Digs, Bristol

Previous agency: Oceans (2019 - July 2023) generally good. However, they would come visit the house or show it around to prospective buyers without 24hours notice given to tenants and then blame it all on a staff's hospital appointment first then changed their story to a system error.

Previous landlords: Boscobel - probably the best landlords. But they had cowboy builders working for them and were not given the full picture by their incompetent in-house builders.

Current agency: Digs (July 2023 - current) - probably the worst agency in Bristol and should not be allowed to do business at all. Their general manager is thuggish, confrontational and a genuinely scary person to deal with but if you want to raise a complaint on Digs, he is also the person you meant to contact. Digs have repeatedly remove themselves from Google to rid themselves of mountains of bad reviews.

Digs would also refuse to pay bills even when it's stipulated in the contrac and would ask for evidence why they need to pay. This either means their staff cannot read or they didn't even read the contracts in the first place. If I am to do their job, of which involves contract management, perhaps I should get paid by Digs I instead.

Currently landlord: Shaunaks Investment Ltd - the guy boasted about serving Section 21 and raise rent if tenants cannot pay over 30% rent increase each year. He has served Section 21 notice to all current tenants. Tbh there are only one type of landlords that uses Digs. They are either slum landlords, or are associated with sinister, morally dubious and/or criminal activities.

Example of one interaction with Digs.

An email was received by all tenants at 16:28 regarding a contractor's visit to the property. The email did not specify the nature for the visit or the time of the visit.

Consequently, a tenant called Digs (Bristol) Ltd to inquire about the nature of this visit. During the call, the tenant was transferred to Nick Jackson, Digs' general manager, who informed the tenant that the new landlord would be visiting. He indicated a lack of regard for the 24-hour notice requirement or the necessity to provide a reason for the visit to the tenants. In the course of the conversation, Nick displayed unprofessional behaviour by being rude, threatening, condescending, intimidating, and aggressive. Nick demanded to know why letting agents or landlords could not visit the property they own whenever they pleased. The tenant stressed that it is only fair to provide tenants with 24 hours' notice and follow regulations and rules, to which he responded aggressively, branding the tenant "a troublemaker" and suggested that he will visit "at 4:30, which will give you 24 hours notice."

It appears that staff at Digs (Bristol) Ltd may not have thoroughly reviewed the tenancy contract or failed to comprehend its provisions, including Section 4, which pertains to "Quiet Enjoyment" and tenants' rights to exercise it. As a representative from Digs (Bristol) Ltd, Nick's refusal to acknowledge tenants' rights and rental laws is highly unprofessional and unethical.

If you are a tenant or a student who do not understand your rights, Digs (Bristol) Ltd will be here to ensure your rights are stripped and violated. If you have disputes, complaints or issues with the place, Digs (Bristol) Ltd will send people like Nick to intimidate tenants into silence.

Totally unprofessional. Difficult to contact and denied the obvious problems with the property, most of which continued to remain unrectified.

Unorganised and crap. They put the property up at the wrong price, about £10 less ppw than the landlord wanted advertised. Why are we paying extortionate agency fees for someone to sit in an office, watch us fill out paperwork and then send the paperwork in to the landlord? And they can't even do their job properly and put up the property for the right price.