Unfortunately, we had a terrible experience with Northwood. When we first rented our property, we informed Northwood of some loose carpeting on the staircase which had caused my partner to fall down the stairs. Rather than fixing the issue, Northwood told us to “reconsider if this is somewhere we wanted to live”. When we discovered a massive cluster of black mould behind our fitted wardrobes (which had seeped through and destroyed most of our hung clothes) Northwood initially claimed that this was through our ‘lifestyle’ without even seeing the property. When we finally persuaded them to call out an independent damp surveyor who confirmed that this was a structural issue and in no way our fault, they were not apologetic and took ages to reply. My partner and I were forced to sleep on the downstairs living room floor for weeks until they finally got someone round to fix the bedroom. When I asked about fixing the black mould in the bathroom, we were told that it was ‘easily wipeable’ despite it being down the back of the shower and ceiling. Despite the house being advertised as pet friendly and us moving in with a cat and being transparent it the letting agent about our intention to get another, we were served an eviction notice when we got another kitten. (When we were initially showed the property, we were told that the previous tenant had three cats). We feel that this was Northwood trying to shift us out for fighting with them about the mould. This eviction notice was swiftly retracted, as the property was advertised as cat friendly. When we moved out of the property, Northwood tried to take a large chunk of our deposit. They claimed the carpets were unclean despite us paying a professional carpet cleaner that they recommended. Once we showed receipts, they removed this from the bill. We ended up having to raise a case with the DPS to get our money back for other grievances (we won). The property managers that we delt with were condescending, rude, and unprofessional. No one should have to be told to “reconsider if this is a place to you want to live” when raising a genuine health and safely concern. No rent-paying adult should have to be forced to sleep on the living room floor for weeks because their bedroom is uninhabitable due to mould. No one should have to fight with the DPS to get their deposit back in a cost-of-living crisis. The only reason my partner and I are not raising this with the Housing Ombudsman is because the last year of renting with Northwood has been so horrible that we just want the whole ordeal to be over.