sarahkenny.co.uk Reviews 10

Terrible staff, scammy company. Lucky if you ever get a response. The high property manager turnover says it all. Nothing is ever sorted in a timely manner.

Unprofessional and rude, Sarah Kenny were hostile to deal with from the start of the tenancy - lying in emails and dragging processes out. Then at the end of the tenancy they are attempting to charge fees contrary to the 2019 Tenant Fees Act, causing us to enter arbitration with the deposit scheme. While I have been successful, the stress this has caused has been huge.

I rented a furnished room in Bristol through Sarah Kenny and they issued us all a no-fault eviction after I had been there for 9 months. This was of course the landlord’s decision and not the agency. However, only when my housemates moved out, did I realise that they owned all the furniture in the property so I would have to move out much earlier than the 2 months notice given. I had only 1 week to organise it so I asked Sarah Kenny for support either with furniture or accommodation elsewhere until the end of my notice period and they refused.

This situation arose because Sarah Kenny did not provide me with the information (tenancy agreement) stating that the property was unfurnished. They simply gave me an adjustment to the tenancy agreement of the previous room occupant. I accept that I could have been more proactive in requesting this information but I believe it is also their legal responsibility to provide it upfront.

I was lucky enough to find somewhere else to live with 1 week’s notice. Then Sarah Kenny told me I would have to pay rent at their property until the end of my notice period. I challenged this and argued that I could not afford to pay rent on 2 rooms simultaneously. They made me a compromise and asked for rent for part of the notice period. I challenged and fought this as well and eventually they relented.

My housemates and I left the apartment spotless when we left. Nevertheless, Sarah Kenny then tried to claim part of our deposits for cleaning. We fought this through the Deposit Protection Scheme who ruled in our favour and our deposits have been returned.

Throughout this whole stressful period it was clear that Sarah Kenny’s only interest was to extract as much money from us as possible. The means they used to do this were unfair, proven by the outcomes in our favour, but this was only due to us sticking up for our rights. I would recommend that no one rents from this agency.

Incredibly rude service when I called up to enquire about properties. Ceana made it clear that she cared little for my custom and acted as if my call was an annoyance. I get the property market is hectic and fast paced, this is definitely not a way to treat propsective letters or buyers. This just raises a red flag, I look forward to a positive transaction on both sides and if the first interactions are already a terrible experience, definitely worth taking your money elsewhere.

We stayed in a flat in Bristol managed and let by Sarah Kenny.

We had a really poor experience at end of our time with them.

Before I go into why, I'd like to say that Luke, who looked after the property during our tenancy, was absolutely brilliant, and this review is not a reflection of him.

At the end of our tenancy contract, Sarah Kenny's Head of Property Management emailed us to say that they would not be returning the full deposit because we had left the property in a poor condition.

They tried to charge us over £300 for getting a deep clean of the property and the exchange of some light bulbs. In the end, as soon as we filed a tenancy dispute, they withdrew from the dispute and returned us the full deposit.

We don't deny that the light bulbs needed changing and that there were some areas of dirt, however the flat was left in a SIGNIFICANTLY better condition than we had received it.

Sarah Kenny offered contacts of professional cleaners. However, we had chosen to not use them and to clean the property ourselves. We felt that their attempt to charge us was them trying to exploit us for not using their cleaning services.

We felt like they tried to screw us over because:
- The flat was left in a better condition than it was left in
- They implied multiple times that they had significant amounts of proof that the flat was left in a bad condition, but they dropped their claims as soon as we filed a dispute ( - if they've gone through the effort of paying £300 to cleaners and taking 100 plus photos, why wouldn't they send this to the dispute company if they thought they were certain to win?)

When we moved in to the property, we faced the following issues:
- No wardrobe in the bedroom
- Broken door handle, which meant we got locked in to the living room
- Broken fridge freezer
- No vacuum cleaner
- Dirty carpet and other dirty surfaces

Here are some messages we received from Sarah Kenny's Head of Property Management (all in writing over email):
"The evidence I have, 100 plus photographs which I will present to the TDS clearly show that the property was left in a dirty condition."
"I attach a very small selection of the photographs that show some of the cleaning that is required. Although your annotated move in inventory said that there was some cobwebs and dust, the cleaning required at the end of checkout is far greater than this as you will see from the attached images."

Anyway, my advice to anyone that takes a tenancy with Sarah Kenny is to:
- Take a number of timestamped photos and videos of ANY issues you have when you move in to the property.
- Don't let them pressure you into not filing a dispute at the end of your contract if they decide not to give you your despoit back

Rude, entitled and arrogant. They think because they’re based in one of the posher areas of Bristol they can treat people like dirt. Like most agents, especially Letting agents, they could do with a sharp reminder that despite stinging their landlords for doing very little, that ultimately tenants rent their properties and if they all went elsewhere they’d be up a certain creek without a paddle! It’s unfortunate that the nature of supply and demand means we have to deal with people like this. In reality it would be great to cut this outdated, expensive, largely useless type of organisation out of the loop and rent direct from landlord with a simple legal contact in place. Sure landlords would save a fortune and possibly tenants too, plus wouldn’t have to deal with people like Sarah Kenny and her band of incompetents! Thank god I’ve now bought a house and won’t have to deal with them again. I’ve told everyone I know not to deal with them.

Incredibly poor experience.

Would not even allow me to view a property as my partner did not meet their minimum requirements.

Absolutely unwilling to make any compromise or even entertain offers (above asking prices!) from me.

Would do well to remember that while the letting market today favours landlords, like all things it is cyclical and tenants will remember which agents were helpful.

Sarah Kenny Clifton Bristol were helpful when I initially signed a rental contract however I still have unanswered questions re unexplained charges.On signing my contract, I realised they had charged me a higher monthly rent than advertised? when questioned, they simply said no this is the price, very strange!
They also never respond to problems within the flat and shared areas when you email them for assistance so very poor service from this rental agent.

Sarak Kenny Lettings in Bristol is an absolute f***ing joke!
2nd month in a row they overcharged me for absolutely no reason!
Avoid this agency at all costs...unless you have too much money lol
F*** their company!
Absolute f***ing c**ts!

Like most letting agencies and despite currently being paid by tenants, Sarah Kenny seems to come down on the side of the landlord. I'm sure that this will be even more the case after tenant fees are banned. At the end of his tenancy, my son returned his flat in a cleaner condition than when he moved in. Despite this, Sarah Kenny tried to charge £144 for cleaning. That would be 10 hours of a cleaners time. I'm sure they would be there for less than 2 hours at most. We are of course going to dispute it with the deposit company who I'm sure will find in our favour. Just a shame that a local company disappoints by taking this sort of action.