Scott Fraser

If you are coming from abroad, you'll easily find that Scott Fraser (more particularly the Summertown crew) is extremely helpful. James made me visit a few flats during a couple of days after getting in touch with him by emails. Unlike some other competitors in front, the team always got back to me really quickly and with all the necessary details. To be exhaustive, the inventory was perhaps not fully complete and some damages/scratches, etc. were missing, but then again, I just arrived in the country so I can't compare on this, and I may be a bit picky.

I have now been in for a couple of months now and they have always been getting back to me extremely quickly, and have always been helpful!

Conclusion: Highly recommended, high standards of customer service and very nice people.

AJ

Scott Fraser were really good with us. We stayed in one of their flats for one year and never had any problems. They even helped us talk to the landlord to arrange a new cooker fitting. Very pleased overall. If I had one negative it would be the slightly high charges we had to pay, one of which was a 'checking out' fee. 

Our company found two apartments to rent throw Scott Fraser. We had a great team from Scott Fraser helping us out in fulfilling all the requests we had. Our special thank for a wonderful job in taking good care of us, goes to Claire Fleet and also Michael Joubert. Without them this would have been impossible to achieve. We know we can count on you guys. Your high standards are very much recommendable, when you are on the market looking out for an house. Thanks for everything.

I would highly recommend renting through Scott Fraser. Clare Fleet and Michael Joubert have been absolutely fantastic and I could not recommend this agency enough. They are considerate, efficient and very professional with brilliant communication, no delay in their responses, providing a personal service. The Summertown Team went well behond what was expected – talk about going the extra mile – you definately recieve that type of service here! If you are looking to rent in Oxford, this would be the agency to use – very high standard of housing and the service provided.

We’re a couple of Italian professionals who rented a flat in Oxford from Scott Fraser-Summertown, an extraordinary experience. All the team is very professional, James is a brilliant agent, and there aren’t adequate words to comment the professionalism of Mr Michael, Mr Christopher and all their staff: they always can give you the most correct, experienced and comforting answer to your questions, always promptly mediate between you and your landlord, help you to know well and face your duties as tenant (plentiful of advices about inventory and your checkout, both on their website, personally and by email), and without doubt they are the number one in Oxford, and among many other letting agencies we’ve seen in England. Now we came back in Italy, but no doubt we would like to have a Scott Fraser/Summertown team in every house agency we’ll find elsewhere.

I have rented properties in several countries and have always had a fairly low opinion of letting agents but am pleased to say that dealing with Scott Fraser has been completely refreshing from the application process through to property management. James and Christopher in the Summertown office are really efficient and professional.

I would like to recommend Scott Fraser for their property management. Chris Carter at the Summertown office has managed my house in Central Oxford for the past four years and I have found him to be calm, efficient, reliable and willing to go the extra mile to ensure things are done properly.

From the minute I found a rental property that I was interested in, Scott Fraser’s staff have been extremely friendly and helpful. James made time to show me the property the same day and within 24 hours the rental was agreed. During my rental Chris has been quick to respond to any questions and managed everything in a professional way. I was impressed with the Welcome pack which included all the appliance manuals and further information. I definitely recommend Scott Fraser (Summertown) as rental agents. Jill Fresen

I am the proud owner of a special property in Oxford and have employed Scott Fraser to find suitable tenants who would look after the house as well as I would do. So far they have not let me down: they have listened to my concerns and understood what was important to me and the whole team has been very professional and attentive.

After James Hindson was able to find what sounds like the the perfect tenants in very little time, Christopher Carter has been very helpful and responsive in leading on the communication with the tenants and the day-to-day management of the property.

I have been SF’s client only for 4 months but I would definitely recommend the team to landlords who would like a higher standard of service and the certainty that their property is well looked after.

I stayed in a house with four other students from 2010 to 2011 rented through Scott Fraser, and overall have had a very bad experience.

Through the year, while they did respond to maintainance queries, the response could often be slow, and in my cases the contractor didn’t manage to fix the problem anyway. Of course, no-one else was sent to follow this up.

I felt we were treated without much respect at times. For example they came to inspect the house a few times through the year. The house was certainly clean, especially for a student house, yet they complained it was unacceptable because a couple of the rooms were messy (i.e. there was stuff on the floor). We had to tidy it all away, and the first we heard was when we received an angry letter from them. It’s not nice, or necessary, to have how you live dictated to you. When I rang them to ask why the house was declared unacceptable their tone was very confrontational, and I wasn’t offered much useful advice.

The worst part was at the end of the tenancy. After 5 people spending a good 2 days cleaning we were initially charged about £600 in fees. Some of this was for an inflated inventory fee (£198) for someone to come round and take pictures of cracked paint etc. We were also charged some money for compensation fees for apparent damage we had caused (3 blu-tac marks, a small damp stain on 1 carpet and an almost invisible mark on a matress). After lengthy and tedious discussion these were taken off meaning we paid £500 in total. This is about £300 on cleaning fees, which is frankly shocking. The landlord was unwilling to compromise, despite our efforts at cleaning.

On top of this, we were told to pay to get the carpets cleaned (£90) ourselves, then they cleaned them again (£82) and charged us.

I blame Scott Fraser for using such expensive services, and sending a bewildering and self-conflicting amount of information about how the house should be cleaned.

In summary, they are just about acceptable to deal with through the tenancy, but can be quite underhand and will almost certainly take a lot of your money at the end of the tenancy.

I lived in a house of University students from 2010/2011 which we rented via Scott Fraser. During the tenancy they were a little slow to respond to our complaints (in particular, it took two months and multiple reminders for them to repair a broken wall at the front of the house). Perhaps you expect inefficiency and hesitation in a letting agent, I’m not sure – perhaps that makes them a 3/5 organisation.

Where Scott Fraser really screw you over is at the end of your tenancy. It may be too late for ’11/12 tenants, but I recommend all 2012/13 to find an alternative.

Scott Fraser will bill you when you come out and when you come in – £560 as an ‘application fee’, plus charges for guarantors, plus ‘estate agent fees’…and we paid about £650 to leave again.

I’m most annoyed about the leaving bill. This was our experience: we cleaned the house thoroughly ourselves, and were initially given ludicrous bill of approaching £800, to be taken off our deposit.

The problem we faced was not the fact that we had to pay to clean the windows/carpets/furniture/rest of the house/inventory, but that SF charged us frankly too much for all of them: their inventory bill was advertised as ‘from £95’, and came to £198. SF employed cleaners who charged £20 an hour, about double the standard rate. About a hundred pounds was in petty ‘compensation damage for x’, and we ended up spending over £200 on ‘carpet and upholstery cleaning’.

When we complained we received a reduction of about £120. This is only generous if we forget that that approximately £650 remains.

In short, I do not believe Scott Fraser feels responsible for its tenants or that it works in their interests.

Ultimately SF rely on the fact that students are unable to properly contest bills and their ability to escape unnecessarily high charges is extremely limited. I can tell from fellow students that Scott Fraser is worse than the industry standard, and I recommend that you avoid whenever possible.

We’re a tenant and have found Scott Fraser to be very professional and accommodating. So far we’ve had no problems and wouldn’t hesitate to recommend.

Me and my partner were relocating to oxford and Scott Frasier made it a lot easier with there friendly and professional help.
From when we viewed our flat with the agent until I finally picked our keys up there service was excellent and I would recommend.

I have used Scott Fraser for a number of years now dealing mainly with the Headington office. They let a property for me recently and within a short period of time the property was marketed, viewings booked, tenants found and all paperwork handled quickly and efficienly. Special thanks to Tracey, Zoe and the 2 Emily’s for doing a professional job.

We rented through Scott Fraser’s Summertown lettings office for a period of 7 months before buying. The staff were always polite, courteous and responsive – a boiler problem during the harsh winter was attended to immediately.

It is obvious that Scott Fraser have high standards in terms of the properties they manage, and in acting on behalf of both tenants and landlords. As tenants we were given clear instructions and paperwork related to ours and the landlord’s obligations.

All in all, we wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them to family & friends, and we would gladly have them looking after our property if we were to rent it out.

Scott Fraser are consummate professionals and chief among them is James Hindson.

Having had more than my fair share of viewings and dealings with different
letting agencies in Oxford in the last few months and years, I have to say that
he is one of the most professional, courteous and hard-working
letting negotiators out there.

The finder’s fee Scott Fraser charges is reasonable (for Oxford, which is generally very expensive). Some of their competitors charge an astonishing 25% (plus VAT!) of the monthly rent as a finder’s fee, and are hardly as pleasant to deal with.

Overall, this is a superb service and I can only recommend it.

I have dealt with all branches of Scott Fraser throughout the last 4 years and I have found all staff and associates polite, courteous & professional.

We recently asked them to market our 4 bedroom town house in Abingdon. They successfully found the most wonderful tenants and arranged for the tenancy to start within a month of our instruction.

They kept us up to date on any viewings and interest, all paperwork was dealt with efficiently and the process was very smooth and effortless.

I cant recommend them enough.

Michael Joubert, Hannah Bayliss, Chris Carter & James Hindson-Thank you.
You are an asset to the company.

Customer testimonial from Mr C L (Oxford Landlord)

I am hugely impressed by the service I have received from Scott Fraser. Your team has bent over backwards to meet my requirements as regards letting and maintenance, and kept me fully in the picture as things progress.

http://www.scottfraser.co.uk/lets-gallery/

I have had experience dealing with Scott Fraser's Summertown office over a period of 12 months and have found them to be totally honest and straightforward. Their standards are high and they are more than capable of fulfilling their commitments. I have also dealt with another high-profile agent in North Oxford and SF is the all around best company. Their charges are lower, the standard of service and of their properties much higher.

Should any issues arise, which they are bound to occasionally, the staff at SF are courteous, prompt and efficient in dealing with any issues raised.

If you are discerning and looking for the best properties from a totally honest company, Scott Fraser are for you!

This company leaves a really bad (and expensive) taste in the mouth. We have rented in Oxford for the past 9 years however this is the only time that I have felt justified in writing a negative review. The property was clean when we moved in but by no means perfect (scuff marks on walls, dusty skirting boards, food under fridge). The quarterly check ups by Scottfraser resulted in slightly insulting letters (on one occasion we were told to make the beds and wash up a couple of mugs which seemed a little over zealous). Letters from scottfraser regularly arrive weeks after the date on the letter (perhaps indicating that there is a local postman who has rented from them in the past - with a grudge?)

The really nasty experience was at the end of the tenancy when we were instructed to move out on the last day of our tenancy and that there would be an inventory check and that for this privilege we would be charged more than £130! (apparently this was covered in our tenancy agreement under the sub-clause "tenant may be required to pay for the cost of check out".
The inventory check was to be "arranged at a time convenient to us" but it later transpired that this "convenient time" was any one hour within a 4 hour window on a particular week day. I think this stretches the definition of "convenient".

The result of the inventory check was clean but not professional and they took photos of a solitary spider to prove this (perhaps he was looking for his web which we had carefully hoovered and wondering why the newly polished floor was so slippery!).

This huge inventory charge was taken from our deposit at the end of our tenancy despite this being protected by the TDS. Overall would not rent from the company again or recommend friends too. Stick to Finders Keepers or College and County in the future (at least they are nice and polite).