Drivers & Norris Reviews 35

This is the most appalling company I have ever had to deal with in London.

Over a two-year tenancy, essential repairs were repeatedly ignored, including significant damage to external walls caused by a severe leak. Even after I handed in notice six months ago, the tenancy agreement has still not been updated to remove me.

There appears to be a serious lack of internal communication, with information not being passed between agents. Staff turnover is extremely high - while some individuals were polite and helpful on the phone, they often left within weeks, and issues remained unresolved.

It was also extremely difficult to escalate concerns. Emails were frequently ignored, and it was often unclear who to contact or how to take issues further.

I was also owed two weeks’ rent due to delays on their side at the start of the tenancy, which I have since given up pursuing.

Overall, this has been an incredibly frustrating and poorly managed experience. I would strongly advise others to think carefully before renting a property managed by this company.

I had a great experience finding a new flat, Lawrance is very professional, competant and very knowledgeable. I would not hesitate to recommend Lawrance and Driversandnorris!

Just called them, pretty unhelpful and then hung up on me.
Shame as we're hoping to buy asap in this area, no chain and large deposit.
My advice would be to try out some other estate agents who are a little more serious.

The worst letting agency you could find in the UK. Very unprofessional letting agents. They rented our flat without proper affordability check to two French passport holding young girls who claimed to be sisters despite having two different surnames. One is a student & was allowed to rent without a guarantor & one claimed to work in Geneva with high salary which was all faked. How did they allow a person to rent in London & claims to work in Geneva?!!!! This tenant used the details of a company in Geneva verified by her mother who lives in Geneva claiming she worked at that company. This fraud crime (which we reported to London police) has resulted in those two girls getting evicted by a court order leaving behind a £18000 debt. They even did not pay their utility bills. Drivers & Norris accepted those girls who even could not pay the deposit. The letting agent asked us to half the deposit claiming that the girls’ money has to come from Geneva, which we refused! It’s obvious that this letting agency is unprofessional & once they take your property, it will remain vacant for a while due to their limited advertising platform & eventually, they would rent it without proper affordability check aiming to take all their management fee upfront & they would not care if you get the rent or not!!! I would never recommend this agency to any landlord. It’s the worst available for sure!

Poor service poor management poor contact may as well send communication by pigeon as it takes about 30 days to get a no update update.

I was interested in a flat they are selling and had arranged two appointments with Martin, both of which he failed to attend. He has not contacted me since. As a result, I will be investing elsewhere. Sellers should be aware: this is not how you want your property sale to be managed.

Honestly, renting through this agency has been one of the most frustrating experiences I’ve had. A few things you should know before signing with them:

- Slow to respond (if at all): It often took weeks, sometimes months, just to get a reply about problems.
- Ghosting is standard: Emails and calls were ignored more often than not.
- Deposit delays: Don’t expect updates or a smooth process at the end of your tenancy.
- False promises: I was repeatedly told “we’re chasing contractors,” but nothing was ever done.
- Closing issues without solving them: I had to raise the same problems multiple times because they love to mark things as “resolved” when they aren’t.
- No inspections: The yearly checks? They simply never happened.
- Balcony disasters: Got a random call telling me they needed to seal the balcony door because it was unsafe. I asked for an email to confirm—never heard back.
They put a coating on the balcony to stop leaks—it lasted one month.
- Contractors dumped my furniture on another roof and never returned it. I lost £90, and the agency just ignored me.
- On top of that: poor insulation, days without heating, and pests like slugs and hornets became part of daily life.

In summary: if you want stress, delays, and a management team that doesn’t care, this agency is for you. If you value peace of mind, avoid at all costs.

I visited this letting agent and was left feeling completely dismissed. The staff came across as snobbish and judgmental as if I wasn’t even worthy of inquiring about the property I was interested in. Their attitude was condescending and unwelcoming which made the entire experience uncomfortable

Be aware of Drivers & Norris. We had our building managed by them and it’s been a complete disaster. They took no responsibility for the damage caused, and as a result, we are now looking into formal action to recover our losses.

My advice is to ask around (other agencies) and see what they think about Drivers & Norris. You’ll find they’ve built quite a reputation.

AVOID! AVOID! I have been renting in London for over 15 years and the time I rented with this agency was the worst time of my life. Scammers, and genuinely incompetent at their job. They will say one thing and not keep their word. Sketchy contracts. Renting in London is hard as it is, do yourself a favour and avoid this agency.

Darren is a super efficient and extremely knowledgeable block manager. His advice and customer service have been exceptional.

Poor customer service, crooks and will never use them ever again. Lazy & slow cowboys. AVIOD

Awful company. Rented for 5 years and when it comes to getting my deposit back they have completely ignored me. Still an ongoing process. Even breached their contracts by sending workers into my flat while I was still renting with no notice or permission. Avoid at all costs.

Yet again John Young at Driver’s & Norris have hit the ball out of the park. Not only did John find me tenant(s) for my multiple properties quickly, so that I had no void periods, I was happy with the private tenants that he found, and the rental values that he achieved were phenomenal - more than I thought I would get. I have been working with John for more than a decade now, and there is a reason why he is the only agent that I use; he ALWAYS does a fantastic job!

During the time as an owner of a flat , in a building managed by Driver and Norris, specifically Anup, I found Anup to be a a very good go to conduit to ensure that any issues, advice, collaboration were sorted in a timely professional manner.
We worked well together to solve any issues.
I wish him well.

Paul Thompson has given exceptional attention to detail and has pursued the sale in an exemplary manner with daily updates where appropriate. He has steered the sale through a complicated timescale, finding just the purchaser I had in mind for my sale.

Lived in a Drivers and Norris property for just over a year. There were issues right from the bat whereby small issues we reported were never fixed. The property was filthy when we moved in and had clearly not been cleaned after the previous tenants had left as we found dirt, dust and human hair embedded in the carpets that took days to remove and ruined our vacuum cleaner. We had an agent come to inspect once and I pointed out the black mold in the bathroom, there from when we moved in, which he agreed he wouldn't be happy with either, but it never got sorted, leading us to spend our own money on expensive products to get rid of it. The property was in need of some good TLC as it was worn and creaky, resulting in numerous complaints from our downstairs neighbour about creaking floorboards. We had to heave all of our belongings out of the bedroom for Drivers and Norris to send a contractor over during our holiday. The quick-fix bandaid solution lasted all of a few weeks before the noise complaints began again. We later found out from this neighbour that he'd reported this issue long before we ever moved in and it had simply never been sorted despite them having tenants move out and in several times.
On moving out from the property we were given misleading and conflicting information from the Holloway Road agent Lauren about what the cost of ending the tenancy would be. Despite asking for this information in email form several times it was never provided, only verbally over the phone which she later denied presumably to save face with her management. If you get her as your agent I would strongly advise you to ask for someone else as she is completely unreliable and dishonest.
In the weeks prior to moving out the entire property was infested by wasps and I would find them all over the flat, on my toothbrush, in the toilet and in the kitchen. Despite this, Drivers and Norris proceeded to hold viewings, of which numerous people suddenly turned up to the flat while the agent who was supposed to show them was late, leaving me to show three couples around at the same time (hopefully none of them had any wasp allergies otherwise they were completely at risk!). When I complained about the infestation they simply told me that it had been confirmed the nest was probably in a tree outside as if that made it okay and despite me never having seen any report from the pest controller so simply had to take their word for it that they'd arranged one. I was still finding dead wasps in moving boxes after I'd left the property.
On leaving the property we were then stuck with a bill for broken drawers in the kitchen, despite these being ancient and in disrepair when we moved in (loose, screws hanging out, outdated and ugly design), as well as a surprise fee for loss of rent that was not disclosed to us earlier when we had already paid them a leaving fee.
I took my chances on Drivers and Norris again in viewing other properties and was arranged a viewing with Angelo for a property. Once I got there nobody turned up and on calling Drivers and Norris was told that someone had put the viewing on his calendar without telling him and that the landlord was not going to allow the viewing that day. I pointed out how unprofessional this was, particularly as I'd been sent reminder texts from Drivers and Norris about the appointment that day and had booked the day off work to attend.
All in all a horrendous experience with rude, unprofessional and inconsiderate staff. I'd never use them again and ultimately went elsewhere in the end.

One of the worst state agencies I ever dealt with! The advertised the wrong flat that was shown in the person viewing!! Misleading information and very unprofessional attitude from both agents and the manager called Angelo that had to chase them for two weeks just to get confirmation of the refrence and move in process, the worst part is they were transferring me to the departments and ignoring my calls constantly then I asked for my holding deposit back as I can’t deal with a agency like that!!

Truly one of the worst estate agents I have had the dis-pleasure of dealing with.

If you want any information you have to chase and chase, but the worst part is the agents attitudes. They show very little care or consideration for renters which makes moving house even more stressful than it already is. On one occasion I was told by an agent called Sarah in a very un-friendly and abrupt manner that the company was, and I quote, 'doing me a favour' by putting the house I was renting back on the market. What they were actually doing was their job as that's what the landlord has instructed them to do but unfortunately, unnecessary and ill-mannered comments seem to be standard practice for the Holloway Road branch.

I never, ever want to deal with them again.

I really don't know where to start with my frustration at Drivers and Norris and in particular Michael Porter who has actually raised the bar on the level of incompetence that was possible.

Drivers were allegedly 'Managing' our block, but when Michael took over, the service they were providing became practically non existent.

He would never respond to emails or phonecalls, and on the odd occassion when I managed to reach him, it was as if he had total amnesia on the issues that were outstanding and we had previously discussed on numerous occassions.

We really needed Drivers to help us in a critical time where urgent repairs needed to be carried out on the property and were having dangerous affects on the building, but we could still not get a Section 20 sent out (after 18 months of trying) and even basic maintenance prooved too much for them.

Managing agents are really bad, but Drivers have to be in the top 1% for completely negligent behaviour. I even wrote to the CEO to try and sort the situation out, but received no response.

Once they have taken your money, they simply do not care about your property.

I think it's a case that they have taken on too many properties and don't have enough staff, and also the fact that the staff that they have eg Michael Porter are completely and utterly incompetent.

Really, really guys, you are an embarrasment. If I was that incompetent I would be ashamed to leave my own building!!!

Another thing to note... if you employ them as your Managing Agents and try to transfer away to another company, then please factor in a minimum of 6 months for them to be able to forward things such as account information to the new agents!!!

Save yourself the trouble and avoid these COWBOYS