Dowen Reviews

Facilitating fraudulent sale of land

Facilitated and currently continue to fraudulent sale of land offered with a property in Eldon Bishop Auckland office a significant part of the plot was not registered with HM Land registry On informing Dowen of our legal concern the agent chose to ignore the facts and continue to market the property without adjustment to the Ad The individual agent was rude and unprofessional during the call and dismissed our concerns which were raised by our solicitor during a boundary title check I d steer clear of Dowen Estate Agents

Staff were polite until we got a buyer

Staff were polite until we got a buyer for our house and then it felt like they were suddenly team buyer and disregarded what was best for us as sellers when it came to negotiations I think this was because buyers wanted to complete earlier than we did and Dowens just want their commission asap Also found the call handlers to be quite patronising at times Wouldn t recommend from a Sellers perspective

Had a viewing with Dowens I showed

Had a viewing with Dowens I showed interest in the property to rent and was advised I would be emailed an application form This was 3 weeks ago with no application form even though I had chased them for it and still nothing would not recommend at all like to pick and chose who they want to deal with

DOWEN ESTATE AGENT

Absolutely disgusted with the lies I have experienced with this company in Durham Basically saw a house that I wanted to purchase with Mus son as joint venture Dowen advertised the house as Freehold and it had hidden unknown owner Leasehold The lady dealing with Mortgage tried to persuade my son to proceed with Insurance on lease and down played it all When we dig deeper the Leasehold was a real issue and this issue should have been mentioned ashen I decided to purchase the property Dowen have stonewalled me and sent a random email saying property fallen through Also the solicitors that work with them are now trying to get extra fees for doing basically nothing Thus has really put me off moving to Durham and left me staying at a friend house as lost everything These people just don t care about your housing Angela Earley

Dowen conducted a property valuation at

Dowen conducted a property valuation at the request of a property developer for a part exchange Surprisingly they appraised the property at a lower value and even handed me their business card during the evaluation To add to that a few days later they conveniently dropped a flyer through my letterbox Ethical considerations Not their top priority

Not for me

I was buying from a distance as I was relocating with work and found these guys less than helpful I ended up purchasing a property through Dowen but if I was ever looking to sell I wouldn t touch them with a barge pole They were completely inflexible with viewings incredibly miserable when you called them they use old fashioned unbranded Word documents for letters and sales contracts and overall I felt like an inconvenience for wanting to purchase a property from them it was just a poor experience and I expected a little better for the 21st century To top it all off the house I purchased through them was vacant and had assisted viewings the house always smelt of air freshener apart from moving in day when I discovered all the carpets were full of animal urine Yeah Dowen in Sedgefield are not really the agent for me I am afraid

RUN A MILE THEY HAVE COST ME THOUSANDS

Not even deserving of 1 star Totally unprofessional and incompetent approach to managing someone else s property If you want the house you ve worked so hard for to be allowed to be destroyed and kept like what can only be described as Steptoe and Sons cesspit have dowen manage it Can t put into words the absolute turmoil this company has put me and my family through Run a mile Totally and utterly disgusted by what was once a good company will shout from the rooftops for anyone and everyone to steer clear do yourself a favour and use absolutely anyone else

Dowdens what a waste of space

Not even worthy of one star What can I say Given a 4 15pm appointment to view a house for rent Another couple turned up who had the same appointment time 4 30 no show from Dowdens Phoned them to be told someone was on the way 4 50 no show phoned Dowdens again to be told by a very rude ignorant bad tempered member of staff that they had no properties to rent in Sedgwick Close Hartlepool why are you there She asked Dowdens YOU made the appointment for us YOU lied when telling us someone was on the way We stood there like four fools waiting for you to show up Embarrassing and upsetting You Dowdens are a complete unprofessional uncaring incompetent waste of space Never again will I have anything to do with your sham joke waste of a business No apology just out fault Your staff need a good jolt to make them professional customer friendly and intelligent You are a complete and utter waste of time

Avoid This Estate Agent A Disastrous Encounter

My wife and I used Dowen Estate Agents as we were initially very impressed with the manager who came out to give us a quote and what her organisation could offer us We therefore decided to go with them to sell our home This however was a huge mistake During a period of 6 5 weeks the interaction between the staff and myself was nearly non-existent and it was very difficult for us to know why we were getting absolutely nowhere in selling our home There had been one viewing booked during this period but this was cancelled one day prior to the viewing and although I requested feedback on why this happened received no response I challenged the manager in her office about the little progress being made and she stated that she was not aware that there had been little or no contact between her staff and myself which clearly indicates that she has no idea how to manage her staff Her other response was that there are 2 reasons a home does not sell the price and location I responded that it was their own valuation of our home that we were selling at and the write up on the various online websites advertising our home stated that the location was in a wonderful position for local amenities and schools I eventually terminated our contract with them and would 100 NOT recommend anyone using this organisation to sell their home