Thank you for taking the time to submit a review, I am sorry to hear you are disappointed with the service received. I will deal with your points in order.

1. With regards to the cleanliness of the property, the flat was newly refurbished throughout (New kitchen/bathroom/carpets/decor) prior to you moving in and unfortunately there will always be an element of dust resettling following extensive works. I have reviewed the inventory and it indicates although the windows were not professionally cleaned there is no mention of grime inside or out. I am a little confused how or why the windows would've been grimy on the outside though when the flat is situated on the seafront and on the 6th floor.

2. In relation to the window repair you highlighted, I can see this was initially reported on the 21/09/17 and with all maintenance issues we approached the landlord straight away detailing your concerns. This was subsequently followed up regularly until we received a response advising that he would prefer for the managing agents to be involved in this as he would consider this to be a block management issue. His response was received on the 02/10/17 (6 working days later), copied over to you as tenants with his thoughts and he was very clear on how we should proceed on this matter. We have to follow the landlords instruction on anything relating to the property and can only do as they advise/authorise us to do, I appreciate this is frustrating however we do not own the property and cannot make decisions on behalf of the landlord especially as with all works there is a financial implication.

3. The water leak was reported by yourselves on the 18/10/17 at 5pm. You advised us that you had received communication from the managing agents who informed you that a contractor will get in touch shortly to assess the damage and deal with any remedial works that were needed. The managing agents then followed up with us to reassure that you were both in contact with one another and that the matter was in hand.

On 22/10/17 it was confirmed by yourselves and the managing agents that the leak has been fixed but we needed to wait for the walls dry out prior to remedial works. On the 23/10/18 the managing agents requested a quote from one of our own contractors for remedial works. There was a slight delay obtaining our quote and during this period we chased it on a number of occasions, we can see on one occasion an appointment was made directly with you but when the contractor attended no one was in. To try and speed up the process of arranging access we intervened and booked a time for our contractor. The quote was received and was sent to the managing agents for authorisation, they confirmed on the 23/02/18 that it was ok to go ahead and we instructed our contractor immediately.

Soon after the above you reported that the leak had started again which subsequently put a stop on the remedial works that had been instructed. The managing agents were advised and they instructed their own contractor to resolve the leak, we then followed up on 13/03/18 to arrange the remedial works once again. The managing agents at this stage requested for you 'To put a small pencil mark around the affected areas and email in a week or so to let us know if they have got any bigger' . On the 05/04/18 you responded 'As per your instructions I drew light marks at the perimeters of some of the worst water damage blots on the wall. It has NOT gotten worse, that is, the damp has not spread beyond the marks I drew. Hopefully this is the end of the water damage from the flat above. '

Following on from your email we instructed our contractor to see if the original quote that was carried out still applies following the second leak, unfortunately he advised that following the 2nd leak there would be an additional cost. This was quoted for and sent to the managing agents to review and authorise, the same day this was given the go ahead. Again from this point there seem to be some difficulty in contacting you as you were away but it was confirmed the works were booked in during May to be carried out and our contractor would be going in with keys. I agree the issue should've been resolved quicker (In particular the time between the leak being resolved and quote being authorised) and it was unfortunate that a second leak occurred which did not help matters.

4. In reference to the drainage issue, we have an emergency contact in place for issues out of hours and you were advised of this when you moved into the property. The contact information was given to you in writing and it is also available on our website. To resolve the issue you quite rightly contacted the block management company who gave you advice on the matter. I can only assume your complaint is that you were not able to get hold of us during this period but the emergency email as monitored over every weekend.

After the issue you approached us on the 20/11/17 about reimbursement of the costs incurred. As with all scenarios such as these we approached the landlord for authorisation to refund monies as ultimately he would need to cover the cost. He agreed this straight away and a bank transfer was done on the 22/11/17 meaning you were refunded within 72 hours. I think you will agree this was dealt with in a swift manner and Virginia emailed expressing her gratitude with regards to how my staff resolved it so quickly.

5. With regards to the deduction for cleaning from the deposit, my Property Manager explained how the check out inspection is carried out by a third party ensuring no bias towards landlord or tenant, it is compared to the inventory that was signed by you when moving in (Please note you amended certain elements and all of these amendments were accepted). The checkout only highlighted cleaning and was charged against the deposit, in particular the oven required cleaning as was brand new when you moved in. We have photographic evidence to support deductions and am happy to share these with you again and any readers of these comments. The deposit was held in the mydeposits scheme and if you disagreed with the deductions you can raise a dispute, this is a free service to all tenants.

I note you have put your review on multiple sites and due to the length of characters available some are shorter than others. One point I really want to clarify is you being International students and thinking that cultural differences has a bearing on how you would be dealt with. With complete confidence I can confirm this is not the case and we have set procedures within our company when managing a tenancy to deal with every individual the same regardless of any factors.

Once again please accept my apologies that you were unhappy with the service provided, we will always action and review feedback from clients as are constantly looking to improve our service.