Cardiff students’ ceiling collapses after letting agent fails to properly ensure leak is fixed

The students say they had informed CPS about a leak in the kitchen ceiling ‘months’ prior

1 year ago

The kitchen ceiling of a Cardiff student house collapsed after a water leak went unfixed despite the tenants informing the letting agent months prior, they claim.

The students noticed a crack in the ceiling after they first moved into the house in July and made their estate agent, CPS, aware.

They claim that months after first informing CPS, a maintenance worker was sent out to sort out the issue, but four days later the ceiling collapsed.

The previous tenants of the property also experienced the same issue and claim they had informed CPS about it via email but did not receive a response.

The current tenants said: “When we fully moved in in September, the ceiling looked as if it had been patched up and painted over.

“In regards to the leak, there was a crack in the floor just outside the shower so we assumed that was the cause of it leaking through to the kitchen ceiling.”

The current tenants say they had told CPS about the leak multiple times when they came to carry out regular inspections, they also made maintenance workers aware of the issue when they came to do other jobs in the house.

The students said how they felt were “continually dismissed” by CPS and were told there wasn’t a problem.

They explain that, eventually, maintenance came and patched the hole by the shower with a square of wood by nailing it to the floor. They assured the tenants this would fix the issue but four days later the ceiling collapsed.

Nicola*, a Cardiff Uni student who lives in the house, said: “Me and some of my other housemates were having breakfast Saturday morning at about 10:30am and noticed a small part of the ceiling had fallen onto the table.

“By the time we looked up the ceiling had collapsed on top of us. We are just so lucky no one was badly hurt.”

No one was hurt but Nicola expresses how it could have been a lot worse. The students immediately rang CPS but no one picked up, so instead went to the CPS office to inform them.

Maintenance arrived to clear the debris and put sheets over the hole.

CPS has previously been featured on Joe Lycett’s show Got Your Back facing claims of failing to communicate with its student tenants.

A spokesperson for CPS told The Tab Cardiff: “We were sorry to learn of this report when the tenants brought it to our attention.

“The landlord’s own contractor recently attended and performed work that we were told would resolve a leak in the bathroom above the kitchen, though it now appears that the issue was misdiagnosed or the repair carried out wasn’t sufficient, causing plasterboard to come down.

“We extend our apologies to the tenants for this and, since being made aware of the issue on Saturday, have worked extensively with our landlord client, their contractor and the tenants to have everything resolved as quickly as possible.

“Clean-up work and initial making good was carried out within four hours of being reported, with full repairs commencing on the next working day. We are continuing to liaise with the landlord on the tenants’ behalf to secure them the compensation they deserve for the inconvenience caused.”

*Names have been changed to preserve anonymity