Month: May 2020

John Winter

Shoutout to Ollie, top lad!

I have lived in a John Winter house for 2 years now and have had a really good experience. I would recommend them so highly. They are kind, friendly and super helpful. The two properties I’ve stayed in are well kept, clean and cosy homes.

Slightly disappointed with the handling of coronavirus, our house is completely empty and we’ve not had much communication regarding money issues that people may or may not have but that’s a small issue. I am thankful John Winter’s team, especially Ollie the maintenance manager who was always there if we needed him!

Rent: £370

Deposit Returned?: Didn’t have one

CPS

I don’t need CPS, I need CPR after this experience

CPS scammed me and my friends, it was our first time living outside of uni halls and they used that to their advantage.

As soon as we moved in there was a leaky gutter and I reported it several times over the following months. Water began leaking through my window and created mould all over the walls, which grew on my bedding and all my belongings. I had to stay with a friend as I have bad lungs and the room was deemed a health hazard by an independent mould inspector that my parents paid to get done as CPS continued to ignore the issue. Photos attached.

  • cps homes cardiff wales uk mould mold rotten landlord land lord student student housing rent deposit illegal CPS tenant rent renters
  • cps homes cardiff wales uk mould mold rotten landlord land lord student student housing rent deposit illegal CPS tenant rent renters
  • cps homes cardiff wales uk mould mold rotten landlord land lord student student housing rent deposit illegal CPS tenant rent renters

Finally, after 5-6 months they decided to repair the gutter and fix the mould (that was my fault for not alerting them soon enough?!) The work was supposed to take no more than a couple of days, but it turned into a couple of weeks and then a month for the room to be habitable again. In this time I had to remove all my belongings from the room, my bed frame was taken apart and the mattress up against the wall as they moved a CEMENT MIXER in and had several workmen in the room daily. There was absolutely no way I could function or sleep in a room without a bed or privacy, and so I continued to stay at my friends house. They offered me no compensation for this time, they did not provide me with alternative accommodation and they harassed me constantly to pay rent (the only reason they started the work was because I stopped paying rent until they fixed the room). It was a recurring issue with previous tenants, one of the workmen told me that years of mould had been covered up with paint year after year.

  • cps homes cardiff wales uk mould mold rotten landlord land lord student student housing rent deposit illegal CPS tenant rent renters
  • cps homes cardiff wales uk mould mold rotten landlord land lord student student housing rent deposit illegal CPS tenant rent renters

But CPS still pointed the finger at me and caused me incredible stress during my studies, I had to seek mental health support and I was physically unwell too from the damp/mould. Eventually, the room was fixed but the relationship with my flatmates was gone and I had been bullied by CPS to pay rent for a room that I couldn’t live in for months. I had been homeless for a couple of months at this point. I found someone else to fill the room and had to pay additional contract change fees (£150 to cross out my name and add a different one! Scam!) [As of September 2019 this is illegal!]

They gave me my full deposit back. Not sure how much was taken from the remaining housemates / my replacement but I was just so glad to be rid of them. I ended up paying CPS over a grand for the time I was effectively homeless including contract changing fees. It really ruined my second year of University and I would really ask anyone thinking of signing with them to reconsider. The house will turn to shit in weeks of moving in. They don’t fix anything. There weren’t even beds/mattresses for the first week of renting the property at FULL RENT. It was so dirty on the first day we moved in. They’re rude and aggressive and called me a liar despite all the photos that proved I wasn’t making up there was a damp problem (even more sinister when you consider how many times they painted up that same mouldy bedroom). They manipulate their reviews by sponsoring sports teams and getting team players to give false 5* reviews posing as tenants to muddy the clearly very negative reviews from honest tenants. Avoid CPS at all costs.

Rent: 275

Deposit returned?: Yes

James Douglas

Positive vibes for James Douglas

James Douglas/Seraph Property Management

The property is a one bed flat, the £560 pcm not including bills. Fairly decent, all things considered – took four months to send an inventory, but otherwise brilliant. It only took a weekend to get a washing machine fixed. But they’re good with communication and getting things done. From what I’ve heard about other agencies, this is one of the not so awful ones!

Rent: 560

Deposit Returned?: Still living at the hole in question

Cardiff Student Letting

Wonder if they put black mould and slugs on the inventory…

Rented a house with Cardiff Student Lettings in 2nd year and 3rd year – we couldn’t be bothered moving. Overall we were pretty happy with the agency. They responded to all our issues within a few days, apart from a broken blind which just stayed broken but we lived with that. They always gave us plenty of notice before viewings

(Something I really miss now being with CPS who gave a 10-minute warning on a Saturday at 10 am!- but that’s another story.)

The house itself wasn’t the best and I was constantly ill due to cracks in the walls and black mould. We had an incessant slug problem which when I completely lost it one morning over, they came and put some polyfiller down which helped a bit… They fixed everything very cheaply if they could do it themselves they would, so a lot of stuff was very haphazard. It was quite a cheap house (£285 pcm and then 300 ) for a 4 bedroom so overall we thought it was decent. We got all of our deposit back minus £50 in total but that’s ok because we did cause a bit of accidental damage.


Overall would recommend as the team were always friendly and helpful.

[Unfortunately, this reviewer doesn’t know the name of their landlord. Whoever they are should be ashamed, as mould can have serious health effects and landlords should never let this happen.]

Rent: £300

Deposit Returned?: Partially

Uncategorized

Cheeky feature in Landlord Zone

uni rate your landlord cardiff wales letting home the tab news newspaper

Landlord Zone may be throwing some shade in our direction but we’re flourishing anyway. 🌿

In their cheeky little article, they mention other failed rating websites and wonder if we will get any reviews. We’re not sure they’ve really been on our site since we’ve had a bunch of fantastic submissions! While we’re not usually ones to read pro-landlord newspapers this certainly gave us a laugh!

CPS

Oh CPS, Your Eagles preying on the vulnerable!

Rooms in the house with good mattresses and others with springs that literally poked through and made noises. When this issue was raised the landlord, who claimed the bed was fine. Windows with the glass blown in the middle which was quoted for but never sorted as it was ‘too expensive’. Landlord turned up unannounced on multiple occasions. [Editors note: Very illegal! If this ever happens, threaten to call the police.]

We took some things to the house to store between summer and September (we were told this was fine) & the landlord threw out our ironing board, which she did replace in the end. [Yikes]

When we moved into the house there was around 10 bulbs out – multiple tenants sent emails about this and it took a very long time to get a proper response. When we finally were sent new bulbs but we were sent the incorrect bulbs. When we informed her of this she came to the house to check they were wrong as she did not believe us. She then promised to send us the correct bulbs, which did not turn up for months. We had been in contact with both the landlord and CPS on multiple occasions about these bulbs. At our final CPS inspection, CPS promised we would not be charged for replacement lights at the end of tenancy due to all the problems we had faced (e.g. not having bulbs for at least 3 months, never having them when we moved in).

This never happened – we were charged to replace all the lights – I doubt they were replaced based on our experience moving into the property (10 bulbs out, kitchen cabinet half attached, left items from previous tenants). They also tried to charge us for things that were broken prior to us moving in the property, luckily we had photo proof of this, and were able to fight those charges.

As we had trouble with getting our deposits back before, we made a huge effort to clean the house to avoid cleaning charges. However, the day the last tenant was leaving (before the final inspection) the landlord turned up with a builder, who proceeded to create dust and mess in the house, despite our efforts to clean. When we were then changed for cleaning which we had to fight. The whole tenancy felt stressful, the landlord and CPS did not act responsibly, and did not care about our welfare.

Rent: £330

Deposit Returned?: Partially

Keylet

Rob Piazza is the bright light through the KeyLet keyhole!

Honestly a positive review of a landlord was the last thing I’d have expected two years ago. Renting a house on Cathays Terrace and can honestly say I wouldn’t rent with anyone else. Our boiler broke a couple weeks ago; he came round within half an hour to fix it. Switch board kept fucking up; he came over that day. Washing machine was leaking; bought us a new one within a week. Sofas were old and shedding their material; bought us new ones that were delivered by the end of the week. A lop sided bed base; new one was delivered the following day.

I’ve had some shit landlords in Cardiff, but if you’re ever lucky enough to rent with Rob it’ll be a dream. Have signed on to live in another one of his properties for the upcoming year. Even though there’s some miserable sods in Keylet it was so worth the trouble.

Rent: £300

Deposit Returned?: Yes

Purple Premier Properties

10 Flora Street? More like 10/10 Flora Street!

A group of 8 of us rented 10 Flora Street in our final year. As far as student houses go, I can’t fault the property or Gareth/ Ella Morris. Having had a shit storm with our 2let2 house in second year, it was so great to find purple premier.


Any problems we had Ella or Gareth would be round to fix them themselves, or they would get someone in to fix the problem quickly. They are both lovely people and were always there whatever we needed. These are the best student letting agents around, you’d be silly not to rent with them!!

Rent: £370

Deposit Returned?: Didn’t have one