Tenancy review for 26 Stapleton Street in Claremont, Salford rented from Natalie Rowland

Landlord rating: 1

Where do I begin? Natalie seemed decent before I moved in, seemed friendly and welcoming. Upon moving in had problem transferring over to benefits after leaving work due to illness. Kept Natalie in the loop all the way through, apologised profusely and felt really guilty. This is not what you want moving into a new property only to be left to pick up the pieces after coming out of work and being entitled to zilch from the welfare system. Thankfully things resolved after a few months. By then Natalie was throwing wild and insulting accusations around about me, both to neighbours and other tenants which I took as a deliberate defamation of character. Was it due to the situation with the benefits? Was I too nice? Did she think I was a pushover? I still don't know to this day but regardless it was unwarranted and made me uncomfortable. It got to the point where I sent her a formal letter upon advice from a solicitor but the threats and attacks continued. Natalie attempted to have me arrested, deliberately tried to make a scene and have the whole street come out and watch in order to further humiliate me. It dawned on me this woman is not stable. Due to the fact I had spent my severance pay on moving out of a previous property I was struggling to formulate a way in which I could ensure the rent was being paid but I also could save up to move out. This was only after 2-3 months of being here. I should have known earlier as soon as I moved in the line went dead, she wouldn't reply to messages regarding repairs, keeping in contact regarding my rent situation, problems with other tenants etc. Sporadically I would receive nasty messages back which had nothing to do with my original messages. She also kept mentioning about a homeless man who lived in this room prior to me and it began to irritate me as I really didn't want to know about past tenants as it had nothing to do with me, just wanted a peaceful tenancy. Was she trying to pigeonhole me? Felt at times she was comparing me - I had never met the man and could possibly have no clue how he acted or whether I reminded her of him in me - that's how bizarre it was - felt like she was comparing me to someone she clearly didn't get along with. Who knows. Again, Natalie is evidently a very manipulative and unstable landlord. It's evident her tactics for renting is bullying her tenants while also trying to manipulate them into feeling powerless. I had heard about past experiences from other ex tenants but unfortunately only after I moved in, who said she had attempted to break the law several times in regards to signing illegitimate tenancy agreements as well as renting the property out while it was derelict and while not having the correct fire regulations established. Shows her lack of regard for her tenants. At one point she brought two burly men to intimidate me who later tried to kick the door through while I was pushing the door back preventing them from breaking in. I rang the police and reported the incident, another incident, another situation provoked by Natalie. Again, completely unjustified. It didn't take long before every tenant had moved out, fortunate to be in work they could move out, staying among their reasons were the unstable behaviour of Natalie and the situations she had put them in, for no viable reason whatsoever. She attempted to falsify charges by the police (nonexistent) in order to accelerate repossession as it became clear to her that I wasn't going to be bullied and harassed, I'm in the process of going through the legal proceedings as I write this. The neighbours are sick of the landlord causing trouble on the street and have been witness to numerous tenancies over the years, none that have ended well and all which have involved similiar situations. This you would/will find out for yourself if you ever find yourself living here. Overall the landlord is volatile abusive manipulative and mentally unstable, has a history of breaking the law and disregarding the safety and wellbeing of the tenants living in her properties. She fails to keep the house to a decent standard while hiring rogue handymen. Was swindled out of my deposit which I thought I was complicit in as a gesture to pay rent, later found out that my deposit cannot be used to clear the arrears unless it has been agreed and formalised in court. I wanted my deposit back but felt compelled to comply with the landlord. She served me with an illegal eviction notice which amounted to an illegal eviction while using the police to threaten me if I returned despite genuinely not doing anything wrong to warrant such a response. To keep the peace I kept out of the way for a week which cost me a lot of money, money I couldn't afford due to my current situation. In all fairness, a big aspect of things going wrong were down to the failing of universal credit supporting me through a transitory period. Despite this, the landlord went on a rampage to find any excuse and any storyline to demonise me and punish me. I was hoping for better things here as this place could be great if only the landlord was not the current landlord!

Property rating: 2

The house had not long since been declared derelict with Salford Council. The consequences of the landlord breaking the law resulted in a hefty fine or barring from renting properties in the area. The landlord didn't report her letting out rooms in an otherwise legally declared derelict building for a long time before the council found out. The attempt to reconcile with this hasn't made much difference. The house still stands, which is a plus I guess. Having said that you will find damp around the house ie paint flaking off damp ridden walls, downstairs bathroom roof, upstairs bathroom roof, living room by the fireplace and behind the fridge freezer. The repairs are done by a man who carelessly rips electrical equipment out of plug sockets, breaking things and then having the cheek to lie to you to your face knowing your stuff wasn't broken before he came about. Also failed to do proper electrical tests on all the kitchen equipment resulting in me putting them away in the cupboard to save potential health hazards. Backyard is a tip and covered in moss from years of neglect. I spent countless hours gutting the downstairs bathroom after it was evident it had been used as a storage space for the landlord and graveyard for potentially years worth of tenants leaving toiletries around, floor was slimey and caked in grease and mould. Was damp all around the bathroom, walls were pretty much black. Not enough space for 2 people to live in this house let alone 4 to cook, clean, store food, socialise. Mattresses are broken and ancient with dips in all of them from countless usage over the years without replacement. One mattress upstairs caused a tenant to come up with rashes from bite marks from bugs, was told to simply put a mattress protector over it, wasn't replaced. Safe to say the tenant wasn't happy about it. Broken wardrobes, cupboards, ancient cutlery provided and cups with stains and God knows what else. Stains on carpets in most rooms. Door locks fall off regularly and are hard to put on being awkward combination locks and no instructions given to change the combination lock upon moving in, which is a bit of a privacy concern. Less important but crucial component for most people today - Internet is dire here and the landlord regularly comes to take the router out of the house if you don't accept her excuses for not getting the line fixed. I'm sitting here writing this using my own data on my phone due to the fact that she took it out in a spiteful vengeful reply to my complaining about the neighbours pilfering it, the box always messing up and the speeds being atrocious. Apparently there is a cleaner that comes but the age old ploy "She's on holiday!" or "I wonder why she hasn't turned up, she's usually there every week. I'll ring her and let you know" always crops up. And no, she doesn't let you know despite you paying for cleaning in the tenancy agreement. There's no insulation from the neighbours on the right side, I'm pretty sure they can hear me breathing let alone talking or doing my thing, and I can definetly hear their television even though it's evidently on a normal volume so that doesn't feel too good knowing the walls are paper thin. The front door is protected by a crappy old Yale lock that with a slight push would caffle in on whoever tries to get in, no alternative and the normal old fashioned key lock is "off limits" to tenants for whatever reason. Shower upstairs trickles water, downstairs one better. The roof is slowly caving in upstairs, hasn't been fixed. Some of the upstairs rooms absolutely stink and I had to vent the downstairs room out when I moved in. Numerous electrical trips while being here so not sure whether water is leaking in onto the mains but there's been an electrician in, the same cowboy who broke my phone charger and then lied to me about it, whose apparently fixed it. That being said, some of the kitchen appliances don't work now. No response from landlord. Poor quality all round and absolutely chance of getting things resolved.

Area rating: 7

Friendly neighbours, community feel, band together and will support you. Had chats with many people on this street and no problem with anyone whatsoever. Shop directly across the road so that's really convenient as well as a nice park just down the road. Well connected area with buses so often its impossible not to see one driving past. Connections also to the motorway and out of Manchester due to location.