TuckerGardner Reviews 54

We vacated our rental property on 16th April and the landlord confirmed on 5th May that the property had been left clean and in good order, with no deductions proposed from the deposit.

Our deposit repayment request and bank details were provided on 8th May. We were advised the payment would take “around a week”.

Despite multiple follow-ups by email and telephone, we still do not have the deposit funds, a payment date, or any meaningful update. We have since been informed there is a backlog within the deposits team due to staff absence, however communication and ownership of the issue have been extremely poor throughout.

Very disappointing experience handling what should have been a straightforward deposit return process.

Please don’t use this agency very poor services let by trainee staff and charged as the most expensive letting agency in the city. After years of using this agency, we realised that access to our property had changed and we were not informed, they failed to provide us with simple time lines to organise works in the property, previous reviews of the property were suboptimal for saying the least, difficult to contact and will rarely, if ever, repliedto emails, and ended up lying to us. And all that despite us providing them an income for years. Honestly, take your business away from them.

We are landlords for 25 year with Tucker branch in Shelford, Cambridge. In the last 5 years the communication has been truly terrible. We have had so many new people to deal with, sometimes not even knowing who to contact. They pride themselves on being local but having received phone calls from Cardiff numbers I am not sure they are. I would not use this company for any of our other properties and would not recommend them

This review is based on my recent renting experience with Tucker Gardener in Ely, Cambridgeshire and its headquarter, Countrywide Ltd.

The quality of the house was not reflected by the monthly rental I paid,

That's not the worst thing. At the end of the contract, the staff of Countrywide told me there was an outstanding amount of rental payment which was absolutely untrue. I had cleared all rental when I left the house on the last day. They made their own excuse for delaying the return of my deposit. I felt stressful.

Complaints to CW was useless. They didn't take immediate action nor
treated fairly.

After a length of time, I finally got a portion of my deposit. The remaining portion was being hold for a further judgement by the mediator.
I have waited for almost three months to get the remaining deposit back after a deduction.

From beginning to end, our experience with Tucker Gardner was awful — to say the least. Everything appeared fine initially, but once they had secured our business, the level of service dropped significantly and never recovered.
We dealt mainly with Emily and Matt, at the Cambridge office, and the process was plagued by delays, errors, and a general lack of care. Incorrect and missing information about our property appeared on their website and on portals such as Rightmove, and it took months to get these basic issues corrected. There was also a clear lack of experience and understanding of the local market.
The property eventually sold, but not thanks to their efforts — the buyer was introduced by a third party due to their own interest in the property. From offer accepted through to exchange, Tucker Gardner were virtually absent and showed no interest in proactively pushing the sale towards completion.
Before completion, I repeatedly tried to contact the branch manager, Francis P. He was never available when I called the branch, and despite emailing him directly to formally complain about the atrocious service we had received, I never received a response. This strongly suggests that the issues start from the top.
This is one of the most expensive agencies locally, yet the service provided was anything but premium. Do not trust them if you are trying to sell your home. Everything will seem fine until they have your business — then they stop caring.

I am extremely disappointed with the level of service I received regarding my home valuation appointment scheduled for 1:30 pm today.

This appointment was booked two weeks in advance, and despite receiving three reminders today, no one attended. I was not contacted beforehand to inform me of any issue. I took a day off work specifically for this appointment, which was completely wasted.

When I contacted your office, staff were unable to tell me where the agent was. I was later informed that the person due to attend was in a management meeting. This information should have been communicated to me in advance. Failing to notify a client of a cancellation is unacceptable and highly unprofessional.

This experience shows a serious lack of organisation, communication, and respect for clients’ time. It has left me with no confidence in your reliability or suitability to handle my business.

I expect a formal apology and an explanation of how this will be addressed.

I have been a landlord with Tucker Gardner for more than two decades, originally a great independent sales and lettings agent. After Countrywide took over basic admin mistakes began - functions were centralised for cost savings, high turnover of inexperienced staff. Basic inspections were not carried out. Unfair charges made and so on. Long story short don't consider using this business to 'manage' your properties very poor service.

We moved out of a rented property on 13th June and still have not received any of our deposit back. I admit there is some work to be done in the Garden which I am more than happy to pay for but after many phone calls and Emails (Most Emails are just ignored), I eventually got a response on 21st August wanting to deduct over £900. I immediately asked for an itemized list as this seems far too high as the property was generally left in a better state than when we rented it and once again my request is being ignored. I can only assume they want to wait until the 13th August to reply so I can then not log a dispute as 3 months have passed.

During our tenancy things were also not great. We had very few property inspections and when issues were raised they very rarely were resolved. This was despite some hefty rental increases over the years.

Please, if you are considering renting a property, look elsewhere.

We just bought our first home from Tucker Gardner (TG) Ely branch where we had a very positive experience with the team although we mostly interacted with Schalk Meyer who provided a really personal, friendly service and was always prompt when responding to emails and calls. When Schalk was away, the whole ELy's team (Stephen, Ben, Matthew, etc.) provided the same dedication to assist us at the best. All of this culminated in a seamless house purchase that went through within 3 months which is quick compared to what we have heard. Genuinely recommend TG as our experience with them was much different and miles better than previous houses that fell through with another agencies. Well done! Thank you

Rude patronising and treat renters disgustingly
my son moved out of property 2 months ago refuse to give deposit back

Absolutely terrible company keep away

Awful estate agent for prospective buyers.

Strongly pressured into having a mortgage meeting with their in house team before they’d let us view a property. We refused, and they gave us a later viewing date in response.

Estate agent forgot to turn up to booked viewings. Office doesn’t answer the phone.

Unfortunately I can’t give 0 stars.

As a landlord I placed a property with them to let. Unfortunately the particular letting department doesn’t answer their phones.

Additionally, am disputing the full return of the previous tenant’s deposit as he left, after the tenancy had moved to rolling periodic, without notice. No response from TG.

Next step will be the ombudsman.

Unfortunately I can’t give them -5.I rented a house with them and now I can’t move there because the property is infested with toxic waste,the cooker have some cable on the floor possibly dangerous!The agent said he can’t do anything!We have only one solution to sued them!

Impossible to contact, never answer queries, some agents seem like they have no idea what they are doing.

Most rude staff members EVER! They come around to do their business with their tenants and park their car on my dropped Kerb. They ignore the ''no parking'' sign and guess what? They even ignored me when tried to talk to that young ''lady''.
NCP is on it's way and a complaint is opened with the Countrywide Residential Lettings Limited.
As a landlord I will never EVER make business with them, NEVER!

The Cambridge office Sales department literally never answer the phone. I've tried multiple times over days to enquire about buying a property and they never pick up. I've left messages and they don't follow up on them either. I've tried the Shelford and Histon Offices today and neither of them answered their phones. No wonder properties are sitting on their site for months.

Using them as letting agent was one of my worst decisions. Having freed myself from them because they did no checking of the property in the last 10 years I have been faced with £ks of repair work to bring the property back up to standard. And they take no responsibility. Use them at your peril!

DO NOT use Tucker Gardner to rent a property. We moved out of our rented house almost 3 months ago and we still haven't received our deposit back. I have sent email after email but they just ignore them. The property has already been re-let so where's our deposit gone! They're rude, incredibly disorganised and use excuses after excuses. Effectively, they have stolen over £1200 from us! That's absolutely disgusting in a cost of living crisis! Just avoid them at all costs!

If possible, please, avoid them at any cost. They will ruin your mental peace.
When took the property it was not cleaned at all. Full of dust in blinds, bathroom and oven was in terrible condition. Had to call them and they sent a cleaner for a couple of hours.
During the vacating of the property, they ensured the property was cleaned professionally by us. So, they got the property in better condition than the one they gave to us.

After vacating the property we are still waiting for the refund even after 3 weeks.