Horizon
To sum the whole experience up in 5 bullet points:
Rent: £325
Deposit Returned? Didn’t have one
We decided to rent a house with CPS for our second year, a mistake. Aside from paying half rent over summer (2018) for a property we didn’t even have the keys for, all seemed ok…
Until we actually moved in, the kitchen was filthy, it took my housemate hours to clean it. At least my room came with a free gift, a pair of mouldy high heels at the back of the wardrobe!
After a few weeks living in the property, I noticed a thick layer of mould along the wall below the window sill. Around the same time, I started getting recurrent chest infections. Even after wiping it off, it came back after a few days. I contacted CPS who blamed me for the issue and reminded me of the ‘expensive dehumidifiers’ the landlord had purchased, out of the goodness of his heart! And told me to open a window.
Evidently these were measures we were already taking, two dehumidifiers don’t divide well between five tenants, and the fact that my room was on the first floor – particularly in autumn/winter, I obviously couldn’t keep the windows open 24/7.
Yet despite measures we took, the damp still accumulated every couple of days in huge amounts. I continued to email CPS, who maintained it was entirely my fault, and that it’s completely normal to wipe mould off a wall every few days, basic upkeep I suppose! I continued to have constant chest infections and even started coughing up blood from sleeping in a shithole every night. I spoke to my GP, who suggested the mould was likely contributing to it (I didn’t experience anything like it before I moved in).
Eventually (after emailing CPS consistently) I asked the council to send someone over to have a look, who advised the window needed to be resealed at the bottom, and the breeze of cold, damp air entering the room didn’t help. At this point we managed to get in contact with the landlord directly, who was happy to get it resealed quickly and take other measures to resolve it – funny, he didn’t seem to be aware of the issues that had been occurring, it seems CPS wasn’t even doing the bare minimum of letting him know of our concerns.
However, my personal favorite experience of CPS, was getting a knock on my bedroom door in the morning, followed by someone trying to open it (followed by 5 random students doing a viewing), as I lay naked in my bed, trying to get some rest after a night shift. When I told them to ‘fuck off’, the agent got a bit shitty, I suppose it is out of order denying strangers access to my bedroom and a view of my tits. Fortunately, CPS had graced us with a text message notice, 20 minutes before they arrived, clearly I was in the wrong for not hearing my phone go off whilst sleeping off my shift.
[This is completely out of order, 24 hours notice must be given and you have the right to refuse entry. ]
They also knocked on the bathroom door when I was doing a shit once, again without notice. I’m not sure how their potential tenants felt viewing the bathroom, as the scent of my feces, mixed with the Febreeze I attempted to cover it with, wafted towards them.
When we questioned this and the whole 24-hour notice rule, they told us they would give us notice every single morning otherwise, how thoughtful of them.
(Photos attached are after the 2 weeks I was home for Christmas, clearly I should have kept the dehumidifiers on, the window open, and returned every couple of days to wipe the walls down)
Rent: £325
Deposit returned?: Yes
Olivia Louise Ltd acted as landlord on behalf of Ruth Collishaw that owned the property. When I had to leave my job because of battling a stage 4 disease I fell behind on rent. I was then sent a section 21 notice that expired 30th June 2020. During COVID 19 restrictions and lockdown I decided to stay with my mother to help with my care and decided when I came out of the hospital that I would get removal vans to vacate the property. I planned to do this by the section 21 notice date given which was signed by both Olivia Louise Ltd & Ruth Collishaw.
When I arrived at the property the locks had been changed. My whole life including possessions of my deceased brother that I will never ever get back or replace which are priceless were gone!! My huge £2,000 corner sofa, my 50” TVs, money, family photographs, my clothes, shoes, ornaments you name it! I did not vacate or surrender my tenancy before the notice due date. Therefore the landlord or the estate agent had NO RIGHT to enter the property without my say so or unless it was an emergency.
When addressing this to Olivia Louise Ltd they claimed to not have anything to do with it or have any knowledge of it. They blamed the landlord taking the law into her own hands. When the police got involved and I recorded the call, Olivia Louise Ltd states the landlord called them and told them they had been into my flat and removed goods. They told her she should not have and the landlord gave them new keys after the locks were changed? Now I’m sorry but as an acting landlord, they are supposed to contact ME if they feel the property is in any form of danger. They need to contact the police if I do not respond to gain entry as I am still the lawful tenant by contract and notice! THEY DID NONE OF THIS! Why did they not contact me the day the landlord had entered illegally? Knowing the landlord was not licensed via RSW to do so?
Today I have been told that the landlord has stated they entered the property because they could smell rotting food that was in a food bin? INCORRECT! There was no bin left inside the flat before I went to stay with my mother. So you can smell rotting food from inside a fridge, outside the kitchen, down the hallway, down the stairs that turn to the left and go down again and out the front door? I think the fuck not!! I have evidence of everything I left inside the flat that belonged to me which was my whole entire life basically.
Olivia Louise Ltd state that the landlord left my property with Taff Housing, where I used to work before my illness got worse? LIES AGAIN!! The whole company has been on furlough and nobody that has been present has seen the landlord or corresponded with Olivia Louise Ltd or the landlord in regards to my property!! So now this is theft and handling of stolen goods matter! The police advised I would have to take them to a civil court and I shall do, and I shall win!! They have gone against the government guidelines during the COVID 19 pandemic and before the section 21 notice ended without my permission. Entered the property where I was still the legal tenant, changed the locks, stole all my property, Lied about where my property is and how it was left and all without ANY PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE OR EMAIL CORRESPONDENCE TO BACK UP THEIR CLAIMS!! I was also told a notice was stuck to my door to collect my belongings within 14 days, INCORRECT! as neighbour’s and family that passed the property stated was never there, and also would not have been possible during current lockdown restrictions of over a 5-mile radius and before that not allowing anybody to leave their homes unless for work or essentials. A notice to collect would have only been able to have been placed if after the notice ended I did not collect my belongings from the property. I DO NOT RECOMMEND OLIVIA LOUISE LTD, CANTON AND I DO NOT RECOMMEND RUTH COLLISHAW! These people are highly unprofessional, dodgy, and will see me in court!
Rent: 500
Deposit returned?: Didn’t have one
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’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
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
When I lived at 44 Diana street, I had a terrible time with the agency from the very moment they decided to put the house on sale. Now the agency had corresponded with every single tenant in this house up until that point when it suddenly became a problem to give notice for viewings. The first time, they had turned up unannounced but told me they had corresponded with my one housemate so I let them in to view. Only to find out that there was no previous correspondence to anyone in the house myself included, so they literally just turned up claiming false information. We tried to look through our emails and texts and there was nothing. [Editors note: what Jeffrey Ross did here is illegal, 24h notice must be given!]
The second time this happened, I was naked in bed, depressed, feeling like absolute shit from the night before where I had a breakdown and destroyed my belongings. A woman comes into my room straight after knocking (not waiting for the hello) and catches me with my boob out. She instantly closed the door and asked me if I had not had notice. I said no. She replied with “well don’t you and your housemates communicate?”.. I said that it was their job and that we all work and have lives and do not see a lot of each other. We later found out that there was no correspondence again. I rang the agency the third time when this happened and asked them what was going on, and they made out like I was the problem!! “Well we can’t keep rearranging the viewings” she said. Even though it was literally down to THEIR job to give US THE NOTICE.
Finally, they refused to give our deposit back because of the “state of the oven” which we had CLEANED to look BETTER SINCE MOVING IN, so I got up every single screenshot and apology email that I had from the agents where I had complained about them walking into my house unannounced and had to threaten to take this further. Needless to say I got the deposit back. But 0/10 for Jeffrey Ross and their entitled attitude towards tenants.
Rent: £180
Deposit Returned?: Yes
We were delayed moving in until the end of September as the property had been sub-let to another party over summer – despite us paying a summer retainer (so we couldn’t even store our things over summer). His official excuse was that there was work being done at the house or something but there wasn’t any work done whatsoever.
At the start of lockdown an email was received from landlord via his agent that assumed we were going home during the lockdown that we were to turn in our keys for the property and move our things out, but to CONTINUE PAYING THE RENT?
So none of us went home and we informed him of this fact. He then turned up at the house and LET HIMSELF IN to check if we were still there! (aka to check if we were lying in our email.) This whole thing I can only assume was an attempt to yet again sublet any properties that were left vacant for the end of their tenancies despite the tenants still paying FULL RENT. We were also perplexed at why there were none of the usual household items (e.g. toaster, kettle, hoover, iron, mop, etc.) and we inquired about this, the response was along the lines of “we stopped providing these items to tenants after one group clogged a vacuum cleaner with a sock, the property was ‘let as seen’, even though we had seen these things when viewing the property and they were not the belongings of the previous tenants and that they were going to carry out an inspection in the next week BECAUSE we didn’t have these items and therefore they expected to find something out of place?
Some quick fire points about CPS:
Rent: ?
Deposit Returned?: Still living at the hole in question
