mouldy ice box, thx 2let2 xoxox

m8 am living in a shithole, was put in a shit situation in the first year and had to just choose people to live with this year. I’ve essentially moved in with strangers who refused to come back to Cardiff after April last year, so I don’t know anything about them. I got shafted with the smallest box room as I was the last tenant to move in, and we had no agreed way to designate rooms (my mistake).


I live a lot further away than them to Cardiff and so can’t afford to be going home a lot, and I work in Cardiff as well as study. I’m often in the house alone, the house is small, and being given the smallest room is bad for my mental health. The room I was given is covered in mould and I continually have to spray mould remover and have my window open (which only makes my room freezing). My curtains are covered in mould as well. I have had 4 chest infections since moving in, once it developed into bronchitis. I understand that mould is a tenant problem to solve, but I have contacted 2let2 multiple times to replace my curtains and put a dehumidifier into the room. They argued there was no use in a dehumidifier and the curtains weren’t that bad… the curtains are meant to be a white fabric on the inside, but are a murky grey colour, with patches of black from the mould.

For my mental and physical health, I’m now having to move out and find another house. 2let2 in my opinion are bad, I would never go with them again

Rent: £365
Deposit Returned?: Still living at the hole in question

The only thing over the Horizon is an NDA!

We luckily didn’t end up living in a horizons house because of all the red flags we had with the tenancy agreement, but still thought it was worth giving a review. To start with the agreement was FULL of spelling mistakes, they wanted us to sign a non-disclosure agreement when seems extremely problematic, they mentioned specifically that they refuse to cover certain damages like rats and fence breaking and telling us our initial deposit was part of the rent and then not refunding us when we didn’t sign the agreement.

[If your landlord or agency trying to get you to sign a non-disclosure agreement, I’d STRONGLY recommend reaching out to ACORN Cardiff for support!]


They were also really condescending to us especially once we told them it was our first time house hunting, and responded to our questions really indirectly. When our guarantors checked over the agreement they managed to point out problems with almost every point and when we pointed out some of these issues to horizon they told us it was straightforward and transparent and they weren’t going to change it and just generally seemed dodgy and rude x

Is Dondi too good to be true? Yes.

House was in great condition and Dondi seemed lovely for most of the tenancy. She even asked us to review her here halfway through the year, but I decided to wait until the tenancy was complete to see what she was really like.

Sure enough, her true colours came out as the tenancy was coming to a close. The deposit was extensively overcharged without evidence with plenty of high costs for basic wear and tear that shouldn’t have been charged for in the first place.

The whole situation led to mental and emotional stress between the tenants, all thanks to her greed and unprofessional handling of the tenancy.

I am fortunately leaving Cardiff now, but I would not recommend signing with her to my worst enemy. Hope you enjoy the review you requested Dondi x

Rent: £360
Deposit Returned?: No

Did you know Condor allows parties during lockdown? Well, at least at the property below.

I have rented a room for the academic year 2020-2021. The misfortune of being under lockdown conditions triggered a series of events that should have never happened, especially with the current legislation. The house was constantly on completely mess and chaos, it was constantly reported to the location manager who never did anything to prevail it. The police was actively involved, yet the management never did anything to ensure the health and well-being of all tenants on the location.

I have moved way before the tenancy contract termination yet paid full amount of money and no deposit was returned. I wish no one should go through the same traumatic experience, as it prevailed me for completing my studies and put me in a hardship that I’m still struggling to overcome. Constant parties, dirt and bullying is something that no one wants to go through, especially in the pandemic situation, with no other place to live in, no family nor friends close to get support from. At the end of the day, the business is for people, and when it takes just the advantage and no offering anything in return is condemnable.

Rent: £400
Deposit Returned?: No

We can’t Stein Peter!

Non-essential building work continued throughout the first month of our tenancy, and we agreed that we would pay 3/4 rent, originally suggested half rent. Both bathrooms are cramped, using the toilet means sitting at an awkward angle or with your leg jammed under the sink. Mould in the walls was painted over and we weren’t told about it. It’s evident their trying to rent a 3 bedroom house to 6 people.

Rent: 315

Deposit Returned?: Still living at the hole in question

Top City Living with Dondi

Lived in one of Dondi’s flats in the centre of Cardiff. The flat had everything that was need and was up to date and modern. It was in a great location – only 5 minute walk into the city centre. If we ever had any maintenance issues with the flat, Dondi would send someone round/visit herself as soon as possible which was great. She was a very fair landlord and was always contactable.

Rent: £650
Deposit Returned?: Yes

Don’t rent with Julian Turner unless you want to be body-shamed on Facebook

Landlords always manage to impress us with how shitty they are! Today’s lovely example comes from Julian Turner who thought it’d be a fantastic idea to show off one of his properties on Overheard at Cardiff University.

For the sake of dignity, we’ve blurred the images but Julian Turner clearly didn’t give two fucks. One of the images even included the poor tenant’s details and the address of the property. Regardless of how a tenant leaves a property this kind of shaming is not acceptable. It’s a GDPR nightmare and he’s an idiot for thinking this was appropriate.

It’s also repulsive they tried to shame them from blood-stained sheets when that’s a natural part of having a period and landlords should be understanding that leaks happen. God knows I’ve trashed a few mattresses and felt like shit about it afterwards. I’d be mortified if my landlord shared images online about the situation.

Rent Smart Wales has their details listed so you can avoid them. [Update] Since posting we have been contacted by Jac Y Do Limited and they claim Julian Turner has no association with them and they only operate within Ceredigion.

Since the address was in the original images we were able to look that up too.

What a joy! The address IS NOT REGISTERED. Julian Turner has broken the law by renting this property so he really should be avoided at all costs. We are going to look into reporting him but if you have rented from Julian Turner in the past please contact us at admin@rateyourlandlord.com and we can help you out. No one should be living in an unregistered property and you have rights.

Signing up with 👑 Kingstons? You’ll be their peasant

Genuinely the worst company I have ever had to deal with. When it came to move-in day, I was unable to get into my room as no-body in the office had a key for my locked bedroom. I had to wait 3 hours with my Dad in the car outside until the landlord could arrange for a handyman to come and change the lock on the door and let me in. My Dad then had to dive back to my hometown 3 hours delayed- no apology from the office about the wait or the fact they had lost the key to the bedroom.

When the door was finally opened it was clear they had not made any of the changes they had agreed to in the contract signing. It had been agreed that the single bed in my room would be upgraded to a 3/4 bed and a desk and chair would be provided for my housemate. They had been warned several times of when we would be moving in. Throughout the year we had several issues that were either not solved or took months for them to get round to. This included my housemates’ desk collapsing in her hands and an incredibly moldy fridge which was not hygienic enough to keep food it when we arrived. My bedroom was very small and had no insulation so got very moldy after a few months of living there, it also gave me a bad chest from sleeping in the room overnight. After complaining to Kingstons someone from the landlords’ office came to clean it which was great until she happily told me that if the mold returned she would be charging me and that I needed to keep my window open. It was February and I could see my breath in my room as it was.

When moving out of the house in June we cleaned it thoroughly but had to fight for 2 months to get our deposit back as they would not accept the fact that we had closed our water account when returning home during the pandemic. When finally receiving the list of ‘damages’ we were shocked to be charged a whopping £158 each (there are 4 of us) including £100 for cleaning, £28 for each de-weeding the garden and £46 each for an inch stain on the worktop. When we queried the damages we felt completely unjust, including the stain, some of the charges were dropped but we were told that the landlord was going to have to replace the whole unit. I do not doubt in my mind this will not be replaced. We have ended the year losing £120 of our £350 deposit each for a house we really looked after. A disappointing and difficult company to deal with needless to say we did not sign with them for the third year.


Rent: £305

Deposit Returned: Partially

Dondi’s back, back again

Very nice one bed flat, furnished to high standard. Been in this property for two years now and am very happy with the landlady. Dondi is always easy to reach and promptly replies to any queries. Had some tiles cracking in the bathroom and a broken radiator recently which were sorted quickly without any issues. Can only highly recommend renting with her!

Rent: £900
Deposit Returned?: Still living at the hole in question

Dondi Eagles flies the extra mile!

My flat was a beautifully furnished in the city centre round the back of the Mercury Hotel. Whenever we had a problem we could contact Dondi directly and it was solved without any hesitation. We also received our full deposit back without question as well. I had to get removal people to pack up my belongings because I live overseas, even though this was after my contract she helped out without taking anything from the deposit. Would highly recommend anyone to rent any of Dondi’s properties!!

Rent: £600
Deposit Returned?: Yes