Tenancy review for 10 Mountsfield Close in Newport Pagnell, Newport Pagnell rented from Ian Macgregor

Landlord rating: 1

After highlighting all the issues it took 3 months to sort the heating out, it took a while for the toilet to be fixed and then we had water pouring through the ceiling every time we had a shower. Now we were told a leak was being repaired before we started renting but this leak was an issue constantly. He (the landlord - Ian) sent over a couple of people to fix it, but every time it just leaked again. A lady knocked on our door one day and said her client had exactly the same thing. She was a single mother, living in the filthy place with no repairs and the landlord refused to give back any deposit money.

It also took a long time to get an address of the owners from him, he gave us an address but said we were never to contact them. To this day I don't think it was a real address as any recorded mail seemed to not reach him.

It took constant threats from us to included by recorded mail to ensure our deposit was stored legally so he couldn't steal our money when we left. I'm putting No to the deposit protection for this reason as the previous tenants told us he refused to do this and lost their money. It took months for us to get him to process it and only before threatening court.

When it came to leaving the place, he tried to avoid all contact, he refused to answer the phone and he tried to deny he had received the two months notice we gave. I told him it had been sent by recorded mail and that he should have had it unless he illegally gave a false address, he then quickly responded and went through with meeting us to do a final check.

A couple of times when we tried to meet to hand over the keys he couldn't make it and tried to get us to meet someone he said was from Michael Graham. But not in a Michael Graham store, outside some random house. We refused and told him he needed to review the inventory and discuss the deposit. Finally we managed to pin him down. I wouldn't trust Ian McGregor (of Principle Properties) at all.

This was one of the most unpleasant experiences I've ever had in renting.

Property rating: 4

When I first moved in the toilet was black and didn't flush. I had no heating for 3 months. Half the plug sockets weren't working. A skylight was supposed to have a remote to close the blind as it was not reachable but it took someone to use a pole to close the blind to stop light pouring into our bedroom.

The walls are like cardboard and if you get a noisy neighbor it can be a massive issue. Just before leaving we had very noisy neighbors and didn't sleep very much.

This was the list of faults I emails after first moving in:
1. The heating doesn’t work. The bottom of the radiator starts to heat, but nothing more (instruction manual would be handy as well if pos.). The water does in fact seem to heat though.
2. None of the lights in the kitchen are working.
3. Under the sink in the kitchen, a pipe is blocked with what seems to be a plastic bag.
4. In the kitchen there seems to be wires hanging, what are these for? Are they live?
5. The extractor fan above the cooker doesn’t work at all.
6. One hob on the oven (bottom left) isn’t working.
7. The toilet flush is weak but works, however it then takes 15-20 minutes to flush again properly, this will be an issue with relatives or friend visits and it's black.
8. There is a plug in the bathroom next to the shower, I haven’t checked if it is live – should this be there?
9. 3 Light switches (excluding the kitchen lights) do not seem to do anything
10. There is a loose brown wire with exposed ends under the stairs, has this been checked to make sure it’s not live?
11. One downstairs plug socket is loose and coming away from the wall. It is live and works.
12. TV wire – part of the metal was laying loose on the floor, it doesn’t attach onto the end and seems broken.
**This is before we discovered the shower leaked through the ceiling into the kitchen every time someone had a shower.

Area rating: 5

It's a fairly good neighborhood with good facilities. It's quite safe but the location of the property is very close to a school so a few noisy children. There's a close by dentists, doctors, pharmacy and shop though.