Students Having Problems Renting With Opel Estate Agents, advise/help?

smithy10

Hi
I'll try and keep this short. Four of us rented a property from Opel estate agents (they own the property so we dont have a single landlord) for our second year at uni. Then on the 1st July two of us went to get our keys and sign an agreement that we were happy with the property ect, the property was dirty and several things were broken. This included a table kitchen drawers and the carpets and kitchen needed a good clean and the garden looked like a jungle, so we sign the agreement on the basis that the stuff we noted down would be taken care of. Ok fine.
However i went to the property last week (10th Sept a full 2 months later) and nothing had been done, so we rang up told them this was not on and it needed to be sorted because it was unchanged, they promised to come in the next week to sort it out. Now, the house is in manchester and i live in london so i cant be around making sure they do it so i put my faith in them stupidly.

So today i get a phone call from one of my house mates moving in for the first time, he went to get his key from the estate agent in the same manner that i did. We he arrived they told him they they had lost his key!? so he asked for the maintenance key so he could move in all his stuff and apparently they had lost that as well!! Luckly he has a gf who lives there otherwise he would have been stranded in manchester. So apart from this being completley stupid and unproffessional (and also make me wonder who has our extra keys? if they were "lost") how the hell were they suposed to clean/repair our house is they couldn't get into the bloody place? My friend cant move in and we start uni on the 21st of sept?! (3 days)

So im basically writing this to ask for some advice because why should i have been paying for this accomodation for 2 months now when it hasnt been cleaned/repaired and one of us cant actually live there? Who can i talk too who can solve this? Can i (or at least the guy who cannot get it to his house) demand a refund/discount? It just seems ridiculuas that a company who is so crap can still get the full amount of money from us?
Is there somthing i could have done to avoid this agro? Or am i getting annoyed over simplistic things?
I am going to get my parents to ring in tomorro as it seems quite clear that estate agent dont take students seriously, and now know why estate agents get thier reputation of being right w*nkers!!

ps lol at my trying to "keep it short" and sorry for the bad spelling/grammer didnt want to download the spell check im in a rush x

MissMoneypenny

Tomorrow, phone the local council in Manchester. First ask for Environmental Health and ask them to meet you at the house on the day you move in, so they can see the mess. They will be able to get onto the landlords for you. While Environmental Health are at the house, check that all the beds and furniture have the fire safety tags on. These are a legal requirement too.

After speaking to Environmental Health, ask to be put through to their Private Lettings. They can come and do an inspection of the property if you ask them, to make sure the property is safe and complys with the law. They can also take action against the landlords for you to make sure they comply.

MissMoneypenny

This thread may be of help to you.

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=1950529&highlight=

Emma1973

Contact the Student Union and the Univeristy, they have a dedicated Housing person, cant remember his name now but he's rather lovely!

He's paid to sort out situations like yours!

loisa

When I was a student I moved into a house only to find that my room was in the cellar! It was freezing, no natural light, mould on the walls, my clothes stank of damp and I could touch the ceiling with my head!
I only wish I'd had your sense to realise that I might have been able to do something about it.

smithy10

Thanks for all the help guys, i actually spoke to the MD of the company who issued us with a new cooker and, a plumber came round to sort out a leaking pipe, which i hadnt noticed at the time of the original post within the day. In doing so he managed to get water leaking through our ceiling! The damage we were told would be fixed within the week.... its been two weeks and apart from the cooker nothing has been done.
To add to all this, i was away this weekend and the fire alarm went off at 10pm whilst noone was in the house and hadnt been for 10 hours. My housemate came home from a night out at 3am to find that the fire brigade had previously been as somone had obviously called them. So the alarm had been going off for 5 hours and 100% for no reason, which i dont think our neighbours enjoyed, and makes me wonder what else it wrong with the house health and safety wise.
So i am ringing them tomorrow to tell them that i am ringing the students union housing person (thanks emma) and also the manchester city council (thanks moneypenny). I'll let you know how it goes!

Fire_Fox

Don't ring the letting agents, put your complaints into writing and send the letter recorded delivery keeping a copy of the letter and the Post Office receipt. This will give you a paper trail of reporting problems with the property in case of a dispute over your deposit, and IME means organisations take you much more seriously.