Tenancy review for 69 Rough Common Road in Blean Forest, Canterbury rented from Derrick Charlesworth

Landlord rating: 1

Derek was truly unbearable. Our first contact was when I was locked out of my room (we had a keypad with a code but the code was wrong) there was no rush on dereks end to resolve it - I can’t stress enough that I literally couldn’t get into my room. He sent his ‘handy man’ - also incredibly rude and said I was looked out of my room because I was female and from Essex. He did not fix the door properly and the next day I was locked out AGAIN. We had a problem with mice - not to do with us as we did not keep food in the cupboards. Again, no rush on dereks end. It took a tenants parent who works for the NHS sending him a document about the risks of mice for him to send someone in. The fence fell down when the weather was extremely bad, and nothing was done about this at any point. Someone could have literally walked into our garden.
Getting our deposit back was hell. The agent originally proposed many things that needed fixing which were faulty before we moved in. They claimed we hadn’t cleaned (despite the invoice from the cleaner) and tried to get money for pretty much everything. Luckily we had lots of evidence (please remember to take pictures when you first move in of any problems!) and only paid for the things that we had done e.g chipped paint from having pictures up.
Derek was unkind, sexist, lazy and rude. We are extremely happy that we only decided to stay for one year. I would not recommend his service to anyone.

Property rating: 2

Property was in OK condition. Not tidy when we moved in (despite there being such a huge emphasis on the end of tenancy clean) very much needed going over. Horrible smell when we moved in.

Area rating: 9

Lovely area near blean woods. Slightly difficult neighbours behind the house but after speaking things through they were ok.