AB-FlatMate

These people are CROOCKS, they are really nice before they rent the room to you, after that they are just really ARROGANT and FULL OF LIES. They are a bunch of SCUM BAGS, DON'T TRUST THEM, you're going to REGRET!

When people only care about money and not moral, welcome to this guys, they are not humans, they are simply a piece of $#*!.
We had a simple issue for weeks and they keep saying "we are going tomorow", they scoff at your face.

During the first months they respond well, after times passes they give a Sh*t.

Safe agency! There are really nice and you can contact them really easily if you have any problem!

The people from AB Flatmate are incompetent and liars. They promised to paint my room before I move in. But they didn't - they don't even cleaned the room. I had to wait two days before I could move in, so I had to stay in a hotel.
The staff is unfriendly and unhelpful. They changed the time of my contract, whitout telling me and expected me to pay two more months. They also lied about the people living in the house - they said there are girls and boys living there but finally I was the only girl with five other men. Awful!

Hello everyone,

I booked a room for 2 months with AB flatmate in summer 2015. My experience was not the best one. There were hidden fees and charges in the contract e.g. if you want to move in out office hours (after 6pm) or if a friend of yours decides to sleep-in even for a night they will charge you for that. The people who were dealing with my booking were always different and some didn't know anything about the prior arrangements. Good thing was that I managed to receive my deposit back in 30 days (after I reminded them). The place I stayed in was nice, I had very big room with lots of storage place and it was generally clean (apart from dirty dishes in the kitchen). Overall, they might seem dodgy but they were not scammers. 3/5

Hope this helps :)

Stayed with them over a period of 4 months and the office manager resolves nothing! She is rude and utterly incompetent to say the least. One of the handyman left mess in my room which was reported but nothing done about it. Also they steal peoples deposits!

Stay away from this agency. They are ridiculously incompetent. They made us live in unsafe environment for 1 year and they constantly lied to us regarding the fixing of the problem. We are now leaving the house and I expect that they will steal something from my deposit.

STAY AWAY - they are unprofessional and uncaring. They only care about the next payday

In my opinion, agents who are working in AB-Flatmate are incompetent and I found that there was a lot of miscommunication between them. From the first time, when we moved to a new room, they were saying untruth or they weren't well informed about the property. In notice, they put information that house is with garden and every week cleaner is coming to clean house but it wasn't true. Anyway, we rented room for the same (a little bit expensive) price without mentioned facilities. They guaranteed that room will be clean before moving but nobody cleaned it. We had to do it by ourselves. During few months, we had a few issues and usually they were trying to resolve the problem but always it has taken a long time. For example, Internet was reseting by itself and loosing connection many times per day and after few months nothing changed. The agency couldn't sort it out although we were writing complaints. I think that they don't know what's happening in property that they try to manage. Me and some flatmates lost their belongings in house and they don't know what happened and they seems like they don't care too much. Moreover, they are renting rooms for everyone and after that some tenants make a lot of troubles. I can't recommend this agency right now but I hope that they will improve theirs poor quality of management.

Don't believe the positive reviews. No one has a good experience with ab flatmate. The only thing housemates have to bond over is how bad they are. They don't protect your deposit which as another review says is illegal. They are breaking the law. They don't have cleaners when they say they do. Room was in very bad condition and very dirty when moved in. We had rats in our kitchen for months and they didn't care. The people "managing" property are all talk no action. They say they will do stuff but never do. I had to move out as I just couldn't live like this. Think a slum might have had less rats.

On the whole, my experience was good with the AB FLATMATE agency,
When i arrived, they wait for me in my room, nevertheless my room was not very clean, but the agent was very nice with me, so it was find!
Moreover, i haven't any problems with them, i was just send my notice form one month before leaving, and they give me back my deposit when i came back in France,
I can advice you this agency

I'm rather surprised by the negative comments about the agency. For my part everything went very well, they were very good with me, no bad surprises and the agency returned my deposit. In addition the staff was always at the top and called in professionals as soon as there was something to repair. I recommend AB Flatmate

I stayed in London for a 6 month internship and the agency was great with me, my room was well located and the house was fine. I recommend

If I could I would give these guys 0/5. Yes, they are that bad. Avoid them. Like. The. $#*!ing. Plague.

Gouging prices for the measly rooms. 10 people with only 2 showers. Was initially advertised as a professional houseshare only to be filled with obnoxious, inconsiderate students. Despite notifying the agency on a near daily basis, the aural assault continued. They, quite clearly, could not give a single flying $#*! about you or your concerns.

Hi everyone,

I am living for over 3 months in one the houses managed by AB and I am surprised by the comments bellow!
Indeed I never had any problems with this agency, futhermore the staff are very kind and helpfull.
We once had a problem with the kitchen sink which was blocked and they immediatly sent a handy man to fix it.

I think the people compaining where just facing bad luck

Always trying to steal money from the tenants with any possible way.
The worst company(if it is a company).
NOT RECOMMENDED.

Also houses are very expensive for what they are.

Poor condition, dirty houses
They forced me to clean the house just as i arrived and because i didn't clean their mess they charged my deposit.

So bad people

I booked a room with AB Flatmate last October for 3 months. I found a room on their website, and after visiting the room I booked it with an agent.
It was absolutely not the room of my dreams (kinda small and not perfectly clean) but it was close to a metro station, and it was very important for me.
Anyways I don't give 5 stars because as I said the room was not awesome, but a least it fitted with my budget and and could move in quickly. (The rent was £150 per week, and I moved in 2 days after i visit the room)
I received my deposit back last week, £50 were missing because my roommates and I didn't clean the common areas every week.
I paid £85 for the agency fees, which is correct I think.

Anyways I had a good experience with them even if it was not always perfect.

Honestly this was the worst experience I have ever had and hope to have with letting agency.
First of all they are operating illegally by not putting deposit in government scheme (THIS IS THE LAW) secondly they enter your room whenever they like (Again against the law).
They never answer any emails.
Houses are absolutely disgustingly dirty. I mean filthy squat type houses. People smoking in the houses, arguing/fighting, taking drugs and playing loud music throughout the night. When you complain they say they will do something but never do. Housemates concerned even laugh in there face saying they cant do anything. There was even an incident in the next house (also managed by Ab) where one housemate tried to stab another.
There are rats all outside building finding a dead one was daily. Had no working washing machine/fridge for weeks. Had a leak in my ceiling not fixed for months.
They are honestly the worst. AVOID if you value your sanity/money and happiness.

Well, I'm only going to say that after the first month living there we got rats in the kitchen for 2months and half, that was normal due the backyard condition (they promise me that it will be fixed soon, when I left the house was it on the same way.). The solution was to send their "agents", that means 2 guys that barely can speak 2 consecutive words in English to put poison all over the kitchen and leave the open box with poison in the kitchen's contour. After these 2 months and half they decide to send a real professional. Rats die inside the walls, and during 3 weeks the smell was unbearable, and they were coming maggots and flies from the cracks on the walls.
During this period they were no more rats, but suddenly they start to scratch underneath the floor in my room, trying to access, that means usually at 2am, 4am... noisy enough to wake me up. I communicate to the agency, but they ignored me. So after 6 months, when I finished my contract I decided to move. Best moment in my life to get far away from this scammers company, and the worse experience to live there...

During my time with AB Flatmate they ignored my right to 24 hours notice of them sending people into my room... on 5 occasions. During 3 of these the workmen had clearly been climbing on my bed in their work boots, and twice the so called 'repairs' they carried out did basically nothing. One time when I found there was a mouse in my room, I cleaned it and asked them for preventative measures. They sent someone into my room (again without permission or notice) and told me they'd used a 'strong product', without informing me of what it was. It turned out to be a mouse-trap, but I wonder if they would've bothered to tell me if it had been poison. Oh, and they took a year to let us know about the installation of a new carbon monoxide detector in the kitchen - safe!

Everyone in the house has a bad story about AB Flatmate. Apparently on several occasions they have tried to cover themselves by claiming that the company head is 'on holiday', only for him to turn up at the door when the tenant in question threatens legal action. On one instance they tried to take a third of a tenant's deposit for 'overuse of utilities', I suspect because she was moving to Germany and they thought they could get away with it.

Whoever is handling their admin is also a joke. On several occasions, including me moving out of the property, I have asked them to keep me up to date on details and they haven't bothered. A new person is moving in tomorrow, and they still haven't told me what I need to do in terms of giving back keys, cleaning the room and so on.

If you rent with AB Flatmate, you will NEED to show them that you won't take their ridiculous service lying down. If you are willing to deal with them when they are incompetent or if they act illegally, then you should be able to manage. Complaining about how terrible the company is will be a good way for you to bond with your new housemates. Get a paper trail for everything and hold them accountable.

Once I have my deposit back, I'll be complaining to the property ombudsman about them.

I see a pattern in the issues here as I experienced the same thing: no internet for weeks and rats. I was completely and utterly ignored when I contacted them about it (multiple times). The only time I could get a response out of them was when I asked about vacating the property before the end of my contract (what a surprise, they only reply when money is involved). They agreed with me over the phone that I wouldn't have to pay for cleaning because someone else was taking my place, and yet as soon as the deposit was due to be paid back they gave me a list of 100% fictitious expenses (including an over-the-top charge for cleaning!) I have never been anything but a perfect tenant, they lied to my face and betrayed me and took my money. Of all the estate agents I've been with, AB-FlatMate are the absolute worst, they will try and take your money and they will stab you in the back at any point. It is completely clear they don't care even slightly about their tenants, only about their wallets. They are bullies.

I live in a house to share. We had a a leak from the sink.
I called the team and the problem was solved in the day.
The team is very reactive.

I am in London for the summer and been living in a youth hostel for the past week. I was really wanting to get my own place but no landloard wanted to rent me a place for 3 months even in a shared house.
One of the people living in the youth hostel advised me to contact some agencies specialized in short time, so I contacted several agencies.

I got an almost immediate answer from the "AB-Flatmate" agency who proposed me a suitable room near Padington where I work. I got a personal visit from the place and the room and signed immediately for 3 months starting the day after the visite, which was ok for me.
The only drawback would be the £85 administrative fee which I find quite a lot for the service proposed.

I found their attitude very professional and they understood my needs and so I would recommend their services.

For your own sanity do not handover money to this company. We were given one month's notice to leave 3 weeks before Christmas, our front door was removed as AB had not paid our rent to the Landlord. Had lots of hassle getting my deposit back. They do not place your deposit in any government run deposit protection scheme, so your deposit is not safe. I only got my deposit back by threatening to go to a small claims court.