Drake & Co Reviews Summary

Communication

Pros:

• "The team are good at communicatin via email as well and are fast at replying, which is good."
• "They are quick to sort out any issues."
• "Very understanding and willing to help under a variety of different circumstances."
• "The staff have all been friendly, patient, and helpful."
• "The staff are friendly, polite and approachable, and do their best to accommodate any requests we have."
• "Everyone I have spoken to that works for Drake's have always been really friendly and helpful."
• "They were always very responsive and got things fixed quickly if they needed to."

Cons:

• "Tone of written communications are consistently incredibly rude, patronising, unprofessional and dismissive."
• "Do not reply to emails unless you badger them."
• "Drakes is refusing to reply to our inquiries about getting an exterminator back."
• "I found any contact with the agents were greeted with rude responses."
• "Whenever we have problems they're dealt with slowly and often we have to ring up (and deal with a very rude receptionist) several times."
• "They broke the contract by taking money for cleaning from our deposit without our agreement."
• "When I called up to enquire why this had been done I was not met with any empathy."

Maintenance and Repairs

Pros:

• "The house is lovely and jobs/repairs are done if you ask the team for them."
• "Repair requests have been responded to and dealt with very promptly."
• "Drake and co were quick to send out a contractor to our house to solve this issue."
• "Swift maintenance repairs (More so this year due to their new online repair request form)."
• "They were also really good at removing and replacing some broken furniture when we first moved in."
• "Anything we have needed sorting in the house has been dealt with quickly and efficiently."
• "If repairs are reported correctly they are dealt with very quickly."

Cons:

• "They often, albeit not every single time, take unbelievably long to fix the simplest of issues."
• "Also pretty slow to answer to repairs (maybe their repairs team is understaffed?)."
• "Repairs which are reported are then ignored for months on end."
• "Took 5 months to fix our broken back door leaving us with only one fire exit and no access to the back garden we were paying for."
• "If we had a problem, it took them far too long to sort out - we had a faulty boiler for about 5 months."
• "They are slow to respond and slow to fixing things."
• "It took drakes nearly a month to get to us to replace the washing machine, which was replaced with yet another faulty model, leaving us without a washing machine for nearly 2 months."

Cleanliness and Condition of Property

Pros:

• "The house itself has been good, especially considering the reasonable rent."
• "Drake's replaced the carpets, cleaned and repainted and made it habitable again!"
• "When our house was broken into, Drakes & Co were very helpful in ensuring bars were placed on our ground floor windows."

Cons:

• "When I arrived at the property it looked more like a squat than a house."
• "We moved in and there were NAILS POKING OUT THE FLOOR which could stab you really badly and they never fixed it!"
• "The house was ridiculously filthy when we moved in."
• "When we got to it, house was a pit: there were rat and insect infestations that weren't there previously when we were viewing the house, along with a bathroom with walls literally black from mould."
• "I had multiple problems with the property when I moved in- slugs, no mesh work on filters above my doors meaning that bugs came in, mouldy skirting and walls, and water damaged kitchen surface to name a few."
• "The house was disgusting upon our move in date and clearly had not been cleaned at all since the last tenants left."
• "We had bad mould in the bathrooms and hallways that never got fixed properly."

Financial and Administrative Aspects

Pros:

• "No hidden charges and completely transparent from the start of the tenancies."
• "They paid the deposits back (in full) quickly."
• "We also got our deposit back quickly."
• "the agency fee is relatively modest."
• "There hasn't been any extra/hidden charges since we've been here."
• "there is a £55 agency fee through Drakes which is to be honest reasonable seen as I previously paid £120+VAT."

Cons:

• "Just a very unreliable agency, and should be holding themselves to a much better standard…"
• "After moving out the last time, we were charged a cleaning charge, even though we left the house in a good condition."
• "At the end of the second tenancy, I was charged for repainting of the bedroom walls due to blu tac stains."
• "They are hungry for your money and don't care about anything else."
• "Also, the bills included contract continued to charge us bill money when we weren't staying in the house due to covid."
• "Drakes are untrustworthy - they take your deposit for any reason and will blame you for any fault in the accommodation."
• "They use any excuse to get more money from you and there are plenty of agency fees that aren’t told about when signing."

Overall Experience

Pros:

• "Superb estate agents."
• "Have been with Drakes this academic year. Had no problems, loved the house and location."
• "However, they are also very pleasant and friendly people, so it is easy to talk to them about problems."
• "They're great just read the contract properly and realise that they rent with students, so it might not be clean when you move in."
• "We have been with Drake and Co for 3 years and they have been a fantastic letting agency."
• "Rented with this company for the last 2 years of uni and cannot fault them, always quick to sort out any issues or repairs needed and customer service is A*."
• "Drake & Co have made staying by myself overseas as an international student easy and comfortable."

Cons:

• "Terrible agents. Were always really nasty to me and my flatmates."
• "Do not rent with them unless you want to be ripped off and miserable."
• "Awful, unprofessional and illegal."
• "For all parents and students looking for a house, dont use this company."
• "AVOID at all costs."
• "Worst estate agent in Manchester by a long shot."
• "AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE - Only positive reviews are by people who know the estate agents."