SB Lets – Student Reviews On Letting Agents

Summary: The quality of the place was not acceptable and they refused to refund me even though I didn’t even stay there and I checked out immediately!! They practically stole my money! I found a room in a hotel online that I really liked the size of the room very much and the quality of it was good ( not excellent ). So I called them and I asked for the name of the hotel but they refused to tell me except after I pay ( probably so that I can’t go directly to the hotel and book for a cheaper price ) so I went to the office and payed the money for the booking and I asked them that I wanted to go to view the room as the room will be booked for a month and I need to check it but they told me that I can’t and that all rooms are standard and that the girl working there stayed there a couple of month and it was good ( quality and size ) so I believed them. Problem is when I went the room was not even half the size of the one in the photo and the quality was very bad as it smelled bad and the chair had holes in it! So I talked to the manager of the Hotel and she told me that it’s the fault of the agent as the room in the pictures haven been taken for a month! So I checked out and left with my parents! So I went back to the office more then once and they told me that they will call me back but they didn’t and they refused to refund my money all though I didn’t stay there.

Avoid these agents at all costs , they are rude scamming tw*ts ! They will overcharge on their fees! It starts with £200 agency fee , but on top of that they will charge stupid amounts for moving in fee, deposit holding fee , inventory per room!!! And In total its £590 for a peace of papper! No property is worth dealing with these c*nts !

The agency manager is a very dishonest person, careless, and actually not a nice one for whom money matters prior to his customers he will not care about your wellbeing but only cares about his money, so he can have a nice car while most of clients are paying for a service that they are unhappy with. On top of being a crook he will blackmail you and threaten you as soon as you will a post a comment, by saying ‘I will get my lawyer’ and even swear at you. They can’t expect good feebacks when they give bad service and try to rip off every single tenants. He will also train his team to be as nasty as him, so the whole agency is full of nasty people. Sb lets is starting to have a bad reputation in Brighton, just have a look on forum pages ok Facebook and I hope this will stop soon. This is a very accurate situation of this agency. Please people take this in consideration. Peace out ??

First of all make sure you read the whole contract properly there are charges in small print that they don’t tell you, for example you will be deducted £50 of your full deposit when you leave they call it ‘check out’ fee. For the check out day they will trick you, they will make you leave at 12 pm on your last day whereas you should have more time, if you don’t leave the will threat you to charge you an extra night. Also if you locked yourself out the agency will charge £50 just to use their copy to let you in in your own room. Also during the viewing they will tell you cleaners come once week whereas it’s only once per month, when you ask them why cleaners don’t come every week they will tell you to top up for a weekly cleaner. Also they do viewing without your consent, or even letting you know. They just barge in your private room. DO NOT GO THROUGH THIS AGENCY, they are crook, and have little consideration of the tenants.

Be prepared for no call backs, dodgy emails sent out of hours and all round poor customer service. Pressured to move in the day after viewing, extortionate fees for what you sign up for and failure to complete the necessary paperwork. Do not move into one of their properties without having any paperwork signed. Be prepared for aggressive phone calls after you’ve addressed an issue, illiterate and unprofessional text messages and threats for eviction. As a result of disrepair we had an issue with rats which then developed into flies and hatching maggots. Whenever contacted about this SB Lets showed no sympathy and decided to evict us all after complaining about the living conditions. I agreed as after 4 months of hell with Sb Lets I had enough. No section 21 provided for the eviction – after addressing this we were rudely told we had no AST so they didn’t have to follow the Section 21 rules. After receiving more aggressive emails and phone calls I no longer felt safe living in the house so decided to leave the property asap. Please think twice about renting with this company, they will find any loopholes and cannot be trusted.

Worst letting agency in Brighton, the owner of the agency charges you hidden fees that are not stated in the contract when you checkout . I’m an international student that rented from them and had a terrible experience. Don’t even bother dealing with them, they send you dodgy emails and on some occasions they don’t even inform you when they have a viewing at your property, they just show up. I always pay my rent 6 months in advance and rented the property for 1 and a half years, and even that I’ve been treated horribly by the owner himself. The owner is extremely rude and he answers to my email in an unprofessional and dodgy manner. Got tired of the back and forth email dealing with the owner that replies alwyas with the same thing and with a few lines that I gave up on my dispute. It’s not worth it to rent from them, worst experience ever dealing with this agency.

Avoid at all cost. Highly unprofessional, Hidden fees, rude ect.

I was looking for a short let (~2 weeks), and this case they said they could be ‘flexible’. The associates are nice on the phone. They respond quickly when you are interested, and get your money quickly. (you pay before you sign anything, and no discussion about any terms or conditions. But when you have a problem you want to discuss, they never return a call, become slow at replying to emails. Say they will respond or to call the manager at certain times, but then he is never there. It feels like they just want your money and once they have it there is no need for discussion. I thought they’d at least discuss it with the client, but nooooo, they leave me chasing them everyday for a week with multiple phone calls. Even if there is no refund, which is upsetting, the customer experience and service is poor.

After 3 months I still don’t have my deposit back although the estate negotiator told me my room was very clean. Very disappointed.

Very annoyed with the company and their slow response to deal with the issues we are facing.

I found SB lets to be rude and obnoxious. They let me a 2 star hotel that was quite frankly worse than a squat. When I phoned to discuss this they were less than helpful and we’re reluctant to give me a refund. The manager was unhelpful and incapable of communicating effectively. Do not use these guys!

Offered me a room and ‘forgot to mention’ it was actually in a hotel. Very very poor.

Useless. They turned up late for my viewing. Promised to call me and didn’t Just because they are dealing with young students doesn’t mean it’s ok to treat them terribly. Wise up SB Lets

drove 3 hours and spent 40 pound on petrol to meet an agent named Lauren who turned up late to the viewing and then couldn’t open the door to the property I came to see. Apparently they dont think to check these things before people book appointments with them. She then told me she would call me back that day and let me know whats going on, to my surprise I never received a call back. The next day I called them back myself and was told I should not have put all my eggs in one basket. its been 1 week and Im still waiting on a call back from the manager, something tells me he or she never received my number.

We paid them the deposit plus 2 months rent in advance, and a holding fee, and they didn’t send the tenancy agreement to us to sign. After phoning up 2 days before our move in date frustrated about this lack of agreement, and asking them for it quite demandingly (as is justified with only 2 days to go!) they alleged abuse. There was no swearing, nothing that consitutes abuse, plus it was hearsay, yet they cancelled the tenancy the night before moving in. We had everything ready to go, moving van booked, possessions boxed up. They didn’t care, were rude, and phoned up randomly demanding an apology for being so ‘demanding’ before cancelling the tenancy. Honestly in disbelief that these people can sleep at night. Can’t do their job, get upset when people call them out for it. Absolutely awful, don’t put yourself through it.

All the agents I’ve dealt with are rude and liars. Absolutely do not trust a word out of these agents. They rush you to move in, making big promises about the property however when it comes to fulfill them they suddenly back out and leave you to fend for yourselves. Made us pay all up front and would barely reply to our emails or messages when trying to reach them. Never again will I ever work with such unprofessional agents. Literally any other agency is better than this one. The manager, Shadi, acts all nice initially and then becomes a complete a** and started yelling and swearing at us to move out if we didn’t like the way they treated us (even after taking all money). Horrible horrible horrible!