Do not under any circumstances, rent from CoHab lettings.
Making this post in hopes that even if I save one person from this hellish company I can sleep a little bit easier.
I should have seen the red flags from miles off, but I was so eager to get into a household because of a 3 hour round trip commute every day that I was naive to them.
Advertisement showed it was a two room flat for a fairly priced £985 per month most bills included, however on the video viewing (had no time for in person at this point) the lettings agent stated it was a 4 bedroom. Okay, more housemates than I wanted but it was only a 6 month contract and I needed a room.
I got given a move in date and a very vague process on how I should move in. I text the lettings agent before hand to see if I would receive any more info and he stated a man (let's call him Toby) would email me with move in details. Lo and behold, move in day came and no details from Toby. After ringing the lettings again and finally getting through, I was verbally told a key lock code for the front door, however my room was also key pad locked and had to wait over an hour for Toby's email to actually get in. Alarm bells should have been firmly sounding by now but I naively pressed on.
Now here is where it all unravels. It was a 6 bedroom house.
Not 2, not 4, 6. Now it has nothing to do with the quantity of people, every single person in that house was lovely and a young professional age (they did also however have grumblings about the lettings agency and of the move in process). It was more the obvious misleading adverts to sucker people in. In hindsight it also made me realise that the lettings agent didn't even know what property he was showing.
During my short stay with them, this happened:
- Contractor entered my room with no prior warning to fix a shower door handle (me and my friend were asleep in bed)
- Installed a keypad to our front door to replace an actual front door key which immediately broke, trapping a house mate inside (fire hazard? lol)
- Failed to mention a persistent pest issue.
- Their 'Weekly Communal Clean' was a guy coming round with a mop every 2 weeks.
- Out of date Fire Alarm testing records.
- No emergency out of hours contacts that would answer. (When aforementioned lock broke for example)
- When exiting the contract, threats of CCJ's and small courts claims were not a last resort, more an instinctive first solution for them. (Good job Toby).
- Check out fees (I successfully argued with photo and video evidence) of £350.
As I said, even if I save one person with this post, I can sleep happy.
EDIT: They are shown as 'permanently closed' on google, probably so people cant leave bad reviews. Awful, awful people.