Tenancy review for 15 Avondale Court in Newbridge, Bath rented from Enright Properties Bath

Landlord rating: 1

Throughout the tenancy, both of the landlords' conduct and communication towards us as tenants were completely poor and unacceptable. From breaking their end of the contract on several occasions to the insulting of tenants' mental health, their professionalism was next to nothing. Trying to contact these landlords is an impossible task in itself. They operate on a text-only basis, with no calls or emails whatsoever, even in a case of an emergency. In January, we had a severe leak from the bathroom's plumbing, which led to water cascading down our living room wall. This had been caused by black mould in the covered area under the bath due to poor maintenance over the course of several years. It took a day to contact our landlords and they did not properly rectify this, which caused the junction between the bath's paneling and the wall to disintegrate completely. We could not use the bath for two days until a builder could come and fix this as it was unsafe for us to do so.

On the move-in day, the landlords discussed with one tenant the fact that there have been sexual assaults and death in the properties, and almost seemed to brag about this. It is uncomfortable to know this information about a house you are renting for a year. When checking out, however, both landlords took the opportunity to be incredibly unprofessional and rude towards us tenants, with one of them screaming at his colleague to take our deposits for a slight dust build up in places that are hard or impossible to reach. Not only that, both landlords combed through the community bin shed to try and find “evidence” to legally claim our deposits. They, of course, didn’t find anything. When questioned, both landlords decided to either avoid the question completely, or argue with us, and our parents who were assisting with the move. They slammed doors in our faces, too. One landlord went up to a tenant and called them by the wrong name, realised they were wrong, so addressed this tenant as “or whatever”. When correcting him and advising that no matter whether a landlord likes or dislikes a tenant, it is professional to address them by the correct name, he decided to get defensive and muttered “whatever” under his breath. We spent an entire day deep cleaning the property, far better than the state in which we received it, and by the time the landlords arrived to collect the keys and return the deposits, that house was spotless. You could lick the floorboards. The first words out of their mouths were “this is disgusting” and complained how they would have to get a professional cleaner in. Both these landlords were trying to find a way to claim any of our deposits, even if those reasons were illegitimate. As they had no legal leg to stand on, we got our whole deposits back, but if their true colours hadn’t already been shown, they were when moving out.

These landlords completely disregard the trust that there should be in a professional relationship such as this, by giving keys to contractors without the prior notice or permission of the tenants, or arranging building work to occur. No matter the work being done, unless in a state of an emergency, landlords are legally obligated to provide twenty-four hour notice.

On several occasions, both landlords have harassed us tenants in regards to the early release of our deposits to take £100+ out for "cleaning charges", despite the contract not ending for another five months. This is an illegal request, and when we informed them of our rights as tenants, their conduct towards us worsened and we had to seek legal advice from a solicitor and Citizen's Advice multiple times. When stating laws to them, we received a harsh response from them stating that they "know the law". They indeed, do not.

In early March, our boiler completely broke, providing no heat nor hot water. When informed of this, both landlords effectively forced us to go a week without hot water as they "could not find an emergency plumber" despite it being under warranty with British Gas, which therefore makes it entitled to an emergency fix. We would like to note that, in November, a British Gas engineer came to service the boiler, where he advised us and our landlords that it needed replacing urgently due to its age and make. The landlords told us over text that "engineers like to exaggerate to reach a sales quota" and refused to do anything about it. It wasn't until the end of May that our boiler had been completely replaced. For two months our hot water would go for several days, and the plumbers that eventually were hired were from a company that the council had no trace of nor did they have a website, they also treated us in disgusting ways and smoked in our house. They were also not COVID compliant and screamed in one tenant's face when they asked them to put on a mask while inside the property. The landlords are aware that this is a vulnerable household. When discussing this with our landlords, they did not believe us, despite these plumbers causing a severe asthma attack due to the smoke. They ignored us when we said that we were uncomfortable with these workers being sent here and continued to do so, and we faced abuse every single time. These same plumbers also damaged the property, leaving holes in the walls and left the house without informing us that they had turned off the gas and the water supplies, so we could not cook food for two days as it was unsafe to do so as we had no idea if there were any breaches in the circuit, and had to order take out. The only relatively positive thing about these landlords is that they compensated us for the food we had to order.

Despite the new Tenant and Fees 2019 Act stating that landlords cannot request nor force tenants to pay out for a professional clean, as it is the landlord's responsibility, these landlords will harass and force tenants to pay up to £700+ out of pocket to the landlords for them to employ a professional cleaner. When moving in last September, it was clear that the property had been cleaned, however not to a professional standard as they claimed. We have photos of mold in several bedrooms, and bathrooms, dead bugs scattered around the property, and a bodily fluid stain on one of the sofas in the living room. What is ironic is that we have been berated about keeping eye on mold growth during our tenancy by the landlords, yet they gave us a property riddled with it. If anything, we will be returning the property with less mold as we are thorough in our cleaning and regular airing of the house. In the days leading up to the move-in, our landlords purposely left lights and sockets on, and water running in an attempt to ramp up our first bill. However, after sending the electricity and water company copies of our tenancy agreement which states the date we moved into the property, we did not have to pay this bill, and instead, our landlords got charged. If we had not been responsive, we would have had to pay for their use of energy dated before we moved in. Halfway through our tenancy, we found on their website that they were planning to do renovations in the property, while we were still living there, without consulting us, but still wanted us to pay them for this clean. Discussions led them to temporarily remove this advertisement of renovation, however, it is now back up on their website, so we know that we would be wasting money if we pay for this. Having spoken to a solicitor about this, it is well within our rights to simply clean the property ourselves to the same condition in which we received it. It is up to our discretion whether to employ a company or not.

A week before us vacating the property, both landlords tried demanding a house inspection, despite having one a month prior. As we were yet to move out, there was no need for this, and we received some disrespectful messages back when we questioned this.

It has been an incredibly stressful year renting with them, especially in the height of a pandemic and online learning. Had we not been aware of our rights when these instances occurred, we would have fallen for these tactics to get as much money as they can out of students who do not know the law.

Property rating: 5

The property is a comfortable five-bedroom house, located on a private court just off Upper Bristol Road. The best thing about this property are the neighborhood cats, Daisy and Wolfgang, who will sit outside the back and front door and meow for attention several times a day.

The bedrooms, despite being double, are small, and oftentimes felt claustrophobic when conducting online studies for an entire year. It was livable. One socket in the ground floor bedroom was faulty upon moving in and has not been fixed to date. It has made the fuses in the house trip several times. When told about it, the landlords took no responsibility and told us to sort it out ourselves. The walls of the property are thin, so be prepared to hear anything and everything, including the next-door neighbor's singing (which, in fairness, is pretty decent).

In terms of natural lighting, the house is usually quite dark during the day, save for the living room, which is the lightest overall.

The sociable areas, however, are spacious enough to fit everybody in, with two triple-seater sofas as well as an armchair and a large dining table. The garden is massive, with two washing lines, however, there is not a tumble dryer at the property for the winter, so it will take longer for clothes to air dry. The kitchen is provided with a large dishwasher and a small washing machine, an oven and extractor fan as well as a microwave. However, a kettle and toaster will need to be provided by the tenants as it is not by the landlords. There are two bathrooms, downstairs is just a W/C and the one upstairs has a bath-shower combo. The bathrooms are small, but it does the job. The only thing to be wary of with the bathrooms is that sinks are tiny, so water will inevitably spill. The boiler is brand new, see review regarding landlords for more information on this, and the house does heat quickly when the heating has been turned on.

There is no front garden, but the hedges opposite the property are tended to by the community gardener. In place of a front garden is a parking space. The back garden is tended to by a gardener employed by the landlords and will visit at least once a month in the summer, and only in the winter by request of the tenants. The back garden can be accessed through a side gate locked by a padlock, but please note that the code is shared between the landlords, tenants, and numerous contractors.

There is some damage to the property that was noted at the start of the tenancy inventory, notably the curtain holder in the living room is falling out of the wall. There is also a hole in the wall in the hallway upon entry due to building works completed in May 2021.

Area rating: 8

The court is calm and has little to no traffic and is a two-minute walk from a pub, the canal walk and is a five-minute walk from a Lidl supermarket and bus stop. The neighbors are kind and conversational, and many are families with small children. There is a neighborhood badger who will sniff around and rummage through the bins, so this is something to be wary of. In terms of bin collections, there is a communal shed where general waste can be stored, but recycling will need to be left outside of the property's front door in their specified boxes.

The house is located behind Love Honey's depot, so occasionally loud music will play which can be disruptive to meetings and/or studies. There is also a house adjacent to the back garden where screaming and shouting from children and their parents can be heard most, if not every day. This can get annoying, especially for the tenants occupying the south-facing bedrooms.

Occasionally, food take-out deliveries and/or Amazon packages will be sent to Avondale Road as the turning to get onto the court is quite sharp and is easily missable by those not familiar with the area.