Tenancy review for 7 Priory Of St Jacob in Wincheap, Canterbury rented from Richard Esses

Landlord rating: 1

The landlord was terrible. The extractor fan did not work and was not fixed despite many complaints. We were never issued with spare keys, again, despite many requests for them. The landlord did not register our deposit with any deposit scheme even though it was stated in our tenancy agreement it was. At the end of the tenancy he requested over £900 in cleaning fees, “damages” and call out charges that were not set out in the tenancy agreement, all hugely over the top. We challenged him because it was discovered the deposit was never protected in a scheme and after threatening to take it further he refunded us the entire deposit. He also never took our council tax exemption certificates and sorted out all bills which led us to suspect some sort of tax evasion was occurring, although this is not confirmed at all.

Property rating: 3

The property was fairly clean when we moved in, however was in no way the professional clean the landlord said it was. The garden was not secure, and the extractor fan did not work.

Area rating: 4

The area itself was nice, close to a supermarket, bus stops etc.
We do think we were broken into early in the tenancy but the police were informed.