George Popadopolous in Guildford

Very responsive and benevolent landlord, it was nice to deal with him. He leads this business for a very long time, so he has very great experience and will solve any of your request or problem. I recommend!

George has always been very friendly, available and helpful with us. I can rely on him for any kind of problem and we became sort of friends. He even made me gifts, including a new pair of boots for gardening or a mini-hoover. Whenever something breaks in the house he comes and repairs it (he is very good at fixing stuff).

I have heard many people talk bad about him. In my view, if you are nice to him and respect the property - keeping it clean and using items appropriately - you will not have problems and, on the contrary, he will help you a lot as he's doing with us.

When enquiring about the property, the landlord came across as a friendly and helpful person, he contacted my advert about having properties available and even called me up to arrange a viewing. My first impression was the place wasn't spectacular, but on my time frame and need to sort a place out, I trusted the landlord had good intentions and was a genuine good person, my personal tutor also recommended me George as a good landlord. This was completely false. I describe the landlord as disingenuous, vindictive and dishonest. Firstly, he informed all the tenants who lived in the house during my stay, before we took the room that he would come to the property only to collect tools from his shed and to do the garden in the summer, however the landlord gets a lot of packages and letters sent to the property usually these are arriving every day at the property, in doing this he would come into the house unannounced to collect his packages and letters, which adds stress to the tenants as the landlord is constantly invading our personal space. If anything breaks due to wear and tear the landlord will make up a reason why the tenants broke it and demands tenants pay to replace the items. The landlord accused me and the other tenants of removing the wave guide cover from the microwave (silver lining as referred to by the landlord) and told the lead tenant that we were required to buy him a new microwave. At the viewing I asked the landlord where I could store my bike and he informed me and my parents, that I could store my bike out in the back garden, but after moving in the landlord repeatedly messaged me that we did not agree such thing and that my bike had to be moved to the front of the house and be left tied to the lamppost on the road side, where it could be stolen and the insurance would not cover it. The landlord also, sent us a text that the replaced microwave provided by a tenant and the kettle which was also owned by another tenant, were to be left in the house for the next tenants as these items were brought for the house, even though the tenants did not agree this with the landlord. The landlord evicted a tenant due to an argument they had, the landlord did not inform any other tenants that this tenant had moved out, then he started harassing me over text message about setting up a new energy bill and proceeded to belittle me, when I informed him of my progress. I found it very annoying that he did not provide me with a gas box key when asked, such that I could take my own readings, meaning I had to rely on him to take readings. He was a bit hit and miss when it came to repairs, he usually would sort out repair requests in about half a week. But, it took him months to sort out the leaking tap in the bathroom, in which he closed off the hot water tap, which meant tenants had to use the hot water tap in the kitchen. He was very bad at communication and would often forget who manages the bills and who was assigned to clean which area in our cleaning rota, which he set. We had a group chat in which the landlord and tenants could discuss problems, but often the landlord would opt to message tenants individually on problem, which could concern the rest of the tenants. The rent is fairly expensive for the quality of the house and I was in the cheapest room. His excel tenant assessment rental form, which also serves as a contract is poorly written, contains unreasonable clauses and is not signed by the tenant or the landlord, meaning the tenants are not legally bound to the contract but, the landlord will use this spreadsheet to try and take advantage of the tenants to try and gain from them. He threatened one tenant to pay for the whole professional cleaning of the house as stated in his “contract”, but this was not stated in any of the other tenants “contract”. Overall, my opinion is that the landlord really does not care about his tenants and he will try to bully, intimidate and harass the tenants and is willing to let the property fall apart and never renovate it.

The landlord appears very friendly at first however this soon changes once you become a resident. He will come to the house without notice using his own keys to enter the property and bedrooms without authorisation. He is also quite manipulative and asks that tenants spy on each other and report back to him. He increased the rent for two tenants despite having and agreed set term, when they did not comply he asked them to leave. The contract for tenancy is poor which is not signed by either party therefore not binding however the landlord will claim it is when it is to his benefit.
The property is very old and tired therefore breakages occurred due to wear and tear however the landlord accused tenants of breaking items, which he repaired at the lowest cost hence why breakages occur.
On leaving the landlord was attempting to bring in another tenant whilst another was still paying for the room which would give him double rent. The rent is pricey for the quality of the house which is of a poor standard. When attempting to leave the property due to all of the above issues the landlord refused to provide reference as he was not informed that the tenant wished to leave (for obvious reasons) so he therefore threatened on the spot eviction which is not legal. He also then requested that the tenant should advertise and arrange viewings for the room to repay him for the tenant leaving early which was not in the contract and the landlord was the one to terminate the tenancy on the grounds that the tenant wanted to leave although now had nowhere to go as he had refused referencing for the estate agent the tenant hoped to move with.
The landlord was very unreliable throughout, he turned up 1 hour late to my initial viewing - I had to phone him to remind him of it. On the day of key collection again he was late and had to be prompted with a phone call. He arranged meetings with the tenants that he then does not attend himself. Overall this landlord is extremely unreliable, dishonest and exploitive.