Hotblackdesiato Reviews 

I was lucky to connect with Gino Gerardo when looking for a flat to rent. He was absolutely phenomenal and went above the beyond to help me find the place I wanted. He was always very professional, knowledgeable and someone I trusted immediately. I would highly recommend getting in touch with Gino for a stress-free renting experience in London.

I recently completed on the sale of my flat (having purchased through Hotblack a few years ago). They did a wonderful job in terms of listing and viewing the property. I felt they were easy to communicate with and provided me with honest and valuable advice throughout. Selling a flat is inevitably stressful; the agents at Hotblack were perpetually positive and supportive. I am very grateful to everyone involved in the process, Mehdad and Charlie in particular.
Hotblack Desiato stand out for me (in comparison to other estate agents I have dealt with); they were calm and straightforward. I felt confident of a good outcome by choosing them.

We had a brilliant experience with Mehdad on the sales team at Hotblack. He was great throughout the process of purchasing our flat, and worked hard to help us resolve an issue with the seller, meaning everything went smoothly. Excellent communication throughout the process. Would definitely recommend him!

Thank you to Mehdad, Saskia and the team! We sold our house within 24 hours of listing it for sale, at a price higher than we had expected. Superb communications from start to finish, and helped us navigate other issues in the chain smoothly and professionally.

A trustworthy company who are easy to communicate with, and are always willing to help and advise! Highly recommend.

I have been working with Hotblacks for over 14 years on lettings and management, they are beyond helpful, there response is very quick and they always attract excellent applicants for rentals and make the process very easy , Gino in particular provides an excellent service.

The sales team Alasdair and Saskia are also helpful and realistic on the state of the market and what to expect, also respond very quickly and make the whole process easy .

As a professional landlord I would recommend them highly for there applicants and there service. They seem to attract professional tenants that are never a problem in addition to there excellent service.

Dont' go anywhere else!

Very helpful team, everything was clear and a special thanks to gino for finding our new home. Will definitely use this company again in the future.

Great company, rented our current flat through these guys and they made the experience smooth and comfortable for us as we were nervous moving to London. Would totally recommend them especially Gino, he is always on hand to help with any situation.

Members of the Highbury sales team are amazing and always happy to help! Would highly recommend!

Great experience with Hotblack Sales N5. They took great care of me and made the process as calming as it can be! Would definitely consider using them for future purchases/sales.

Hotblackdesiato helped us find our flat and we had a great experience - especially Iona was incredibly helpful and always very prompt to respond to our questions. Overall the process was very smooth and we had no issues. Would definitely recommend.

A great team to work with! We worked with Maya, who was really supportive and knowledgeable throughout the renting process, and super flexible. Really pleased with the outcome and a pleasure to work with.

I have let my property through Hotblack Desiato and this year Maya & Iona were a joy to deal with from start to finish . Always available for any query i had and the tenants are a joy to have.
Huge Thanks

Don't know where to start, but every bad review that has been written and the hundreds of other bad reviews is true and has happened to us.

Within the first month of our tenancy we noticed that the paint was chipping in the bedroom. We contacted Hotblack and very little was done, not even any sort of apology or accountability. It took them a month to send in a painter, who on arrival said "I hope it is not the wall in the bedroom that they have sent me to look at?" - It was.

He advised us that it was not a paint issue and that there is in fact mould and damp within the wall. He then went on to explain that he had made them aware many times of this issue, especially before we had moved in. He advised that Hotblacks response to him before we moved in was "Doesn't matter, just paint over it and look pretty". So the fact that they (Hotblack) were aware of this issue before we moved in and did not mention it is remarkable to say the least. We were tenants for just under two years and not once during that tenancy was there any sort of apology or efforts to resolve this, neither from Hotblack or the landlord.

None of the issues in the house were ever fixed. Expect constant emails (as many others have stated) and issues trying to get your deposit. We had the property professionally cleaned before leaving and they still billed us for their "professional cleaners" as they said our standard was not theirs, which is odd because when we moved in there were stains in and around the toilet (won't go into detail), dust everywhere, pieces of food in the oven and mouldy food under the cabinets. So again, we are not sure to this day what their "professional cleaners" standard is.

We could go on but again, all other reviews have said it all. If you receive an email from Jessica Pinnick stay well away and ask to speak with someone else. Her name and others are mentioned in many reviews and there is a reason for that. Her dad is the director/owner so it explains a lot, you know the type.

We handed in our notice on a Friday afternoon, the following Monday Jessica had emailed asking if we can let people in to view the property the next day (Tuesday). We advised that we were away that week and that we would need to reschedule. Her response was "So let me confirm that you are refusing people to view the property as we will need to advise the landlord of this", we responded with "No Jessica, we are not refusing. We are away and will need to reschedule as we have just mentioned in our previous email". This is the type of email and communication that will be constant. Again, Jessica Pinnick - AVOID.

Awful service and they should be ashamed to mention "approachable and trustworthy estate agent" on their site.

As I never write reviews, I hope this will underline my dissatisfaction with Hotblack Desiato (HD) and its employees.
Renting an apartment from HD has been a nightmare. When moving in, we struggled with leakages for half a year in the kitchen and one bedroom, which the apartment had been struggling with for years according to our neighbors (which the agents won’t tell you about on viewing). When moving out, Alison Day, our main contact, are deducting unnecessary costs from our deposits and forcing through viewings while we’re in the apartment. I would highly suggest to burn your contract if the name Alison Day is written on it - you will not regret it.
All the nightmare-stories you’ve heard about renting apartments is guaranteed to be a reality with Hotblack Desiato. I would rather increase the amount I pay for an apartment and rent through a different company, rather than renting cheaper through Hotblack Desiato. They WILL deduct you money and you WILL spend countless hours on telephone and emails with them.

I would advise against renting with Hotblack Desiato at all costs. They are corrupt, dishonest, and truly usurious when it comes to having your rental deposit returned to you. I felt they were deliberately exploitative of me as a tenant.
If you simply must rent with them, make sure you comb through your inventory report and document everything. And I do mean everything! Write down the smallest, tiniest, most insignificant detail of the state of the apartment and make sure you keep a copy of that report for yourself, as you will most certainly need to reference it when it comes time to seek your deposit money back. They will rake you across the coals. In nearly a decade of renting in London, I have never encountered such a deliberately exploitative agency- and I have rented with Foxtons.
I spent over three weeks going back and forth with their agent on truly fabricated 'charges.' In the end, they were simply hellbent on keeping part of my deposit. I did the best I could to provide evidence to overturn their ridiculous claims, but they simply refused the evidence I provided in some instances.
They were generally responsive when I was renting the property, but I'm afraid this awful experience of having to fight tooth and nail for my deposit money has really soured my view of them. Again, avoid at all costs. I can concur with the feedback provided by Jacob B from September 2020.

In our experience Hotblack Desiato are unprofessional and sought to exploit us as tenants. I would avoid letting from this agency at all costs. Our experience is partially detailed below:

We leased a property and when we moved it was noted on the condition report that the flat was not cleaned to a professional standard. When we vacate the property we arranged and paid for a professional bond clean. The clean was well above the standard at which the property was handed over to us. The agent asked us to touch up a few issues (dust on skirting boards and staining of toilet bowl) which we had our professional cleaner rectify. It has been nearly one month since we moved out and the agent is now saying that the property was not professionally cleaned and seeking to charge 350 pounds from our bond. They have not provided details of the issues (other than those that were rectified immediately, they have also since leased the property to another party, so there is no way they are actually intending to carry out another "professional clean". They have also failed to release the undisputed bond amount.

There are other more minor issues we are having with this agency which i wont bother to detail here. I am writing this review because predatory agent behaviour should not be tolerated.

The worst of the worst.
A resume:
1. We booked a viewing in a flat. No one came.
2. We managed to view the flat later, and we rented it.
3. We moved in and the flat wasn't clean, had no gas, was full of stuff from previous tenants and the wardrobe door was broken.
4. During one year and half it took 2 months minimum to fix the smallest things (example: broken blind, blocked sink).
5. They've asked to come here on a Saturday for a gas check (with less then 24h notice) and we said it wasn't a good day. They came anyway using their own key and we thought someone was breaking in.
6. We decided to leave the flat and they started the viewings.
7. We made it easy for them to come with people to view the flat while we were on holidays (we had probably more then 20 people coming).
8. We arrived from holidays and we asked them to slow down with the viewings (after several e-mails because they keep loosing and forgetting the information).
9. The viewings continued, always with short notices.
10. They came into our flat in a Saturday morning, WITHOUT ANY NOTICE, using their own key. And they didn't even say sorry.
11. I wrote this review, and it's not enough.

The managers don't care, there is no one responsible to talk with. And they can't organise themselves.

Everything is forgivable when people are open to learn with their mistakes and accept feedback. This is not something that Hotblack Desiato is interested in.

These people are terrible estate agents. There were problems with the contract (we were shuffled between two estate agents, were wrongly told that bills were included in the rent when they weren't, and then each estate agent blamed the other without any apology). There were also problems when moved in (the door didn't lock, for example) and the contractor they got to fix things turned up at all hours (like 10pm on a weeknight). Unknown to us when we signed the contract, work was still being done on the properties around us (a new-build group of flats) so things weren't finished when we moved in. We were also given a microwave when we were shown a room with a combi oven (huge difference in what you can cook).

Above all, their staff did not seem interested in helping us out at all. Avoid if at all possible!

I have been renting a flat through these guys for five months now, and out of 8 problems that existed from day 1, only 3 things have been fixed.
And 2 of those were botched during the first few attempts.

I genuinely wonder if they are at least a bit embarrassed by their exceptional incompetence, or whether they really don't care...

I will stay well clear of these people in the future.