Umega Lettings & Estate Agents レビュー 93

I had an extremely disappointing experience with Umega Lettings at the end of my 2-year tenancy.
During the tenancy, the relationship was generally acceptable. However, the situation deteriorated significantly after I provided notice to vacate the property.

Upon moving out, I received an inspection report that I found to be unreasonable and clearly disproportionate. The expectations outlined did not reflect the condition of a property that had been lived in for two years under normal use. Prior to vacating, the property was thoroughly cleaned to a reasonable standard, allowing for fair wear and tear. I also hold comprehensive photographic and video evidence to support this.

Despite this, I was informed that only £133 of my £1,300 deposit would be returned, with deductions totalling £1,167, including:

£270 for cleaning
£22 for bathroom sealant (later withdrawn after dispute)
£875 for alleged paint damage

While I reluctantly agreed to the cleaning charge in order to resolve matters efficiently, I strongly dispute the charge for repainting. The so-called “damage” is nothing more than normal wear and tear expected over a two-year tenancy. The invoice provided clearly shows repainting only, with no evidence of repair work, further confirming that this is routine redecoration. As per tenancy deposit guidelines, such costs are the landlord’s responsibility and cannot be passed on to tenants without clear evidence of excessive damage.

Only after I stated my intention to escalate the matter to the Safe Deposits Scotland they agreed to reduce the charge to £770. This raises serious concerns about the fairness and transparency of your initial assessment.

In addition to the deposit dispute, I am extremely dissatisfied with the following issues during and after the tenancy:

Maintenance failures:
A faulty kitchen switch was reported from the beginning of the tenancy but was never properly repaired. Contractors repeatedly attended quality check yet only labelled as checked without resolving it.
Similarly, issues with smoke detectors were ignored beyond advising me to replace batteries.

Mail handling after tenancy:
After vacating, I requested access to collect post delivered to the property. I could clearly see mail inside through the door, yet your team refused to assist, citing redirection responsibility. While I acknowledge this responsibility, refusing reasonable access and leaving mail unattended is unacceptable and unprofessional.

Overall, this experience suggests a pattern of unfair deposit practices and poor customer care. It is deeply disappointing that the standard of service declined so sharply at the end of the tenancy.

Based on my experience, I would strongly advise others to exercise caution when dealing with this agency. This feels like a company that’s reasonable until you leave—then your deposit is at risk.

We had an appointment to view a house at 2.30pm yesterday. No one turned up to show us around. Not the best way to sell a house.

As a landlord we rented our flat after its sale (a costly process) fell through. Having had a positive experience with Umega Sales, Umega Lettings was substantially different.
Umega consistently present a surface-level impression of being reasonable and helpful, and frame emails as discussions when they are instead already done deals. Their approach to ‘resolutions’ was often unilateral. Emails and information we provided were frequently ignored, and responses regularly included obfuscation, inaccurate statements, and repetition of positions already disproven. Their MO seems to be that they think you’ll just give up.

1) Communications were consistently absent, late, misleading and overall poor. We repeatedly raised concerns regarding last-minute “hit send and run” emails sent late on Friday afternoons. Despite discussing this, the next communication again arrived at 5pm (on the very dot) on a Friday. The ‘issues’ listed from Umega were verbatim from the tenant. The majority were simply non-issues or nothing to do with us (the cost of rent, size of deposit, the flat wasn’t fully furnished, odd marks on a blind, pictures of clear shelves, pictures of the top of the meter box?!). The move-in report recorded the flat as professional-level clean; however, we accepted that a dusty bedhead recently out of storage was an oversight on our part. Umega did not challenge any tenant assertions and simply issued us an additional cleaning bill after the fact.

2) After a period of hot weather, Umega hired an air-conditioning unit without our consent or prior notice. It’s not unusual for our building to be hot in the peak of summer (it has a full glass side window). A week after the summer weather had cooled, Umega notified us they had hired an air-conditioning unit; they did this with no notice and after the fact. Had the tenant flagged an issue in the weeks it was very hot, we might have agreed. But at the point they hired it, it was no longer necessary.
Umega stated I declined a phone call, which is incorrect. I took the call and apologised that the conversation was short as I was in a meeting – nothing was mentioned about air-con hire (it would have been the first thing I mentioned if I were them). We were not given the opportunity to make alternative arrangements, i.e. to buy a machine which would have been cheaper and permanent (again, if it was in the previous weeks’ temperature, we would have agreed to do this). At the point Umega hired the unit, the hot weather had abated and was ~17 degrees during the day and 10 at night, and it remained this way. So the hire was no longer necessary. Umega failed to cancel the hire when there was still time to do so, despite three emails and a phone call. Three days later we had an in-person meeting with two Umega representatives and it was agreed the hire was indeed unnecessary, and Umega would de-hire the unit. This did not happen, and Umega have ignored our repeated requests asking why this didn’t happen. Billing and hire periods were inconsistent — the air-conditioning bill Umega provided changed, with one bill for £379 and then a second for £696. They’ve been untruthful about extending the air-con hire (in one way or the other). On 3rd Oct and 20th Oct, Umega outlined in email that the air-con was hired from 21/08/25 and that the unit was collected (end of hire) 25/09/25. But the invoice ran to October – we queried this (again numerous times). Now Umega are telling us (email 3rd Nov) and expect us to believe (and this is new news to us right now) that they actually extended hire of the air conditioning until the 10th October. Most egregious - no matter that this is Scotland with Sept/October usual cool/cold weather conditions, - unbeknown to Umega I had called the hire company on 6th Oct myself and they told me the unit had indeed been collected from our flat back in September when Umega indicated (xx address confirmed). So Umega have been caught bang in a lie!

3) Umega continued to classify the hire as a welfare issue all the way in to October but have provided zero evidence of high temperatures in the flat since our communications in August. This was not an urgent maintenance issue, and there is no legal obligation to provide air-conditioning into October in Scotland. Umega clearly have accepted responsibility, but only in part. They agreed to cover half of the hire cost. We’re now in dispute over the other half of the cost.
We’re waiting now for the ‘reasonable Umega’ response on here. In the meantime, we’re taking the matter to Tier 1 tribunal with assistance from the SLA. Based on this experience, Umega has lost any future business from us, including potential sale.

I was help by Catherine she was very helpful. Answered all my questions I’ll definitely recommend her

Avoid! Had a tenancy for almost 5 years, place left spotless. Trying to charge me for cleaning even though they stated I left it very clean. Also damage to a window not caused by myself and declared. Charging over double cost that was quoted!

Good letting agency. They of course use the cheapest contractors for repairs etc. but that is everyone. Very communicative and generally helpful. I think my experience was improved by having a decent landlord who took an interest but overall a positive impression of Umega.

Umega letting sign was dumped behind fusebox in the street and the zip ties used to secure it were left where they fell. I tried to phone the number on the sign about 10 times, trying various selection options. I either get cut off, or I'm allowed to leave a message, I didn't find an option that let me speak with a human. I left a message, which the recording said they would reply to within an hour, but they didn't.

After a year as a tenant with Umega, I am still delighted with them. Any issues with the flat have been responded to / actioned fully and quickly. My recent flat inspection process was great - I was given a choice of dates and times well in advance which is much better than having a date imposed without a specific time. My Property Manager (Grant) arrived on-time, explained the process and was as friendly, respectful and professional as always. As an anxious neurodivergent person, it’s important for me to deal with people I can trust. I’m a rental tenant of around 25 years and I can genuinely say that Umega have been the best letting agents I’ve ever dealt with.

I would like to thank Eleonora Vacca for her fantastic support and assistance in the letting of our flat over the past couple of years. Nora has really gone the extra mile to manage everything so well for us. We wish her all the best in her new role with Umega.

I'm happy with the service I received from Phil the property manager during his property visit to my flat. His professionalism and quick response to issues identified are second to non. Good job Phil👍

Very happy to have Grant like agent on our property. Is responding very quickly to emails, and organising the solutions for all my problems. Our first annual visit was very quick, easy and lovely. I received the answer to all my questions. Five stars to Grant from our flat.

I would like to place on record my thanks and gratitude to Becky Mazzarelli, who has been my property manager until very recently. Becky is now moving on to another role within Umega, and I have no doubt will be equally successful in her new venture.
Becky has always been professional, and very helpful with managing my property for me, whilst ensuring my tenant has been well looked after too.
It has been very reassuring to know that my property has been in good hands.
I have always had timely communication, support and advice throughout. I wish Becky all the very best for the future!

Excellent process and support.
Flat became vacant and the support by Becca and team was exceptional. She listened to our requirements, guided us through the process and found new tenants quickly. Overall perfect service. Thoroughly recommend.

We live in midmarkets managed by Umega and it’s not mid market anymore. They don’t care about people with mental disabilities, the complaint process has no customer service at all, they explain things out to you like a child rather than reading what paying tenants are saying. The edinburgh ones contractors are terrible, they ruined my house and then I was gaslight into it being my fault and refused it to be fixed and it’s still not but I gave up fighting them. I’ve been in my house 7 years and touchstone managed before and they were amazing. Now there has been a change, I hate living here, they took away my quiet entrance without communication, so now I need to go the noisy route to my home when me being autistic and my child being autistic we needed that walk way, but they took locked it and gave terrible reply, they changed locks on the cupboard and then left them open so anything could be stolen and they do not communicate our before hand or after they just do things and then you see, but they are quick to get onto you if you did anything. They refuse to tell me who to contact who gave them the contract.

Becky was so proactive and committed to help. I throughly recommend Umega as they have shown taking responsibility and being flexible in the way the communicate with clients.

I moved out of an Umega-managed flat almost three months ago. After two months of waiting for my deposit refund, I had to request it myself because they kept postponing the inspection report.

During this time, I realized I had accidentally taken a broken door handle with me. As soon as I noticed, I immediately informed them and asked how I could return it. They responded with a vague email simply asking me to return it—without providing any instructions.

Now, they are trying to charge me for the door handle, even though:

The handle was already broken and had been improperly installed by Umaga’s own repair team, despite three failed repair attempts.
Their poor repair work resulted in the handle being placed dangerously close to the door frame, causing an injury to my 5-year-old child. Due to this, I had to remove the handle for safety reasons.
The door handle was non-functional, as it wasn’t connected to any mechanism.
Instead of acknowledging their own repair failures, Umaga is calling this broken, wrongly fixed door handle an "ITEM" without specifying what it actually is. They falsely accused me of taking it and not returning it, even though I was the one who first informed them about it and asked how to return it.

To make matters worse, they are also trying to charge me for window cleaning, despite the fact that I hired a professional cleaning company, had the windows thoroughly cleaned inside and out, and provided Umaga with the receipt.

Their treatment has been unprofessional and unfair, and their handling of disputes is unacceptable. I strongly do not recommend Umaga to either landlords or tenants.

The whole experience with Umega and their team was great from a tenant perspective. I dealt mostly with Claire, Ben and also had contact with Georgia. Everyone was extremely helpful, communicative and informative throughout. Claire was my initial contact at application/contract stage and Ben showed me around the properly and took so much time to answer all my questions and will be the property manager going forward. I absolutely recommend using Umega. Everything was smooth from start to finish. Thank you.

Kim has helped us every step of the way to get our apartment ready and onto the market. Very professional and friendly service. Thank you Kim.

I have had great experience with Ben always responds to my calls and mails, all the repairs staff I have meet are great and friendly 🙏🙏🙏

Had a problem with my washing machine and the issue was sorted within 24hrs. Great job Ben 👍