196 Sprowston Road

This landlord was really poor. When we moved in, the garden was a complete wreck, with blown down and broken fence panels, overgrown grass and brambles and unsafe patio. The agreement was that if we were to move in, the landlord would bring the garden up to a good standard within 3 months. This did not happen and as soon as we moved in, the landlord changed his stance on this saying “it wasn’t a priority at the moment”. After months of chasing, the garden and fencing was finally finished 5 months into the tenancy. Shortly after, two of the older fence panels blew down and these were not replaced for a further 6 MONTHS, leaving the garden completely insecure for all of that time. Despite chasing continuously and getting ignored.

The landlord has tried to charge us via our deposit for things that were already that way before the tenancy began. I argued this and told them I would dispute it via the DPS and they then ended up returning the deposit in full. So it is clear they were just trying to charge us for things to save themselves money!

The landlord would also turn up to the house unannounced throughout the tenancy, not arranging anything in advance with me.

After complaining a lot about the garden, at one stage I was told “if you don’t like it then you can move out”.

The landlord also tried to increase our rent during the period that the fence panels were down and I was told if I did not pay, I would be in breach of my tenancy agreement, even though the landlord was already in breach. When I told them I would take them to a first tier tribunal, it was only at that point that they came and fixed the fences. If I hadn't said this, I don’t think the repair would have been done.

There were lots of shortcuts and cheap jobs done around the house, meaning that operability of amenities was poor.

We were also without a working front door for weeks. The door lock completely failed and one time we came home to the door being completely wide open. The landlord took ages to sort this out.

This landlord does not care about his tenants. He is purely in the money making business and does not want to spend money to maintain his responsibilities. In my opinion, he should not be a landlord.

It is a nice area