Touchstone CPS Avis 630

Do not recommend. Had I known all the additional rules about renting with them that are not within the contract, that you get zero sight of until you’re about to move, I would not have bothered.

I’ve rented 6 homes, both privately and via an agent, and not a single one has as many rules and stipulations as Touchstone set out. You can’t even hang a curtain rail (they can hang blinds though). Yes it’s a rental but it’s also my home until I chose to move out.

Communication is terrible, no one to meet you on move in day, which I’ve never experienced - you always get a walk though, inventory and shown how things work etc. You do get a list of things that you absolutely cannot do but they can though.

Utterly ridiculous company to work with. Just extremely disappointing… happy new home indeed.

I spent 18 months in a Touchstone property. And my time there was great, with very few issues.
The communal areas were kept clean and safe.
Responses to any issues were dealt with promptly.
Would definitely look out for them if i was to rent again.

Delayed 8 months due to the property developer but a serious lack of communication and care from Touchstone.

Eventually moved in, no welcome - collect your keys from a keysafe, there's a book on the counter to answer any questions.

Property Manager was on holiday for 2 weeks but no-one advised so no questions answered.

Chased incessantly to sign off on inventory despite it coming a week late and there being issues to rectify.

Have been told that despite this being my home I cannot put so much as a thumb-tak on the wall - even the developer said "you can hang things, you just cant paint or paper the walls".

Property comes with blinds, which is great but you can only install curtains with a tension rod, which would sit behind the blind and in the window recess and prevent you opening the windows - the same reason the blind is installed where it is?!

The garden must remain communal due to warranty (?!) and if you have garden furniture you must not leave it outside - other properties must not have warranties because they're not communal.

You are allowed pets but they cannot use the garden or urinate on the grass?

You also must NOT cut that grass, we will send someone "soon" - it's about three foot tall right now.

You are told to download an app for tenant records/issues but it doesn't work, emails go unanswered - if you call you're told someone will get back to you or "that's not my department"!

I appreciate we are the first tenants and they want to keep them nice however, they are still someone's home. A Touchstone contractor could hang the pictures if they must!

A prison would be more welcoming - and have less rules.

Lovely flooring though!

Useless, absolutely useless! Avoid like the plague. No proper communication. No active progression regarding issues to be dealt with. No updates on the situation. Not sorted any of the issues at all. Told me outright lies on the phone, which I then proved as lies within 15 minutes of taking the reins myself. NOT impressed...especially for a company that gives itself so much praise in advertising its services!

I'm the joint owner of a property given to my ex-husband in 2012 post-divorce. A very big judicial mistake! After 2 years of the husband refusing to pay the mortgage, the lender finally made a move ...engaging Touchstone last year to take over the management and collect the rent to then pay to the mortgage lender - the house was still being rented to tenants by the husband. This would at least stabilize the rising debts a little.

I contacted Touchstone and gave them a mass of information. The debts kept rising. No rent was being collected. They claimed to have 'sent a letter' to the tenants but 'the tenants didn't reply'. They made no other active / positive attempt to engage with the tenants and receive the rental payments. They just ignored the situation, it seems.

Again I contacted them, and again I gave them the letting agent details who'd tenanted the property. They said they'd tried to ring them but 'couldn't get any reply on their phone number' ...despite being a local high-street estate agent....so I immediately contacted the letting agent myself and got an instant reply. They'd not heard from Touchstone it seems...so I'd been lied to. Touchstone hadn't written to them, despite the claim of not being able to get a response on the phone!

The tenants have now moved out and not one penny of rent was collected by Touchstone despite the time -scale from last year to this...so the mortgage arrears are now nearly £20,000 on top of the actual mortgage loan...and I am still liable for this mortgage, plus all arrears.

I didn't feel as though Touchstone was even trying to secure receiving the rent to pass on to the mortgage lender. They did not take the situation seriously at all - despite all my phone calls etc. - and the end result is that the tenants have now left without a penny being paid to Touchstone. The house has been put up for sale by the husband...the mortgage arrears and debts are still rising.

I am very angry that this company did not make the efforts necessary to secure the payment of rent despite the many months they had to do it. They do not appear to have done anything in fact. I don't know whether they are to be involved if the house gets a buyer. The mortgage lender is no help either...they just tell me to deal with Touchstone!! I feel very, very let down.

I just moved into one of the houses and i had some maintenance issues
LARS has been so helpful and been untop of all the issues and has created good solutions for me
I got the best service and reassurance today
I am very grateful for him

Great customer Service Person

Quick to reply and action our concerns and issues. Jess was very helpful the entire tenancy and post-tenancy

It was a pleasure to deal with touchstone staff. They all have responded so quickly and sorted out any inquiry and issues that I raised.

Property management , deal with residents in a very professional way. Lisa , resident Services Coodinator, provides always quick and resolutive answers and always giving the right solutions for any issues. Concierge as well, always carries out a good job with his cutomers.
I'm glad to live here.
Many thanks

Dolly was very supportive and responds to emails promptly. I received enough information on what is available and how to proceed with the application.

Pooja at Touchstone is a legend - swift, no-nonsense support with every question answered instantly. The app’s async reporting is a game-changer: issues are resolved fast, efficiently and completely hassle-free.

Being able to have someone listen even though nothing has been done about the issue. It was nice an official was sent in person to interact and listen. Tenants are being harassed by the parking firm with fines for ridiculous reasons. Even when they have followed instructions to the letter. No distinction made between tenants and general public. It's a profit making scheme at the expense of tenants. All the while it's ostensibly for the benefit of tenants. I feel so helpless.

Absolute joke!! We have two children under 2 we moved in the 11th. Within a day the pipes under the sink had broken obviously not put together properly in the first place. We’ve used the sink once! When I sent a picture over email treated me like an absolute mug saying you should just slot it back together after I had stated multiple times it wont! On day of moving in the keys got lost I had to rush around multiple times the agent said the house wasn’t in good condition and had to wait a further 45 minutes for the inventory pictures to be taken after having to wait and hour and half for the keys to be found! The upfront rent has been mixed up and I’ve over paid about £150 absolutely no email back no help nothing! Now being told the sink will be sorted in the next week joke! I’ve had to wash my babies bottles in the bathroom sink upstairs

No communication whatsoever. Had to chase absolutely everything. Had to raise TDS claim to get our deposit back, as they would not return funds within period set out in contract.

Absolute scammers, avoid at all costs! Unfortunately we didn't get the choice, and got burdened with Touchstone involuntarily.

Birmingham B1. A flat in the block is being advertised and used on b&b websites and booking.com and has been for almost half a year.
The “guests” have a key which doesn’t always work and so they ring neighbouring flats doorbells at 2am. They are often noisy into the early hours. This is surely against any agreements and is unfair on the other residents.
Touchstone have been given all manner of evidence including first hand accounts, council noise complaints references etc. If they visited the property on one of the booked days they would have all the evidence they need. Why won’t they sort this?

A flat in our block is being advertised on Booking.com as Birmingham B1 Apartment for 8 people. This causes considerable noise and ringing of all the doorbells at 2am when the guests cannot get in. Touchstone have been informed but so far do nothing about it.
On Booking.com the flat is rented out almost continually through to July. What do we have to do to get this stopped.

Over the 2+ years we’ve been living under Touchstone CPS residential management, the issues have been endless.

If you would like to live under a landlord / residential management company with a staff turnover so high that you have a new Property Manager every time you blink, official complaints that don’t get a response, and for your calls and emails to be ignored, this is the perfect company for you.

Have lived with them for 6 years and never had any issues.
Any time there was property maintenance needed this was all dealt with quickly. I have had multiple different property managers throughout the years so communication hasn't always been perfect, but this is noone fault.
The property was amazing and I truly loved living there.
Move out process was simple and easy and have not encountered any issues as of yet.
I have made multiple changes to my tenancy over the years (adding and removing people) and have never encountered any problems with this. Overall a really great agency for me, and I really loved living in their property. It is a shame the rent has increased significantly recently but the market was a while has increased so this makes sense .
A big thank you to touchstone, in particular the agents who I have dealt with over the last few years (kaila, Jenna and Milly most recently)

I have to say I was quite disappointed with touchstones. I was recently going through my referencing for letting a property. There was an issue with my referencing, in which I was not informed of and had to call 5 days later to be told there was an issue. This was then less than a week before our move in date. Max was very very helpful! But we have not received a refund for our deposit, despite the team understanding that the error was not our fault. I have emailed and have not received any response.

From the first day moving in to Touchstone property, I have had no concerns
If I have had any concerns or repairs, all the staff in the relevant departments as and when required have been helpful and polite, especially Coco. There was a slight miss communication on the day I moved in to my property, I struggled to get hold of the relevant person I needed to speak to. Soon as I spoke with Coco, she managed to to resolve the issue and checked in with me a few days later to make sure everything was ok with me
Repairs address within days and the workers were respectful of my property, and polite