AVOID AVOID AVOID - especially if you are a student!! When we collected the keys, we entered the property to find an overwhelming amount of damp and mould spread across all rooms inside of the house. The house was also unclean and unkempt and smelt of cigarettes. Upstairs, two of the mattresses were covered in human excrement and urine, with yellow stains down the side of one bedframe. There was also broken appliances: a bedside lamp with bare wires and an iron with missing buttons. The hoover and oven were filled with grease. There were also no working batteries in the smoke detector alarms and the carbon monoxide alarm. We were unable to use the property for two weeks while the landlord rectified the issues. A few months into the tenancy, the lock on our front door broke due to cold weather. After two weeks of complaining, Belvoir finally agreed to arrange for repairs. The landlord came to our house afterwards and told us that Belvoir had informed them that we had broken the lock purposely, and that we had personally chosen the contractor who had overcharged for the cost of the repairs. We raised concerns with Belvoir Leicester over the way they arranged and organised viewings of the property. As a statutory right, we expected at least twenty- four hours’ notice before a viewing should take place. Belvoir never followed this rule. We were never given the full twenty- four hours’ notice and on one particular occasion, we received an email at 2pm informing us of a house viewing at 3pm that same afternoon. On days we were given more notice (but still less than twenty- four hours), a Belvoir representative would attend the property with clients an hour or more earlier than we were initially informed. As I am sure you can understand, this was very stressful and meant that our daily activities were interrupted. Despite the extremely poor condition in which we found the property in, when moving out we left the property immaculate. The inside of the house was cleaned, and the garden was de- weeded. Due to COVID-19 restrictions at the time, we were told that the post- tenancy inspection needed to be delayed for seventy- two hours after moving out. However Belvoir did not attend to the property for at least four weeks after this period. I consistently made contact with Belvoir Leicester’s office by email and phone to request an update. After more than two month’s delay in making contact with us, we received an email from Belvoir informing us that we would be losing approximately £265 from our £900 deposit for “cleaning” and a replacement of the bathroom sealant. This particular sealant was damaged when we commenced the tenancy, which Belvoir were aware of yet never fixed. As evidence of the “cleaning” related issues, we were sent an image of a dead fly on the windowsill, and a number of weeds in the garden area. Given the delay in Belvoir actually inspecting the property in person, it is to be expected that various weather conditions would have caused weeds to grow in the garden. However, after numerous emails and much dispute, the total deduction was agreed at £150 purely to bring the matter to an end. I made it very clear that myself and the other two tenants were still very displeased with this amount. We believe that the landlord refused to make the requested reasonable repairs during our tenancy in order to make deductions from our deposit. Even after all of the hassle and stress that Belvoir had caused us, more tha five months after moving out of the property, we each received an email and text message from Belvoir demanding nearly £2,000 - because their NEW TENANTS have failed to pay their rent! So Belvoir thought it would be clever to chase us and try to make us pay the debt!! This email was not encrypted or protected in any way, and so the three new tenants (of whom we have never met) could view our personal email addresses. This is a clear breach of the Data Protection Act 1998. Overall, AVOID THIS PLACE. I have never known such shocking & incompetent service. My complaint to the franchise manager was ignored