Landlord reviews for
Acebarn Ltd in Bangor
Average Landlord Rating: 1
★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Number of times reviewed: 1
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Acebarn Ltd, Bangor
Reviewed 18 November 2019
★☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
The good is that the landlord keeps things clean. And she gives updates on when she is around.
1. If you get locked out the property in the evening say 6pm the landlord will not come to let you in till the following day. One of my friends got locked out and had too sleep in the library because the landlord refused to come back and let her in after telling her to stay with a friend.
I also got locked out around 6 and I messaged the landlord that evening she did not respond till the morning. I had to sleep ruff.
2. The landlord falsely advertised the property to be 360 per month and when I signed the contract it was 390per month. When told it was advertised at a different price she just said there are 52 weeks in a year so rent is calculated by how many weeks there are in a year rather than how many weeks there are in a month.
She then gave me the option to pay weekly. However, everytime I paid weekly and there was only 4 weeks in a month she would email me saying I had not paid the full rent which is 390.
3. There are people doing drugs on the property and the landlord is aware. It was quite unpleasant because of the antisocial hours and the noise, prowling, external fire exit and doors being left open, it just is not safe. In the contract the use of drugs on the property equals termination.
However, when confronted the landlord refused to enforce termination because the people using the drugs paid her higher rent and it was not something she wants to do.
4. I then moved to a smaller room where the rent is 303per month. The landlord refused to charge me the lower rate. So I am currently paying £390 per month for a smaller room.
5. There is literally no repairs that take place. She says that she is going to get stuff fixed but does not do it. Hence, nearly every hob broken.
1. If you get locked out the property in the evening say 6pm the landlord will not come to let you in till the following day. One of my friends got locked out and had too sleep in the library because the landlord refused to come back and let her in after telling her to stay with a friend.
I also got locked out around 6 and I messaged the landlord that evening she did not respond till the morning. I had to sleep ruff.
2. The landlord falsely advertised the property to be 360 per month and when I signed the contract it was 390per month. When told it was advertised at a different price she just said there are 52 weeks in a year so rent is calculated by how many weeks there are in a year rather than how many weeks there are in a month.
She then gave me the option to pay weekly. However, everytime I paid weekly and there was only 4 weeks in a month she would email me saying I had not paid the full rent which is 390.
3. There are people doing drugs on the property and the landlord is aware. It was quite unpleasant because of the antisocial hours and the noise, prowling, external fire exit and doors being left open, it just is not safe. In the contract the use of drugs on the property equals termination.
However, when confronted the landlord refused to enforce termination because the people using the drugs paid her higher rent and it was not something she wants to do.
4. I then moved to a smaller room where the rent is 303per month. The landlord refused to charge me the lower rate. So I am currently paying £390 per month for a smaller room.
5. There is literally no repairs that take place. She says that she is going to get stuff fixed but does not do it. Hence, nearly every hob broken.
12 May 2020
Acebarn Ltd replied:
Further to this review, whilst we are grateful that the reviewer considers our property to be clean and our communication good, we would like to address the other points as follows;
Regarding lockouts, we would never knowingly leave somebody who's locked out of their room in the evening to sleep rough overnight. We recall the first incident mentioned, where one of the housemates was locked out of their room very late at night and chose to spend the night in the library, unbeknownst to us. We did indeed suggest in the first instance that she might contact a friend and stay with them until the morning, since for various reasons it was going to be difficult for us to get to her on that occasion. She subsequently sent a message back to say she would do that and we didn't hear anything more, so it wasn't until the following morning that we found out where she'd spent the night... Our tenants all have the manager’s phone number, as well as that of the property owner and we are contactable 24/7. People can leave a voicemail/text message if we don't answer straightaway and we will always get back to them asap, especially if it's a welfare matter or an emergency.
All of our property advertisements show a 'per week' rental amount charged for each room. Our tenancy agreements show this amount, as well as the 'per calendar month' amount and if anybody is unsure of how we got to this figure it is explained well in advance of anybody signing for a room and is certainly not meant to be ambiguous. It's also fine for people to pay weekly if that’s preferable - we only ask that this be agreed in advance so we know how much money to expect and when, in order to avoid chasing rent that may not be due yet.
Sometimes we do get reports of people smoking marijuana on the premises (naturally a breach of tenancy) and we always address these reports immediately, both verbally and in writing. This generally prevents a reoccurrence and but we do ask that the person who reported the incident to let us know if the problem continues so that we can follow it up again if necessary. As with any breach of tenancy (drug use/noise nuisance/anti-social behaviour/damage to property, etc.) we take these matters very seriously, but that said we always prefer to do our best to solve problems without the need to evict somebody. It is also necessary for us to be able to prove breaches of tenancy, which is not always possible – we are not in the practise of evicting tenants based on the unproven allegations of others. To state that we're happy to turn a blind eye to a tenant's problem behaviour as long as we're receiving their rent money is untrue.
The matter regarding the rent due when the reviewer moved from a one room to another was a simple misunderstanding and was clarified immediately. A new tenancy agreement was issued when the room change occurred with the new, lower rental amount clearly stated. This was duly signed and the rent adjustment has been in place ever since.
Repairs and maintenance are always ongoing in a property which houses so many people, as it does suffer a good deal of wear and tear! If we notice something is broken during our visits we'll get it repaired, but we mainly rely on problems being reported to us by tenants and once we do know of any issues we aim to get them resolved asap. We only use trusted trades people, employ a full time maintenance person and between us we do our very best to keep things working and maintained. Some maintenance jobs which are a matter of aesthetics, as opposed to being of a structural nature might sometimes be put off until the summer break to save on disruption to tenants, but urgent things like problems with plumbing/electrics or the repair of white goods won't be left outstanding unless there is a very good reason. Cooker hobs being out of order is often a problem because someone has left their pan to boil over. This usually resolves itself within a day or so once the hob has dried out, but we have started putting in glass hobs to prevent this problem.
And to provide reassurance on the matter of fire safety mentioned in the other review posted here for Mount House (which we are unable to post a comment against) it is standard practice for the detectors in kitchens to be for heat detection, whilst the detectors fitted in adjacent rooms and hallways are for smoke detection, for additional protection and early warning. Additionally, this property was inspected by the North Wales Fire Service in 2018 and we had a professional fire risk assessment carried out in 2019, to be reviewed each year. We have augmented our fire exit signage and our fire detection/alarm system is tested and maintained by professionals in accordance with legal requirements. Additionally, the fire alarm system is tested on a weekly basis by the building manager.
