Tenancy review for 39 Hare Street Springs in Little Parndon And Hare Street, Harlow rented from Joanna Mower

Landlord rating: 1

A very vindictive landlord who took an instant dislike to me because I reported and chased up all the repair issues needed in the flat. She appeared to be content with me living in a flat paying a very high amount of money which she increased after a year without any dispute from me yet I couldn’t use hot water in the kitchen taps. Halfway through the tenancy during a particularly bad repair issue whereby I had no heating for a few days, my mother tried to call and speak to reason with her and she cut the phone on her and refused to engage with me directly since then, only going through the agent.

She made a point at the start of the tenancy to make me take down her number and message her if there were any issues, but when I proceeded to do just that she appeared annoyed and implied that I should only be contacting the estate agency so as not to disturb her.

Worse of all, she came every few months to pick up her mail which she failed to redirect, so I had to separate my mail from hers and she would drop by at any time usually only giving me a few hours notice to collect her mail.

Property rating: 5

A relatively well renovated council flat with well designed rooms. Contains a hallway with one bathroom, one bedroom, a living room and a kitchen. Also was a fully furnished flat, which was helpful at the time. Unfortunately the living room is stocked with mainly glass furniture which are easily breakable, some were already broken when I moved in. Also months into the tenancy, I could see that although it looked superficially well done, it wasn’t of high quality as hallway linoleum floor slats moved frequently and exposed the bare wooden floor underneath, the kitchen had holes everywhere in the corners of the floor and the there were and are an abundance of spiders and other insects especially at the front door and outside of the property which was extremely dirty and kept in poor condition.

2 months into the tenancy, discovered an issue with the kitchen taps and the release of hot water which went on for almost a year as it was tried to be fixed by several different engineers. The boiler broke down twice leaving me freezing and unable to shower in the middle of winter that my mother had to drive all the way from London just to provide me with an electric heater (as I am disabled), and there were issues with the electricity and the toilet.

I was told by several engineers that visited the property that the tank and water system are ancient and belong in antiquity which is why they had a tendency to break down every few months. A complete overhaul of the tank and water system would be needed but the landlord unwilling to fork out for such a cost, refused to follow their recommendations.

Area rating: 2

Very quiet neighbourhood even with a primary school opposite but the neighbourhood is in poor condition. No amenities, buses run very infrequently and very dirty surroundings especially the bin area downstairs which was just absolutely repulsive.