Rented housing in Cambridge

I have a couple of mates who are looking to rent a 2 bed house or flat in cambridge or the surrounding area....where is a good place for them to look and are there any rental agencies you would/wouldn't recommend? cheers K :O)

Don't use Russell Residential. They are consistantly awful.

We rent through Tucker Gardner, who seem ok. So far.....

I wouldn't recommend Ambassador on recent experience. Redmayne, Arnold and Harris were good but don't manage many properties (which may be why, compared to Russell and others).

Get a copy of property news and you'll see mention of all the agents in there and web addresses. I went with Hockeys but really it's the house and landlord that matters more than the agent. Try Cambridge Accomodation Notice Board too.

If there's any choice in the matter ask how long a landlord has had the house for. If they have recently bought then they may face trouble and want to sell in the coming (when the impending house price crash hits home!).

I'm with Ambassador and they've been rubbish - what problems have you had BT?

Also, again if you have choices, then try to barter down rent by £50 - worked with me.

I'd suggest using all the agencies' websites - that way if you see the right place you can get in really quick and ask to see it. Also, if you view somewhere and decide you like it, don't wait overnight to "sleep on it" - we did this once and lost out on the place, it can be quite cut-throat. We found our last two rented places through Bush and Co, both times have had absolutely fine experiences.

Thankfully they don't manage the property and I have nice (first-time I think) landlords who have got all repairs done immediately and been OK about picture hooks even though it's newly decorated etc.

My main issue with Ambassador (so far) was that when I viewed the house and also more importantly when I paid my fees (pretty high compared to other agents), they agreed to the usual 6 month initial let. A few days later the main 'partner' phoned me up saying that they 'didn't deal with tenancies ending at Christmas' (7th December is hardly Christmas), 'so we'll change it to 9 months then shall we?')! I got this sorted out but it didn't exactly inspire confidence. So I am also afraid they will be one of those places that won't let you go onto a one-month notice period and force you to pay fees to get another fixed-term contract. They also didn't manage to send me an inventory (I moved in pretty quickly, but I think most places would have managed to get this done), which may get 'interesting' later. So relatively minor stuff so far, but it means I don't exactly trust them at this point and am expecting various problems in the future.

What problems have you had with them CamRich?

Try Martin and Co on Mill Road. Have had good experiences with them.