zestlovesproperty.com Reviews 10

When I viewed property in herne bay they were all professional and smiles and very helpful. When I was moving out found them well Sophie to be very rude, unprofessional and she couldn’t care less didn’t even want to talk to me. After my initial dealings with them I was recommending them but I won’t in future!

My daughter, along with five other students, rented a property managed by Zest Loves Property in Bath. Despite leaving the property professionally cleaned and in better condition than at move-in, Zest attempted to deduct £860 from their deposit for minor issues like dust on picture frames, a few hairs in banister gaps, and lint in the dryer filter.

The checkout report itself repeatedly noted that “an end of tenancy clean appears to have been done.” We provided photos and a professional cleaning invoice to prove this, but the agency still pursued disproportionate charges.

This is not the first time this has happened — aggressive and unfair deposit deductions have occurred for three consecutive years, particularly targeting students.

Communicating with them was frustrating: responses were slow, dismissive, and inconsistent. The whole process caused unnecessary stress and wasted time. Based on our experience, I would not recommend Zest, and I strongly advise tenants to thoroughly document property condition and prepare for aggressive deposit disputes.

PREDATORY COMPANY THAT SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS! After returning our property in perfect condition with an almost flawless checkout report (no damages at all), they still tried to take £880 from us.
They do not respond properly to dispute emails, instead blaming tenants for delays with the DPS process. Their staff, particularly Lillie Burton, sent condescending emails telling us to just accept their “offer” and even asked, “what’s the issue?” as if it wasn’t obvious.
They provide zero proof or evidence to justify their unfair deductions, preying especially on students who may not have the resources or time to fight back. It’s an exploitative business model that relies on intimidation and stonewalling.
If you’re considering renting through them: don’t. Save yourself the stress, money, and frustration. They will happily rip you off for hundreds of pounds without any legitimate grounds.

Awful. This agency in Bath ( Lillie Burton ) organises the unfair withhold of students deposits with landlords of houses which are in bad shape . In our case they asked for a 700£ withhold for an alleged need to ask for a professional cleaning without any invoice and this when a professional cleaner came in this old house and being reminded that since 2009 landlord cannnot impose professional cleaning. Run students , run. Tenants will seek nos for the withhold and damages against the agency and the landlord .

We rented our property out for 18 months with Zest. It was let to a member of staff, although we weren't told they worked for Zest until their third viewing. This meant that the house was never properly put on the market. We were told that there was only one other viewer interested and they cancelled 30 mins before being due to visit, no explanation was given to us for this. Our agent persuaded us that the market was slow and that we needed to drop the price by £300. When we did this the Zest employee immediately came back and made an offer on the property. This was all very coincidental.
We felt that the whole experience was one of representing the employees needs and not ours.
- Once the offer was accepted we were immediately asked if we would rent for 18 months and not the agreed 12 months. We agreed this to show goodwill and flexibility but unfortunately this respect was not reciprocated.
- We were told that the family had 2 children and that every 2 weeks another 2 children, from a previous marriage, stayed for the weekend only. Yet when it came to the check out report it stated that the level of wear and tear was that expected from a family of this size. When I queried what size this was, the agent said that the report was referring to a family of 6. We did not know we were renting to a family of 6 and would not have knowingly chosen this.
- When the boiler broke down the agent immediately said we would have to forgo the next months rent to cover the cost of the family staying in a hotel, unless we paid for a new boiler straight away . To avoid loosing this rent we paid out £4,000 for a new boiler through Zest.
-We thought that going with a Zest employee would mean that we would at least be paid on time. However, one month our rent did not arrive on the set date and when I rang the accounts office (after my payment for groceries was declined) I was told I would have to wait a week as the tenants were having financial difficulties. They did not even have the curtesy to inform us in advance. When I objected I eventually received the payment mid week.
- We paid £245 for a Check In report and then another payment £180 for a Check Out report; we were told that without these we would not be able to claims for damages. These reports are an expensive waste of time. Where damage had been done to our house it was not photographed or even mentioned. This included a broken carousel kitchen cupboard, an oak work top with bad black staining and water marks. In the garden there were dead plants in all our outdoor pots of which 7 were mature and healthy olive trees, bay trees, roses and hydrangeas. Our tenants had reassured us that they were keen gardeners so the garden would be well looked after: no attempt had been made to do this.
- The agent came and looked at the damage with me and agreed to take £258 from the deposit to cover this damage. The tenants refused to pay this amount from their deposit.
-The agent recommended that we go through a despute process and agreed to finance our application to the Depute Resolution Service (DPS), Thank heavens we did not pay for this ourselves, because the report we received back made no attempt to address the particular damage we had raised. It concluded with comments such as:
"I am satisfied that the garden was returned in a comparably seasonal condition. " So please don't bother paying for any deputes to go to the DPS to cover damages.
-When it came to our return date we could not get the tenants to agree a date even though we had already extended it 6 months to help them out. In the end I had to contact the owner directly to say that our needs were just not being represented here and I wanted to return to my house. Finally a date was agreed 6 months and 3 weeks after the initial date. In fact the tenants still tried to change it but the owner of Zest intervened.
So be aware of what may be ahead of you. This tenant took advantage of our goodwill and flexibility and of being an employee. Zest paid no attention to our needs until I pointed this out to the owner of the company. Also note that the Check In and Check Out reports are expensive and ineffective for highlighting damage and the disputes process is just not worth pursuing.

Ages to deliver, with no response.

We were trying to set up Virgin WiFi services for our property and needed written confirmation from our landlord that wiring the cabling and drilling holes was something he was ok with. We had to go through Zest to retrieve this, but the company simply gave no response, no update, no verification as to our landlord's consent. It would have simply taken an email back and forth to verify this yet Zest simply wasted a month of our time. We were forced to go with another WiFi supplier that are notorious for their bad customer service (which we had to experience again).

Incredibly disrespectful to not even give us a 'no' if that was the case, just pure silence - impacting the reliability of the property. Avoid if you can.

Jess Walker is the person dealing with my Flat and she is brilliant. Very helpful and professional . A pleasure to communicate with. Always does what she needs to quickly and properly.

Totally unprofessional company. Can't follow simple instruction or tell the time. Worst agent I have ever met. Definitely won't be speaking to them ever again. Quite appalling behaviour.

My experience with Zest has been a headache throughout. From the moment we moved into the house they provided, it was evident that their commitment to quality and customer satisfaction was non-existent.

The house we were given was in an appalling condition. Three broken windows and holes throughout the property which later caused the walls to fill with mice. It was clear that no effort had been made to ensure the house was in a liveable state. When we moved in one room didn't have blinds and sockets for months into the tenancy. After months of pushing they fixed the issues whilst charging us full price throughout.

Upon exiting the property they tried to charge us nearly £1,500 to clean a house aswell as try to charge us for issues which were present on the check-in report. After threatening to take them to the DPS they quickly backed down on most of the charges.
I strongly advise anyone considering renting through this agency to think twice. They have shown a lack of professionalism and basic decency.

In summary, my experience with this property letting agency was an absolute disaster. I would give them zero stars if that were an option. Steer clear of this agency unless you enjoy dealing with subpar housing and unscrupulous practices.

I strongly advice against renting through Zest. The property was far from clean at the commencement of our tenancy, with huge amounts of dust present in the house, overflowing bins and a garden full of rubbish. Issues such as shattered windows and one bedroom lacking plugs or blinds were not dealt with until at least a month into our tenancy despite us raising these issues on the first day. We made it abundantly clear that the house was not received in a professionally cleaned state. Despite this Zest still attempted to claim £1400 in deductions from our deposit. This included charges for damage that was undeniably present when we moved in. Throughout the dispute process, Zest has continued to provide slow responses, taking over a month to produce invoices for the cleaning services they claimed to have performed. I hope others can avoid the same ordeal of Zest Property.