The member of staff that Cathy Rodgers fails to name is Wendy and I support everything that Wendy and my team did to deal with this situation as it presented itself.

Thanks for the review Cathy. We always take comments from a tenant seriously and I hope you don't mind me putting straight a few of your complaints and issues.

Over 50% of our tenants are students and we have built up a good relationship with the student community in Edinburgh over our 10 years in business. Cathy your opening line is a little strong and unfair.

The flat was professionally cleaned prior to entry, we have the invoice to prove this, and two maggots in the cutlery drawer!" is news to us. The property's inventory notes a few comments from yourselves of dirty" but we have no history on file of complaints about cleanliness.

The outside basement coal cellar which you state as an office has a history of dampness (as do many cellars in Edinburgh) and the landlord directly contracted a firm to carry out a damp proof course. If there was a problem with the manner in which they conducted themselves ACE should have been made aware at the time so we could have dealt with any issues arising. Saying that they help themselves to tea and biscuits!" sounds hard to believe as I'm sure you would have lodged a complaint with us?! The landlord has confirmed that the contracts did not have keys for the flat as access to the cellar is to the front of the property, so if they entered the property, you must have given access.

You state that you called the office to inform us of your wish to leave the property. We have no record of ever speaking to you or any of your flatmates. The first time we were made aware of your intention to leave the flat was when you turned up at our office unannounced and dumped the keys on the front desk. As per the lease you signed and were told at the time, you were required to give 2 months' notice in writing before leaving. Your animated performance in the office when informed of this was dealt with very patiently by my staff.

It helps my response that you have actually written especially as the flat was no longer of any use to us". This basically tells anyone reading your review that you no longer wanted the flat and thought you could just up and leave. You informed us that a family member was a lawyer and that she would sort things out. That was excellent news for ACE as she would see that you were in the wrong and had not provided your appropriate notice.

From keys being dumped in the office without 2 months notice, we immediately advertised the property to try and limit your exposure and found new tenants within a month. Cathy and her flatmates did continue to pay rent as she states which we appreciate. We did not charge the tenants any early release costs to cover advertising etc and worked as quickly as possible to rectify the situation.

When locked out of the flat a member of my team agreed to meet the tenants at the office to provide keys. This was all done out of hours and on more than one occasion!

At the official move out inspection none of the tenants made an effort to be there.

The tenancy deposit scheme made the final decision relating to the mentioned deductions returning the flat to the condition it was rented in.

Alan Nash
Director