Flat 6 Highbridge Court, New Cross, London, SE14 5EB

On first inspection, the property appeared nice, clean and in good working order. It was not until we had our first check-in that litany of issues with the apartment became apparent. Most of the light fixtures did not work, the taps were non-functioning, the toilet was blocked, the heating did not work, the fridge and oven were broken, the storage spaces were filled with junk (mostly broken furniture, building materials and old, Urdu-language VHS tapes!), the electricity was on a key-meter and this had not been topped up (meaning the inspection was done in the dark), the locks were broken on the front door, several electricity sockets were non-functioning, even the furniture that was provided was dirty and damaged, but had been cleverly presented in a way that meant this was not obvious until closer inspection. As we had moved down from Manchester to move into this property we had arrived late on a Saturday afternoon and the letting agents, Winkworth New Cross, were finishing for the day by this point. When I called them and told them about all of these issues they were reluctant to do anything until Monday morning and it took a significant amount of arguing to get them to agree to send out an emergency repairman (I believe it was when I pointed out that I would not be able to go to the bathroom that they finally acquiesced). To top it all off, after the first night we awoke completely covered in bed-bug bites!