Tag: student rent

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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

Condor Properties

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.

  • A picture containing indoor, cluttered, items, messy
  • A picture containing wall, indoor, floor, furniture. Dininga table and messy living room
  • A room with a table and chair, slightly messy, beer vottles every where

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

Condor Properties

I didn’t think we had Condors in Cardiff, let alone one so wonderful!

It’s my 3rd year living with Condor properties, and they’ve always been great. There’s no deposit & no agency fees which is a bonus & never had to pay for any silly damage etc. when moving from one Condor property to another. The staff contacts & maintenance team are all really lovely & helpful and get broken stuff sorted really fast. Furniture all matches nicely and the houses are all refurbished to a good standard. Bills are included in the rent price, and we pay in a term chunk when student loan comes in. Honestly only positive things to say about them definitely recommend never had any problems.

Rent: £368
Deposit Returned?: Didn’t have one

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

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

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

CPS

Wish someone would pay me £40 for cleaning up my housemates coffee stains

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