It’s arguably the greatest milestone of the student experience: renting your first house away from Mum and Dad.

But many students have found themselves feeling cheated in second year, forced to pay excess for poor maintenance and living conditions – with their voices ignored by companies that see them only as walking wallets.

The Tab exposes the worst areas where students have been let down by lousy agencies.

FAILURE #1: General Maintenance

We’re all students. We know that our lovely new pads will inevitably fall victim to some drunken mishap.

What we don’t expect is our house to crumble before we’ve even cracked open a WKD. The Tab visited Caroline Watt’s house let by Avtar Properties where we were shown the beautiful living room water feature that has plagued the housemates since they moved in.

A housemate told us: “When we told them that the leak was flowing they just laughed and said ‘The leak’s flowing? Its flowing? Should I bring my wellies?’. Now our downstairs smells of damp constantly. We don’t go down there.”

Avtar has told us that they have plans to repair the chimney leak ‘but it will require scaffolding and can only take place when the weather improves’, which their tenants are aware of. However this does begs the question: when does the weather in Leeds really improve?

Well if they can’t chill in front of the television after a hard day at uni at least they can have a nice relaxing bath…

Another house under the same agency complains their entire front door fell through and was left broken for a substantial period of time. However this claim has been refuted by Avtar, who said it was replaced within three hours.

Poor housing maintenance seems epidemic throughout Leeds. Another house (who wish to remain anonymous) from a different agency spoke to us about their far from sweet home. With a mould problem in the basement and two bedrooms coupled with a constantly leaking kitchen ceiling, they have apparently been met by silence from their landlord. Despite calling him almost weekly their calls are continually ignored and their housing problems are still not fully resolved.

FAILURE #2: Burglary Response 

Being burgled is an unfortunate, but not rare experience for student houses in Leeds. However when Caroline’s house suffered a break in on the 19th of December, Avtar informed the residents that the property had been “secured”. When Caroline returned with her dad in early January, it was to a doorway sealed by a plywood board with a wardrobe pushed up against it.

Avtar said that they were unable to hurry the suppliers and that they had put Caroline up in a hotel for the night to compensate. However, as the photo above shows, it has now been well over a month on from the break-in the door has still not been fully secured. Surely these tenants deserve security in their own home?

FALIURE #3: Treatment of Tenants

However what has been the most shocking and common response from students that spoke to The Tab is the overall unpleasant nature from their various letting agents. Reports of ignored telephone calls, flippant remarks and rude responses to not only the students but their parents as well have many at a loss.

One student renting from Avtar told us: “They are the most uncaring, condescending and rude bunch of individuals and they really should not be allowed to get away with half the stuff they pull”.

Have you had any bad experiences with your landlord? Let us know, email [email protected].