Housing Hand Reviews 

Initially everything about the application process was going well for our HMO house of 5 until we had someone drop out of our tenancy. For the meantime I had to update how much rent I would pay per month to a higher amount (£812.50 per person) which has now gone back to the normal amount of £650 per person as we found a replacement before out tenancy even started in August.
Housing hand have yet to update my rent per month to the correct lower amount meaning I am paying them the higher rate for their subscription even though my rent doesn't fall into this category (Student paying £751 - £1,000 pcm in rent) as clearly £650 is less than £751.
Despite numerous of attempts to inform Housing Hand via calls and emails and even my letting agency also informing them about the real rent price I keep getting passed around without resolution. It has now been 2 months of overpayment with no end in sight.

I hope this review gears them in the right area to resolve this. It's such a shame as I would've recommended them before but after this experience I don't think I would anymore until my issue gets resolved

I submitted every single required document well in advance, yet there has been absolutely no progress. My move-in date has already passed, and my documents still haven’t even been reviewed, let alone approved. To make matters worse, they have completely ignored my emails.

I paid nearly £800 for this service. While I understand this is a peak season, it is completely unacceptable to leave a tenant stranded with zero communication past their move-in date. I am extremely disappointed and stressed by this total lack of responsibility.

Terrible customer service. I submitted all the necessary documents, even paid the onboarding fee. Before my application was even completed, they took the first monthly payment but then went silent about my application. My application remained at 80% completion for more than a week, waiting for them to review and accept/reject my documents. I am an international student so I was homeless for days while waiting for this process so I could move into my accommodation. If you’re an international student, please don’t bother!!! Find another guarantor service. The agent (Jennifer) would only respond to emails at 10 PM on Thursdays ONLY and so my application remained stuck in one place with very little progress. I called, emailed, sent WhatsApp texts, talked to the AI chatbot for days, I got no response. But they’re only efficient when it comes to taking my money!

You are never clear on the prices, yo change them whenever you want to, also when I needed to be approved to get in my residence you never answered calls, mails or what’s app

I paid for their 'guarantor passport service through my account — after submitting my ID and going through their verification process I was advised that it would take 24hrs to confirm, I never recieved any confirmation or any follow up since. I've sent a few emails with no response. The only emails I receive from them are through a system saying to complete my profile — that's what I did but didn't receive the service I paid for.

*Edit re their response - I already provided my name, email address, and telephone number associated with my housing hand account.

Very frustrating customer service. They do not reply to email or calls, spent ages chasing up with no help…chasing my own tail

Terrible customer service, AI chatbot and phone line are practically useless for genuine advice, just redirects you to cancel your application through your dashboard which I did this several times to absolutely zero response. Also emailed all of their available emails to no response. Continuously keep trying to charge me despite my application being incomplete. Just ignores my requests to cancel my application and keeps trying to get money out of me even though I have continuously stated I no longer need to use this service. I am leaving this review as a last resort as this has been incredibly frustrating.

Genuinely they don’t exist. It was fine when I was paying hundreds each month but as soon as I got into an unfortunate circumstance which I required what I pay for, on one month. They do nothing, I spent an entire month trying to contact them about it in which they ignored and didn’t respond. It eventually got to near two months in where I found out they ignored my Agency too.
Then on top of that, when I had to deal with the issue myself despite paying their service, they tried to act like they’d done their part and are trying to charge me despite not giving their service. In which my agency confirmed.

If you need a guarantor then sure but if you end up in complications, just know they’re utterly useless. Even then, with their prices, the service they provide is shocking and they act as if their service comes above your rent payments.

Hello,

I am contacting you urgently regarding my guarantor agreement for my accommodation at Iconic The Glassworks, Leeds.

Iconic has informed me that they are waiting for Housing Hand to complete their side of the contract so that the accommodation contract can be countersigned.

I will be arriving in the UK on Thursday, 10 September, and I urgently need confirmation that everything will be completed before my arrival, as I need to move into my accommodation.

Could you please check the status of my application and complete any outstanding requirements as soon as possible?

Please let me know immediately if you require anything further from me.

Thank you very much for your urgent assistance.

Kind regards,
Faisal Riza Nugroho

This company via the Percy AI Assitant told me very clearly (evidence available ) that they may be able to help me even though I clearly told them that I did not have a co-signer.

On this evidence I paid the 20 GBP onboarding fee.

However, after contacting my contact I was told that this was not posssible and that i did in fact need a co-signer.

So they deliberatly mis-led me into paying for a service which they could not provide.

In my opinion this is simply fraud.

I asked them to refund by close of business yesterday but no money has been repaid.

FRom Percy AI on Housing Hand
Percy

That’s okay, Andy. If you don’t have a co-signer, we may still be able to help. We at Housing Hand stand as a guarantor service for eligible tenants, so not having a co-signer doesn’t automatically stop you renting.
If you want, I can explain how it works or help you get a quote based on your rent.

Very good experience

The site itself is a bit of a nightmare. Often times my application was stuck at 40% or at random numbers and the chat bot couldn't give me answers as to why that was the case. I ended up emailing the head agent for my application, Yusuf, and honestly I couldn't have completed this without him. He was extremely kind and attentive-- even after two weeks of me sending him emails practically every day.
At the very end of my process, there were multiple issues with my lease and I ended up needing to change my whole application after just completing it and Yusuf managed the whole thing. I think he really understood that moving and finding a let is hard enough without having issues with online guarantor systems and tried his best to smooth things out for me. I wish him all the best.

Overall good service. Yusuf helped me during my application and made the experience very easy.

The first person responsible for my application was not the best, she’d take forever to reply, approve parts of the application without actually viewing them in details. However the other woman, Priyanka Paun was amazing, she would respond as soon as she can, so polite every time I was worried. Overall amazing service.

Extremely unorganised and sometimes rude. First time using them was good and quick , this second time the application has taken over a month and now is past due my moving in date. Only reason I stick is lack of other options

Despite weeks of notice and constant attempts to follow up without response, they remain trying to charge me after my tenancy has ended. My letting agent confirmed to their 'refunds team' that they are no longer liable for the tenancy, but absolutely nothing has happened despite my follow ups.

I remain receiving attempts to take the payment, emails threatening legal action, and have had next-of-kin contacted, simply because they are digging in their heels.

Avoid and save yourself from stress.

For one freaking year, I paid £54 each month for their guarantor service. Then when it was time to cancel the subscription, they made it so difficult that it feels outrageous. There is an option in the portal to cancel but it does nothing. Your letting agency have to email them but even after they email, the didn't cancel the subscription and kept trying to charge me every week.

For 1 year I paid on time, no missed payments. And still I got this. They are just blood thirsty hounds want to suck all your blood.

This is like a one way path. You can subscribe but you can't cancel it. They want you to pay till the day you die.

It was a great pleasure working with Jessica Machado at Housing Hand. I had some trouble with my application because I started the process quite far in advance, and some of my documents expired. She was extremely helpful and highly responsive throughout the entire process.

The property management company was also moving slowly, so she helped by sending follow-ups to ensure that the property verification was completed as quickly as possible.

In the end, everything was resolved successfully. Jessica was always very polite, attentive, and proactive, and I really appreciated her support and the help I received from Housing Hand throughout the process.

very friendly and helpful, especially for international students, not at all complicated, and arguably economical.

If I could give 0 stars, I would. If you are a postgraduate student, a final year student, or an international student, save your time, stress and BREATH, considering this guarantor. They pulled out at the last minute on a technicality that was integral to our situation and left us homeless!

Housing Hand and our case manager, and countless customer service agents strung our immediately pre- approved guarantor application ( I can only assume by an AI) along for a month, asking for several documents, barely responding to any of our communication, neither to us, our agent, nor our landlord. These third parties also spoke with them. Never did we get rejected, dropped, or even told we had to shut down during any of the nearly four weeks, and we were told to look for another guarantor.

Last week, three weeks in, they asked for a final sign-off from my landlord on the T&Cs so they could sign our lease the day before we were supposed to move in, which was done swiftly. The next day I called to say, “it’s done, everything has finally been signed and approved” With a smile from ear to ear.

I was told quite brusquely that I don’t qualify as a student and working professional, and I need to cancel my application and portal immediately because my course ends in 2 months, not three, despite being an international and not being able to work full-time for this exact reason and was told to come back when I have a full time job or earn double the rent. My flatmates application was abruptly shut down the same day. We went from having made arrangements to move to have to cancel moving company, facing homelessness and real fear for our future, especially for postgraduate and international students who cannot work more than a certain amount of hours legally, no matter what, we CANNOT even meet their "supposed "working professional criteria. I say "supposed" because the goalposts move so conveniently when questioned.

This "strict policy" should have been made clear 4 weeks ago. How have we been, albeit an awful response rate, been in touch for weeks and getting kicked off the day before our move-in date after positive conversations with only 1 day before! I shudder to think what would have happened had we paid the 1329 pound fee for coverage for 12 months, they each gave us both, and then this happened.
Housing hand then rejected us four weeks in, and when I called to complain and ask for a refund of the service fee due to the immense distress and delay they caused to our move as vulnerable students, they made mention of a new reason each time:

1. Our student status doesn’t last long enough because our course ends at the end of September… if it didn’t take so long, we would be full-time students for at least 2 months at the start of the tenancy. And this could have easily been flagged in week 1, and we would have made other arrangements if you strongly disagreed with our student status.

2. We, as in I, Sara, as the employed party, don’t earn enough to cover double the rent ( hence why we need a guarantor). We cannot legally work more than 20-hour workweeks EVER until our course ends as postgrads)

3. THE RICHEST EXCUSE, when I call to ask for a refund after all we’ve been through, I am told. The fault is your landlord, we asked “time” ago, what is the tenancy type? Was this confirmed with you weeks ago? And my agent called again and was asked to provide this again, and an employee said he had no clue, and his colleague might have the email somewhere.

The excuse now is “The property isn’t an HMO, we could have guaranteed you even if you were only going to be a student for a couple months if this is a year HMO” we are 2 people and the landlord confirmed that as soon as asked, two weeks ago and you never followed up.
with our move-in date 1 day away despite our agent and landlord submitting everything requested, on time. My case manager, gave no clear explanation and no timely updates on a decision that put two full-time students at real risk of homelessness in under a week.

If we didn’t meet their criteria, that should have been flagged in week one, not after they’d taken our onboarding fee and let us believe the guarantee was going ahead. Every customer service rep I spoke to afterward seemed to know less about our case than the last chasing this company felt like chasing an incompetent centipede answering machine where no one answers.

I was told by phone the refund for myself and my co-signer was under review. Nothing happened. My emails were forwarded to the refunds team five working days ago. Still nothing.

Avoid this company if you can. The service fee is 20 pounds per tenant, but the stress, wasted time, and risk to our tenancy were entirely avoidable and entirely on them! I am traumatised at the very least.