Hello Lynsey,

Sorry I have not replied to your review sooner. I am only just checking this review site for the first time. I am very sorry to read and hear that you were unhappy in your home and I can assure this is certainly never our wish. However I do feel that your review is rather unfair and misses a lot of the facts.

We have looked after the property that you lived in since 2007 with three different tenants before you and I can assure you that we have NEVER before received a complaint about the shop below. You however obviously did find noise in a flat above a commercial premise surprising and did report this to us after a couple of months. As I have said this was the first time anyone had ever reported this to us so I visited the shop beneath you and spoke with your landlord as I discussed with your partner David as we spoke about how best to approach this subject with your Landlord.

Your Landlord, his father and his Grandfather before him have traded out of this premises for over 70 years and your Landlord confirmed that he does start work at 5am in order to make the pies, peel and mash the potatoes that are need to serve his customers throughout the day. He was unable to change his start time as he would simply then not be able to prepare the food in time to run his business but he did say that he would change his working patens so that he did quieter jobs first and would then not need to use any machinery before 6am. As far as I know he did keep to this proposal??

I also agree that he did offer to release you from your agreement without financial penalty as like ourselves he would not want to hold anyone to an agreement in a property that they were unhappy in. It was certainly never put to you that you either have to like it or just move out!! I still believe this is a reasonable offer if we were unable to find a suitable solution. You certainly never suggested any other practical solution?

To make another point on this matter, the only person who would have lost out with this arrangement would have been ourselves as we would have needed to re-let the property and of course we would not have charged our Landlord again.

With regards to the leak to your toilet, cockroaches and the problem with your boiler. You have simply not stated the facts here! The toilet and cockroaches was first reported to our office on 9/12/13 exactly one month after your occupation. The toilet was fixed by our plumber the very next day 10/12/13. We had a pest control company visit for their first treatment on 11/12/13 (two days after you first reporting this to us) and they subsequently returned on 08/01/14 and 22/01/14 for the second and THIRD treatments. I can see from the notes on our systems that on one of the subsequent visits we were instructed by your partner David to release keys as no one would be at home. This is a standard treatment programme for cockroaches and if you had reported to us that you still had cockroaches we could have got the same company to return without additional cost to resume treatment. You have worried me by saying that you had them all year and I have just spoken with the new tenant who has said that he has not seen them. However he is a young man living there by himself and I will be visiting to check this out as he may not have even noticed.

The boiler problem did go on for longer than we would have liked however with the best of intentions it is not always possible to fix a problem immediately. You were not left without hot water for two weeks but there was a problem for this long. I do not have a date that you first reported this as your boiler had lost pressure so I visited and re-pressurised the system for you. You then reported that the boiler had lost pressure again on 07/03/14 and I again attended to re-pressurise the boiler but also instructed our plumber as I had done this twice in quick succession. Our plumber attended the next day on 08/03/14 and advised us that the Flow Sensor needed replacing and we were again instructed by your Landlord to replace this immediately. Unfortunately the part required was not in stock so our plumber ordered this and it was delivered on 24/03/14 and installed on the same day. Throughout this time you did have hot water and heating but the boiler kept needing to be restarted. As I have already said we would have liked this problem to have been sorted out much sooner and if the parts were stocked it would have been. If you had not had any hot water at all we would have arranged an alternative solution but this was not the case and it was an inconvenience for a couple of weeks.

With regards to the mice, as you have already stated there was some construction works started on the building next door to yours and when construction work like this starts it is a common problem that you can get mice and other vermin being displaced and looking for alternative accommodation themselves which is very different to there being an infestation of mice which would require professional attention. It is a perfectly reasonable course of action to try to catch a rogue mouse or two before calling in pest control. Another huge contributing factor to having mice in a property is providing them with a ready supply of food which leads me directly on to the cost of cleaning the property upon your vacation.

When you vacated the property on 09/11/14 it was left very dirty as Lak has politely put it. Your partner David was emailed the pictures taken upon vacation and I have attached to my response pictures that were taken upon both your occupation and vacation for comparison. We use a cleaning company when needed and they took 6 hours to clean the property after your vacation and I have no cause to dispute with them the time they required. There is nothing wrong with the construction of the property you rented from us and I do not know what qualifications you have to make this claim. As you can see the washing machine was spotlessly clean when you moved in to the property and it is also clear from the pictures that you never once took the time to wipe any of the appliances over so it is no wonder mildew developed and your clothes smelt.

If there were ever any issues that were not reported to us, how could we have ever fixed them? We have always dealt with any problem you reported and I take great offence to the accusation that we would ever rob anyone!!

After your vacation there was an over payment of rent on your account (we only receive payments and do not collect them) which was returned within five days of your vacation without question and your deposit was returned 15 days after your vacation and as soon as we had had been able to get the cleaners to attend and settled their bill. Well within the 30 days given to deal with a deposit refund.

Your deposit was protected throughout your tenancy by MyDeposits and if you had any issue over the refund and the deduction for cleaning you had every opportunity to dispute this with them.

I must say Lynsey that it has given me no pleasure at all to have had to respond to your review on such a public platform but you have never addressed any of these issues with us and you have spoken to myself, one of the directors of Elms Estates on a number of occasions and could have easily address the points raised with me directly so that we may have resolved any issues that you have had.

If you wish to discuss any of the above further, then please do not hesitate to contact me at the office.

Regards

Rutland Elms