Tenancy review for 58 Marston Street in St Marys, Oxford rented from Sarah Pickford

Landlord rating: 1

The landlady's behaviour was unacceptable. She repeatedly entered our rooms without any prior notice or our permission, which is a clear violation of our legal rights. This behaviour continued after reporting her to the Council. At one point I was negotiating with her whether she would stick to the legally required 24 hours notice before she would enter my room for viewings or to have maintenance done! This should not be up for negotiation.
She frequently visited the property, sometimes on a daily basis, to perform minor tasks. On one occasion, she even stored her own milk in our fridge, which, while within her legal rights, was disruptive and extremely odd.
She also installed a ‘sign-in board’, so that we could log when we were present in the property. This was intrusive and bizarre behaviour given that we are all adults. I suspect she did this so that she could more easily tell who was in the property when she would enter for “maintenance” reasons.
Fundamentally, I feel she fails to understand that while the property is her house, it is our home, and we have a right privacy within it.
Moreover, she was incredibly slow in addressing essential repairs. For instance, earlier this year one of the showers was removed from the bathroom – it took a month for this to be replaced. Our bedrooms also experienced an issue where the electricity would trip whenever we plugged certain devices (phones and laptops) in to charge: this obviously made it impossible to work or study in our bedrooms, and was a serious impediment to our daily lives. Her proposed solution was to charge devices in the kitchen – this is clearly unacceptable in an HMO where you do not know your flatmates before moving in! It took over a month, and threatening to report her to the council, for her to fix this issue.
In addition to these issues, she overcharged me on my deposit and tried to impose illegal fees related to cleaning. The process of getting my deposit back has been incredibly challenging. She provided a confusing Deposit Deductions form where the figures did not add up to the amount she wanted to withhold from my deposit. Despite my repeated requests for clarification, she failed to provide any.
Overall, the landlady was intrusive and overbearing throughout the tenancy. She has failed to respond adequately to major issues like unreliable electricity and a missing shower. Finally, she has attempted to make illegal and bewildering deductions from my Deposit, which I have had to formally dispute with the tenancy deposit scheme.

Property rating: 8

The property was cheap and cheerful: most rooms were small-medium singles with some sun, and fairly priced for the area. There were no unpleasant surprises with the room when moving in, everything was as shown. I would have happily stayed on in the property if it was not for the landlord. Main issue was the lack of bike storage (there was no access to the back garden from the street).

Area rating: 8

Cowley is nice - lots of places to eat and very close to the city centre. It's not the safest part of Oxford (lots of bike theft!) but I was never worried for my personal safety.