J & E Shepherd Letting

[njw]

I write this to urge everyone in Dundee who rents with shepherd lettings (on commercial street) to get in touch either on this thread, by PM or to me direct.

I have been renting with shepherds for 6 months now, and since we move in the company:

- has been completely unprofessional and nevered replied to any letters or other form of written correspondance
- has failed to carry out essential repairs
- has made errors in their accounts which have led to myself and my flatmates being wrongly reffered to a debt collecters
- has failed to help rectify the situation quickly
- has acted in such a way to attempt to trick/confuse us when making complaints, something they are renowned for - as they do not expect students to take action against them
- has basically acted unprofessionally, ripped us off, left us in a house which is almost unfit to live in, and failed to respond to any complaints we make.

Some examples -

When we moved in on the 1st of July, the flat was in a state. Despite being told the flat was cleaned extensively on June the 28th, the flat was messy, almost an inch thick layer of dust lay in areas, mouldy glasses and plates were scattered around, there were holes in walls, the bathroom was a disgusting state, shower curtain broken, no bathroom lock, and more. There were also leaks in upstairs ceiling and windows.

All these things were reported on the day, and yet it took shepherd (while being constantly reminded) almost 4 months to carry out any repairs. All the repairs that were done were a small lock fitted to the bathroom door, and a new shower curtain fitted. Because of this, written notice was given that rent would be withheld, but there was no responce to this.

When rent was withheld, the company made a huge fuss, and eventually we secured a meeting in the flat with the arrears officer, and Jim Stewart, a junior management partner in the firm. At this meeting we resolved the rent problems by paying the missing rent, and Jim Stewart assured the other problems would be fixed.

Were they? No.

He also said when asked about the lack of responce to letters - "I get a lot of letters into my office, you cant expect me to read them all?"

this seems to be the general attitude throughout the company.

Completely unprofessional, and impossible to deal with.

I urge you if you rent with these people to get in touch as i'd like to know your experiences, and I am trying to gather names to make a large scale formal complaint to numerous bodies. I also urge you to write to them and RICS (the royal institute of chartered surveyors) to make a complaint if you feel you need to.

Thank you for reading,

Nico

[AlanG]

if anyone has had any similar problems with landlords then they can use this thread for naming and shaming them too as long as they prominantly display name of company(to avoid confusion with the one in original post). That way anyone having difficulties can possibly arrange with others to try and deal with it.

[suede]

I had similar problems with J & E Shepherd...

me n my friend got a flat last June. Since then, our shower broke - it took them about 6 weeks to actually get in touch about fixing it. I think i phoned them about 3 times.

our buzzer was broken not that long ago and they took the same length of time to "fix" it. However they never contacted us and just sent us a letter saying it had been fixed. They never tested it and it turns out its actullly connected to the wrong flat.

[humndislocation]

I'm with Sheperd letting. Yeah, they do take a long time to respond to any problems you have.

Not got enough time to make a proper reply though.

I moved into this flat in about March/April. The security door has been broken for that length of time. They've said they're getting in touch with the other landlords in the building, but that was months ago, and still nothing.

[1010011010]

I rented a flat from J & E several years ago with 2 other guys.

It was a two bedroomed flat which was in a shocking state. We decided (for council tax purposes) that only the two students would be registered there, and that I, who was working fulltime would just be on the shady.

However, one day it was only me that was available to go down and sort something out at their office. I claimed that I was one of the other guys, and the woman, who had been at several meetings with my flatmate never clicked.

My Flatmate had a shaved head.
I had a full head of long dreadlocks.

Go figure....

In 1.5 years living there, they attempted to fix the washing machine 5 times, and every time it just leaked again.

They are a joke, and I encourage anyone to take them to the cleaners.

"I don't have time to read my letters..." - What a cock!
Get an assistant then, or you're not doing your job Arrears Boy.

[pixelsink]

"I don't have time to read my letters..."

Maybe if they were doing a good job he wouldn't get so many letters. We rented a flat from them for two years and the windows were practically falling out. they never came to fix them in those two years and so we left owing them 3 months rent.

i sent them a letter saying that it was to cover the excess fuel bills we had to suffer because of the draughty windows. No response. That was 5 years ago, so i assume they don't care. That flat still has the same old windows to this day!!!

Shambolic

Col

[seonaid]

j&e shepherd, i'm assuming, must be in breach of the contract you signed when you moved into the flat

and i'm guessing the flats aren't that grand either

a possible solution is

find a new flat and don't pay your rent from now until you move out

you may as well go against the contract aswell

then at least you'll have a deposit for another, decent flat

[pixelsink]

Originally Posted by seonaid

j&e shepherd, i'm assuming, must be in breach of the contract you signed when you moved into the flat

and i'm guessing the flats aren't that grand either

a possible solution is

find a new flat and don't pay your rent from now until you move out

you may as well go against the contract aswell

then at least you'll have a deposit for another, decent flat

thats what we did.

[neilcoalesce]

They took ages to get back in touch when the guy downstairs and us tried to arrange getting a security door for the close (they own the bottom two flats in our close). Held the whole thing up for ages...

[Gemo]

thanks for all the reply's

its not as simple as just moving out and not paying anymore, as we're all under contract and so will be passed to debt collectors without doubt and have a bad credit rating. So we're stuck there until the summer...

[njw]

thanks for all the reply's

its not as simple as just moving out and not paying anymore, as we're all under contract and so will be passed to debt collectors without doubt and have a bad credit rating. So we're stuck there until the summer...

[seonaid]

Originally Posted by Gemo

its not as simple as just moving out and not paying anymore, as we're all under contract ...

if j&e shepherd haven't stuck to the terms and conditions of the contract you signed when you moved it

it makes the contract void

if the contract has it written that repairs will be rectified within a reasonable amount of time

and they're not being done

that should be your grounds for not abiding with the contract

also

unless you don't give them a forwarding address

how are they meant to find you?

[njw]

they have my 3 flatmates National Insurance numbers, meaning they can be identified. They dont have mine however, although they dont actually realise this.

[seonaid]

noone can access information about you without your authorisation

it's called the data protection act (not meant to be as patronising as it sounds)

they have your ni numbers

but can't do anything with them

honestly