Tenancy review for 1 Horwood Close in Headington, Oxford rented from Oliver Brocklehurst

Landlord rating: 1

Oliver Brocklehurst is the probably one of the worst landlords in the UK. Definitely the worst landlord I've had. To start off, he has no boundaries. The first time I met him in person he was drunk. Like I mentioned about in the condition of the property, his response to it all was appalling. Theres also the matter of him just showing up when he felt like it. Just surprise visits without informing us within 24 hours, if he ever did it was usually just the night before. Without informing a single tenant, he would do gardening (like remove the leaves in February when they hadn't finished falling and charge us £30 and hour for it), go into rooms without permission, and at one point he cleared the leaves out of my balcony without informing me. The only reason he was meant to be in my room was to check that the light switch next to the door was working, but he decided to stay in my room for an hour and violate my personal space. The audacity in unparalleled. He has violated many clauses of the contract as well as legal requirements as a landlord.

There are 2 hoovers in that house. One of which didn't have the extender attachment, but was using the other ones instead, leaving one headless. Oliver proceeded to accuse us of stealing it or losing it, and charged us for a hoover attachment that never existed, at least not in the last 10 years. Absolutely bonkers scammary from him.

He charged me £90 for painting my room, where I had chipped off a small amount of paint on one wall. Easily fixable, but he decided to paint every wall and charge me for the many many marks on them that were there long before I got there. There was smoke on the wall from where a previous tenant had burned it, and obviously he blamed me for that too :) I'm certain he had a personal vendetta against me, because I didn't entertain his creepy behaviour. He would ask incredibly invasive questions like asking about our relationship status, if we were lonely in Oxford, and tell us about his girlfriends he had back in the day. And then there was an incident where he barged into my room without knocking, twice. Right before I moved out he was doing viewings, and he had come about 1 hour earlier than he said he would and I was in the toilet, which is right next to the entry door. I was still in the bathroom trying to avoid him, when I hear footsteps. I prayed he wouldn't, but of course he did. The lock on the bathroom door was a door latch, and he pulled that door so hard it came off the latch and opened. He didn't do it on purpose, but the fact that he didn't mind that anybody could be there is mind boggling. The door was closed, locked and the fan was on. You would think he would knock? No he comes and goes as if he lives in the house anyway, so he doesn't consider the tenants existence anyway, why would he think?

Property rating: 3

The house and my room looked fine in the videos he sent. The decor was old, it was advertised as a double room but had a single bed, but overall it was nice room and I rented it. After moving in, I quickly noticed black mould in the shower upstairs. I believe I told Oliver about this at least 5 times, for him to come to the house on multiple occasions and not do a thing. Towards the end of my tenancy, he had the audacity to claim that he had actually re-grouted it and that I was crazy for accusing him of not. He tried to gaslight me into believing him over what I see on a daily basis. Over the span of the 1.5 years I lived there, our boiler broke in the middle of winter and it took Oliver 1 week to get it fixed. He didn't fail to shock me again by accusing the tenants of 'playing around with it and breaking it'. Lunacy. In autumn, we experienced the flooding of the kitchen counter because of a leak in the upstairs rooms window, then leaking through the floor and down the kitchen ceiling. This took a good few months for him to bother to fix, always mentioning the price to us as if to impress us?

The stove doesn't have an extractor fan over it, so you need to cook with the door open at all times, and say hi to the rats that run by. One stovetop wasn't working out of 4, in a 5 bed house. Cooking at the same time was never an option. This was also never fixed after asking multiple times. The couches are 18 years old, and they probably weren't very good quality in the first place.

I liked my room a lot as it was quite big, and bright thanks to the balcony and large windows. The people living there are wonderful.

Area rating: 7

I could write even more about how bad of a landlord Oliver Brocklehurst was and am sure still is, but to end the review on a positive note, the area of the neighbourhood is wonderful. It is in the perfect location for healthcare workers, and the local amenities are great. Right across a bus stop as well. If you're going to rent a room, do it from another landlord in Horwood Close.