Mansbridge & Balment Reviews 11

Normally I would only review a company or service if the experience was of note and worth reporting. I feel compelled however to take a different stance in our recent dealings with this company.

You would do well to choose an alternative estate agent to represent you in this region.

We experienced poor practices including failure to obtain a properly signed contract prior marketing (took us to point this out 3 months later), providing incorrect data with failure to acknowledge or apologise for their error, and an imbalance in matters relating to a complex multiparty instruction.

Communication is weak as are the reporting methods and social media capabilities. Even WhatsApp was a bridge too far for their admin sales progression.
Overall, the service for the post-sale pre completion stage was very lacking.

We make these observations from the perspective of a recent sale and purchase of our own property and a recent sale that occurred in parallel which have been and are being enacted with far more quality and care.

We strongly suggest you try elsewhere.

One of the worst experiences I’ve had buying a home. Our property went back onto the market - without warning - a couple of weeks before we were due to complete. We’d had no calls or communication from Mansbridge Balment, just an announcement, via email from someone we’d before spoken with, that the house we were buying was back on the market. There was no due diligence, phone call or communication to find out what was happening on our side - so there was clearly no reassurance given to the seller! Stressful, and unwilling to have any conversation about the condition of the property post survey (whole roof needs redoing). Do not expect a fair purchase with this company. Pay up or go home! (Excuse the pun!). Having worked with other local agents, this experience was disappointing and very far below the care and communication taken in previous experiences. They do not care about you as a buyer at all - terrible! Most of the time, it felt like they were selling sweets not houses worth £X amount! So, we’ve just brought the most expensive humbug in history - Shocking experience!

As buyer very poor service. Discovered considerable issues with a property . Was encourage to proceed despite what they were suggesting was illegal . on top of that other legal issues on the entitlement of land which was an issue , left the property not something we wanted to continue with but M&B listed it with the same description knowing it to be false. Following that any other properties we felt they were there to open the door but no sales support.

Avoid wether buying or selling!
Wanted to buy and had offer accepted on a property with stipulation to remove from market before I'd proceed. After many weeks the property was still listed on market but agents start demanding I proceed, they even contacted my solicitor & lied saying I'd said to proceed. Obviously the sale is not going ahead now & since found out they refused to put offers forward on two properties, one went for less than my offer.
Very poor communication, no single point of contact, always a different employee emailing, cold/rude and very confusing.

We stupidly marketed our house with this company , totally incompetent, from start to finish when a buyer was found and sale agreed we were told various storylines as to why the sale was not moving forward, it finally transpired the buyer had no background checks carried out by the agent , we’re not a “Cash “ buyer as we were informed by M&B and hadn’t even sold there house , therefore not able to proceed let alone be “Cash buyers “ so after 12weeks of misinformation the whole thing collapsed purely due to any due diligence by M&B initially we had three buyers the one recommended by M&B we accepted thereby losing 2 real potential buyers , lesson learned do not even think of contacting this shambles of a company we were completely mis lead fed various fake reasons from start to finish, however , we instructed another agent who were exemplary and sold our property with two weeks to a genuine buyer having carried out due diligence, M&B are certainly one to avoid having cost us considerable time and money

After sending an enquiry through their website on the Saturday, ringing the office on the Tuesday as I'd had no response to the query on the property we were interested in viewing, took my details and again still no response back five days later. Not sure how they sell any properties!

Worst agent in Tavistock area for viewing with, didn't want to pass on an offer from us to one of their vendors, I thought agents were obliged to? Constantly over hyping houses and the state of the market, we've moved many times and we read the news, we don't need to hear different. If you're selling try the other agents in the area first.

Thanks to Tony, Trish and Julie for their excellent care and attention. We have used Mansbridge in the past and their service is exemplar. From the valuation, pictures, viewings and agreements, they have been so trustworthy and professional throughout. Their promise of any call backs was met every time. They kept us in the loop at all stages and their friendliness gave us great comfort and confidence. We do not intend to move again, but if we did, without question, would use Mansbridge again. Thank you. Jackie and Paul

Disappointed in this company. There seemed a complete lack of enthusiasm in selling our property. One offer was apparently made but not put in writing so we never knew who the offer was from anyway (which surprise, surprise did not materialise anyway). We also had to keep chasing for feedback on viewings.

I paid for a tenant finder service, I subsequently found out that they pay somebody else to complete the "checks". The result being my house was rented to a national drug ring under false employment and reference information (when I did not receive my 1st months rent I checked this information myself and within 2 hours found out the details were not real).
When I raised this as an issue to Mansbridge it was suggested that, as I had picked between 2 tenants offered (I picked the one moving in sooner as I am not a large landlord. I only had that one house and was having to rent it because I couldn't afford it after a relationship fail), but because I picked him that I was somehow to blame, no acknowledgement at all of the time, effort or emotional toil this had taken on me. The response I received was victim blaming, rude and also a deliberate attempt to make me feel intimidated by suggesting I had misunderstood the checks carried out and that they do not complete "criminal DBS" checks, I was not in any way thinking that they did as in my case they did not even check his employer, reference or previous landlady.
I have complained about this with no real response, I keep being told an MD will be in touch they have not, they also have not refunded the fee I paid for the "check". Thankfully in my case the house did not need too much work / clearing and the drug ring only missed one months rent from 6, however this does not make up for the 6 months of stress of chasing rent, neighbour complaints and the time and effort needed to deal with the police to provide evidence etc.
This all happened 2019/2020, so I would hope that they have changed their processes now. I have just submitted my final information to police hence being able to comment now.

The company had a complaint raised against them for failures to complete checks on purchasers who clearly didn't have funds and due diligence checks fir purchasers sitting tenant went unchecked. Poor company poor method of complaints procedure, marking their own work. Extremely poor communication. Their failure cost us the property wevwanted and nearly a 10 percent fine on the purchase price. We were suppose to move on 6 Dec 2021 but our buyer whom they failed to check properly did not conclude her sale till 24 Jan 2022 had we completed and not been in position the fully complete then a 10 percent fine could have fallen on us. Luckily we stopped all movement and called a halt to this transaction. Mansbridge and Balment, just awful, poor communicators and just all round poor at listening. Dreadful company experience NEVER again will we use these awful people.
Will Parker.