Stirling Ackroyd Estate Agents Anmeldelser 

Extremely Unsafe, Mismanaged Tenancy – Ongoing Complaint Ignored Despite Risks
This is now my second review because the situation at my property has become even worse, and the way Stirling Ackroyd (managed under LRG) — particularly through Michael Martin — has handled my tenancy has been unsafe, negligent and deeply distressing.
I have experienced major electrical hazards, including two melted heating elements, one of which caused a burn injury. My hot water system has repeatedly failed, and I was left without hot water for an extended period twice in one year. At no stage was a safe alternative provided. The property has mould, damp, a broken extractor fan, a leaking gutter, missing sealant, damaged ceilings, lifting flooring, peeling wallpaper, and a loose toilet and toilet seat. A fire alarm test has never been carried out throughout my tenancy.
Despite being pregnant and having just been released from hospital, I am still having to chase basic safety, repairs and legal obligations.
A Section 21 notice was served prematurely and incorrectly, and appears legally invalid due to the absence of a valid EICR and the fact that the EICR provided was not completed by a competent registered person.
I allowed access months ago for a new EICR, but I was never given the report, never told whether the property passed or failed, and no remedial works have been carried out. This puts me at risk and breaches the Electrical Safety Regulations.
A contractor I had already complained about for inappropriate behaviour has contacted me again — from multiple numbers — making up appointments, asking why I was “still at the property,” and ignoring the clear instruction that he must not contact me directly. This has made me feel unsafe and harassed.
Communication with Michael has been extremely poor. Emails went “missing” for a week while I reported no hot water. I have repeatedly asked for updates, senior management contact details, and clarity on repairs, but I have been ignored. Michael promised his manager would contact me after returning from holiday — this never happened.
This tenancy has caused me significant stress, health issues, hospital visits, loss of income, and I am now escalating this entire matter to the Property Ombudsman and the Council, who have already been informed.
I would strongly advise any prospective tenants to think very carefully before renting through this company. Their handling of serious safety issues has been unacceptable.

Really top notch agency and I have had many other agencies experiences in the past Stirling ackroyd is by far what letting agency should be: Efficient, always reactive to issues, one of the rarest who care about their tenants wellbeing!
Our property manager Melissa Koleosho has been above and beyond to chase issues down and fix promptly and with an exceptional professionalism making our tenancy a real delight! For example our washing machine broke and the issue was fixed within 1.5 week, our heating as well failed and an engineer was dispatched the next day with the issue fixed thanks to Melissa reactiveness and care towards tenants! We have been renting for nearly 2 years now and very happy with Stirling Ackroyd and Melissa Koleosho amazing management :)

Great positive experience. Patient and understanding. I used the Sunbury-on-Thames office and found them to all to be very helpful and accommodating.

My situation was slightly more complicated than normal, as it was my Father's property and I had to locate a care home before I could put the property on the market. This took about 15 months from the initial valuation. Terry Hall was very understanding and I was never pushed into selling the house until I was in a position to do so. Stirling Ackroyd kept in touch, maybe every three months, to find out how I was getting on with Dad's progress, which I felt was about the right time frame to contact and support me.

When I was ready to proceed, the guys at the office, mainly Rob and Joe, moved very quickly and showed around many prospective buyers, with an offer accepted within a few days.

Genuinely good experience and would highly recommend.

Hannah Ryan was excellent with helping us (first year uni students) to understand the process and the steps involved and helped us secure viewings and then a lovely house. cannot thank her enough!

Mela is a great property manager couldn’t be more grateful for her!

We have used Sterling Ackroyd for a number of years to manage our BTL property. Sarah Jones who is our current property manager is excellent. She is professional, knowledgeable and friendly and has provided strong continuity with the management of our property. We cannot speak highly enough of the service they offer which is tailored to our requirements. Communications are prompt and tenants issues are relayed to us promptly and dealt with quickly in line with our authorisation. There has rarely been an issue where we feel that we can obtain better value by actioning things directly and this is definitely the exception to the rule that Sterling nonetheless work with us on. Their finance department issues detailed monthly statements of account with rental income always being paid on time. We can accordingly recommend them without reservation

I am so happy renting through Stirling Ackroyd , all the time when I contacted them the problem was fixed in a very short time 1 to 2 businesses days. 😀 thank you

I’m very happy with the service I’ve received so far, particularly from Mela Steadman, who looks after my portfolio. She’s always helpful, professional, and responsive — a real pleasure to work with. Highly recommend her support and the team at Stirling Ackroyd.

The onboarding process was smooth, but unfortunately, that’s where the positives ended. Communication throughout the sale was poor, and it took far too long for them to even put up a “For Sale” sign at the property.
They gave an inaccurate valuation, which meant I had to keep reducing and changing the asking price multiple times. They also never updated the listing photos for a refresh, which made the property appear stale on the market.
There was little enthusiasm or proactive effort to sell my home, and on several occasions they turned up late to viewings. Overall, it felt like they were just going through the motions rather than genuinely trying to achieve a sale.
I strongly advise others to avoid using this company, they waste time, lack communication, and show little professionalism.

I was a tenant of a Stirling Ackroyd property for one year.

The onboarding was smooth and straightforward, but as soon as we needed assistance from their customer support team, the experience changed completely.

The people I interacted with were consistently unprofessional and unhelpful, showing little care or thoughtfulness. Responses were often delayed, incomplete, or sometimes never came at all. Despite being polite and proactive in trying to resolve issues, I was met with dismissive and inconsistent communication. It became clear that customer service is not a priority for this agency.

I will not be using Stirling Ackroyd again and would not recommend them to others.

We chose Stirling because they seemed competitively priced, about 2% cheaper than other agents, but it was a big mistake. They collected rent in advance, only passed on about 55% to us. They even took commission upfront for rent not yet invoiced.

What looked like a simple, affordable service turned into pages of unexplained charges. Pay the extra with a reputable agent, Stirling’s “cheaper” option ended up costing far more. Avoid.

I have my property let through Stirling Ackroyd. I have been with the company a number of years. The past few years Sarah Jones has been my property manager and she has been outstanding. She always phones me to explain any issues and then keeps me updated until any issues are resolved. She had to deal with quite a big issue over a year ago and had to deal with the tenants on a daily basis for some time. She did so professionally and kept me updated every step of the way offering advice. I would recommend her to anyone looking for a 5 star property manager!

I had written a very positive review of working with Stirling Ackroyd when I first moved into one of their properties last month. However, I take every single positive word back.

This team has been really difficult to deal with after I moved in. I was not given proper clarity on who I would be moving in with prior to paying my rent and deposit, and as soon as I paid these fees, they informed me about the co-tenants and it was such an immediate mismatch in age groups. I'm in my late twenties having to live with teenagers- how could they not give me a heads up? The issues get worse as I go on.

When I moved in, the room was left in a shabby state, with a lot of dust everywhere and with slanted, broken blinds. Till date the team insists that the room was not dirty, and that it was cleaned by "professionals". Fair warning, what they mean by professional cleaning is that only top surfaces and spaces around furniture gets cleaned, and my room was cleaned a whole month before I moved in. The team should be cleaning and checking the room the morning I move in! And anyone can clean around the edges- that is not professional! A professional cleaner will deep clean, ensure there are no unclean surprises left under the bed and no stains on the carpets. In addition to a lopsided broken blind, I also received a broken bed and no heating. After threatening to not pay rent (which is three weeks after I moved in), the team started responding better. However, four weeks later, all the fixes remain pending.

They did not let me negotiate a no-break lease before signing and I thought a no-break lease must mean that the house would be in a good condition. It is exactly the opposite of that. Given how frustrating it has been to live here, I have asked to move out. I want move to place where I don't have to fight every other day to get fixes done in the house. More importantly, that the house feels like a resting place not a frigid cold room.

I would advise students to not work with this team. They will run behind you to confirm your tenancy but once you sign and file complaints after complaints, they do very little to make the process of living here or moving out easy and smooth.

I should really thank the angent. I recently travelled from Manchester to Isleworth to look a property with other agency unfortunately it's been given to someone else while I'm on train. However sterling angent helped me to book quickly to view a property by taking effort as they understood my situation.
I appreciate there customer service.

Working alongside Honor, Matt and Ruby from the Twickenham branch of Stirling Ackroyd was a great experience. They have good knowledge of the local market dynamics, they understand the rental business and they are not shy in conducting viewings. Their approach is both professional and personable and I will be working with the team again in the future.

From our first viewing to signing our LET deal, the whole team was fantastic. James in particular was very quick with communication and made the whole process seamless. Would highly recommend using Stirling Ackroyd - a very professional team!

I am a tenant and their property management service is horrendous. We have had an emergency power cut due to the apartment fuse box overheating hich is an health and safety risk and legally the electricity had to be switched off. Having called them their response was we will liaise with the landlord as we cannot give any permission for the work. Such a response is expected for standard issues but how can this be a response for an emergency issue which the landlord is legally bound to take care of immediately.

Im a landlord - they held double the agreed letting fee for two weeks after the tenants moved in (24th Sept -9th October) - only refunded it after quite a few letters and phone calls. They have not yet invoiced me and have revised the "statement" to say I owe them the money in a years time instead. Their accounts are overdue at Companies House - avoid this agent they are shambolic at the moment. They managed to take this "double" fee by taking three months rent in advance from my tenants even though I said in writing I didnt need three months in advance. I will update this in due course. Oh and I only received the deposit the morning the tenants moved in and only because again I had to make a BIG FUSS ie this money was three days late. They are also late giving my old tenants back all their agreed deposit minus deductions. Oh and the check - out I'd asked them to organise on my behalf didnt happen and they didnt tell me either.

I rent a property on the rent collect service with Stirling Ackroyd Guildford Branch. If you are a landlord I would avoid them completely. Despite chasing they have failed to process a rent increase. I've therefore issued notice to them and a month later I've still had no confirmation that the notice has been received and actioned and when their services will end. I have complained to their "complaints" department. This simply gets passed back to the branch manager who then calls me and tries to scare me about the forthcoming Renters Reform Bill into staying with them.
They are good at taking the monthly fee but don't even seem to be capable of answering simple emails.

I had a very poor experience with this branch during a tenancy deposit dispute. Instead of advising us correctly under the tenancy agreement (which clearly required adjudication through the deposit scheme), the agent sided with the landlord and sent a threatening email about court action.

This approach felt unprofessional, biased, and intimidating. Tenants should be able to trust an agent to follow fair process, but that was not my experience. I would not feel comfortable trusting my hard-earned money with them.