Symonds & Sampson Anmeldelser 

The team at Symonds & Sampson, and in particular Daniel, were brilliant throughout our entire move, from the initial photos and listing of our house, the unfortunate times the sales fell through to finally moving into our new house. Highly recommended and always pleasant to deal with.

Symonds & Sampson, of Poundbury, were superb when it came to selling our property. Thoroughly professional and highly efficient. SSTC in less than 24 hours from Jon coming out to value the bungalow. We couldn’t have asked for more. The extremely helpful and friendly staff kept us informed at every step of the process. Zero stress and I have no hesitation in highly recommending them.

from my experience of Symonds & Sampson - specifically Daniel Magee - I have no hesitation in recommending them. Daniel acted as agent for my vendors but I believe went above and beyond his remit to advise and guide me as a buyer through what I felt was a traumatic process. he signposted me to a fab surveyor, while still providing choice, and was happy to act as a go-between when I had additional queries. better than my own estate agent. ahem.

I have mixed feelings about leaving this review. The staff at Symonds & Sampson were polite throughout, and they ultimately returned my holding deposit in full once we withdrew.

However, this experience has left me deeply concerned about the human cost of modern lettings practices.

This was a joint application by myself (67, with over 40 years of unblemished renting history) and my daughter (31, a GP working in the NHS). We were not speculative applicants, we were a father and daughter genuinely looking for a suitable home together. I took the very real risk of informing my current landlord that I intended to move and asked for a formal reference. Having done so, I then had the humiliating experience of having to “crawl back” and explain that the application had collapsed through no fault of my own.

Two separate households have been affected by this. My daughter, who does not currently live with me, has also had her plans disrupted and we now carry the stigma of a failed referencing process.

The application collapsed because of HomeLet, the tenant referencing company used by Symonds & Sampson. HomeLet is a trading name of Barbon Insurance Group (part of the larger PIB Group), a business whose primary focus is landlord insurance and risk management. Their revenue comes from selling insurance products, guarantees, and tenant referencing services to agents and landlords, and tenants. In practice, this creates a strong commercial incentive to flag risks conservatively, even when those “risks” are clearly erroneous.

In my case, HomeLet flagged three small CCJs (£169–£250) registered in a female name at a commercial address I have never lived at, never used, and had never heard of. HomeLet themselves later confirmed in writing that the judgments were not in my name. Despite these glaringly obvious mismatches, the process resulted in delays, unresponsive communication, and an eventual demand for a GUARANTOR!!

At no stage did anyone appear willing to apply basic human judgment or challenge the clearly flawed output of the automated system. Instead, an insurance-driven process treated false and disputed third-party data as more important than the actual people involved.

People are not machines, and tenants are not simply ‘other’; a risk to be managed by algorithm. We are individuals with lives, careers, families and long histories of reliability. The stress, embarrassment and practical disruption this caused (to two households) was entirely avoidable.

A returned deposit does not erase the damage. We lost a tenancy we were well suited for. The landlord lost good tenants who genuinely wanted the property. In the end, this profit-driven model appears to serve neither tenants nor landlords particularly well, it simply generates more business for insurers and referencing companies through over-caution, and clearly flawed systems.

I hope Symonds & Sampson will reflect on their choice of referencing partner and be more willing to exercise discretion when obvious errors arise. Both tenants and landlords deserve a system that recognises basic humanity rather than defaulting to automated suspicion.

*The Agents assert on here that they don’t comment publicly on reviews (except the positive ones that is.) interesting.

I have used this agent a few times over the past couple of years and I can not fault them. Jeremy and his team are incredibly professional and their honestly and understanding of the market means they get houses sold.

We work alongside Estate Agents up and down the Country . When it comes to selling our own home, there was never any question who we would use. Communication between parties is 99% of what makes people feel very at ease during ,for many people , a very stressful part of their lives . From the first enquiry, to the exchange and completion , we have appreciated the down to earth , and timely manner in which issues are dealt with , by everyone in the Yeovil Office . Would certainly recommend.

From putting the offer in to getting the keys, Symonds & Sampson were great. Kim, who was our Sales Progressor, gave 100%. She was available when needed, even on her days off!

We recently bought a house through S & S Sherborne branch, moving from 100 miles away. We were well looked after throughout the at-distance process, and were particularly impressed by Kim Munster’s efforts to shepherd the dreaded chain.

All the staff were efficient friendly and helpful. This made the experience as stressful free as house purchase can be. We were delighted by the support and service provided and would recommend them without reservation

Kirsty and her team went the extra mile to get the sale of my property and the purchase of the new property over the line , Sophie with her fantastic negotiation skills managed to achieve a higher asking price for my property then actually advertised.
Unfortunately it was a long drawn out process , with not fault of Symonds & Symonds , it was due to my buyers chain taking a long to time to exchange and complete , but Kim kept chasing down the chain and updated me throughout , by doing so, I managed to keep my sanity .
I honestly believe that this sale / purchase would of not got to completion without the dedication and hard work of the Symonds & Sampson team , can't praise them highly enough.

We had an excellent experience with Symonds & Sampson and would highly recommend their services. From start to finish, the team maintained a strong balance of professionalism and approachability, which made the entire process smooth and reassuring.

They were consistently proactive and ensured clear, timely communication at every stage. This gave us confidence throughout and made us feel fully supported, with a genuine sense that our best interests were always a priority.

A special thank you to Rosie, who was outstanding throughout. She was consistently warm, welcoming, and highly responsive, taking the time to answer every question thoroughly. It really felt as though she was personally invested in helping us find the right home, and with her help, we did!

Thank you Rosie for helping us find our dream home, we’re unbelievably grateful. We would not hesitate to recommend Symonds & Sampson to friends and would gladly use their services again in the future.

I never write reviews but…….
I was in rental accommodation having relocated down south before finding this new build in Lyme Regis in August, offer accepted, no chain, perfect, im on my way, 9 stressful months later, fingers crossed I’m due to complete on Friday, if it had not been for Daniel Magee (Bridport branch) his professionalism, hard work and continued support, I think I would have lost my mind and don’t think we would be in a position to complete. Outstanding job, would not hesitate to recommend. Thanks soooooo much 🙏

Peter Grout Smith from the Poundbury office was really helpful and professional. We were selling my mother’s apartment with lots of competition from other apartments for sale in the same building but he found a buyer when others didn't. His communication was excellent and he nursed a long chain through to exchange and completion. I would have no hesitation in recommending him and his company.

I recently found a rental property through Symonds & Sampson. There were a few issues with securing the checks but all the staff worked above and beyond on my behalf to resolve. They have changed my opinion of letting agents and I would highly recommend them to anyone looking to rent through them.

Great service from the team at Symonds & Sampson, never too much trouble for extra viewings and helped push a purchase over the line for us in 4 weeks. Also very helpful assistance post purchase to liaise with the sellers on minor problem solving. Good to know they are estate agents you can trust.

My sisters and I sold our parents house using this estate agents. Had a really good experience and Vicki in particular was really efficient and kept things moving along. Big thank you

Enthusiastic, knowledgeable, great at communicating, a "can do" attitude. So glad I chose the Ilminster team to sell my cottage for me. They are not the cheapest but are definitely the best I have found in forty years of buying and selling houses. It has to be worth a little more money for such a professional service.

The team were very helpful and responsive to all my questions. Stephen Hennessey in particular was so good at chasing the solicitors and coming back with updates.

The friendly, helpful team from the Brewery Square, Dorchester branch assisted us throughout our property purchase.

Shambles of a letting department with poor attitude failing to get it right and aggressive and confrontational when things go wrong don't let your property with these clowns .