“Absolutely awful website. Impossible to get a response; terrible user design. NO idea why estate agents are using it. Delays process and is stressful. No response to emails.”
“Working for an estate agency we require constant communication with Lettings Hub. I can't be more grateful to Abbi Wells, as she is outstanding with her knowledge and ability to provide a clear understanding if something is out place. Thank you so so much Abbi.”
“Very happy with Samantha Parker, very friendly, professional and easy to speak with. We have just started to use The Lettings Hub, the referencing process ran very smooth and was quick, would recommend.”
“The worst company to deal with.
Myself and my partner entered the referencing stage for a rental property with a guarantor in place. After 2 weeks, having provided every document they asked for, we were still no closer to being done.
They gave us no updates - I had to ring and ask what stage they were at to find out what extra documents they needed.
We were sending documents which they confirmed in writing they had received, only for them to claim a week later that they haven't had them. The whole experience was an absolute joke and it almost cost us the property.
Luckily, our estate agent (who was also thoroughly unimpressed by The Lettings Hub) moved us over to Rightmove's referencing process, which we passed within 2 days, no issues at all.
All estate agents, landlords & tenants should avoid The Lettings Hub.”
“I can endorse ALL the poor reviews here. Never had the misfortune to deal with such an incompetent company. 3 weeks and still waiting for completion. All documents submitted 2 weeks ago and resubmitted again and again. If there was not such a shortage of rentals at the moment would have walked away and rented somewhere else via a local independent agent who would have sorted everything professionally in 48 hours max. Recipe for additional ongoing stress on top of the usual moving stresses!”
“Awful. If you find out that your letting agent use this service for references, you should look elsewhere. The amount of personal information you have to provide is absurd. Their algorithm rejected me even though I was applying for a flat that was less rent than I have comfortably afforded for the past 3 years!”
“Horrendous company to deal with. I have just been advised that my savings account is the wrong kind of savings account, because money moves in to and out of the account... This is the very purpose of and instant access savings account!! The person I spoke to twice did not seem to be at all clued up at all and his remarks made no sense whatsoever. I had sent proof of my available savings that I have 'ring fenced' for the total cost of the tenancy and bills etc, but was told that they might not be my savings... utterly ridiculous!! The statement clearly shows my name and address at the top... they ARE my savings!!! I passed the credit and identity check as I know my experian credit rating is high. I have totally lost confidence in renting through an estate agent who uses The Lettings Hub. I am now having to make other arrangements, as The Lettings Hub have thoroughly let me down.”
“AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!! Pay cheap, pay twice. Or 6 times in my case. THE most stressful part of a new tenancy was the lettings hub. I lost 3 potential tenants as they took too long to do the references. They say it will take up 48hrs but it’s more like 48 days. They “passed” one guy only to put on his notes “he can not afford the rent”. This left us both confused and my insurance company would not accept him. I tried multiple times to contact them, when I finally got through I was told they wouldn’t speak to me, only the tenant (who also couldn’t get through). Eventually when my agent intervened, they said “that was a mistake, we will amend it” by which time (4weeks) the tenant had gone elsewhere. The next tenant gave in her correct forms multiple times just to be told she hadn’t. She called me in tears after 4 weeks of waiting and being told she hadn’t sent forms so I asked her to give the LH permission to speak to me. This worked once, then when I tried to call back (as they said they were dealing with the issue and would call me but didn’t) they said the tenant hadn’t given her permission for them to speak to me. She too eventually gave up and went to a property which didn’t reduce her to tears. Eventually I took a tenant on who still hadn’t been passed by LH, however, I couldn’t afford to loose any more on the property. In total, I lost £5k in rent and £1k in council tax through their incompetence, disorganisation and lack of communication. And to think I went with them as they charged less than a letting agent who would have charged £1k and had a tenant in that week. Had they have done the job with my first reference, I’d have had someone move in that week. Completely useless. I am now writing this review as they have FINALLY admitted they had the paperwork all along and have passed the tenant. This is 6 weeks after the tenant filled ALL her forms in correctly”
“Absolutely horrendous company to engage with, if you can avoid them do so at all costs. They keep moving the goal posts for me to be a guarantor for my friend's brother. I've given ample evidence of my income and they come back with conflicting emails each time. They were so bad last year I gave up with them and my friend had to pay the whole year's rent up front.
Naively thought this year would be better but they're putting up obstacle after obstacle again so that the 60 day window we gave ourselves is rapidly shrinking. I honestly think they're doing it to 'fail' the application again and get a lump sum, so they can put that in their fat bank account and sit on the interest once more. I'll be taking this issue to Shelter and any local papers because I have no patience left with the crooks.”
“Awful.
Asking for a ridiculous amount of data, payment information, savings accounts, that needed to show £93k in savings for affordability purposes on a flat which rent wasn't even 50% of this amount for 12 months. emails were consistently doubled up asking for information that had been provided. Useless customer service and overall serious pain to deal with.
I am asking in writing for all my information to be deleted.”
“I assume “Lettings” in this company’s name stands for “letting people down”.
For rental agencies to outsource reference checking is a reasonable idea – in theory. In practice, this shambolic joke of an outfit has managed to turn a simple, straightforward process into a Kafka-esque nightmare.
Lies, delays, incompetence, unaccountability, frustration. I think that covers their five-step process, doesn’t it?
Something that a rental agency used to action within a day or two now stretches out over two to three weeks, if not longer.
Throughout, The Lettings Hub will not deviate from its four-point Code of Conduct:
1) Bombard the customer with endless pro-forma emails, at least 6 a day every day. These have been carefully pre-written in obscure bland waffle that actually says nothing at all, but – firstly – creates the illusion that something is happening, and – secondly – causes so much confusion that it’s impossible to actually know WTAF is meant to be happening anyway.
2) Pass the buck, and make the customer do all the work. Blatant lies that “we’ve been trying to reach xyz” are never to be believed. I doubt this company has ever made an outgoing call in its life. Instead, your employer, previous landlord, grandmother, first-ever love, primary school teacher, person who taught your mother to drive and around 20 other referees will be forced to call THEM. And of course these calls are only acceptable if they come from a landline, using a vintage rotary handset, while there’s a full moon, and it’s 03:37am. Anything else is clearly you trying to scam them, professional criminal that you are.
3) Constantly try to con the customer into “having” to buy things like insurance via the Lettings Hub, give them online access to your bank account and so on. Presumably this is their key commercial purpose, and where they make their margin. And sadly I suspect just enough customers fall into the trap of being sufficiently pressured/intimated/uncertain by it to succumb.
4) Take forever. I mean, literally forever. Provided a reference or other piece of information? Ok, just give us a month or so to pretend to be looking at it. We’ve got lots of emails with word-salads around reviewing, assessing, quality control, final checks and so that’ll help with this – see point one above. If you actually have a property to move into, date an offer needs to be accepted by, or some other kind of deadline – don’t worry, The Lettings Hub will ensure that it sails past without giving a flying puck.
As others have pointed out, 'funny' how ALL the supposedly positive reviews exist just to mention a specific person by name. Not faked and written by friends/family/fellow colleagues at all, oh no.”
“Omg! I thought I was the only one! Ask for documents over and over again. You submit they want open banking. My bank doesn’t use open banking. Made a complaint to said department and a Sarah Higgins who is the director of operations (makes sense). Came back couldn’t verify because I don’t have open banking. Guys, that read this in the past and future you can file a complaint to the financial ombudsman man. This referencing service is tied to a financial product (insurance). They insure landlords and tenants – hence you are basically doing a check to see if the landlord can cover you after you’ve been vetted.
The company has a horrible way of running their service and not accepting open banking is discriminatory. That’s your in with the ombudsman. Do not stop with the complaint you can actually seeek punitive damages because of delay.”
“Absolutely the worst. Wanted access to savings, current account, 6 months statements. Decided that having a pension, interest and savings way over any 30 times rent we didn’t have enough income! What! Estate agent was amazing but my goodness these people could have cost us the property. If your agent uses this company looking for a different property. Seriously”
“Today i asked Stephanie for help as i had been having problems for 3 days trying to fill out this form and everytime i filled and signed it went back to the start.....
So Stephanie came to the rescue very helpful and patient solved the problem in seconds....
NO OTHER WORDS TO EXPRESS MY GRATITUDE
Thank you again STEPHANIE Barry Betts”
“I have been waiting for confirmation, verification for more than two weeks, despite chasing them almost everyday still no update. Their own deadline is 48 hours! my daughter may lose her place because of long, unexplained and avoidable delay. Not a nice experince”
“Pretty bad service, despite we provided all the information required, they insisted on "...provide us with an instant, one-off “snapshot” of your payments over the last 12 months." by connecting to our bank account... what!!?? Why in hell do you need access to all my payments just to confirm that I pay my rent and get my salary, when I have already provided you enough evidences of that?
Definitely, awful service, they are just after your data”
“I applied for a flat and was put through to lettings hub I was asked to pay a holding deposit and take out insurance on the property we was meant to move in on 22nd Apr 2024 on the 23rd April we was told we couldn't move into the property we had to be out of our current property on 22nd April I'm 36 weeks pregnant we asked for our deposit back and was told we couldn't get it back so not only was we made homeless we lost alot of money aswell they don't care my partner has medical issues and our baby due in 5 weeks and we have no home to go to”
“If I could give 0 star review I would! This company has been dreadful to deal with from the start. They ask for frankly more information than is required and despite calling them numerous times, cannot press a simple button to approve the referencing checks despite requiring no more information. I will never deal with them again”
