Williams Lynch Estate Agents / Residential Sales, Lettings & Property Management

The fact that you can even add a star is already too much credit for this scam house. Williams Lynch on Bermondsey St have violated our agreement on multiple occasions, leaving significant issues, some of which health and safety related to go unaddressed for up for 5-6 months. In our short tenancy to date we've had no heating or hot water on multiple occasions, first of which throughout winter. Current of which with a newborn child in our home. Their staff ignore emails, don't adhere to law as it pertains to tenants rights to be connected directly to landlords and are flat out rude. I would highly avoid this letting agency at all costs. Whilst most lettings agencies tend to be pretty bad, WL take the cake for sure and we're seeking legal support currently to address our agreement and tenant rights which have been violated repeatedly. Awful, awful "service" provider. * * * In response to Williams Lynch: Mark – glad you responded, I’m happy that this goes into the public forum as it’s important for future WL prospects that it does. Right you are re: 4 months, my apologies. It’s just felt like so much longer with regards to the level of work we seem to have to do as tenants to access an appropriate service from an incompetent business. Attached are 2 images. One is of my 8 week old child’s crib, next to it a Gro Egg baby thermometer and before that my watch. The watch shows the date (last night after your idiotic response), and the temperature outside. The Gro Egg is showing the temperature in the room – next to my child’s crib. The other image is of the heating grades the thermometer will show and what each means. I imagine that I don’t need to explain that the images are showing a dangerous environment for an infant – I believe we can both agree to that. The rest of my comments addressing your other points are attached in a separate screenshot as they were a touch over the character limit allowed.

Williams Lynch were recently engaged to let our property, who did a fabulous job from finding the right tenants within acceptable time and then managing our property to the highest standards of satisfaction .... meeting our expectations fully. Sounds too good to be true but that’s exactly how I’ll describe our property manager Catherine Close. Lovely lady who is extremely professional in looking after both the landlord’s & tenants’ interests ... a difficult balance to drive otherwise. Shout out to Onal & Ben who managed the whole renting process beyond our expectations.

I've had a great experience as tenant in a Williams Lynch property for the past 18 months with Philip Marques acting as property manager. I found the problem reporting app to be useful and responsive and there was great communication regarding various property checks throughout. This is a very professional and pleasant agency that I would highly recommend!

Excellent service managing rentals. In this climate managed to find new tenants very quickly. Excellent communication with clients

I’ve been renting with Williams Lynch for over 5 years now. Excellent communication with Phill and rest of the guys. Any problems at the flat quickly sorted. I really can’t complain. Keep the good work Williams Lynch team!

Efficient service for check-in and check-out. Dealt with a few minor issues pretty quickly during tenancy and were swift with the full return of the deposit on check-out. Had no real issues to speak of in the flat but when dealt with they were professional and polite, particularly Phil and Onal for check-out and check-in respectively.

Renting with Williams Lynch for a year now and the team have been ace. Ben was fab at showing us and helping us with our current place during the start of the pandemic, and our property manager Phil has been really helpful with our queries and sorting our lovely new bedroom windows. Great team especially during the difficult COVID times.

Professional. I've found a suitable property through Onal's arrangement. I'm absolutely happy with the response by Onal. After the offer as well, everything is quite swift , document work, fixing property equipment etc... Thank you Adriana and Philip.

We have had a great experience with Phillip Marques as our property manager. He is always there at the end of the phone when something goes wrong and has brought us major piece of mind. Would highly recommend!

I’ve been using Williams Lynch as my letting agent for years and years (maybe ten?) because they are quite simply the best in London. Efficient, friendly, responsive and super professional. Always going out of their way to help. You can’t ask for more. Thank you guys!!!

Do not bother. Those people are scammers Completely unprofessional and they are constantly trying to scam you off money Their properties are of poor quality with a number of burglaries, absence of heating and leaking windows All the good reviews are definitely from their employees since none of my fellow tenants is on good terms with the agency Shame

Very poor experience with Williams Lynch as a managing agent - and particularly with Catherine as a property manager. 6 months back, litres of water water came gushing into our property through our ceiling and into our electrics and fire alarm. The water came from a property above us, managed by Williams Lynch. It seemed like it was coming from a washing machine, but I asked that an emergency plumber attend to verify and check no further leakages. It took 3 days for plumber to attend which I thought was unsatisfactory. Indeed I had to push very hard for a professional to check out the source of the leak as Catherine implied it wasn't urgent/important. Multiple litres of water had come through my ceiling into my electrics so I wanted it looked at professionally. After the plumber attended I got a very saracastic note from Catherine. I registered a complaint with management and left it there. 6 months later, and new tenants with a newborn baby are in upstairs. Their boiler packed up and they have had an equally frustrating experience and have been really upset about their experience. Indeed once again Catherine thought they were "exaggerating". Judging by the reviews the lettings side are fine to deal with until there is a problem. Once there is an issue there is poor treatment and a rude manner. Two problems in 6 months with two different tennants! It's a shame - because its so different from our experience with Eddi in WL sales - who was great and the only reason why I put 2* and not just one.

One of the best letting agents in London I've experienced. Highly recommend Phil, who is our property manager. Quick to respond, polite and helpful. Thank you :)

We've been trying to reach someone to view a property, but only ever got as far as "someone will get back you" after two weeks. We tried both email and calling. After reading some of the tenant's reviews, I suppose this is to be expected. Edit: Since I can't reply. We've not actually received any property selections from Ben. In fact, my partner spoke to Ben on the phone abouth the property in question, and was promised an email confirmation for the viewing, but never heard back. We called again and was told Ben would get back to us... (Yep, we've checked the spam folder). Anyways, we've made an offer elsewhere. Thank you for the reply Mark.

Thank you to the William Lynch Team! They have been really easy to work with from Dave and Onal who made my initial offer super straight forward to Philip who has been helpful and efficient as my property manager. Would recommend renting with them!

Have had some recent issues with our rental however our property manager Phillip dealt with the requests very promptly in a considerate way of our schedules and kept us informed throughout the process. Normally it is a pain to get things repaired but now it's an absolute breeze! I would highly reccomend this agency :)

Eddi Matthiasson of Williams Lynch has helped my employer sell two properties over the past few years. Always very responsive and realistic in his approach, which is exactly what's needed, so I can't recommend highly enough. Thank you!

Very easy to deal with friendly and professional particularly Phil whom I had mostly dealt with

Probably amazing service if you're a landlord, but if you're a tenant you may experience more issues. Whilst we only had one issue during our 2 year tenancy (hot water not being fixed for nearly a week), our main issue was deposit related. It took a month after moving out to get the estimated deductions, and over a month after that to get the deposit confirmed (although that was partly due to our dispute). The suggested deductions were extortionate, including a £80 fee for 2 missing clocks (each could be bought on amazon for under £10). Both were worn and one was cracked upon us moving in, and we later found out they were disposed of by the cleaning company that WL recommended. Other fees proposed included £100 for a mattress that was discoloured (not stained), which seems excessive especially after 2 years of daily use and in exposure of the sun. It took a lot of emails and chasing to get the issues sorted, and whilst the deductions were reduced drastically in the end, it was a stressful experience, especially during this time of uncertainty. Our Suggestions to new tenants is the following: 1)Check both the check-in and check-out inventory thoroughly, as finding a mistake in the checkout report saved us £50 in proposed costs. 2)If anything breaks even due to fair wear and tear, contact WL and maybe even see if you can replace them yourself, to avoid extortionate fees when you move out (we were charged £100 for an aged office chair that broke after normal use). 3)Decide if you want to go with WL's suggested cleaners on moving out. There will be a premium (we were charged £500 for a flat with 4 bedrooms, 2 toilets, a kitchen and no living room) but if you decide to go with an external company it is possible that you will be made to pay for cleaning again if it is not satisfactory. We decided to go for it to avoid hassle with deposits (haha!), and the cleaning was to a high standard. From talking to many other student tenants, many have encountered issues with estate agents (not just WL) upon moving out. Our guess is that it is generally the case that students are desperate for money, and so proposed deposit deduction is increased on the assumption that students will rather have the deposit returned quickly, instead of a reasonable amount. With all that being said, the team is very friendly and the moving in process was very quick and efficient. EDIT: As I am unable to reply to the response, I will reply here: Firstly, as the end of tenancy cleaning prices quoted to us was over £450 given the floorplan of the flat, we admit that we put off cleaning the flat ourselves during our last few months of tenancy. Combined with the fact that 2 of us moved out in march in response to lockdown, we did not feel it was worth the effort to make the flat spotless ourselves, especially as we have booked cleaners. (Would anyone clean a flat before moving out if they have paid £500 for end of tenancy cleaning anyway?) Secondly, my initial review was that the initial proposed deduction of £1170 was excessive, especially as our check out report did not mention any remarks of damage to walls or carpets, and pictures post moving out shows that the flat was left in a clean condition, with only minor oversights in the report. (which for £500 we would say that was worth it, and we did not dispute this deduction). The other proposed deductions were mainly for missing items, many of which were disposed of by the cleaners as I have mentioned above. Furthermore, upon checking the current tenants' check in report(which was sent to us for checking)dating 8/7/20, it is clear that the mattresses were not replaced as none were noted as "new", and had the exact same condition as our moving out report! The final deduction of £800 including cleaning fees was deemed acceptable, but our criticism was due to the excessive initial proposed cost and time taken to reduce costs by £400. I have thanked Catherine for helping us as she was friendly, but that doesn't change the poor response times and initial extortionate fees.

I picked Williams Lynch to manage my property because they were the easiest to deal with, friendliest and most efficient of all the agencies I spoke to. This has continued from marketing and letting my property to their on going management. I highly recommend them.

I'm happy with the level of service received and attention provided by Adriana and Onal and other members of the Williams Lynch team who guided me through the whole letting process for my move to London given that I started the whole process while still in the United States.

Excellent service in this tricky time. Supportive, professional and informative, I would highly recommend this service.

Many thanks Philip Marques for being so swiftly responsive to process my request within a few hours, including getting approval from the landlord - appreciated!

Adriana and Onal have done a fantastic job for us, they pitched the rent absolutely right, they got a Tenant straight away who moved in within a couple of days of viewing. Thanks again everybody at Williams Lynch.

I've recently started renting a lovely flat through Williams Lynch and I am very happy with the service and support. In particular, Catherine is very helpful with all the issues that come on the way. It was also a pleasure to work with Onal while looking for the flat.

Very professional and responsive to issues around our flat. Phil was especially helpful and I am happy to recommend him in particular.

Adriana and Onal made life easy for me when moving into new spot in Bermondsey. Always quick to respond and had my best interests at heart throughout the letting process :)

Living 200 miles away from the sale in SE1 made it more difficult than usual. Other exceptional circumstances further complicated the sale. Eddi was magnificent. Dealt with everything including problem solving on details that were not really his responsibility. I cannot thank him enough. He is a true professional.

Pleasant interactions with Ben in the letting team, he helped us get a good price for our flat. Phil helped with fixing some repairs too.

Was charged £500 for cleaning a 3 bedroom flat, then retaining our deposit of £4k for 3 months. Apparently it was not a practical joke. They'll also charge you Tom Dixon prices to replace what is really a £5 aldi clock. Not impressed. I'd avoid especially if you're a student.

We’ve been tenants of Williams Lynch for a number of years and generally speaking they've been responsive, professional and dealt with concerns reasonably quickly. My thanks to Catherine who’s always been there to help.

I used Williams Lynch last year to find a tenant. They did a pretty shoddy job of background checks and pushed us to sign the contract without having even met the tenant. It was our first time letting so we didn't know any better. The tenant ended up being awful and still has outstanding rent payments. I wish we would have gone with other agents who would have done a more thorough job of background checks and provided better care. Avoid at all costs. Reply: I am unable to directly reply to the response from the owner, hence I will do it in my review. My main points are that Williams Lynch did not flag the issues with my tenant such as never having rented a property in London (no landlord reference and no guarantor). As mentioned in my review, it was our first time doing this hence just went with the first option presented to us without asking any questions. My current agent has been able to flag these risks and set up meetings with new tenant without an explicit request which makes it easier for new landlords who are somewhat clueless. I'm only writing this review after seeing the difference with a new agent and has nothing to do with my relationship with the tenant which has been rocky from the start (from December 2018). It is possible that there was less concern overall due to the fact that we didn't take up the additional rent collection and management services.

I’m a tenant. Catherine Close is the property manager for my flat, and she’s always been responsive and communicative. It’s all one can ask of a property manager.

Excellent service and very professional team !

I am very impressed with the Williams Lynch team. Highly professional, friendly, helpful and great communication. They have been letting my apartment for over a year now. My former tenants recently moved out and WL found new tenants very quickly. The whole process was very smooth. Being a landlord living abroad this gives me so much comfort. I am so pleased with my decision to appoint Williams Lynch as my full managing agents. Thank you. Top marks!

Thank you for your professionalism and care, Catherine Close!

I can highly recommend the staff at the Bermondsey Street branch of Williams Lynch who guided me through both processes of renting my owned property out to private tenants and also moving into new rented property. Both procedures were carried out effectively and efficiently, Dene and Ben were consistently available for me and a pleasure to work with.

Williams Lynch have managed a miracle with renting our property during the London lockdown!! They managed to produce an amazing virtual tour of the property and it was rented on the first virtual showing!! Dene, Onal and Ben were incredibly professional, responsive and handled and have been amazing. Would definitely recommend Williams Lynch.

Onal and Adriana were incredibly helpful, both in helping us to find a great property and assisting us with all the admin of moving in. Highly Recommended!

I have some issue in the flat with bathroom and Phillip resolve this problem very quick and in professional way.

Williams Lynch, and particularly Catherine Close, have been an absolute pleasure to deal with - very responsive, professional, helpful and always willing to go the extra mile!

I have used Williams Lynch for many years. Their customer service during the Corona Crisis has been excellent. By making viewing videos just before the lockdown they have been able to market and even find a tenant for my apartment. Excellent service WL - I can highly recommend them

Ben and Adriana have taken care of me! they've been great

I have been renting with Williams Lynch for just over 3 years now. Excellent service from day one. The maintenance reporting feature provided is outstanding. Calls are attended over the weekend and the service offered is prompt and professional. Good job guys :)

Couldn't have been better. Quick and efficient. Found a tenant quickly and handled all the admin professionally. Made the whole process painless. A pleasure to work with the whole team.

I have had recently a plumbing issue in my apartment and I have contacted my agent, Williams Lynch, to sort the problem and was agreeably surprise by the timely response ( one day) and the professional contractor they provided. At the beginning of my tenancy more than a year ago, I have had an issue with the shower, it took more time to sort but it was also sorted in a professional manner and all the heating and pumping system was replaced.

This is the best agent in the whole of Bermondsey!

Catherine, Dene and Ben at Williams Lynch have been really kind and helpful with my move. Couldn't recommend them more highly!

We had a few small problems when we took over the tenancy and all were quickly dealt with by Catherine. Can’t fault the professionalism there. Great job

Ben Appleby helped me during a relocation to Bermondsey. He is the most thoughtful, trustworthy estate agent I have come across in London. Ben listened with great attention to detail to the search specifications and put forward a great selection of properties. Ben will go the extra mile to find you the perfect home. I highly recommend Ben as your safe pair of hands in real estate.