ALL FIVE STAR REVIEWS ARE FAKE They are dishonest, keep your deposit as long as they legally can. With me, when I viewed the room there was a mattress protector on the mattress, and I made the mistake of not looking at it. Of course, when I moved out, they found a stain and charged me £100 for a replacement mattress from my deposit. They are disorganized, NEVER respond to or even read emails or phone calls. They have NO cleaning except 20 minutes every TWO WEEKS They ignore rat infestation in their apartments. They were fined TWICE by the authorities for their illegal behaviour: * The Mirror: Letting agency prosecuted over "switch and bait" scam after advertising spotless flat that was "more like a crack den" https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/letting-agency-prosecuted-over-switch-13834721 * Huge fine of £167,000 is not the first time letting agency Sterling De Vere has been convicted https://www.lettingagenttoday.co.uk/breaking-news/2018/9/agency-has-bill-of-over-50-000-for-letting-overcrowded-property?source=newsticker Be careful, AVOID THEM read more

For ex-tenants of Sterling De Vere who are struggling to get their deposits back, here is how I got our full amount of £700 back. If you are successful in getting yours back through this method in the future, please copy and paste for others who might benefit. - Keep track of all of your emails sent to Sterling De Vere requesting your deposit. Email is better than phoning the company, as that way you will have an electronic paper trail for your requests. - After one month, if you still have not received your deposit, locate your tenancy deposit certificate. In our case, we were not provided this by Sterling De Vere, so I had to search online for it myself. Ours was held with Tenancy Deposit Scheme. This site is reasonably straight-forward to use, and provided you have the deposit amount you paid, and the date you took residency at the property, you should be able to locate your certificate without too much hassle. There are other tenancy deposit protection sites, but this is where ours was kept, so I am only guessing here that this is where yours will be too. - Provided you have taken all measures to ask for your deposit back from Sterling De Vere, you may register online with Tenancy Deposit Scheme to create a dispute. You will require your tenancy deposit certificate details to create your dispute. - After the dispute has been raised, Sterling De Vere will be given 14 days to either advise Tenancy Deposit Scheme that they want to dispute the amount to be paid, or they will provide you with your rightful refund. The main thing to remember with this, is that you need to be able to prove that you have requested your refund, and also that Sterling De Vere had agreed to provide you with the refund originally. I strongly urge ex-tenants to fight for your refund. Sterling De Vere appear to have got away with a lot of money from people who have given up, and I get the feeling that they bank on people giving up. Provided you have left your flat in good condition, there is absolutely no reason that they should be able to keep your money. It is rightfully YOURS. * And if you are considering this company, please AVOID at all costs. As other people here have noted, if you do your research, you will find that the majority of the five-star reviews here on Google are from accounts that have been set up to post fake reviews to 'bump up' company ratings. This is ILLEGAL, and goes against Google reviews' guidelines. As I have limited space left, I will just say - our three bedroom flat share was not up to a healthy living standard. It was only cleaned ONCE in the common areas by their 'professional cleaner' in the four months my partner and I were there. We were told on signing our agreement this would be done bi-monthly. The shower was covered in mould to the point of no return. It leaked through to the bedroom of another couple staying at the flat, and rotted the wall in their room. This was 'fixed' by someone from Sterling De Vere coming round to dig out the rotting part, fill it, then paint over it. I am no 'tradie' but I know that this will not have fixed the heart of the problem. Our bedroom window sills had BLACK mould growing all over them. This had been painted over, but it continued to grow through the cooler months. Out of the four months we stayed at this flat, we were without Wi-Fi for one month. We were told by Sterling De Vere that the Wi-Fi is complementary and we would have to arrange this to be fixed ourselves at our cost. Without going into all the detail, these are just a few examples of how this company operates and treats their tenants. There are many reviews here that I can completely agree with here, so again - do your research, and AVOID!!! And again - I URGE ALL EX-TENANTS TO FIGHT FOR YOUR DEPOSIT. DO NOT GIVE IN TO THESE MONSTERS. read more

DO NOT USE THIS AGENCY! They are a scam. They showed me photos of a house in excellent condition and even gave me an address. On arrival in the UK they said they had made a mistake and had put the photos in the wrong file. My pre-booked room was 'not available' even though I had given them a holding deposit of 500 pounds. The alternative accommodation they showed me in photos and 2 that I viewed personally can only be described as slums: filthy, smelly, disgusting ex- council flats that had not been refurbished - or even cleaned! After keeping me at their agency from 1.30 until after 7 in the evening, I felt under pressure to take the least disgusting flat I was shown. I still had my suitcase and had arrived directly from the airport. My room is acceptable (but not the standard I had asked for and agreed to pay). The flat, however, is a total disgrace. No smoke alarms anywhere - filthy, greasy kitchen cupboards, no ventilation in the toilet - there is only a sealed window so all the toilet smells go directly into the flat. Exposed wires and bulbs hanging from dirty sockets in the ceilings, junk piled up in the tiny hall, a fire extinguisher that has clearly not been maintained for years - the list goes on and on. They lie, they scam you, they have the audacity to say 'you can trust me'. Both departments of Health and Safety and Trading Standards have shown keen interest in my case. Now they are demanding more money from me even though my agreed dates of renting are clear - they say I have to pay for 3 more days and can only vacate the flat on a Sunday. News to me! Whatever you do - DO NOT USE THIS AGENCY. They lie in your face! read more

The company is absolutely appalling, and their incentivising a good google review for a rent discount (seriously, check their website) really does a great job at skewing their overall google rating by those who cannot really afford their extortionate fees (£300) and deposits (6 weeks). Don't get me wrong, they're extremely helpful in getting your contract signed, promising a renovated bathroom to every prospective tenant and suffering a serious case of amnesia when they have your signature. They'll harass you every monday to pay your rent via an automated text message you cannot unsubscribe from (even if you pay by standing order!) and constantly try to force brand new contract terms/fees on you. But the most fun is to be had when you actually try to get out - requiring a 13 week notice period or forfeiting any advances/deposit paid! Be realistic - no other letting agency will hold a room (let alone a house/flat) for you for over a quarter of a year and change. Oh, not forgetting their "regular" cleaning service! My god, if they turn up once in two weeks you should appreciate the effort, and if they stick around for more than 15 minutes you must not be renting with De Vere. "But what about their free super-fast broadband?" I hear you cry? on a good day, the network speed is just over 1Mbps, and it's shared between a household of upwards of 6 people. Trust me on this - don't make the same mistake I did. Find another letting agent or rent privately and you'll get to live a longer, happier life. PS: Yes, some might say I'm just a bitter, disgruntled ex-tenant because their twitter feed is nothing but praise, but if you want an honest view of what's really going on, see @DeVereBadReview or @SterlingVereBAD (neither are owned or operated by myself). read more

DO NOT USE THIS AGENCY. I have rented a room with Sterling for 10 months and it has been a horrible experience. Their customer service and general service overall has been awful. They took months to do much needed repairs, leaving the whole flat with NO HOT WATER OR HEATING for over a month during winter, and then after fixing the boiler it still didn't work properly and had a DANGEROUS GAS LEAK. Over the period I was there also had a broken fridge and freezer, broken washing machine, and broken shower. Everything took longer than it should have to fix. THREE TIMES they broke the law by UNLOCKING AND ENTERING MY ROOM without advance notice or warning, once when I was inside asleep. They contract to provide cleaning services but THE CLEANERS RARELY CAME, and did a terrible job. When we complained to Sterling, nothing changed. The final issue is that i MOVED OUT OVER 6 WEEKS AGO and I have still not received my deposit back or my refund for extra rent paid. I AM WAITING FOR NEARLY ONE THOUSAND POUNDS and the company continue to delay payment for no reason despite having all the information they need. Please don't make the same mistake I did by using this agency; pick another of the many in London. To back up this review if you believe the fake good ones, google Sterling plus the word "prosecution" or "fine" to see all the court cases, and read the twitter account about how bad it is: deverebadreview. read more

I have been staying with this agency for a while and these guys are a nightmare to work with. Every month I have to go to their office with the electricity top up key to to ask them to pay the elecrticity bill even though the bills are included in the contract. And more so I have to wait for an hour each time while there is no electricity supply in the property. If there is a fault they don't fix it. Most unprofessional people I have come across. read more

If you want to waste your time, it is the perfect agency. After waiting 1 hour in their agency with an appointment for visiting a flat, i never saw it. An other costumer waited 2 hours just before me and decided to leave as well. They just collect your informations and let you wait for nothing. Ovoid read more

I was a tenant through Sterling De Vere and can only describe the experience I had renting through them as an unending nightmare. Issues that occurred during my 10 months renting with them: - The boiler broke, it took them two weeks to repair. They gave us no real updates, beyond "the landlord is on holiday" and it took going down to their office to shout at them for anything to actually happen. - There was a carbon monoxide leak, which took them 4 days to deal with. - Homophobic comments made to one of my housemates and his boyfriend. - No notice of when they would come round to the property, often for completely manufactured reasons. Mantas, one of their then-agents, decided Saturday night at 9pm would be a good time to just pop round. - Any attempt at maintenance was a farce. Their maintenance team have zero training, to the point that one of them admitted to me that he didn't know how to use a drill. - They steal deposits. I don't know anyone who rented through them who actually had their deposit returned to them. - We had rats in the property, repeated complaints were made, no action was taken. - Exposed electrical wires everywhere in the property, damp damage causing them to spark inside the walls. No action taken. - The cleaners they hired routinely broke tenants property. These people are not to be trusted. They've been caught out faking reviews repeatedly (all of their reviews are either 1 star or 5, which should make it obvious). They were recently featured on Channel 4, have been on the BBC and the Mirror as an example of one of the worst letting agents in the country. They were fined just under a quarter of a million in 2018 alone, for scam marketing tactics, overcrowding properties, operating without a licence and failing to meet fire safety standards. Their only reply to bad reviews is to lie and claim you're not a tenant. They're a pathetic organisation, staffed by morally-bankrupt, illiterate snakes. Stay well away. read more

These are the worst possible people and estate agents i have ever come across. They lie, intimidate you for payments and don't care for their tenants. When dealing with an issue with my room, was told it was my responsibility to sort it out and pay £150 for a fee when it wasnt even my fault/problem. The house was poor, and when suffering with leaks that flooded the hallway, they promised someone to come over which they never did. Having to demand my deposit back, only to be told it is being deducted for reasons unknown. Please, please do not use Sterling De Vere. There are many more London rooms available that wont be at the hands of wannabe estate agents that only want your money and do not care for you as a person/tenant. read more

I moved to London in March from overseas and found this flat near Shadwell station at the beginning of April through spareroom.co.uk. The girl who was moving out had told me that I should give her my deposit for the room and that she had cleared it with De Vere Property Management (please note that this is not the same company as the one based in Guildford/Woking). I met two of the three other flatmates and they seemed trustworthy and confirmed her statement. I gave her a partial deposit and she gave me a copy of her passport with a statement, indicating how much I had given her. I gave her the rest when I moved in around April 15th. In the week leading up to my move-in date, I tried calling De Vere numerous times from Edinburgh to try to sort out my lease, but never received a return call. This was an early indication of their non-responsiveness. I resided in the flat from the middle of April to the middle of August, with no lease, even though I had tried to sort one out. There were a few times when I was going to go out to Barking to pick up a lease, but I was assured by Bodrul Islam, the first agent I was dealing with, that he would drop it off. I never saw a lease. In June, I requested to pay my rent on a weekly basis, rather than on a fortnightly schedule; Adam Johnson gave me permission to do so, which I did until I moved out. Unfortunately, when I moved out, I received my deposit, minus 40 pounds. De Vere said that it was because I was late with my payments. I provided letters from my bank, stating when my rent came out of my account - none of my payments were late. When I gave my two weeks' notice, I offered to find my replacement in the flat, thinking that I would get my deposit back faster. I needed to get out of the flat ASAP because there was a flatmate who was a misogynstic homophobe. I moved out two days early and the guy who was replacing me was supposed to pay me the two days' rent; instead, he mistakenly paid the two days' rent to De Vere. This amounted to 42 pounds. De Vere has ripped me off 82 pounds in total. After weeks of correspondence with Naznin Khandakar and Kobir Ali Ahmed to try to get my money back, they stopped replying to my phone calls and emails altogether. While I was looking for a new flat, I came across an advert, which I replied to. A man by the name of Jake replied and it turned out that he was part of De Vere. I mentioned that I had been trying to get back my money from De Vere and he actually seemed quite helpful. He replied to my text messages and emails and I was hopeful that he would be able to get me back my money. As a new resident in the UK, it's been frustrating to have to deal with greed and apathy. Eighty-two pounds may not seem like a lot to a company, but it's a day's wage for me. I provided records of emails and bank letters to Jake Ensum, but eventually, on 19/Nov/12, he said that although my case had merit, the decision to reimburse me was not up to him, but to Bux (last name unknown) and Adam Johnson. Neither have replied to my email, which is very typical of the people who work at De Vere. My experience with De Vere Property Management has been an absolute nightmare. The fact that I lived in the flat for four months without a lease is indicative of how disorganised and unprofessional they are as a business. I moved out in August and it is currently December; I am still waiting to get back 82 pounds for two days' rent and a late fee that they shouldn't have charged me in the first place. I would highly recommend NOT using this company. read more

AVOID! Unprofessional and disrespectful! I made an appointment to view a room via Spare Room with Francisco, one of their agents in Landgon Park branch. I showed up at the agency just to find out that Francisco is off that day and also the room I was supposed to see has already been rented out. The lady that spoke with me instead of the guy didn't even say sorry. I wish someone has contacted me before I wasted my time to go there. read more