Tenant 1

Firstly we were hurried into signing the tenancy agreement 24 hours after being given it, I then emailed the agency that we had found the property through and asked if the property would be cleaned and made safe before we move in, I was told it would. When we arrived months later the property hadn’t been cleaned for what looked like years, my mum was disgusted. The sofa had a huge rip in it, two chairs provided broke when first sat upon, curtains in all rooms looked as if they had been tye dyed with muddy water. Think thick layers of cob webs coated in dust behind radiators / in the vents in the bedrooms and slug trails ALL over the kitchen and living room floor. We asked the landlord repeatedly to sort this problem and to this day it hasn’t been resloved (10 months into the tenancy). After a month into the tenancy the living room wall began to leak water, not just slight damp, like actually drip with water. The plaster started to peel off due to the water coming through, I emailed the landlord multiple times explaining the situation. He sent a ‘handyman’ around who then proceeded to be extremely intimidating and told me that ‘these things happen in old houses what is the problem you’re only going to be here for a year we don’t see why you care’ after explaining it was the landlords legal duty to fix issues and I was unaware of anyone who would appreciate an indoor leak in their home he asked cockily ‘well what do you want me to do’ he left without fixing the issue. The landlord then sent a painter to plaster and paint over the water damaged plaster to temporarily cover it up (it was evident by the look of the wall this had been done before too). I continued to email him stating it was still leaking and he replied rather patronisingly with emails following the lines of ‘I’m sorry you feel like the walls still leaking” I then sent him video evidence of it leaking still and he failed to respond. He also arranged viewings and didn’t give us notice or on other occasions less than 24 hours as stated in the tenancy agreement, these came t about 3 viewings every 7 days in the first few months of the tenancy I emailed asking for him to be a bit more considerate and stick to the guidelines in the tenancy agreement to which I got a response that ‘it will continue this way as I have for 25 years’. Now that the Covid-19 pandemic has arrived I lost my job and it has made it impossible to live there and still afford to eat so I moved home before the lockdown was introduced. I explained my situation to David to which I expected a bit of leniency, perhaps a rent reduction since I would not be living at the property anymore? However I was met with an extremely unsympathetic and inflexible email that the three months rent is still due and I should use my whole student loan and then ask my guarantor (who has been financially impacted by Coronavirus) to pay the excess remaining. This landlord owns 25 other student properties in Bristol so could have taken a small financial hit surely. A really horrific landlord. I really do not recommend renting from him.