Think of all the negative cliches attributed to state agencies and then add some more to them and that's Portico. This is going to sound like a litany of complaints, there is just so much to tell, but if you want to save yourself time just do the following, DO NOT RENT FROM PORTICO, seriously, avoid them at all costs, the high reviews here are a complete sham. They are not a decent agency (if there is such a thing) and they are not to be trusted. Do you want to know why? Read on, 1) A breakdown of their unfair fees a) Admin fee Formally known as Edmund Cude, we got charged 250 pounds just for them to do "Paperwork" What do you get as a tenant for this? Well, you get more paperwork than you would normally get going via a landlord and a veiled threat that if you don't pass their credit check they get to keep your 500 pound initial down payment. b) Inventory fee You get charged around 180 check in inventory, and 180 check out (not exact figures, but around that area) What you get for this is for someone to come check everything in the flat, and then on the way out they really, really go out of their way to find things for you to pay. In my case they wanted to charge me for a couch where the leather was peeling off (because wearing off by seating on it makes it my fault) and stuff like a sign I put on the wall with celotape that said "no shoes beyond this point". I was lucky the landlord had the sense not to charged me for these, but if it was up to them, I would have had to dispute these charges. On the other hand, hilariously enough, when I first moved into this flat there was a lot of things wrong with it. For example, a window was wide open and wouldn't close, had to spend the evening in the freezing cold, and in various furniture pieces the knobs came off and stuff like that. I told them that given the fees I had paid them I expected everything to be in working order and they deferred all responsibility to the landlord, saying he managed the property. Yes okay, but I was paying you (against my will) to first check this property before renting! c) The renewal fees This is yet another slap on the face, every year you get charged around 100 pounds and the service you get out of this is them trying to raise your rent as high as they can for the landlord. This is a bit like going to a restaurant who asks to please move to a different table, charge you 20 pounds for this and then raise the price of the meal for you, in that case you would be outraged, but somehow agencies can do this to tenants and get away with it, wow, phenomenal. 2) The Terrible, and insulting level of service Okay so you say to yourself, fine, I have paid all these high fees for an already insanely overpriced flat in London, at least I will be treated phenomenally well by the agency right? Funniest joke in history. a) Ignoring the tenant wishes, and ignoring the law. By law, neither the agency nor the landlord can walk in your apartment without your expressed consent unless it is some kind of emergency. One day I got home and I found the lights on, I was pretty confident I had turned them off so just to make extra sure, I emailed several people in Portico saying please do not come into the flat without me expressively saying so. I got one acknowledgement from someone saying they hadn't come, and I said okay fine, just making sure. Then one day I get an email from Tembi Ryan asking me if I was going to renew and I replied no, but I inadvertently didn't read below that she had set up an appointment to come check the flat without consulting with me first, so I didn't say yes go ahead and come in. Then later one day I was working from home and Tembi just strolls into the flat. I was furious so I politely told her to please go and come some other time when I agree. So just to make extra sure I sent an email to several people in Portico saying, do NOT do this again, and sent them legal links showing that what they did was not legal (in one of these rounds I even bcced their CEO, who duly ignored it). And I got one reply from Tembi without apologising, saying that usually they just go ahead and book and if no reply they take that as yes. So I said to them, yet again, do NOT do this again, it is not legal. Time went on and I got an email from Tiegan Williams asking me to come view the property, but the way the email was written kind of implied, if you don't reply I will come anyway. So I replied and said, that's fine go ahead but you need my permission to come and see the flat every time, don't assume. She replied saying yes sure I understand, I will make a note to be more formal with this in the future. Then some time after that, while I was at work, the landlord gave permission to Dexters to get the keys from Portico and they emailed Wayne Lewis in Portico ccing me in and Wayne said they couldn't give the keys because Tiegan was doing a viewing at 13:30, a viewing I hadn't even been contacted to about by any means! I was so mad, I replied, cced the landlord and said if this happened again I would take legal action, only then I got some form of apology (and some excuse/lies, such as we left you a voicemail, not true), and I suspect this was due to the ridicule felt when the landlord was in the mail thread and a competitor as well. Not because they genuinely felt they had really done any wrongdoing. Let me clarify that I was very quick in replying to their request to view the flat and also very accommodating, this despite how badly they treated me all the way through. So the above behaviour was completely unacceptable. b) Unfair contracts You could argue here I should have been smarter reviewing their contract but I don't think ignorance is an excuse for an agency to take advantage of you After being with them for two years and four months (third renewal) my girlfriend at the time and I split up and she left. I told them I was going through a really tough time and if it was okay for me giving them two months notice to find someone so I can move but they wanted to charge me fees of around 2000 pounds if I moved out early, they also said that if they couldn't find someone I would have to pay for all bills and rent until the end of the year - even if I moved out! There was no exit clause in the contract, clearly. I asked them if it was okay for me to find someone to take my lease. And they said it was okay, but if I did that the next person would have to pay 250 fee for changing tenant (plus whatever fees I would have to pay) and they wanted to raise the monthly rent I was paying 150 pounds! Making it very difficult for me to find a replacement, if not impossible, as they were overvaluing it. In the end, despite going thru a horrible time and doubling up my expenses I decided to stay until the end of the contract to avoid further headaches, but this was a situation that was completely unfair on me, or any tenant and by law they shouldn't have been allowed to do such thing. c) Lack of internal communication Time and again, you would be speaking to an agent, they would ask you something, and some time later another agent would ask you the same thing. Or you would speak to someone and the next person had no idea that this was agreed. These guys run their agency like a fish market. I know I mentioned some people in this review but it would be unfair to say that the problem is with any individual or any employee, the problem here first and foremost with the company culture and ethic and finally with an industry that is completely unregulated and pathological. And know that as a tenant, all of these fees that you have to pay are never for your benefit, the agency only benefits the landlord and themselves, never the tenant. The landlord should always pay all agency fees or do his own renting, simple as that.