we rented a house 18 month ago through them, it was all good and dandy :-) didn't like the house but i was sick and tried of looking anyhow , time to move out......OMG........they want us to pay more then 3000gbp to replace an old ugly WOOL carpet ,paint a house that befor we moved in look like it was painted by 6 year old,please......without the bases here you guys won't have jobs 

We are currently renting through them. Now I am worried about what they will do to us when we move out. We are also getting ready to move. We have been in our house 10 months and can't wait til our lease is up in Aug. we also took a house we didn't like a whole lot because we were sick of looking. Hope we don't get screwed over. Our living room carpet looked like crap after about a week. We take our she's off when we are indoors and don't let the kids eat in there. We also have no pets. We think that the stains are old and resurfaced. 

I've heard a lot of the same things about that company. We almost we through them, thank goodness we didn't. On the same note, I have heard 1 bad things about our company that we rent through. I tend not to believe that one since we've had such great experience with them ourselves.

Good luck in straightening it out. I would assume that a renter is not in charge of painting the outside of the house..or is it the entire inside?

If you can't get out of it, I would look into how much it would cost to replace the carpet yourselves instead of letting the letting agency do it. I'm sure you could do it for way less! As for painting, if the walls are the same color you moved in with... I'm pretty sure that's on the owner to paint but I could be wrong if your lease says otherwise. 

hey,am sure there old stains.....
we only have one child a 9 year old, we only had three stains on the carpet one in dining,lounge and my girl's room and they wanted to charge me to change the carpet in the rooms, also wanted us to pay to paint the house cos we hanged pic up..............we got a cleaning lady but there were never happy with her work!!! saying that we should use someone that works for them to pass the final check up.
let us know how you go with them
good luck.......:-))) 

@mchammer,
they wanted us to paint the inside of the house , when we moved in the paint was the worst i've ever seen, two different colours , looks like it was done by 6 year old, and the lease dose say that , on the other hand after i've put up a fight the agency is saying that we should pay 20% and the landlord 80% which we still not ready to pay...... so now they won't give us the deposit back 

I recommend to EVERYONE renting a house from any company when you move in they give you the checklist of everything in
The house and anything that's dented or stained or broken is written on there and they tell you to add to it. We spend like 2 hours going through everything like the cupboards and drawers and windows and showers and baseboards. EVERYTHING!! It's a pain in the arse, but well worth it in the end 

Peaces advice is good, I would also take photos of anything that you aren't happy with.

When tenancy ends make sure you go round with them for the inspection, it is your right to dispute anything as you go around. Don't allow them to go around and discuss it with you once they have finished, it will be overwhelming and you may sign for things you don't agree with.

They do not have access to your deposit, its in a scheme which will only be released once both tenant & letting agent agree. Ask for invoices if they try and charge you for ANYTHING! 

@peace & voice of reason, thanks for all advice................these guys don't know who they massing with and by the time we done!! they won't know what hit them..........lol 

We also used Balmforth. The walls are concrete and the paint that our landlord ordered his maintenance ppl to use does not stick to the walls. You can rub the edge of a cardboard box along it and the paint will come off. :( Our carpet is VERY worn which was mentioned in the lease. They better not ask us to to replace anything. I havent even hung up large pictures b/c I dont want to have to patch the walls and have the place repainted. Those stick on picture hangers only hold up to a 11x17 I'd much rather live in base housing if it ever becomes available. I just dont want to have to pack up and move all over again until we are ready to leave for good 

hahaha - it's nice to know it wasn't just us...
Yeah, we used them. I document EVERYTHING and when we moved in, I wrote down everything. It was dirty and nasty after they "used one of their cleaning people" to clean it. ugg..

I cleaned it myself (as hubs was TDY) and I complained enough I think they just wanted to get rid of me. I gave them their key, I got my deposit back. Because of everything I marked down when i moved in, they couldn't really say anything.
In fact, I left the place better then when I moved in...

I mean, when they say they're going to clean it yet leave 10 years worth of bugs in the light cover in the kitchen? please.... Yet they wanted ME to clean it? nah...I don't think so. 

It was dirty and nasty after they "used one of their cleaning people" to clean it.

Sadly this isnt just off base housing... my "new" LV house on base "supposedly" was cleaned top to bottom and carpets "professionally cleaned". The previous tenants had a husky, which sheds, so when I vacuumed before everything was moved in, all I got was tremendous amounts of dog hair... same with the coke stains on the living room floor the housing lady said was permanent, yet I got out by dabbing hot water on it.. cleaned my a$$.... I think its gonna happen where ever you go unfortunately. Luckily for us, when we rented a house off base, we went through Chilterns, when we moved out, a friend and I cleaned it and the realtor said the house was way better than when we moved in. 

erica - If you really want base housing, they will move you from a off base location on to base. Just like a PCS move, they will come and pack up your stuff and move you, because the military would rather you be in base housing then dishing out the money for off-base housing. However, if you decide to move into a different location off-base, you have to move your self.

It can be beneficial if you are having issues with a rental company, wish to move and you have quite a bit of time left here. 

Oh, and BTW, if you guys are having such an issue with this company, you guys really need to turn them into the base housing office, so they are taken off their list. That will REALLY effect this company the most, if they are doing such bad business. If they are doing such things, make sure to tell base housing office exactly what they are doing. 

I didnt know that Steph!! Thats WONDERFUL. Thanks for the tip. 

We use Balmforth and Love them. Our house is not perfect, but Balmforth has always stayed on top of repairs and has been very accomodating for us. I think part of the problems that some of you may have is with the actual home owners, not the letting agency. The agency has to work directly with the home owner and their wishes/demands. 

when we were living in the house they "always stayed on top of repairs" for us too, but when we moved out .........well y'all know, and about the housing , well don't know what to say about them , i think the all in this together .i'll keep y'll updated 

.without the bases here you guys won't have jobs

I highly doubt this. Looking at your spelling throughout it's doubtful you've had an education, let alone a job. 

I highly doubt this. Looking at your spelling throughout, it's doubtful you've had an education, let alone a job.

I'm thinking she means the jobs on base given to the locals. It's something we, as Americans having bases throughout the world, have to give back to the countries who let us stay. So one way we do that, is by giving a lot of jobs on base to the locals. However, I know of 1 job on base, where it pays crap the local workers. But they don't complain since they are happy to have a job to begin with.

I agree though, her posts are hard to read but could be that English is not her first language. American military wives come from all over so it could be that maybe she's just trying to fit in? Maybe? ;-) 

@Doll,
"I highly doubt this. Looking at your spelling throughout it's doubtful you've had an education, let alone a job. "
What I meant is most of this agency business comes from 25,000 USAF service members that are here in Lakenheath or Mildenhall .
Oh and about my writing ,............how do I write this correctly miss/mr Doll &mchammer?
I made a supremely bad judgement call. was angry and used LU to rant, a situation that has happened countless times on the internet, never intended to offend MS ENGLISH .............
P.s
English is my forth language .
Fit in ....please 

Oh, calm down. I obviously pointed out that English may not be your first language. Ya'll is a common southern term. Most people, unless they live in the south, don't use it. Obviously, you don't come from the southern states of the US.

No reason to be so pissy just because I agreed your previous posts are hard to read. It's the truth. 

Ooh exciting. It's been a long time since we've had drama on here!! Lol. I kid, I kid. 

Ooh exciting. It's been a long time since we've had drama on here!!

instigator ;) 

We had friends who went through Balmforth. Their backdoor lock was broken and Balmforth said they were being snotty Americans and said that all the military people think they deserve to live in castles. Our friends ended up using a broom stick to keep the door "locked". I think all of the letting places are kind of crummy here though. We go through BaseLets who aren't much better. We have a mold problem and they told us that we should just paint over the mold. 

Love our letting agency, just saying! If we have a problem, the property manager takes care of it right away, no problem. From radiator issues to door handle issues. No questions asked. BTW, this agency is R&B Reality located in Lakenheath. When we were looking for a bigger place than we had first got with them, was not a issue, and we got into a big 4 bed room house. When we knew we were going to look for a bigger place (cause we were going to have another child), we knew we were not change letting agencies because I have heard all the horror stories about BaseLets, Balmforth, and such. We were not switching for ANYTHING! LOVE R&B property! So they are not all "crummy", just so all of you know. 

I love our letting agent too, Lodge Lettings. They can not do enough for us. Any issues we have had have been sorted out straight away with no fuss. I highly recommend them :o) 

EEEK! I wish I had found this before. We just put a holding fee on a house with Balmforth and I too picked it mostly because I was sick of looking at this point. While I am pretty pleased with the house and its condition, I am no too pleased with Balmforth. We also spent a day with BaseLets, I take picking a house seriously because if I don't love it I know I will just be miserable everytime I am in it. Baselets was very casual and polite though only two of the 6 or 7 they showed us were in a condition I would chose to live in. The others had grubby carpet and old paint and looked like they were about to fall down. Balmforth showed us few in better condition and of the couple in good condition I liked the one we picked the best...However, our agent is dismissive and hardly involved. It felt very much like we were interrupting his day and like we should just hurry up and pick something. I was forced to sit and wait on paperwork at their office that they told me would be ready (the next day after a certain time) and it still was not for 30 minutes after I got there. Now I have a 300 GBP holding fee on a house that I found out I can't actually move into until the 20th! And that puts me and my family in the TLF apartment for almost 3 more weeks! I'm frustrated with the housing situatioin in general, but I do feel like the agency could be more considerate. And now I am seeing that y'all have had issues on the move out too, so I have even more fun to look forward to...Atleast I know and will be checking in with yall for other things before I jump in from now on. 

The agency we used, Jason Whichelow were great. However, if we have a problem we have to go straight to our [horrid] landlord. So since we moved in, we havent had anything to do with Jason Whichelow. 

we used Balmforth for our 1st house here in the UK. It wasnt so much them as it was our landlord. She was HORRIBLE. She even did give us our deposit back because i rented cleaning stuff instead of paying a PRO to clean the house. I cleaned that house for 2 days on my hands and knees while my husband watched our newborn. We are now about to have our 2nd child and are moving again to get a bigger house. We are using baseLETS and so far we love them. The lady is so nice and has answered all of our questions...we will see how it turns out! 

BaseLETS were really nice to us until after we moved in. They gave us the damage inventory list to check over, and I found a ton of problems with the house that weren't on the list. I think they felt a little put off of me after that. They also told us they would call in the current water meter, and gas/electric meter readings to the companies, which they didn't. 

Hey Sklare, I use baselets and I LOVE them. They generally answer any questions I have, and were the only agency that actually responded to us or have taken care of us. When I call to get things taken care of they do so, they also set up my utilities as promised. Have you contacted your utility companies to make sure it has been set up as it does take a few weeks to get your first statement... I also find it highly unlikely that they would tell you to paint over mold, if they take care of a property they send out a contractor to fix the issue. I would try sending them an email so they can fix the issue for you. We were referred to them by just about everyone we asked about using a company. They are small and really busy, but they are usually really good about getting back to me and taking care of issues, as long as you give them a chance. Good luck with your house! I strongly urge you to try and contact them to give them a chance to fix your issues though :)