consider using Hadley Property Services either as a direct result of this.
SAB may respond by saying they dont have any record of who I am. That fine because I will update this review with one of the rude emails I received from them from the 8th April 2024.

They don't care about tenants. When you left the house they came and check proper everything and there standards are very high. They try to take the deposit or maximum they can. This is not fair because they dont't have the same standards when they do the check in, and "forget" to tell about other hided problems. Each problem with that property was ignored or treated with superficiality by Sab property manager..

Terrible talking to Agent Noreen. The rudeness and lack of professionalism is ridiculous. She shouldn't be working in a customer facing role if she thinks she can talk so rudely to clients. Serious training and supervision is required. Cant recommend her or SAB to anyone.

It is a thumbs down from us. After renting for over 12 years with SAB they are very unprofessional. They do cheap botch it jobs on an already mouldy damp house. Please stay away especially if the landlord is Lord of the Manor Lord Trumpington. Bullied with section 21s just because we queried an increase to rent. .... house is mouldy damp and was infested with moths under the cupboard but didn't dare ask for help. A boiler that should have been condemned and disgusting rotten decades old windows and kitchen. Bullying agents. Glad to be out in our own new home.

I was amazed at the lack of understanding and professionalism of this agency! I had a bad experience with Agent Abbie. Good to train your agents to be more attentive to their applicants.

The best agent ever. Ignore 1 star reviews they are written by the 10 percent of society that are sh*ts.

SAB's conduct during my 12 months renting from them have been subject to upheld complaints with NHDC Environmental health and the Property Ombudsman - avoid these people at all costs, their hygiene standards are vile and their attitude to honestly reprehensible..
Avoid at all costs and use a professional letting agent instead..

It's horrible they can't make up their mind if the property is taken or not. This has happened twice, why show me a property if you had no idea of giving it out? I could clearly see it available on the site.

Telling a potential customer to “look on Rightmove and email us” rather than discuss our requirements is hardly great customer service. Why do you even have an office in Royston if you must be obnoxious (female in left corner hiding behind her screen, that’s you), you might as well just have a call centre and close the branch down. Do you know what? I will follow your advice and continue to look on Rightmove but if I see that SAB are the agent I will not be emailing you.

Oh, and if you reply in the same manner as you have with others then another 1 star review will be heading your way as this is EXACTLY what happened.

I rented with them for ten years. They were superb. I played my part by never missing a rent payment and by not making excessive demands or nit-picking. So when there was a problem, for example the washing machine broke or the boiler wasn't working efficiently, they replaced them with brand new ones immediately. I was very impressed by the friendliness of the workmen whom I met over the years, who provided the statuatory checks, such as the gas safety check, and I was always impressed by the professionalism and commonsense of Kane, the managing director. He would fix problems often before they happened, such as getting workmen in to clear ivy away, or to replace a fence that was looking rundown. I found over time that they had the property's best interest at heart and they were always fair to me. I stayed far longer than I intended to rent for, and it's true that the annual rent increase was a pain and a drain, but the professionalism of the company meant I always felt safe and secure living in a property managed by them.

Poor customer care, no positive communication, rude and demanding letters when things go wrong!!

I had a very positive experience with SAB for the duration of our tenancy, for fixing small or big issues. The communication was also very fluid. Many thanks to the Cambridge team.

Avoid these people! We were told that we had secured a property from them only to find out 48 hours from someone else. This industry has a poor reputation and with this sort of behaviour its pretty clear why. I can't see why any landlord would use them and I'd urge tenants to be cautious about renting through them