Farrell Heyworth Avis 

I received a reply from a Jeremy Collins to my review of Farrell Heyworth, Lancaster branch, which, frankly, just makes me angry.
The wording of it is typical company speak, seeming to answer my complaint in a conciliatory and helpful way, but in reality, subtly dismissing my complaint and justifying them carrying on exactly as they have been doing, with no real intention on changing their ways. He plays up the good points I commented upon in order to negate the negative points, and to appear to the outside world as a 'good' company in which people will have confidence in.
Sorry, but this expected type of reply doesn't impress me and actually makes me think of FH even less favourably now. I won't be coming back to FH.

Poor. Trying to view a property. Can't get in touch with anybody.

Phone = No answere for 40 minutes, on a number of attempts.

Email = No response.

WhatsApp = Regurgitated AI. Nobody ever returned my mesages or calls, although the message said they would.

Really perthetic.

Reply.

Why would I go out of my way to travel and see you. Just get a grip of your social contact support. Very strange way of communication this day and age.

They over valued the property by a considerable amount, bought in less than 1 viewing a month over the space of a year and then hit you with a £210 pounds fee, ostensibly for marketing and refuse to stop marketing it on rightmove until you've payed it. An exercise in short term thinking as I'd never go near them again. They could have earned a % on multiple house sales but instead screw you for £210 for some Mickey mouse pictures taken by an A level student

Disgusting is the only word to describe this letting agency. After renting a property from them for 10 years and keeping it in impeccable condition, I was issued a Section 21, in October 2023. This came 2 weeks after I complained about an issue with ongoing mould & damp. The property needed a lot of work doing which the Female landlord was refusing to do. The house was built in 1998 and EVERYTHING at the property was original, including the boiler! I left the property on the date the possession was required back in January 2024. Prior to leaving I contacted Cerys who advised that the landlord just wanted to sell the property and there shouldn’t be a problem with me getting my deposit back. Inspections show how well I maintain the property and that the landlord actually does not, so I never imagined my deposit being returned in full would be an issue. February 2024 the lettings agency Cerys & Declan have informed me my deposit is being used to get the property ready for new tenants! Yes new tenants. Faultless eviction to new tenants, and my deposit withheld. This is stated in an email despite what Jeremy Collins has put in his response. The checking out report was meant to be carried out with myself present however due to staff absence FH cancelled and carried it out without me present at a later date. The checkout report they have done DOES NOT match how I left the property and I have pictures dated with the time to prove this, it’s unbelievable how they can think their report matches the pictures I took that morning. This is now a dispute with the TDS. The staff Declan and Cerys have lied with regards to the deposit and the check out report they have sent me, it’s a disgrace. I have all the pictures of the damp and mould at the property which FH said the landlord was not obliged to sort out. FH are looking for anyway possible to deduct from my deposit, hence why I have opened a dispute with the TDS. I have requested copies of the inspection reports that have been taken over the 10 year period to show how I have maintained the property very well and the landlord has not, the Lettings Agency and landlord will NOT give me any copies, why is this? Because it shows they are liars. As a lettings agency Farrell Heyworth allowed the landlord not to maintain the property and soon as I pushed for the work to be done I was issued with a Section 21.
Jeremy Collins’ response is inaccurate which I can prove through emails & issues which have been logged etc, if I could upload emails and pictures to this review it would show this.

After moving out of the property at 24 Slyne Road, Morecambe on the 17th of November 2023, we are still waiting for the return of the deposit. The excuse for not returning seems to be directed towards the landlord not returning e-mails; even though the TDS and tenancy agreement states that deposit will be returned within 10 days. The property was plagued with issues including serious mould and fungus problems ; leaks and noisy upstairs tenants, all of which were reported to FH numerous times along with photos and videos. None of these issues were resolved even after causing substantial damage to property and clothing.

The property was relisted with photos that were at least 2 years old, and do not reflect the realistic condition of the property.

I have not received any reply to emails or had any further correspondence since the 30th of December. So I have raised a grievance with the TDS and will be looking for compensation on top of the full return of the deposit for the damaged items.

I recently vacated a rental property in Morecambe.

Having waited a few weeks for the return of my deposit of £495 I called the office in Lancaster and asked if they had a timescale on its return to me.

I was assured that the landlord had been contacted and that it would be returned to me shortly.

2 weeks later I re-contacted the office for an update, and was told that the landlord has still not responded. Later that day I was contacted by some contractors working in the property for the landlord enquiring about the whereabouts of the cellar key. I told that this had been returned to Farrell Hayworth with the others. I enquired to the landlord who said that he had not been contacted by Farrell Hayworth about my deposit, and he had now finished his contract with FH and was now with another agent.

I again contacted FH myself who eventually said that the landlord hadn't been contacted and would do that now.

I do not like being lied to and requested that as now the 10 day leaving period had been passed, with no correspondence from FH as to why the deposit has not been returned I have therefore sort legal advice, who have informed me that I am now legally entitled to a full refund.

I am hoping that this done, so that I do not require to take further steps.

We will see. I shall not be using them again.

If I could put 0 stars I would.

My experience with Farrell Heyworth estate agents (Lancaster) has been extremely disappointing. We have dealt with both the lettings and the sales department over the past three + years. I've encountered numerous issues, primarily concerning poor communication and high turnover of staff. Despite the promise of efficient service, there were significant delays in responding to inquiries, especially with the rental property.

Trying to sell through them led to a failed sale, after the offer was given we were advised to take the property off the market - leading to the property not being viewed for 8 weeks - when the sale fell through various promises were made but never followed up on. I totally understand that a sale falling through is not the agents fault however advice given was useless. I was then landed with a ‘digital marketing fee’ (when I sacked them) for almost two hundred pounds. The joke in all of this is that over a 2.5 year time period they showed 8 people round! One could argue that their digital marketing clearly does not work! The property was not an easy place to sell, a retirement/ assisted living apartment so I completely understand the challenges these kind of properties come with. They overpriced it, we constantly asked if we should reduce the price but were told no, I was also very clear that we would consider any offer. However our newly appointed agent looked me in the eye and assured me that if they didn’t think they could sell it they wouldn’t take it onto their books. The deal was also a ‘no sale no fee’ agreement. Suffice to say we went with the new agents- polar opposite of Farrell Heyworth the property was under offer within three days and the sale is complete. 8 weeks from start to finish.

With regard to the property that we rented, Communication with ANY issue we had was extremely poor to non existent. As we have now vacated the property (leaving it in a better condition than when we moved in) we awaited our deposit back. As per our lease agreement this should have been addressed within 10 days of us vacating. Farrell Hayworth disputed that they were in breach of contract however, it would appear they don’t understand, nor honour, the wording of their tenancy agreements. It was well over a month of phone calls and emails, hardly getting to speak to anyone as they never return phone calls or respond to emails, we were fobbed off and nothing happened. The matter was escalated and reported to the Tenancy Deposit Scheme, who we asked to act on our behalf. Funnily enough we then started to get replies to emails etc. Our landlord wished to deduct money from our deposit - which was an absolute nonsense, they threatened and tried to intimidate us into accepting deductions which were bogus. They work on the assumption that one is so desperate for their deposit back that people will settle - we chose not to and we are now in receipt of our full deposit back. The lack of transparency and follow-through on their part has severely impacted my trust and satisfaction with their services.

Overall, the experience has been marked by unmet promises, inadequate communication, and unresolved issues. I would caution others considering their services to be wary of these shortcomings.

I notice the response to other reviews by Jeremy Collins, Director. I greatly look forward to responding to his thoughts on this review.

Bait and switch, don’t trust the company. Offer fictitious costs for properties then increase the cost when applying

Really just have to say a Big Thank you to the staff at the Barrow in Furness branch, including the manager and ofcourse Shelby Kelly, for all their help in getting our property sold. It was a little tricky, and took a bit longer but they battled on. Sorting out all our needs. Always love dealing with FH over the years. Great staff and great management. Thanks guys.

Saw a listing for a property with "offers over £120,000”. There had been an offer for £114,000 but had been rejected. If all went well, I was going to offer £118,000. Arranged a viewing on a Friday afternoon. Liked what I saw. At this point I decided to wait for a 2nd viewing before offering £118k as I wanted to check out the attic, it had solar panels fitted.

So, I asked for 2nd viewing the following Friday. On the day of the viewing, I was told the price had been reduced by £10,000. The price now was £110,000 (not offers over) I offered the asking price and within 5 mins was told "the seller has accepted your offer. they want to complete within 2 to 3 weeks" this will come to haunt me very soon.

Excited and dreaming of the changes I was going to make until 1 week later I received an email from FH.
(I'm a 1st time buyer and have no idea how the process works. I don’t like lingo or shop talk, just give me plain English. Telling me “The seller has accepted your offer” which I took as literal is at worst an informal agraeement to sell to me and at best is “sold subject to contract”)

So, the email went thus:
I tried to call you earlier, unfortunately there has been another offer made on ******** Our client is asking for all parties to submit their best offer by 10am Monday

Monday morning came and I received a call from FH about any offer I was intending to make. I asked why was an offer being considered when the client already accepted my offer.
They explained because it’s a corporate client the property stays on the market until exchange of contracts. This was never mentioned before and had no idea that this was a thing. This is an important point that should have been communicated to me right at the start as this would have made me think twice about making an offer.

So back to the phone call.
I decided to offer the price I was going to offer 118k. 2 days later I received another call “The client wants to stick with me” A few more days went by and I’m beginning to think something's not write, I smell a rat, was this a bogus offer intended to push up the price. My gut is telling me YES.

I've already spent several Hundred pounds at this point. I'm angry with FH they led me to believe the property was at the "Sold subject to contract" stage.

A week went by with me getting angrier and angrier, Eventually I decided I couldn’t continue with my offer if the house was not going to be taken off the market. It’s a shame this was going to be my forever home, I had plans and FH screwed things up for me.

I would still like to buy this property,
but not under the condition the house stays on me market given I could be one week away from exchange of contracts only to be met with another offer forcing me to make another offer. I’m now going to see this house sold to someone else, depressing.

Bottom line: If the seller says “I/we accept your offer” you’d better mean it period.
Theres a difference between “I/We ACCEPT your offer” and “I/We will CONSIDER your offer” until someone come up with a better one”

As for the seller wanting to complete asap they have already rejected an offer for 114k and now lost another offer. so that's at least 7 weeks... not to mention however many weeks it had already been on the market.

Update
WOW not even 24hr later and the house listing has been updated with my offer of 118k removed.

Update 2
I only updated my star rating to reflect the reply they gave and have tried to help my case.

Much like all the other reviews here we have also had a horrific experience with FH Chorley. Our property was overvalued to secure our business, we were told this was a competitive price despite two other agents later valuing it for £25k less! When we rang about concerns about lack of interest we were just told to continuously bump down the price. Had we known this was an overvaluation we would have never listed the property in the first place, therefore 8 weeks of our time was wasted.

We came off the market and have refused to pay their extortionate marketing fee of £199 + VAT, unfortunately our property is still listed on rightmove at it appears as though this is a blackmail move from them that it won’t be removed until the fee is paid. Again, we will not be paying a fee for such a shoddy service. Why would we pay for a service we wouldn’t have used had we not been lied to at the start?It seems as though most of their profit margin is based on fees for people who come off the market, not dodgy at all!

The photos taken by FH’s photographer are awful, they’re blurry, overexposed and not an accurate representation of our property. The initial photo has 4 other houses included in it, some of the photos are at an odd angle, they’re all yellow and overexposed. We live in a new build and you’d think our house was 50 years old.

We’ve been lied to about viewer feedback, had several no shows. We understand these can’t be helped but it was very clear viewers aren’t being contacted to confirm booking. We were called 20 minutes before a viewing when I was on my honeymoon to ask us to do the viewing instead, FH were previously told that we were away. After a no-show instead of a courtesy call or email a note was put under our doormat on a scrap piece of used envelope that simply said ‘viewer cancelled’ so unprofessional and outright rude.

The funny this is I mentioned all this to my hairdresser who was absolutely baffled because she had the exact same experience with FH 2 weeks prior and had to pay the marketing fee after dropping them for Ben Rose! What a small world, eh?

I could spend my whole day writing a long list of issues we’ve experienced and it would seem I’m not alone. Farrell Heyworth have quite the reputation amongst other agents, too.

To sum up I would say AVOID AVOID AVOID and NO DOT pay their marketing fee, no matter how much they bully you.

Edit: Received a bog standard copy and paste response as expected, not addressing any of my concerns raised, particularly the fact that we’re still on right move with them despite the fact that we cancelled our contract weeks ago.

FH manage a rental property for me, well, they don't really manage because I do it myself.In April this year my tenant was struggling to pay his rent calendar monthly because of the dates his pension/benefits were paid. A lady at FH was very helpful and his payment dates were changed to 4 weekly. I asked her not to chase any arrears as he is elderly, vulnerable and worries so much to the extent that he loses sleep and gets very stressed. She was very good and said she would put a note on his account. He is now being chased for arrears and being threatened with eviction by a woman who obviously has no feelings or compassion and says there is no note on the account. I told them basically to shove it and now are trying to get 2 months rent from me . In the past they deducted monies from my account to pay for a fictitious appointment for a gas safety check. I knew it was fictitious because I checked with the contractor. What an awful company to deal with.

been trying for days and days to get a viewing on a rental property and no reply and the phones are a waste of time nobody answers and then watsapp they use nobody replys at all how can we rent properties when we can’t contact anyone … after reading these reviews i’m glad they didn’t i’ll go elsewhere

UPDATE someone messaged back days later on watsapp and told me they will call me when they’re having viewings THEN the next thing they’ve let it out and took offline without any call or explanations and ignored all my messages AGAIN …. waste of time go elsewhere ….

UPDATE 7/11/23
with regards to the reply what is the point of having a watsap if nobody mans it to reply i also got told i would receive a call when viewing’s were a available (see enclosed pic ) BUT nothing no replys no calls etc which is quite ignorant for a company to do so…. if you haven’t got the staff to cope with all the enquiries and applications then hire more is the answer … its not the first time i’ve been let down by this company and most certainly will NEVER be applying for a property with them again … IGNORANT and VERY BAD SERVICE is all i have to say about these stay away people 🤬🤬

My partner Rented with farrels, landlord decided to sell the property so of course she spent 2 solid months searching for somewhere to rent with her 2 young children, however rental is very high demand in Morecambe/Lancaster and not a normal first come first serve given checks ok with houses! She managed to find somewhere that was a lot smaller and not ideal but she didn’t want to mess the landlord about and moved so he could sell… she was informed by the lady at the checkout the landlord had 10 days to make a decision if she was to get my full deposit back or if the landlord wanted to make any deductions, it’s now 3 weeks down the line and she has been chasing daily only to be told the landlord has not decided if he wants to take any of the deposit for work he wants to carry out! On the checkout the lady who completed it told her to leave keys get her things and they will lock up… as soon as she walked out with her coat to put in the car she shut the door only to have a phone call letting her know she had left a laptop, she returned to get it and asked if everything was ok the lady said yes just finishing and she asked how long till she got her deposit which is when she was told he had 10 days to tell her . She is still waiting and all she get off farrels is that she need to be patient. The whole point of the tenancy deposit scheme so it’s fair, this is not fair!!! Absolute joke of a estate agent!!!!! I wouldn’t rate it 1 star more like -1… might not be a massive thing to them but it’s a lot of money and given she was very cooperative when she could of been a nightmare shows just how s**t they are…
Now it’s 5 weeks and they have come back with wanting her whole deposit to carry out cleaning on the house… a grand for cleaning…. First of all the house was not in that bad of a state infact I went and hoovered bleached the bathrooms, the only thing I never got chance to do was the kitchen and living area because she was rushed out… when she spoke with farrels the woman basically told her she had 2 months to clean…. The house when she left was not in a bad condition infact it was cleaner than it was when she moved in! The day she moved there’s no access for the van to get outside the door and between the house and road was a green, the day she moved it was extremely wet and rained heavily all day… the down stairs was all tiled, and even putting things down never prevented the floor from getting dirty, she spent till early hours the next morning cleaning and trying to make it as clean as she possibly could. Which was explained to the checkout lady who replied don’t worry as the landlord is getting it professionally cleaned anyway! My partner has adhd and asd so she is vunerable and takes things as they are said, as this is part of her condition, farrels knew this and still took advantage of the situation, there disgusting and should not be allowed to treat people this way! Lancaster lettings need to be ashamed as they have taken advantage of this despite her disabilities she has 2 young children with Xmas literally round the corner….
They are probably the worst estate agents around and absolute con artists, there staff need training properly when dealing with people because it’s not right! they over value and rob people, shouldn’t be allowed to trade

The mortgage advisor Nicholas Gregson at Farrell Heyworth was a narcissistic person who simply only cares about his commission. He attempted to place me on an absolutely awful mortgage product and used every pressure tactic he could think off. I luckily could tell this and when i decided to go elsewhere he became extremely hostile. Seriously stay away from this person especially if you're a first time buyer and you're navigating this as he uses shock tactics to confuse you. He is dishonest, deceitful and absolutely untrustworthy.

I have sold my property with Farrell Hayworth it has been a very easy process and the lady who never fails to help Teleah Taylor always gets back to me at the first opportunity,I would recommend this estate agent if anyone is thinking selling there home.

Having had a few agents quote to sell our property we decided to go with F&H Garstang. Gareth gave a very good sales pitch Sadly these were not delivered. There is not enough staff some part time. Phone lines are dreadful, no answerphone and often not answered. Sales progression is poor considering their fees. If you want a less stressful move do not use F& H unless you are willing to do the work yourself.

Wish I could rate 0.

Exited a property I had been a tenant of for almost 16 years and left my forwarding address, email and contact number.
I set up redirect for my mail via royal mail however certain letters can't be redirected and were issued prior to the address update so of course went to old property.
Instead of popping in mail box with no longer at the address or ringing me or emailing me to come collect the estate agent opened the letters which contained sensitive information and then emailed them to me.
If you value your privacy avoid this agency.
I rang was told the manager was on lunch then told she was busy.
Too busy to talk about a team member who had broken the law as it clearly stipulates you can not open mail without reasonable excuse there was no reasonable excuse.
The police and royal mail confirmed this as I had sought their advice to which the woman sniggered and said well it was human error.
I don't accept that reason as you read who an envelope is addressed to what is written on front and act accordingly.

As an agency they have many other faults I discovered having been with them for as long as we were.
My advice no matter how good the property if managed by them avoid at all costs.

I purchased a property with farrell and heyworth (lancaster) I was dealt with by Deborah Woodhouse shes excellent at what she does and has fab customer service with chasing up on solicitors and getting me the house that I wanted and striking a deal with the sale thankyou so much highly recommended!

Avoid this company like the plague. Had a flat for sale with them, ready to walk into, refurbished, decorated etc. Had an offer after about 4 weeks, which I accepted. Buyer dropped out for whatever reason 2 weeks later. From that point on this agency gave me the impression they were not interested in selling the property. Said they would keep in touch on a weekly basis to advise if any interest--this never happened!! I had to chase them!! I eventually took it off the market with them and went with another proper estate agency. Had to pay their 'Digital Marketing Fee' of £199 plus VAT though!! This is an absolute rip off, no other agent charges this and their normal fees are at least 50% more that other agents. They over promise and under deliver. Don't touch this agency with a barge pole!!