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Réponse de CPS Homes

10 juin 2024

Hi Siva,

Thank you for your review. Having investigated your comments, we would like to point to some inaccuracies with the comments you have made.

You are correct in stating that if a student wishes to rent a property advertised by CPS Homes, we ask – on behalf of the landlord – for a UK-based, homeowner guarantor. If this isn’t possible – which we know may be the case for foreign students – there are alternative options we can explore with the landlord, such as paying rent in advance. We didn’t have to explore these alternative options on this occasion because, prior to choosing to take the property, you informed us via e-mail “I'm happy with the property and I would like to move into the property. And I also have UK house own guarantor. I would like to pay the holding deposit for the property today”. You were therefore aware of the guarantor requirement prior to choose to take the property and parting with any money.

After paying the holding deposit, you informed us that the person you had in mind to be your guarantor was not prepared to act for you. You did offer to pay rent in advance instead, which we tried to have the landlord agreed to, but she wished to stick to the original agreement, which is that you would provide a UK-based, homeowner guarantor. This is her prerogative, and it should be born in mind that a guarantor acts not only as surety for payment of rent, but also for any damages within the property. Payment of rent in advance gives the landlord no surety over any possible issues with the condition of the property, so it is not a direct replacement for a guarantor.

You offered an online guarantor which would see a company act as your guarantor, but they were not prepared to meet the terms of our guarantor agreement, so this option wasn’t viable. You did eventually find somebody else to be your guarantor and the let proceeded as originally intended, which we were pleased to facilitate.

The property was marketed with a move-in date of Monday 1st July. Deep into the signing process, you asked if you could collect the keys on Saturday 29th June instead. We informed you that we would ask the landlord if this is possible, and if she agreed, you would need to pay rent for the 29th and 30th June (two extra days, not months as you’ve stated) as collecting the keys early would give you full access to the property. You and the landlord agreed to this, which we were again pleased to facilitate on your behalf.

In summary, we feel we have been very transparent throughout and have successfully negotiated with the landlord on your behalf to achieve the outcome you wanted.

We wish you well during your upcoming tenancy.

All the best,

The CPS Homes Team.

Réponse de CPS Homes

13 août 2024

Thank you Artie for your kind words and continued business.

Réponse de CPS Homes

2 avr. 2024

Hi JJ,

We’re sorry that you’ve had a less than positive experience with us. To verify & learn more about your experience, we’ve reached out to you via Trustpilot’s private messaging platform.

Responding more broadly until we know more, we always suggest viewing in-person rather than renting a property based on a video. We do not place furniture in photos/videos “strategically”: doing so would just mean receiving complaints on move-in.

If we receive a complaint from somebody in a block of flats who cannot identify the cause for that complaint, we will approach all flats to make them aware of the matter.

All incoming occupants can raise any concerns they may have over the cleanliness of the property on arrival. Where they do so & it is a valid concern, the cleaners we use are more than happy to go back out & address these concerns. It’s rare that they must do so, but – like us – they’re only human, so mistakes can be made & they’re happy to go out & rectify them. We trust you raised this with us at the time.

We’re very reactive to all maintenance reports. Not reporting a leak, as you’ve suggested, is not advised. It’s worth bearing in mind that – in a block of flats especially – leaks can come from the flat(s) above. Sometimes occupants don’t realise that something is causing a leak, e.g. perished seals around a bath/shower tray letting water through, so we are reliant upon reports. These reports can (albeit rarely) come too late, meaning the flat below may suffer from the leak, but as we’ve said, we are very reactive to such complaints. As always, we must seek permission from the landlord to get the work done, as they will be the one paying the bill. Waiting for their approval can sometimes take longer than we would like. We are committed to minimising these delays & chasing up occupants’ requests. We want things to run as smoothly as possible for everyone living in the properties we manage.

We don’t consider our accounting system to be complicated. We ask occupants to pay their rent using a specific payment reference. Where they do, there is no issue. Where they don’t, we don’t want to mistakenly attribute payment to the wrong occupant – which could easily happen without the correct payment reference & similar/same names (we have thousands of occupants) – so we may request proof of payment. Once received, it’s easily sorted & we ask that the correct payment reference is used in future.

Both landlord & contract-holder have responsibilities in helping combat condensation. We ask contract-holders to confirm if the heating system is working properly & all parts of each radiator are hot to touch when turned on, whether trickle vents are fitted to the windows & if extractor fans working. If any of these answers are “no”, we will have a conversation with the landlord about making changes. On top of this, we issue contract-holders with detailed, written advice produced by Cardiff Council on how to reduce mould & condensation. In it, it says ““in 99.99% of cases, the cure for condensation & mould growth is heating & ventilating a property. This is why tenants must take responsibility for the way they live in their home”.

We ask you to bear in mind that every time a contractor is called out, they charge at least a call-out fee, plus further costs for their time & any materials used. This is true not only of the contractors of the CPS Homes uses, but of all contractors up & down the country. As such, £60 for a clean is not “extortionate”. This company is one of several local trades we have been using for over 20 years to carry out work in properties we manage, so we know & trust them. They price fairly & accurately for their time. Many letting agents opt to instruct national companies to manage their cleans, who typically charge more due to increased overheads & travel time, meaning a higher cost to tenants & landlords alike. As a company born-&-bred in Cardiff, we prefer to issue our work to local people.

The CPS Homes Team.

Réponse de CPS Homes

2 avr. 2024

Hi Hussain,

Thank you for leaving a review.

You viewed a property on Churchill Way that was advertised at £1,200 per month exclusive of all bills. We have checked and double-checked this at our end. We’ve even confirmed it with the website you enquired through, AccommodationForStudents, who said: “I've just checked with our Dev Team and they have had a look at the archives and can confirm the property was listed without bills included.”

After you completed an application form and paid an agreed holding deposit of £275 (not £300 as claimed), you proceeded to dispute the previously advertised and agreed £1,200 figure and claimed it should be £1,120: a difference of £80 per month. This amount was never agreed by CPS Homes or the landlord, which we communicated to you.

You then requested to view an alternative property in Altolusso with us, but the landlord of that property accepted other occupants before you had a chance to view it. We then asked if you would like to proceed with the property on Churchill Way. We didn’t hear back from you and you failed to provide us with the information required to proceed with the let. As a result, we had to inform you that the deadline for information had passed and the landlord had decided to remarket the property to other occupants, as was his right.

It’s our opinion that you were aware of the £1,200 per month rent when paying the holding deposit (as per the advert), but you wished to renegotiate the rent to a more favourable figure after looking at other available properties online, as perhaps proven by your request to view an alternative property.

Kind regards,

The CPS Homes Team.

Réponse de CPS Homes

19 mars 2024

Hi Luzia,

Whilst we don’t have an exact match for your name on our database, we have a partial match which is associated with a tenancy that ended last week, so we believe we’ve located the correct property.

When we conducted our check-out inspection, we found the property to have been left in a very poor state. Upon comparing the condition of the property ‘now’ to how it was when the tenancy started less than 3 years ago, we found there to be a stark difference between the two. When the tenancy first started, the property was in a good condition throughout.

We shared our photographic report with you and with the landlord. In it, we highlighted the differences in the condition between the start and the end. We noted anything that we believed to be wear & tear (the landlord’s responsibility), and anything over and beyond fair wear & tear (the outgoing occupants’ responsibility). The latter category included a great deal of cleaning being required, as well as the disposal of a huge number of items you had left behind.

Occupation contracts are between the contract-holder(s) and the landlord. Therefore, if there are ever any proposed deposit deductions to claim for at the end of the tenancy, it is the landlord who chooses to submit this claim. The landlord agreed with our report and instructed us to claim for the dilapidations noted. We would much prefer not have to make a claim from a deposit, however, we cannot turn a blind eye to the conditions we found during our check-out inspection.

As with any deposit claim, if a contract-holder feels a landlord's claim is not justified, it can be disputed. You are more than welcome to do this and provide your own evidence. If a mutual agreement cannot be reached, the deposit scheme that protects the deposit can appoint an unbiased, impartial adjudicator to consider all evidence and make a ruling. We're pleased to say that the vast majority of deposits CPS Homes returns are done so with mutual agreement between landlord and contract-holder, meaning only a small minority require independent adjudication.

The prooperty had no mould when you moved in. Mould is caused by condensation, which presents itself as dark-coloured spores and starts off as tiny water droplets. These droplets are created when excess moisture in the air comes into contact with a cold surface, e.g. windows, walls (especially exterior walls) and inside furniture. Condensation is commonly caused by low internal room temperatures and a lack of adequate ventilation. The problem can be exasperated when heating is not being used to warm the property, or when there are high moisture levels in the air, for example during showering or if drying damp clothes on radiators.

Both landlord and contract-holder have responsibilities in helping combat condensation. We ask contract-holders to confirm if the heating system is working properly and all parts of each radiator are hot to touch when turned on, whether trickle vents are fitted to the windows and if extractor fans working. If any of these answers are “no”, we will have a conversation with the landlord about making some changes. You never told us that any of this was a problem.

On top of this, we issue contract-holders with detailed, written advice – produced in conjunction with Cardiff Council – on how to reduce mould and condensation. This advice says “in 99.99% of cases, the cure for condensation and mould growth is heating and ventilating a property. This is why tenants must take responsibility for the way they live in their own home”.

Finally, we have no record of you being charged for a broken shower or a blockage. A deep clean of the bathroom (which included the leaving behind of approximately 20 empty toilet rolls) is included in the landlord’s deposit claim, however.

We trust this response accurately records events, but as mentioned, you are welcome to dispute the deposit claim and for the matter to be referred to an independent adjudicator.

The CPS Homes Team.

Réponse de CPS Homes

13 mars 2024

Hi Taiye,

Thank you for leaving a review. We're sorry that your experience with CPS Homes has been a less than positive one and you ultimately haven't been able to secure a property.

We've had a look at the information available to us using the brief details supplied. We received 1 x e-mailed enquiry from you via Zoopla approximately 15 months ago. In this enquiry, you stated that you needed to move considerably earlier than the date the property was available from. Therefore, as your personal circumstances didn't align with the available date, it wasn't possible for you to proceed with your interest.

If you have had any subsequent dealings with us, e.g. over the telephone, please do let us know and we will look into matters. You can send information to feedback@cpshomes.co.uk. We’ve also reached out to you via Trustpilot’s private messaging platform.

Speaking more generally, it is worth bearing in mind that due to the current strong demand for rented accommodation in Cardiff, it is not unusual for us (and other letting agents) to receive 15-20 enquiries for an available property. Unfortunately, only one of these interested parties can proceed, so 14-19 are going to be left disappointed. Letting agents and landlords alike have standard referencing/vetting criteria that need to be met in order to proceed, so if you/any interested party cannot meet that criteria, you are likely to lose out to somebody who can. Equally, even if you can meet the criteria, you might be competing against one or more interested parties who also can, but as mentioned, the landlord can only choose one.

We wish you the best of luck in your ongoing search.

All the best,

The CPS Homes Team.