Darlows Avis 

We can highly recommend Darlows based on our experience recently. Our agent Christine went the extra mile and impressed us with her excellent communication skills and kindliness. Christine could always relied on and supported us through finding a suitable property and reducing our stress levels.

Nick & Teresa Glover

We were interested in purchasing a house through the Rumney branch. However, during the initial viewing, the individual showing us the property came across as condescending and lacked knowledge about the property. Despite making an offer, we experienced weeks of being misled with little to no communication. We were passed from agent to agent, only to be informed in the end that they had chosen another buyer who supposedly was "better suited", despite their offer being lower than ours. We are hardworking, earnest individuals with excellent credit scores and are not part of a chain. I think they have been very unprofessional and potentially even biast. Disgraceful!!!

Absolutely dire level of service.
Well, I never knew that darlows of Caerphilly had a 'preferred' buyers list, did you?
Apparently an open day for a house, which we were booked in for, and that in their words, no one was allowed to see before said open house.
Only to be called today to say that the house has bee seen and sold by someone on their 'preferred' list. Disgraceful.
Obviously some buyers are more equal than others in Caerphilly especially if buying through Darlows.
Fair enough this happens, but please stop the lying.

I’m currently buying a house through Darlows Tonypandy, my first point of contact was Christine Jones. I so far have only positive things to say, I’d recommend this estate agent to anyone they’re excellent 😀

This company is absolutely useless !! We have been renting with darlows for just under a year when we originally put the offer in on the property it was on the grounds that it would be painted cleaned and all the nails and holes in the wall would be replaced/ repaired BEFORE WE MOVED IN as it was in a pretty bad state from the people before. instead of them getting this sorted before we moved in the day we picked up the keys we was told it had not been done yet, a year later they are asking us to sign for another year which there’s not a chance in hell I would do! It’s been a year and I have asked for an inventory several times as it is a legal document required for liability, every time I have tried to ask I have been ignored and they had the cheek to tell me next years rent will be going up the way this place is managed is horrific as soon as you have put ur deposit down and paid first month rent you will be ignored and left to your own devices. Wouldn’t recommend to anyone honestly

In the time that we had contacted Iestyn- he was very friendly and efficient. He emailed us when he said he would and sent information very promptly. Sorry we can't go ahead yet with buying a property. We will certainly ask for you in the future.

Avoid if you can. Terrible service with no communication.

Louise made me feel reassured that problems at my rented house would get fixed so that’s ongoing but sounded very positive, today she helped me while taking a charge for my rent, very helpful whatever the problem is , thankyou🤞🏻

Excellent customet service from Hollie, very informative & helpfull.
I will be back in touch in the future.

AVOID - DO NOT RENT WITH DARLOWS
Darlows are a truly shambolic agency, and would never recommend anyone buying or renting through this agency. The way that this agency treats its clients is appalling - DO NOT RENT WITH THEM

Moving out/Deposit money
-> Huge delay in returning deposit money
-> Huge delay in writing reference for our new tenancy in Manchester which caused major delays on the other end (We moved in 3 weeks later than expected due to your agency not completing this reference, meaning I moved in the night before starting my new job).
-> Nobody ever answers the phone, even after people have left voicemails saying that it's urgent we speak to someone
-> It shouldn't have to take me saying I am happy to take them to a small claims court to finally get a response (in 2 minutes) from them
-> The moving out information was sent to us at 6pm the night before our tenancy was due to end
-> The deposit deductions were suspiciously 1/3 of the initial money

Communication with the team
-> Under 24 hours notice when contacted for viewings the next day, usually the morning of
-> Any phone calls we would get from the team would always be at the end of the day so we couldn't contact them that day, and then no one would pick up the following day
-> Maintenance issues - had to wait ages for anyone to respond to issues, eventually we started reporting all of our maintenance issues privately through the flat's contractor - a lot of people don't have this luxury so would have to deal with absolutely shocking service (When the agency did respond, it was never with a maintenance person coming out to look at it themselves, but normally "Have you tried turning it off and on again?")
-> The service is absolutely shocking, the team are rude and blunt and spoke to me like I was a child on the phone
-> I've noticed that even though you don't answer the phone or reply to emails, you are very quick to negate any negative reviews online
-> When your agents came around to show people around the flat for viewings, they knew NOTHING about the property and were claiming that our furniture was part of the flat and wanted to give it away

Issues with the property itself
This property should NOT have been advertised as ready to move in when myself and my partner moved in.
-> The electricity meter (for the entire property, not just the flat) is downstairs in a building site - this is a health and safety issue due to uneven flooring, machinery, and harmful dust/chemicals, this was also locked/boarded up on a number of occasions, leaving us without electricity and no way to top it up
-> There is no internet port for the property - luckily we hadn't signed up for a minimum 18 month broadband contract at the time
-> There are holes in the floorboards in the bedroom and kitchen - sometimes dust from the downstairs building site would come through, they felt very flimsy and unsafe
-> The locks for the front door, and flat door, each broke a couple of times, leaving us trapped inside the property (we managed to luckily fix this issue ourselves, but can only imagine how this affect a vulnerable person)
-> The curtain pole fell off entirely on its own accord, leaving cracks in the wall - could have been dangerous if someone was underneath it
-> When there was heavy rain, we could see leaks in the walls/ceilings
-> Due to the nature of the building site downstairs, there were a number of holes leading to the kitchen from cracks in the floorboards and gaps in the wall downstairs - This led to a mice infestation, when this was brought up with the agency (and a rent discount/refund was requested) there was no response from the team, and when they finally got back to us we were treated like it was entirely our fault with no mention of financial compensation
-> This also impacted my mental health and led me to have several panic attacks due to the mice in the kitchen
-> The bedroom in unbelievably tiny, and I think it is appalling that you feel like you can advertise it as a 2 bed flat for over £1000 pcm

Myself and my partner have been nothing short of disappointed and appalled with our year spent with Darlows. What should have been a wonderful first living experience with my boyfriend ran in parallel to nightmare after nightmare with the property itself and with the agency.

Louise was so professional she has dealt was any problems I had we so much ease. Thank you for all your help.

I recently sold my property through a more reputable agent. Since my house has been on the market and sold I have been bombarded with unwanted phone calls from Darlows. I’ve asked on three of these occasions to remove me from their call list and have been told they would do this, yet I continue to get calls. I’ve asked how they obtained my mobile phone number and was told I must have supplied it on their website. I’ve never been on their website. I have reported the GDPR breaches. I would not recommend this business as they clearly throw personal information around and can’t perform simple tasks. Very poor.

AVOID AVOUD AVOID StaY away from these cowboys if you are a landlord. Even if you pay the fee they will withold rent and refuse to issue notices to tenants. Leaving you with arrears. THeY REFUSE to answer your emails and are incompetent in their knowledge. Basically you will end up having to manage the tenancy yourself. Thry just pass you from one oerson to another and do not act in your interests. the property ombudsnan and rent smart will be keen to investigate their u scupulous agent behaviour. I suggest you all report them where you have had this experience. Oh and another thing they wont answer your question but will use a friday to send a random email that needs some queries answered like we suggest you renew a tenancy with them or you will be left vulnerable !!! The offices are not open on weekend for you to sort this out .

They will not act in your bezt interests

A decent bunch. They've clearly got an eye for quality when it comes to sales, and an eye for detail going through the fine print that I was very impressed by, and perhaps most importantly, they were extremely patient with us as first time buyers.

We could've perhaps done with a bit more guidance, and certainly there was a lot of flailing about when things weren't going through that we could have had more support with, but they came through in the end and I got the firm impression that when it seemed they weren't entirely focussed on us, it was because they were focussed on the other half of the sale, and I can respect that.

Darlows have been project management for my property for 5 years now and I really don't have to lift a finger! They contact me whenever needed and will organise anything.

I have a hectic and busy life with not much spare time at all, so it's great not having to worry about my property and to know that its in good hands.

More recently I have been communicating with Louise Pugh and she has been very helpful and responsive.

Thank you.

Clare

I have dealt with Louise at the Merthyr Tydfil branch for some time now, regarding my rental property. She has been totally professional and understanding in all aspects of her job and is an asset to a great company.

DO NOT RENT WITH THIS COMPANY - They are a fraud company that had caused ALOT of stress. They gave us the property in a bad condition, then after we left made claims over over £1,000 claiming that we had left a lot of damage. Save your money - honestly. They have no interest in agreeing anything or discussing things with the tenant. They also gave us a dishwasher that was almost broken down, it was so disgusting it was falling a part from the inside. They did not properly de-weed the property before they gave to us then tried to charge us for it knowing we could not return it without any weeds. It's been the absolute worst experience in my life.

Would like to start off by saying that before we had the keys to our house, Darlows were very responsive to emails, calls and queries. On the other hand, ever since we have received the keys, anything that we have asked, we have been fobbed off or ignored. We were told that the property that we have purchased would have any rubbish removed before we received the keys, but we have just spent 2 days cleaning out the attic and separating the rubbish to be disposed and we haven’t even got round to the outhouse or shed, which are both filled to the brim with rubbish. When cleaning out the attic, we found evidence of drug use in the form of a “grow tent” and 2 sharps boxes (dirty needles). Luckily, we found these and not our young niece and nephew who were there and excited to help us with our new house. We have contacted Darlows on 3 separate occasions since we found out that the property was still full of rubbish, each time we have either been ignored or told that we would be passed on and then contacted, we have not been contacted once. We have also been told that our boiler is brand new, but the boiler started leaking as soon as we turned the water back on in the house and no the attic floor, along with the ceiling and wall in the master bedroom are soaked.



All in all, I would like to say that since Darlows took our money, they have done nothing but make our lives harder with the contact issues and calls being ignored.

Great service and consideration of the smaller details to help all parties. Very impressed with the time spent ensuring a great experience. Thank you!

Jada was the most amazing person we could have had when viewing a property. She was everything we needed and more. I Feel so blessed we had her and i cant thank Jada enough for everything she has done to help us. Thank you so so much!