Retraction

silvercar

The rent has gone up, now available to rent for £1300 a month.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/property-21699941.html

girleight@

The OP might have got a settlement.

bitsandpieces

When_is_the_reset? wrote: »

If the original post and comments were true then you should grow a pair and repeat them. You cannot be sued for making true statements - no matter how much 'distress' it causes.

In England you can be sued for this. It gives you a defence if you are sued, but you could still be left facing months or years of hassle and significant cost.

This distresses me. Who can I sue?

LandyAndy

kissingthepink wrote: »

Isn't it obvious that you are Sunil?

If he is he's an even bigger fool than he already appears.

eco-friendly_2

Hi Guys,

This is my first post on here, but I want to make sure that nobody ends up having to deal with what me and my girlfriend have been through over the last six months.

The basic overview, for people who don't want to read a wall of text is that IRD Homes are the most terrible letting and management company I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with (and I've dealt with a few). The are overpriced and incompetent at the very least and threatening and extortionate at their worst.

My story is as follows:

November 2009, I was looking to move to London for a new job and didn't ahve a great deal of time to look around places to live, so when I found a 2 bedroom flat for £1000 a month with private secure parking owned by a private landlord with no deposit I thought all my dreams had come true.

Having been given a whistle-stop tour of the flat, which didn't last long enough for me to spot any of the serious defects, the place looked fine for £1000 a month so I paid the holding deposit and signed the contract a week later. This is where the problems began...

When we moved in, we found the kitchen tap to be leaking all over the worktop and cabinets, most of the lights in the flat had blown bulbs, the sink and bath plugs in the bathroom wouldn't hold any water and the flat was furnished after I had informed the letting agent that I wanted it to be unfurnished as I have all my own stuff. I immediately contacted the Letting Agent (*text removed by Forum Team*) with the list of problems since we didn't have any contact details for the landlord.

At the same time I enquired about getting my parking permit for my free parking that is provided on site for residents. I was told that since it wasn't in my contract, although it had been confirmed verbally by both the letting agent and the woman who showed us around the flat initially, that the parking space was an extra £100 PER MONTH!!! At first I thought I'd misheard, but was then reassured that I hadn't. As a result I park the car around the corner (roughly 100 yards away) for free!

It took a total of four weeks for them to remove the furniture and complete all the repairs, and shortly after moving in the washing machine went on the fritz. It took another 5 weeks for them to replace the washing machine for which I deducted an appropriate amount of rent, which then then moaned about.

Then just 4 months into my one year fixed term contract I get a call from the landlord himself, a Mr Sunil Dhown, informing me that he will be terminating the contract in 2 months unless I agree to a 20% rent increase. I checked the legality of this and was told that the landlords break clause was a standard thing, but rarely used for this sort of thing. Either way, I had to either move out or pay up. I chose the former.

The misery isn't over yet though, as I still have three weeks left before my move. Upon moving out, I'll warn people that although there is no deposit to pay, they do charge a £50 referencing fee and a £100 cleaning fee to be paid when you leave. They also seem to think that it's appropriate to not give tenants written notice of people coming around to view, although I quickly sorted that out by turning them away at the door.

The flat is now on the market for £1200 a month in their Isleworth development (TW7 4JU) and I would recommend that people think long and hard before signing a contract with IRD Homes as I understand that I am not the only person who has found their approach to property letting to be substandard.

If you don't believe that one group of people could be so bad at doing something so simple I have kept all the e-mails and you can have a read if you like Hi Guys,

This is my first post on here, but I want to make sure that nobody ends up having to deal with what me and my girlfriend have been through over the last six months.

The basic overview, for people who don't want to read a wall of text is that IRD Homes are the most terrible letting and management company I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with (and I've dealt with a few). The are overpriced and incompetent at the very least and threatening and extortionate at their worst.

My story is as follows:

November 2009, I was looking to move to London for a new job and didn't ahve a great deal of time to look around places to live, so when I found a 2 bedroom flat for £1000 a month with private secure parking owned by a private landlord with no deposit I thought all my dreams had come true.

Having been given a whistle-stop tour of the flat, which didn't last long enough for me to spot any of the serious defects, the place looked fine for £1000 a month so I paid the holding deposit and signed the contract a week later. This is where the problems began...

When we moved in, we found the kitchen tap to be leaking all over the worktop and cabinets, most of the lights in the flat had blown bulbs, the sink and bath plugs in the bathroom wouldn't hold any water and the flat was furnished after I had informed the letting agent that I wanted it to be unfurnished as I have all my own stuff. I immediately contacted the Letting Agent (Jeremy of Saxon Kings - One of the laziest and most unprofessional men I have ever met) with the list of problems since we didn't have any contact details for the landlord.

At the same time I enquired about getting my parking permit for my free parking that is provided on site for residents. I was told that since it wasn't in my contract, although it had been confirmed verbally by both the letting agent and the woman who showed us around the flat initially, that the parking space was an extra £100 PER MONTH!!! At first I thought I'd misheard, but was then reassured that I hadn't. As a result I park the car around the corner (roughly 100 yards away) for free!

It took a total of four weeks for them to remove the furniture and complete all the repairs, and shortly after moving in the washing machine went on the fritz. It took another 5 weeks for them to replace the washing machine for which I deducted an appropriate amount of rent, which then then moaned about.

Then just 4 months into my one year fixed term contract I get a call from the landlord himself, a Mr Sunil Dhown, informing me that he will be terminating the contract in 2 months unless I agree to a 20% rent increase. I checked the legality of this and was told that the landlords break clause was a standard thing, but rarely used for this sort of thing. Either way, I had to either move out or pay up. I chose the former.

The misery isn't over yet though, as I still have three weeks left before my move. Upon moving out, I'll warn people that although there is no deposit to pay, they do charge a £50 referencing fee and a £100 cleaning fee to be paid when you leave. They also seem to think that it's appropriate to not give tenants written notice of people coming around to view, although I quickly sorted that out by turning them away at the door.

The flat is now on the market for £1200 a month in their Isleworth development (TW7 4JU) and I would recommend that people think long and hard before signing a contract with IRD Homes as I understand that I am not the only person who has found their approach to property letting to be substandard.

If you don't believe that one group of people could be so bad at doing something so simple I have kept all the e-mails and you can have a read if you like



All that for a leaky tap washer :cool:

Running_Horse

Lorddeni wrote: »

On 13 April 2010, I published a post on this forum which made reference to my experience as a tenant of Mr Sunil Dhown in a property managed by IRD Homes. I have recently been contacted by Mr Dhown, who has made it clear that the publication of both the details of my experience and my opinion of the approach taken by IRD Homes in relation to its management of the property has caused him distress. In order to bring the matter to an immediate conclusion, I contacted the webmaster of this forum and asked him to remove my post and the replies to it, which he has kindly done. I would also like to take this opportunity to confirm publicly that I regret any distress that has been caused by the publication of the details of my experience as Mr Dhown's tenant and any opinions that I formed as a result of that experience.

Thank you for warning me not to have any dealings with Sunil Dhown and IRD Homes.

pimento

Great thread. I Googled Sunil Dhown and IRD Homes and discovered they're not too popular with the students at Kingston University, which is a heads up for me as my son may be going there from this September (results permitting).

I'll make a big mental note to avoid them.

Edited to add link to another illuminating thread:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2339595

debrag

Any I thought my previous LE was bad! Ok so they did run off with everyones money & not pass on rent but still!

When_is_the_reset?

bitsandpieces wrote: »

In England you can be sued for this. It gives you a defence if you are sued, but you could still be left facing months or years of hassle and significant cost.

This distresses me. Who can I sue?

You can sue me if you like.

I bet it would cost you more money and hassle than me.:p

tbs624

From IRD's own website:

"IRD Homes is a new and aggressive Residential Letting and Management Agency"

Check out the "about us" page, info for LLs, signed off by "Sunny Dhown, Managing Director"

(http://irdhomes.co.uk/about.html)

See their Testimonials page here

For those who may want to check out a potential LA, try https://www.allagents.co.uk