Helena Rowntree
Founder & director
Twenty-six years in Bath lettings. Sits on the firm's client account reconciliation every Friday and has done since 2010. ARLA Propertymark, member of The Property Institute.
About
The post a flight of stairs turns around
A newel is the post at the foot of a staircase. Everything else in the flight is fixed to it, and it is the one part that does not move. It seemed a fair thing to call a firm that holds other people's property and other people's money while tenants come and go.
2009
Why the firm exists
Helena Rowntree and Marcus Ordish met working for a national chain with an office on Milsom Street. In 2008 a landlord asked Helena what a year of full management had actually cost, and it took eleven days and three departments to produce an answer. It turned out to be a little over nineteen per cent once the tenancy pack, the renewal fee and the contractor commission were counted.
They left in the autumn of 2009 and opened on Widcombe Parade the following spring with four instructions and one rule: any charge the firm could ever make had to fit on one page, and that page had to be public. Seventeen years later the page has eighteen lines on it and the rule has not changed.
Publishing the fee is not a marketing decision and it is not generosity. Section 83 of the Consumer Rights Act has required it since 2015. The remarkable thing is not that we do it — it is how few of our competitors bother.
Who you deal with
Nine people, and these four run it
The person who values your property is the person who manages it. Qualifications are listed because in a trade where anyone may legally call themselves a letting agent, they are one of the few things a landlord can actually check.
Marcus Ordish
Director, lettings
Runs the residential book. Took the firm through the Tenant Fees Act in 2019 and the Renters' Rights Act this May without a single tenancy falling out of compliance. ARLA Propertymark.
Claire Devereux
Head of block management
Joined 2016 from a surveying practice. Redid the Bathampton roof consultation that a previous agent had botched, recovering the full cost instead of £250 a flat. TPI, AssocRICS.
Adaeze Balogun
Property manager, HMOs
Handles the Oldfield Park and Westmoreland student book and every additional-licensing application the firm makes. Knows the BaNES licensing team by name. ARLA Propertymark.
The stock
What we let, and how we hand it over
Every managed property is photographed at check-in and check-out against a written schedule of condition. It is the single thing that settles a deposit dispute, and the single thing most often missing.
Client money
Where your rent actually sits
This is the question landlords ask least and should ask first. An agency holding rent and deposits is holding your money in its own account, and agency collapses have cost landlords a year's income.
- Client money is held in designated client accounts with a UK clearing bank, separate from the firm's own funds and never used for the firm's own working capital.
- Accounts are reconciled weekly and reviewed annually by an independent accountant, whose report goes to Propertymark.
- We hold client money protection through Propertymark, certificate C0271643. If we misappropriated your money or went under, you would be reimbursed by the scheme, not by us.
- Rent is paid over within three working days of clearing, with a statement, not held to a monthly cycle for the interest.
- We take no commission from any contractor, ever. Where we arrange works over £1,500 we charge 10% of the invoice and that is the whole of what we make on it.
If something goes wrong
Complain to the office first — in writing, and we must respond within fifteen working days. If you are not satisfied after eight weeks you may take it to The Property Ombudsman, scheme membership D08871, at no cost to you. The Ombudsman can make an award against us and we are bound by it. Our full complaints procedure is available at the office and on request.
Come and see us
The office is on Widcombe Parade and the kettle works
No appointment needed between nine and half five. Bring your current agent's terms if you have them and we will read them with you.