Tenancy review for 7 Saint Jamess Street in Wetherby, Wetherby rented from Matthew Wood

Landlord rating: 9

Managed by actual owner's dad who lives very close by. Everything we ever needed fixing or asked about was sorted straight away, we went direct so no agency fees, and they were accommodating when we wanted to adopt some cats. Can't fault them!

Property rating: 7

Gorgeous little cottage. Downstairs was fine - there's a weird Russian electric fireplace in the living room and the living room is very tight with two sofas in, especially as the front door opens directly into it (we just used the back door!) but lovely deep windowsills at the back! Only thing to remember in there is that because there's an alleyway that runs down the side of the living room, mould grows on that wall like mad and the back of our sofa was a bit damaged by it. But not really the landlord's fault, just how the layout works out. Built in bookcases were nice.

Kitchen is a terrible layout because there are doorways in all four corners and it's not really big enough to use the 'breakfast bar' for its intended purpose, but it serves a purpose. Lino on the floor was a bit knackered. Only a tiny letterbox style freezer in the top of the fridge which was really inconvenient, maybe one in the cellar would be useful!

Weird and useful cellar with electricity and heating which we used as a gaming room which gets insanely cold in winter - genuinely a cool little space with odd sauna walls and a vaulted stone ceiling. There's overhead storage above the steep stone steps down there too - getting down there means squeezing past the fridge but tbh it's worth it because it's a pretty big extra space compared to the size of the house. Good for storing stuff like Hoovers etc as the kitchen is tiny. Good amount of cupboard space for the size of the room!

Upstairs is lovely - old cottage style doors and bookcase over the stairs. Gorgeous bright back bedroom with huge over stairs storage/wardrobe plus it gets so much sun so it's always just lovely.

Bathroom was brand new when we moved in and lovely - metro style tiles and white paint. No window which was annoying in terms of getting steam out in winter when it was too cold to open the windows much but not the end of the world. Door to the bedroom sticks which can be annoying, and if you did have two housemates living there rather than a couple you'd need to remember the lock the door as both bedrooms have doors to the bathroom and there's no entrance via the hallway. Good shower pressure in the overbath shower, and there's a towel warning radiator.

Front bedroom is very cosy with a double bed in - we had a standard double and nothing else in it - but the beautiful original fireplace alone makes up for it! Both bedrooms were just painted white with a kind of wool carpet, was absolutely fine and had been freshly painted when we moved in.

The GARDEN was the absolute best bit. A little courtyard garden that gets so much sunshine, with a big high wall covered in ivy behind. There's a tiny little cupboard/shed thing which we kept paint and the garden hose in, a hosepipe connector, a washing line, and a nice mosaic garden table and chairs..Plus fat wood pigeons that come and visit! There's a church behind so bells are loud on Sundays but also means no neighbours behind. Just lovely - literally my favourite part of the whole house!

Parking is a bit of a hassle - there's free resident parking the carpark directly opposite the house (literally 10m from the front door) BUT there's only about 8 dedicated resident spaces for the whole street and the rest are used by people who come there for work/shopping, so it's fine if you work a 9-5 but if you worked shifts you could have a nightmare trying to park when you got home, and then there's no on-street parking for a good distance.

Basically a very cute house - definitely not for more than 2 people I'd say, having a child in the house would probably be stressful just in terms of having high chairs etc cos it's a tiny little cottage. In a really good place in the centre of Wetherby too, 1 min walk from Morrison's and the Shell garage and the centre.

Area rating: 9

If you're moving to Wetherby I feel like you already know it's not a lively city centre - it's very very pretty, with the river and nice walks around, gorgeous old town centre. Some amazing little shops - the cheese shop through the church yard is brilliant, there's an amazing craft beer shop, and Don't Tell the Duke restaurant about a 3 min walk from the house is unreal. There's a Morrison's and an M&S food within a few minutes' walk, plus a little Sainsbury's and the Shell garage, so you can get pretty much anything you need. Easy to get to Leeds, about half an hour to the city centre, plus you're right by the motorway so easy access to other places. Only real negative is that when the races are on at Wetherby Racecourse the centre can get a bit mental at night, but I think you notice that more being so close to the centre. There's one little gym which is quite expensive plus the Leeds Council run one, they're both oreytt old fashioned. There's a swimming pool and a local parkrun, plus yoga at the town hall. There's an antiques market in the town hall too sometimes.
Only really missing properly good takeaways - there are a few nice little restaurants and bars.