Tenancy review for 10 Exbury Place in St Peters Parish, Worcester rented from David Cox

Landlord rating: 1

Landlord awful! Landlord uses letting agents to promote the property and credit check tenants then 'manages' the property himself, and just doesn't understand his obligations.
- Left without heating in winter due to disrepair
- Garden/side access was broken into by next door which he doesn't care about, leaving the side and rear of the house insecure!
- Garden shed had a lawnmower and equipment in when it was marketed and in inventory and photos - which was removed before I moved in despite it being on inventory
- Landlord comes to property without notice regularly yet doesn't perform inspections
- You have to pester for any repairs, left without heating while it was well below freezing in depths of freezing winter temperatures while acutely unwell
- Expect to be pestered and harassed by landlord about any petty matter, and not helpful with disrepair, left without heating in depth of winter for days due to repeated freezing of condensate pipe in roof space freezing despite heating running near constantly in below freezing temperatures.
- Don't expect complaints to landlord to be dealt with, he merely issues retaliatory evictions instead, yet clearly cannot find fault as issues Section 21 no fault notice as doesn't have any real grounds
- Landlord removes items such as lawnmower and garden maintenance equipment from the shed between marketing and viewing the property and moving in.
- Misrepresented the access to the garden when marketing the property

Property rating: 3

Property does have fairly large rooms, except the single bedroom that can barely contain a bed let alone other furniture - its really a study or store room yet marketed as three bedroom. Kitchen is fairly shabby and poor quality kitchen installation leaving cupboards that catch on the cabinet risking damaging them if used so lost storage space.
Insulation is poor so extremely hot in summer and freezing in winter with very high gas bills, the boiler condensate pipe runs through roof void and due to poor insulation regularly freezes leaving you with no heating!
The side access is contested, so you may have no access to the rear of the house to access the garden without traipsing through the house. Land registry clearly shows it belongs to the property, and only leads to the rear of the house with a gate into the property yet no access into next door yet landlord insists on it being left insecure leaving you at risk of burglary with an insurance claim unlikely to succeed as it isn't locked and the recent burglary left it insecure.
Gate and access misrepresented as belonging to the property and is listed as belonging to the property on land registry yet landlord claims it isnt.
Constant delays on move in day.
Cheap poor quality paint job on walls and other than lounge, the carpet is very old and worn with flattened pile.
Boiler is noisy and close to master bedroom so expect to be kept awake at night in winter.
Huge heating bills due to poor insulation.
No timer for the boiler though there is a thermostat in the hall which is usually cooler so the heating just runs and runs and runs with huge bills!

Area rating: 2

Next door is a nightmare neighbour, fitted a new toilet with the soil vent pipe right opposite my lounge window so when I open it I get the smell of raw human sewage! They also break in to the side passage cutting the lock off the gate which the landlord wont assist with! Regular loud noise from next door which ive had to escalate to the council noise nuisance team. Additionally they park their cars regularly in front of my drive blocking me and visitors in!
The location is fairly good with reasonable access to motorway, and a very close by Tesco but need a car to get to town or other shops.
It does suffer with loud traffic noise, especially rush hour, and can hear motorway traffic at times at night and noise from the nearby Tesco including trucks late at night. Traffic noise makes the garden a noisy instead of peaceful place! There is a care home for people with learning disabilities opposite that you hear shouts and screaming from at all hours. Anti social neighbour next door, building work covered my car in dust and building debris, neither neighbour nor landlord could care less.