Castle Estates: Customer Reviews

Commented by Castle-Estates on 23rd June 2008

I am unsure who this landlord is as I do not recognise the situation and he/she has hidden behind anonymity and not had the courage to sign their name.

This webite is managed by Mr Dravecky, who tells me the website is based in Slovakia, outside the jurisdiction of British courts.

Therefore anybody can say what they want about an agent anonymously and it may be true or it may not be. Mr Dravecky knows nobody can chase him or his site because it is a fair bet Slovakia does not have the same laws as the UK. So, there is little possibility of any comeback against Mr Dravecky.

I doubt if Mr Dravecky checks the facts of any of the comments made on his website and if he doesn't then he should do, otherwise he is in danger of breaking the British libel laws.

Ftom time to time things go wrong with tenancies and most agents will do their best to put them right, but what landlords often don't recognise is if tenants don't pay the rent, then they cannot be paid money the agent does not have.

If arrears build up, the agent can send letters to the tenant, but if he/she does not pay, then unless the landlord has an insurnace policy for rent arrears, there is little the agent can do because the laws allow tenants to stay in a house until eviction notices are obtained and this can take several months.

We have done one eviction in 12 years and because we had a gurantor the landlord is getting the rent arrears each month, although it will take afew years fro it all to be paid off.

That is not a bad record.

Regards

Paul Crisford of Pettifer

Commented by J Dravecky on 23rd June 2008

To Mr Crisford:

I can't see anything wrong with a Slovakian web company expanding their business abroad, same as there is nothing wrong with Ebay.co.uk being registered in Luxemburg, Amazon in the USA, etc.

Slovakia is a part of the European Union and the European law applies there, too.

All reviewers must confirm their email address when they exprees their opinion. We promise to never give their personal details to third parties - that includes estate agents; the data protection act applies to Slovakia as well.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion and everyone has a right to express it, no matter if you, Mr Crisford, like it or not.

As I told you, we double checked all reviews of your company and deleted one which we suspected wasn't genuine. We will not remove the others, sorry.

Any firther conversation on this subject will be deleted. This is not the right place. You are welcome to comment on reviews though.

Commented by Roadrunner 2 on 13th June 2008

We had the same problems, too quick to spend our money without consultation. Once they spent £500 on repairing a 26 year old boiler without asking us, we would have replaced it, also £90 on repairing a tap washer in the kitchen. We also found that the guy in Salisbury (O Neil) did not return the tenants deposit or pay us for the agreed damages by the tenant, and in 2 years never inspected the property. The outgoing tenant said it was filthy when he moved in and had to get a cleaner.
We also now have an excellent agent I would be happy to recomend to anyone in the Salisbury area.