Member Article

Lettings agency builds on success after BBC appearance

A North East lettings agency is celebrating widespread praise from viewers after appearing on a BBC show.

Easington-based Castledene Group, one of the largest lettings companies in the North East, has been inundated with enquiries after the company was featured on BBC 1 documentary Meet the Landlords.

The programme, which attracted 2.4 million viewers, showed Castledene agent Bev Corkhill helping an ASBO tenant find a new place to live after neighbours complained about his anti-social behaviour. Viewers took to Facebook and property sites to praise Bev for her caring but no-nonsense approach to LHA tenants.

Landlord Ollie Cornes said: “Bev is an absolute star. What an incredible mix of kindness and strength to be supportive of people in trouble but confident enough to tell them to their face what their responsibilities are. This programme is a reminder that decent landlords should be supportive of political moves afoot to improve PRS standards”. Simon Foster commented: “As you’ve seen at Castledene sometimes agencies that deal with LHA tenants have to provide a service above and beyond that of just a standard letting agents - the key to smooth tenancies is to talk to tenants direct and seeing if you can find a way to resolve issues. Personal relationships are key to it all and Bev and Castledene last night were a shining example of how things sometimes need to be handled”. National Approved Lettings Scheme (NALS) CEO Isobel Thomson said: “It was so gratifying to see NALS firm Castledene adopting such high professional standards while at the same time showing care and compassion to tenants. Bev was a force for good in the programme and a huge credit to Castledene.”

Castledene Group was established by managing director John Paul in August 2008, to provide property management, property investment and property maintenance services. It has seen five years of steady growth in the region, despite the economic downturn, and celebrated its fifth anniversary this month.

It employs 33 members of staff, who manage more than 1,850 properties in the region across six branches including Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Cleveland and Durham.

John has been the driving force behind the company’s success at a range of business awards, including this year’s renowned Sunday Times Lettings Agency of the Year Awards 2013, where the team achieved Gold in the Medium Northern Lettings Agency category.

John said: “We were contacted by Blast Films about 20 weeks ago to see if we would be interested in appearing in an observational documentary about landlords and letting agents. They filmed us for 10 weeks, and the response since the programme aired has been amazing. We are all very proud of Bev and we hope we helped to set an example about how to best work with challenging tenants.”

John Paul plans to set up a not for profit training company in the coming months to train the group’s tenants in basic IT skills, to assist with job searching and the government’s introduction of Universal Credit.

For more information, please contact the Castledene Group at www.thecastledenegroup.com

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