Northwood Lettings

House to rent… Has some history

The House On Broad St – now Empty (and Let to someone)

The whole process of moving out of Broad St. has been a little traumatic to be honest, we hadn’t anticipated a number of things that ended up being a little bit of a nightmare in the scheme of things.

We moved out over the weekend of the 10th October 2009, and are staying with a friend a few streets away from my sister – just of London Road in Stoke. Ironic that I am drinking in the same pub that I used to drink in at lunch time when I was at 6th Form.

What we actually ended up doing at Broad St.

Once we had moved out we had the task of trying to sort out the damp that had become visible in a big swathe over the chimney breast since we decorated the house. I got in touch with a friend of mine; Oliver Jones at OMJ Developments – he arranged and sorted out a damp proof man and we had the plaster stripped off the wall, the brick work chemically treated, then the wall skimmed with a damp-proofed cement mix before re-plastering it all. It is drying out nicely, and just needs painting.

Letting In Newcastle Under Lyme

We decided to get a few Newcastle letting agents to come around to talk to us about letting out the house, companies who we felt were best in the area.

Gorgeous Homes

We started out our property adventure with Gorgeous Homes, they have a very visible presence about Newcastle with a bright sign that seems to shift properties… When they came around everything was reasonably cool and clear-cut with everything that they were suggesting, apart from one thing that really confused us… They were saying to us that Letting the property out furnished was best advised, but it wouldn’t get any more money than unfurnished.

Having spoken to Gorgeous Homes, we went for a walk around Newcastle on a Saturday afternoon, we went to BJB lettings, Reeds Rains and Bridgefords Countrywide followed finally by Northwood.

Northwood UK Lettings – Newcastle Under Lyme

Northwood were pretty blooming amazing from the minute that we walked in – they were OPEN (the only one in Newcastle that was open on a Saturday afternoon) they were professional – and efficient; Within 5 minutes of walking in and arranging an appointment, we had a text message that reminded us of the agreed time and date. We dealt with Steven Swann from that inital meeting onwards he is, and was really helpful and has basically sorted out everything that we have thrown at him. They have arranged a replacement window, the EPC (Energy Performance Certificate) which is by LAW required now… and a new carpet for the front room, after all the plastering an building work confined the carpet to the bin (in our opinion)… We have gone on a guaranteed let which basically means, whether someone is or isn’t in there, we will get paid by them. It isn’t as much as you could get by dealing with it all yourself, but we don’t really care…

Reeds Rains

Erm, sorry, lettings don’t work on Saturday – They took my details and I think called me back on Monday. However, they didn’t bowl me over…

BJB – Butters John Bee

We wandered into BJB on a Saturday at about 2.30 expecting to be able to talk to someone about lettings – to our amazement, we started to get the standard response – sorry, lettings don’t work on Saturday – and even more surprising – you had to go to their head office at Festival Park if you wanted to talk to them about letting out your house… erm, forget that – Monday to Friday, 9-5 like most people (who are looking for a house to let) I am busy… Fail BJB

Bridgefords Countrywide

Bridgefords bill themselves as an upmarket managed letting service/agency… there was NONE of that when we walked in on a Saturday afternoon, the three members of Staff who were standing about talking didn’t really bowl me over… When I said we wanted to talk to someone about lettings, I got a really duff response… “Oh sorry lettings don’t work on Saturdays…” So… We turned around, and walked out, for whatever reason, I stopped and went back and stuck my head around the door and said – we are looking to let out our house you do realise… Again; “yeah, sorry you’ll have to come back on Monday” Now in a recession, if a business can’t be arsed to asked me for my contact details to rent out my property then I’ll be damned if I am prepared to give them a chance with anything “real”.

Gas, Heating and Plumbing

We had a new Worcester Bosch combi-boiler put in last Christmas with a 5 year Guarantee, that needed servicing, and the Y-Plan valve replacing as it had gone. All done now and certified.

Electrics

A bloody nightmare – Since V owned the house, she had everything done professionally in the first instance, and then thereafter, we had ended up having everything done and certified by an NICEIC electrician… However, having paid about £100 for a Periodic Electrical Inspection, they came back saying that we needed a bundle of stuff doing and wanting the best part of £700 to fix the “issues”. We have decided to just get on with it to get everything back on track as we have people wanting to move into the house as soon as possible.

Anyway – moving out of Broad St – Pictures Below

[View with PicLens]