Aitchison Raffety (now Graham + Sibbald) Avis 

Absolutely shocking company.
No communication whatsoever, anything required is ignored.
Please if you are a landlord look for another place to manage your property as these cowboys will take your money for providing hell to tenants.

I feel that I must write this review as a public service. My wife and I wanted to live separately during our contract and I was informed by this company's agent that changing the contract would require almost £400 in referencing fees even though I was already paying all the bills. Apparently the government recommends a maximum of £50 for changes to contracts of this kind and many agencies are upfront that the charge is just £50.

Later in the year my electricity provider was altered without my consent which I believe was due to the whole flat-block having to have one supplier. I questioned the ‘account opening’ charge as well as the 'data collection and billing' charge, as I believed that only a standing rate, electricity used and VAT can be passed on to a tenant. I did not get an informative response as to how such charges could be passed on until raising a complaint. Be warned: the law is not as clean cut as politicians like to claim.

I also refuted the deductions from my deposit when I left the flat after cleaning it from top to bottom, but by then I was worn out by continually fighting this company and the epic waits for responses. It was also clear that I was not going to get to see the check out report which I’d requested. However, upon sucking it up I was cut some slack for the first time since the AR Group took over the tenancy and the deductions were not so bad in the end, so I thought I'd abstain from writing this review.

However my final electricity bill received today contains another 'data collection and billing' charge so I feel it is my duty to warn tenants that this is a company that provides mediocre service to tenants and seems to know the law inside out when it comes to passing on charges and fees. You’ll need a deep wallet.

I moved out because my rent shot up by 15% in one year. Admittedly it hadn't risen for a few years but to expect me to trump up an extra £100 a month in the post-lockdown economic climate seemed to lack empathy. The AR group's representative defended the landlord's right there do this and was not interested in negotiating a compromise. I will never rent with them again.

Awful communication, constantly goes through to voicemail and emails and messages go ignored. The AR group are the lettings agency management for my rented property and it is quite frankly exhausting trying to reach any resolution with property maintenance which still has not been resolved or even started since I moved in a year ago..