Students in Kingston, beware of IRD Homes, Sunil Dhown and Richard Elby

kingstonstudenttenant

I've been informed by a few students living in flats owned and managed by IRD Homes, Sunil Dhown and Richard Elby that they have had a particularly bad experience in Magnum House which they own and manage. Essentially they have only had 6 months tenancy in their flat due to a £100 or so pound rent increase which being students on a limited and fixed income they cannot pay. This has lead to students needing to find alternative accommodation, which is particularly stressful with exams looming.

Aside from these tenancy issues, there are also issues with the actual state of the building, particularly the communal entrance and hall ways which are poorly lit and stink of urine. The letterboxes for the individual flats do not have locks on them and one of the entrance doors have a window missing which enables anyone to access the building. This has been that way since August 2009. Presumably because of this, a homeless man now lives in one of the electricity cupboards and local kids have been witnessed using the stairwell to loiter. Tenants have notified IRD Homes but nothing has been done and contact details for property management have since be removed from their website.

A cursory Google search brings up other issues with these people stretching back several years (when they operated under the name SD Investments) which suggests their negligence and general behaviour has not changed.

Students, please be warned before you enter into any tenancy with these people and don't be fooled by no deposit being required. Try to stick to the advice given by the Kingston University Accommodation department to save you pain in the future.

olly300

kingstonstudenttenant check your PMs.

amy.c_3

I actually lived in one of Richard Elby's properties between 2006-2007 and i have to say, everything you've said is spot on. The flat we rented was lovely when we moved in, aside from some drainage problems. Everytime it rained our living room got flooded and from the outset, Elby refused to fix is. At that point the company was under a different name and he was working with Mr Dhown's wife. Not only were they negligent, but they wer full on abusive to anyone who called. The car lift broke after the legendary flooding of summer 2007, leaving my mum's car stuck down there. Not only did they flat out refuse to do anything about it, they just laughed when we got the police on them. Actually, Mrs Dhown claimed that the lift had been fixed and the car removed when we were stood there looking at the darn thing. Eventually after being threatened with legal action, the lift company removed my mum's vehicle as a favour, then promptly switched the lift off again because Elby hadn't been paying his bills.
The communal hallways stopped being cleaned a couple of months afer we moved in and gangs would regularly congregate in the car parks (above and below ground). The bins were inadequate, cue me driving over several rats and by the time we left, it was generally falling apart.
We received an eviction letter in Sept 2007, so i called Mrs Dhown in a rage to ask why. We'd always kept up payment and were good tenants, but according to her "we were too much hassle". Basically, by asking them to keep up their side of the contract, we were hassling them and that warranted an eviction. On closer inspection of the letter, it appeared that the old company had gone into administration. She was basically using our "hassle" as an excuse. Needless to say we stopped paying rent for the last 2 months as we knew we wouldn't get our deposit back.
The letting agent also said they'd stopped dealing with Mr Elby and pals, because they were simply too abusive to their staff and clients. Basically avoid this man like the plague unless you want to live in a complete hovel and be abused for asking for any kind of upkeep.

p.s. - There was a homeless an living in the utility room when we lived there. I think it might be Elby himself.

Running_Horse

This discussion is worth reading in full before having any dealings with Mr Sunil Dhown and IRD Homes.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2576709

rrf494g

If you google Sunil Dhown or IRD Homes you will find a fair number of threads concerning
Sunil Dhown and IRD Homes and their standard of Landlordship.

regards