Kal Bilkhu in Coventry

We are writing this review for Kal Bilkhu (HSBproperty) now, as we assume he has changed his name to compromise our previous review. We believe this is a dishonest and ruthless practice, as his renting practices are unfair to the tenants and are based on the fact that student tenants will not raise any questions due to their lack of knowledge in the renting houses, especially where such students are foreigners. This is absolute exhaustion of people, and we cannot morally stand for this happening. We have updated the review to also reflect on recent turnouts.

Did not provide gas, electric certificates, or the deposit certificate. When we tried to get him to provide us the gas certificate through the council, turned out he had none and couldn't get one for that boiler due to its disrepair. He replaced the boiler with an electric boiler which does not heat up the water in the taps anymore rendering the bath useless. He also tried to persuade us to sign a contract on top of ours with the other flat in the house saying we would have had to pay council tax otherwise (we are students). This turned out to be a lie, which he tried to play to make us responsible for any missed payments of our neighbours should they not pay. Passive aggressive attitude and multiple threats were made towards us throughout our time there. He threatened to evict us as a result of us contacting the council and threatened us with few hundred pound fees for replacing a 30x10cm piece of glass in the door. His inventory contained things not actually located in the apartment, and things which were clearly worn have been stated as new. Our inventory comments were ignored completely. We do not know if we will get our deposit back. We also never received the keys to the garden to get into it from the back of the house, even though we let him know we don't have them. The contract is awfully one sided and he makes a lot of profit from making the place bills included. He made bills capped at 100 pounds per month, except that within that 100 he capped gas and electricity at 40 pounds, so we were paying 60 pounds for WiFi and water, both shared with the neighbours, and then 40 was never enough in winter months so we had to pay extra on top of the hundred by 20 to 40 pounds per month, even though we were still waking up to 1 degree in our house.

As of recently, we have got a message regarding our deposit and we are being charged £425, even though the property was returned in a cleaner condition than given. He has lied that our neighbours have told him we have moved out 2 months prior to tenancy end, to peruse us over the mould problem, where our neighbours declared they have never stated this to him, and we have only moved out just short of a month prior as we couldn't take it anymore, and have let him know this.

The moved out as he insisted that 7pm, with time the time half an hour short of the 24h notice time required, was an acceptable time to be conducting a viewing, and considered it and informed us that it was not an option for us to object or not allow him to come in, therefore he will be there to show the property regardless. This was as soon as the last month has started. After raising the issue of the term being questionably not in line with the fair terms law, as it compromised our right to quiet enjoyment, with reasonable times being described to be during working week and weekends, only then were we able to stop this viewing few hours before it took place. We had were emailing back and forth like crazy, unable to understand this sort of unreasonable behaviour and again felt harassed for living there.

It was not an option for us to stay there anymore, as we couldn't face the possibility of him showing the property around without us even given the opportunity to be there should the requested time be whilst we were working, which was from 7 to 6 for both of us. We packed our bags and just left, having paid rent on time for all the months, including the one we felt forced to move out during, to get our mental health back together.

One part of the deposit claim was to charge £55 for a replacement heater, as the legs of the heater were missing, therefore rendering it unusable even though just a few months prior he had a clear letter from council stating that all the heaters need to be wall mounted, therefore this wouldn't have compromised the heater at all.

We also been charged for having a bearded dragon, a lizard maybe 40-50cm long with tail, even though we specified in an email to him that we would like him to move in with us, ahead of us moving in, but are happy to leave it behind should he object. He never objected until he started to dislike us, even though he has been to the property once or twice and never mentioned there being any problem with the lizard living in the vivarium. He is trying to charge us £80 for cleaning the carpet chemically, claiming it run on his carpet, whilst these creatures require constant warmth and cannot be kept out of the vivarium like this. He has never even touched the carpet at the property, and we have moved him back with our parents as soon as we were made aware the landlord had a problem with it, which was over 5 months before our move out date.
Whilst we agree that some things were damaged, it does not quantify to £425 of damage and we are forced to take this up with deposit disputes, albeit one for which a certificate we didn’t receive, nor a reasonable proof that our deposit has been placed in within the 30 day limit. The stress and anxiety this situation has caused, and continues to cause, has had prolonged effect on us and we cannot possibly express how important it is that you stay away from these unfair practices for your own mental well-being.
We hope you make a clear and informed decision whether this property is someone you would like to live in.