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!
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
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
If you came here from that article, howdy! Be sure to send us your stories on our submissions page. Contributing helps other students and renters and will help keep landlords accountable!
If you want to check out the article and find out a lil more about who runs the website here’s the link!
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
From 2018 to 2019, I stayed in a 7 bedroom house. Good size for what it cost but there were some evident issues that needed fixing; namely the backgarden was covered in weeds, the front porch step was broken and coming loose and various patches of mould around the house which we asked to be sorted before we moved in. Only the weeds were sorted, the front porch step was fixed multiple months later after a complaint of the wobbly slab and to my knowledge they’ve never sorted the mould problem despite one of the tenants being asthmatic. Other than that, we were happy to move in despite the general bumps, scratches, dents and stains to be expected when we moved in that were not caused by us.
The issues arose later. I’ll even say, we did require some deductions. One of the tenants put a hole in the kitchen wall but no one admitted to it. Some bin bags were left in the front garden after moving out due to excess waste we weren’t able to get rid of. And there were some little things here in there that were just not able to organise. So a reasonable deduction we expected.
CPS tried to take us for more than half of the deposit. Some of which were the reasonable deductions expected. The rest were either grossly inflated (like £40 to remove a coffee stain from a desk) or outright not caused by us.
They were unable to produce an invoices for more than £800 of the £1500 they tried to take. We had to fight tooth and nail for our deposit back through the deposit protection service, managing to claim a portion of the deposit back.
CPS takes advantage of ignorant students.
Rent: £360
Deposit Returned?: Partially
Keylet’s motto is ‘let’s open doors together’ but what they don’t tell you is, they’ll also slam them right back in your face and jam your fingers in them while they’re at it.
We moved into our property with the sofa having rips in it, marks on the walls and carpet, but overall the flat seemed lovely..for now.
5 taps a leaking, 4 fucked radiators, 3 unhappy tennants, 2 toilets leaking and one completely broken beeeeeeeed ( as well as the door dropping from the hatch). And we’d had enough. Called them up, only to be told you absolutely HAD to send it through fixflo ( oh but don’t forget, you can ONLY submit once otherwise the staff get confused…you have to question their intelligence level if THAT confuses them)
When we moved out, these problems still were not fixed and we actually now ALSO had a broken window. You love to see it.
The place was SPOTLESS. And I mean there was not a sign of dust anywhere…so with a spotless flat but multiple problems reported to Keylet that they did not fix. We didn’t expect the whole deposit back knowing their track record.
Please enlighten me as to how we got charged for none of these problems, despite them not being fixed. But had over £500 removed from our deposit in ‘general cleaning’ and ‘paint retouching’ when we provided proof the wall markings were there when we moved in? £300 to paint tiny marks? Are you hiring someone to paint one stroke a day? Will they be flying from Antarctica to do this paint job? Are you reincarnating Van Gogh for this? The marks were barely noticeable!!!!
In addition to this, we didn’t even see our deposit for 2 months and were repeatedly ignored in emails and rudely spoken to when we called to chase up on it.
For your own sanity, don’t rent with Keylet.
P.S. They walked into our flat unannounced on numerous occasions and once we were all asleep in our rooms and they still came in x
[Editors note: Creepy and illegal by Keylet]
Rent: £370
Deposit Returned?: Partially
Where do I begin?
Firstly, we were promised that the bathroom would be redone but didn’t get this put in the contract meaning that we couldn’t force them to do it despite the promise.
Once moved into the property there were several issues such as severe mould and damp, a broken gate onto the street, a broken window that faced onto the street downstairs and if a burglar saw it could easily break in, cupboards unclean, broken dishwasher, cupboard under the sink disgustingly mouldy and damp, carpet torn, stuff left from painters and a barely functioning front door. There were also damp issues across the entire house.
So what did cps do?
After emailing and calling at least once a week and going in, the window and front door were fixed… in January (only 5 months after we moved in…). Why did they fix it? Because we called the council and had them come round and they threatened to take away the HMO license. Only reason CPS/the landlord did anything about that.
I will give credit that our dishwasher was fixed within a month which for CPS is pretty decent.
With regards to the mouldy and damp kitchen – the landlords excuse was that he was redoing that following summer. That is a bullshit excuse for the condition.
So we had gotten the council round and they sent a report to CPS/landlord. And so they organised to do works which we were told would be minimal and not disruptive, and would also only take a couple of days.
They started the works about 6 weeks ago… it’s still going on. They tore off the outside render, made holes in our house, completely tore up our back garden and filled it with builders crap. Our neighbours actually had to complain because the builders knocked bricks down their fireplace. Due to the holes in the property, we got rats and had to have pest control. This is all happening during lockdown.
CPS have been unhelpful in communication and take about a week to reply. We have asked for compensation especially as one of us is still living in the property during lockdown and having to live in this shithole. CPS simply stated that the property was habitable because there was someone living there – this is not the definition of a property being habitable. We are worried we won’t get our deposit back because of the damage that the damp had done. The builders have stated that they would never have called the work they are doing minimal and that the damp was diabolical. Which considering half my house has asthma and other lung issues, is extremely dangerous.
The property was actually taken off the market after one of their employees came round for a mid tenancy inspection because of the actual house itself. If you have to take a house off the market, surely there is a bigger issue here?
We pay £330 for the house, if I were to price it, I wouldn’t pay more than £280 and during the works, the rent should have been halved. Because of the works we have no garden during lockdown and can’t even open a window in the hot weather because of the dust.
I know CPS is a hit and a miss. But whatever you do, DO NOT GET A PROPERTY THAT IS MANAGED BY CPS AND NOT THE LANDLORD!!!
Rent: £330
Deposit Returned?: Still living at the hole in question
Best landlord going. Any issues were fixed the same day for free. Gas and electricity were setup for us. Easy communication with the agent and the maintenance manager. Stayed for two years and absolutely loved it. Will miss the house dearly.
Rent: £360
Deposit Returned?: Didn’t have one
Move-in day:
House Viewings:
House condition:
2/10 do not recommend to a friend.
Rent: £315
Deposit Returned?: Still living at the hole in question