Liverpool John Moores University

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Are Glenwood Property Investments Liverpool a good choice of landlord?

We're house hunting in Liverpool and Glenwood Property Investments (or Glenwood Construction) own a house we're interested in but I can't find any references to the company online or any reviews on their services. They've been letting houses for over 12 years in and around Liverpool.
Does anyone have any experience with them and would they recommend?
Thanks!

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Reply 1

jac21849

We have lived with this company this academic year, and we are moving to another of there properties next year. Couldn't say a bad thing about them! Great office staff, that sort all your problems out, consistent with safety checks. And at good prices! Overall great experience from Glenwood! Would definitely recommend!

Liverpool John Moores University

Liverpool

Reply 2

Gee99

We rented a 3 bed from them last academic year. They were excellent throughout the year, really quick to sort problems, really friendly (although a bit pricey compared to what you can get in Liverpool). However, when we came to vacate the property, leaving it spotless (we're 3 girls and we were in our third year) they charged us a £155 cleaning fee. After requesting information, we got sent the cleaning invoice that said '3 bed house, full clean', and when we asked for more information we were sent a checklist that the cleaners follow. Some people might not think its too much, 50 each, but when we know the property was almost cleaner than when we moved in it was a bit of a slap in the face. Luckily they use the Deposit Protection Service (which I will always use from now on) and after 4 months of debate using their dispute service we finally have our deposit back.
So, yes they provide excellent service as a landlord agency, but if you're going to rent from them, take a ton of pictures when you move in, when you move out, and send them all to Glenwood via email to document this, otherwise they will take advantage. Personally I would not rent from them again, the way they charged us was really sneaky and underhand. If you do decide to rent from them (they're usually very good houses), make sure you cover your own back!

Reply 3

Glenwood_Prop

Original post by Gee99

Hi, as the landlord in this situation we would like to take the opportunity of responding to Gee99 's post to hopefully fully address the concerns raised.
Gee99 does not give the address of the property in question or a name, however have checked our records and we are sure we have correctly identified the house; but being mindful of the posters anonymity we will not mention the house or names.
Thank you for your kind comments on the quality our houses and the service provided by our team during your tenancy, it is most appreciated.
As mentioned on vacation the property was returned to us in a generally good condition however it did require cleaning and we asked one of the local cleaning companies we sub-contract to clean the property as required to the cleaning schedule we provided; the cost to us was £155.00 The deposit (held by the DPS) was £750.00 and we agreed to return £595.00 to the tenants (which they received from the DPS in August) and then referred the £155.00 to the DPS's dispute resolution service when it became clear that the paperwork we had sent to the tenants did not lead to their agreement that this cleaning was their responsibility. The DPS provide a simple evidence based adjudication type system to decide if a claim for a deduction from a deposit is allowed. We are happy with the decision they made in this case, as it is clear from the DPS paperwork that their decision was based in main on the lack of outgoing photographic evidence provided by us as landlord. The DPS did not dispute that the cleaning was done nor that we have paid for the cost of this. Gee99 makes it clear in the post above that the property was 'almost cleaner than when we moved in' and hence did require cleaning on vacation. The dispute process may take a few months but this is attributable to their internal procedures and considering it is a free service, not unjustified. One final note; we are very sorry Gee99 feels that we have been 'sneaky and underhand' as we in no way have been either. At every stage of the process we have acted with the utmost propriety and had an 'open book' exercise with the tenants and the DPS; a policy we hope is understood to be best practice. Thank you again for your post, it really helps us in maintaining and hopefully improving our service for the future, and thank you also for choosing Glenwood for your student house in Liverpool.

Reply 4

YoJo1

Lovely houses in comparison to other private landlords in the area, but mould was an unresolved issue, the boiler was unsafe and if you want your deposit back for cleaning the house go elsewhere.

The worst is when you move in and the deposit they no doubt took from the previous tenants for 'cleaning fees' has been used elsewhere, as the house isn't clean!

Reply 5

Glenwood_Prop

Original post by YoJo1

Hi, As Glenwood Properties, we are very concerned with this report of an unsafe boiler. All our properties comply with relevant gas safety legislation and have current gas safety certificates. Any work required on any gas appliance is carried quickly and by suitably qualified engineers. Please can you inform us directly, the address were this boiler is located?

Instances of mould when encountered are most often the result of the mode of living in the property and not an inherent fault with the structure itself. Notwithstanding this fact, we always fully investigate and resolve any issue of that nature.

All our deposits are protected in accordance with current legislation, and can not be 'took' unilaterally but only released by agreement with tenants, or in extreme cases by third party 'adjudication' type process.

Before any keys are released to any property a detailed inventory is agreed with the ingoing tenants which includes a full cleaning schedule signed of by the ingoing people.

Thank you.

Reply 6

Jlh92

I have lived with Glenwood for the past 2 years and have just signed for another year with them. The houses are better than any other student properties I have seen in Liverpool and they are quick to sort out any issues. They are always quick to reply to any emails regarding queries about the house and provide a lot of services that many other student letting agencies don't do. I would highly recommend Glenwood to students who are looking for good quality student accommodation.

Reply 7

AKP93

Been with Glenwood for 2 years now and just signed up for a third year. Highest quality of student accommodation I have seen. Staff are all welcoming and landlord is sound! Any issues we have had have been resolved quickly and professionally.

I would highly recommend Glenwood to any student.

Reply 8

Student2217

I would not recommend Glenwood to any students looking for a house. They are often helpful and sort issues with the house however they lie and are very clever at what they do. When looking around a property they will promise many things and make you feel like they are really going out of their way to help you. However with all of this being said face to face there is then no proof of these conversations happening whatsoever! When these discussions are brought up with Glenwood they reply with 'we have no evidence of this and therefore cannot help you' and are often rude with the way in which they deal with you. I would never use Glenwood again and wouldn't recommend them to anyone. Thy take advantage of the fact that many students have never rented a property before and therefore know very little on the subject.

Reply 9

Glenwood_Prop

Original post by Student2217

Hi, we are the landlord in this matter and would like to take a minute to respond to the points raised by the poster.
Thank you for your kind words in regards of the helpfulness and attentiveness of our staff, it is appreciated; however we are very concerned in regards of the accusations of lies, and rudeness. We believe our staff go above and beyond what is required by us under the contracts we have with our tenants and often provide free of charge services such as loans of equipment and assisting with tenant responsibilities were asked. We realise and respect that the post is anonymous and therefore are unable to address any particular issue, although we would be very pleased to hear from the property in question so we can properly attend to any concerns. Thank you again, we look forward to hearing from you.

Reply 10

student459

I have been with Glenwood for one year now and have just signed up with them again. They provide high quality houses and are quick to respond and deal with any situation. I have been very impressed with them so far. The staff are all great and always helpful.

Id highly recommend Glenwood

Reply 11

JACHATW

I have just finished university, and spent the last two years living in Glenwood houses! The houses are well maintained and spacious throughout! If you have any problems with the house, a quick ring to Glenwood and they'll come and sort it as soon as they can! I can't fault Glenwood! From the people you speak to on the phone, to the people that come to the property, all polite and proffesional! For anyone looking for good student accommodation with a good landlord, then Glenwood is the place to go!

Reply 12

Student2244

I have been living with this company for the past two years and next year we will be continuing to live with them. We have never had any bother with the staff, they are friendly and helpful. If we have any issues with the house they fix it as soon as. I recommend them highly.

Reply 13

Meg O

Glenwood have been great landlords I have been with them for two years and they have been helpful throughout. They are always quick to respond to issues and the house is so nice! Thanks

Reply 14

Livunistudent11

Lovely house horrible agency

Reply 15

DCF96

Interesting how every reply praising Glenwoods is from an account created on that day with just one post to their name...They are extremely rude and unreliable - and now they create fake accounts to praise themselves - highly unprofessional! Don't trust.

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 16

jacobsidebottom

The worst possible landlords you could have. Charge for everything that goes wrong in the house that is due to it being extremely old. Mould everywhere and they only clean it before viewings. Tell you that the house is 'bills included' but actually charge for use. Disgusting treatment of tenants and ignore messages for days on end. NEVER EVER rent from them they are trying to make the most money they can out of you. Clearly every account on here is a fake user created by themselves.

Reply 17

Glenwood_Prop

Original post by DCF96

Interesting how every reply praising Glenwoods is from an account created on that day with just one post to their name...They are sneaky rats, extremely rude and unreliable - and now they create fake accounts to praise themselves - highly unprofessional! Don't trust.

Hi DCF96, As you can see we are the landlord and wanted to take a moment to respond to the post you made. It is very disappointing to hear you believe our staff are as you believe. Our staff work very hard to continue to upkeep our property and the service we provide to tenants, and given we have had thousands of tenants in over a quarter of a century we have thankfully always received lots of great feedback and been able to build great relationships with tenants throughout this time. We do not produce fake accounts on any website for any reason and will not be doing so in the future.The many positive reviews we do get here and elsewhere are from genuine ex tenants, often they will tell us they have done such a post. If you have experienced service you feel is below the level you expected we would be more than willing to discuss this with you via our usual methods; if not we are sorry you have left with the opinion you have but we do wish you the best for the future.

Reply 18

Glenwood_Prop

Original post by jacobsidebottom

Thanks for the post allowing us to hopefully address your points. We dont know which property you are referring to and would be happy to discuss if you want any of the issues you have made via our usual channels. In regards for charging for items; we only ask a tenant to pay for anything if it is a direct result of misuse of an appliance for instance which we would not be resposbile for; the vasy majority of day to day expenditure is the landlords responsibilty and is paid for by us.Our property is maintained continually by us, with our in house staff mostly, and we would only clean a property during a tenancy if by not doing so we would be allowing the property to fall into disrepair. In regards of bills, we do have a variety of options for these and we rarely see any issues as the paperwork is very clear always for all to see. No messages are ignored although we do take time to respond to non urgent enquiries to allow the correct staff to deal with any particular matter. We do not create fake accounts here or any where else and will not be doing so; the many great reviews we receive are often known to us as the tenants tell us the they have posted. In regards of trying to make money; clearly this is the fundamental reason for business; however we have been operating for approaching thirty years now and this would be very unlikely to happen if we do as you suggest. Any way, we wish you the best for the future.

Reply 19

Anonymous #1

Ahhh Glenwood, moved out last year but remember our awful experiences like it was yesterday.

Do not use this company! Their houses look nice and they will act super charming when they show you round. Then they’ll tell you the house is about to go to someone else and rush you into signing a contract as soon as. They only give you a copy of the contract when you sit down for the meeting to sign it so you have zero time to spot the ridiculous clauses they will use to make you liable for any money making schemes they think of.

They decorate and clean to hide all the faults, only once you’ve moved in will you see how cheaply everything has been done and how old the stuff is which breaks and they claim to have fixed it but will break time and time again.

Be aware of how low their “bills included” cap is!! You don’t have time to realise how low the cap is with their contract rushing techniques. Our cap the previous year with a different company in different house was £500 higher than Glenwood’s cap and we had the same number of tenants!
We were so careful and managed to stay under by never having the heating on during the winter which really worsened the already extensive damp and was freezing! But we heard of people from uni going over the cap and had to pay bills as well as rent because it’s such an easy thing to miss. Glenwood also just paint over the damp whenever they have viewings to hide it and if you ask them what to do they will ignore it and tell you to "leave the windows open". Thanks. Also, we only got emails saying they were going to have viewings/ visits maybe 50% of the time they actually happened (which is something required by law).

Their staff switch from being charming and lovely to becoming often intimidating and make snide and rude comments as soon as something goes wrong. But because it was in person or on the phone they claim the conversation never happened. They made a mistake with some charges once, denied it and when I phoned to try and get to the bottom I was rudely told it would be more helpful if I “got off the phone and paid” with no apology made even when they acknowledged they sent the charge out to the wrong person!

You won’t get your full deposit back no matter how clean you leave it! They charge for ridiculous things yet the house is messy when you move in so they clearly don’t actually use the cleaning charges to clean the house! They are not in a property redemption scheme (which is supposed to be required by law) so you can't report them to anyone.

I already know the reply they’ll have to this. They will claim to have no evidence of these events occurring and will ask us to contact them when they have just ignored or been rude to us when we did this. Anyway, we're long gone so that's irrelevant. They will use the “we have so much great feedback and have been a company for x number of years” excuse but the good reviews are years old and existing as a company for 20 years doesn’t eliminate their behaviour. They’ve just been getting away with this stuff for too long. The good reviews are from 5 years ago. Maybe they were a half decent company once but they're awful now.

I was fortunate to have gotten a fair bit of my deposit back and not had anything to do with them since we moved out but avoid Glenwood because you'll hear some horror stories.