Olympia Estates

If I could leave 0 stars for Olympia Estates, I would do. I rented an apartment on Kensington Gardens Square, with the intention of staying for a couple of years. In the end, I only stayed for 6 months. My main point of contact was Luta Simon, from Olympia Estates. I was told I was not able to move into the flat until a certain date, as it was being professionally cleaned. When I arrived, the flat was still dirty and had various bits of property / rubbish left over from the previous tenants, including; bedding, used pots and pans, art work and dirty kitchen appliances. Before I moved in, I was told the bed was being replaced, as the current mattress was filthy, discoloured with a lot of stains. The bed was not replaced for over a month after I moved in, which I had to chase several times. The fridge freezer had not been defrosted, or cleaned, and still had food remains left inside. It had not even been wiped down. There were mice droppings along the skirtings and when I pulled the fridge freezer out to properly clean it, there were a lot of mice droppings behind there. The toilet was dirty, with stains in the bottom of the pan, which had to be chemically removed. The shower had a limescale build up that took three months of scrubbing to get clean. I had to request plugs, as the sink and shower just had holes in them, with the bare pipe showing and nothing to stop things falling down them. One of the two windows was broken, as in it would not open or close properly, so during the summer months, only one window could be opened. There were no blinds, curtains or nettings installed, these had to be requested, which took several months. I was told internet was included in the rent, which was true, however, it was only for 2GB of data, which is used up within a few days from simply a mobile phone device. This was not identified before I moved in, I was just told that I did not need to worry about internet as it was already set up. Televisions etc could not connect to this internet as it could not handle it. I must have contacted Olympia Estates 30 times regarding this issue, which they kept directing me to random a telephone number that never answered the phone. Eventually, I sorted out my own internet and paid for it myself. However, when I went to do this, I was unable to, as the property did not have a legitimately registered address. Even though I was paying council tax, I had to contact BT Openreach and Royal Mail to have the address registered, which is something Olympia Estates should have done before anyone moved into the property. They were extremely unhelpful throughout this and gave me no advice or help and barely responded to any emails / calls. When they did respond, they would just tell me to sort it out myself. The main and major problem with this flat was the issues with the plumbing. In short, the heating and pressure did not work properly. The shower would go from boiling hot to freezing cold every minute or so, constantly. The boiling hot water was so hot, it left red marks on my skin, clearly where the water had hit it. Obviously not official burns, but definitely not ideal! No matter how long you left it running before you got in, it would still do this. I could leave it running for half an hour and it still would not even out in temperature. The same problem happened with the taps in the bathroom and kitchen sink. The pressure in the shower would go from a mediocre power, to a dribble, and back again approximately, every couple of minutes. This combined with the temperature fluctuation made for a very difficult shower. The toilet also would not flush properly. A combination of a weak flushing system and lack of water, would mean the toilet had to be flushed three or four times before the water would run clear again. Even one piece of tissue paper would take several flushes. The communal washing machine did not work properly either. You have to pay separately for this, at £3.00 for one wash. It is an industrial style washing machine, which looks extremely out of date and the clothes come out dirtier than they go in. The water that washes them must be dirty, because all of my clothes came out with brown stains and marks all over. I took pictures of these stains and sent them to Olympia Estates, to which they ignored my emails. I resorted to washing my clothes by hand in the kitchen sink. I could have visited a laundrette but the flat I was in, was on the sixth floor and there was no lift, so carrying all that washing would have been tricky. I complained to Olympia Estates many, many, many times about these issues. I sent photographs of my damaged clothes to them, I contacted them pretty much every day regarding the plumbing problems and they'd either ignore me or tell me they'd get back to me. They'd send the maintenance team round, to repeatedly tell me the same thing. To be fair, the maintenance man, Marius, was extremely helpful and would do everything he could, there and then. But the problem was with the plumbing for the entire building, so to fix it would be a very big job. Attending my flat, would not fix any of the issues, as it was not simply contained to that area. After many complaints for months, Olympia Estates employed an engineer to attend the flat, to attempt to fix the problem. He confirmed what I was saying, that the problem was with the plumbing system in the building and that there was nothing that could be done to fix it for just my flat, it would need to be dealt with from the main supply. He viewed the pumps throughout the rest of the building and assured me that Olympia Estates needed to rectify the issue for the whole building, as nothing could be done to resolve the problems in just my flat. The engineer and I went back to Olympia Estates with this, and they did nothing. I continued to complain, eventually stating that if the problem was not going to be resolved, I would like this to be reflected in the amount of rent I pay each month. I was paying £1,083.40 per calendar month, which was not indicative of the service that I was receiving. I asked for this to be renegotiated, to take into consideration the lack of vital, coherent plumbing. Luta Simon contacted me to bluntly tell me, that they were not going to do anything about the plumbing problems, they were not going to reduce my rent and if I didn't like it, then I could leave. She said, she had confirmed with the landlord that they were happy for me to leave, only giving two or three weeks' notice, which superseded the contract I had signed, which was a one year tenancy. I later responded stating that I would like to terminate my tenancy, with immediate effect. Throughout my many conversations and complaints with Olympia Estates, specifically Luta Simon, the tone of these conversations diminished rapidly. Before I moved in, Luta and anyone else from Olympia Estates were friendly and lovely to speak to. They would quickly reply to my calls and emails. But as soon as I moved in, the communication broke down. The majority of my messages were ignored, and the ones that did receive a response were blunt and unhelpful. Luta and Olympia Estates did nothing to try to help the situation or apologise for the inconvenience. No compensation or resolution was offered, I was simply told to get on with it, or get out. I paid my rent in full and on time every month, for the time I spent in the property. I actually moved out before the end of the final paid month, however, I was so keen to get out of there, I made no attempt to claw back any money or have that argument as to what I was entitled to, as I simply had no energy to argue with Olympia Estates anymore. I was, however, expecting my deposit, of £1,083.40, to be repaid into my account within a few weeks of moving out. When I did not receive this, I contacted Olympia Estates, who didn't reply, so I contacted the agency that held my deposit. They told me that the deposit was in dispute, as Olympia Estates were attempting to take it as a form of payment. As I had paid all my rent in full, this was a clear violation of the terms of my agreement with Olympia Estates, so the case went to adjudication. I spent months providing countless amounts of information and proof and copies of emails between Olympia Estates and myself, proving that Olympia Estates were trying to scam me. I received several random and aggressive emails from Michal Dusek, from Olympia Estates, threatening me and accusing me of only terminating the tenancy because I had found somewhere else to live and wanted to move out. I had to provide proof of emails and conversations with others showing that I was being forced to move out and chance my circumstances because my landlord would not resolve the problems. After I had proved this to Michal Dusek, he never emailed me again. Eventually, I won the adjudication case and was rewarded with 75% of my original deposit. I lost about 25%, because, although Olympia Estates superseded the original contract in an email, stating that I only had to provide 2-3 weeks notice, this was not part of the original contract, so the adjudicator included one part form the original contract, which stated that I was required to provide 28 days notice before terminating. She explained she was taking into account both sides of the argument and awarding in favour of the tenant, but with consideration to the landlord. As I provided 20 days notice (which was within the 2-3 weeks notice indicated in the email), I still had to pay 8 days worth of rent, to make up the 28 day notice period, which amounted to the 25% loss. When I received this information from the adjudicator, I was provided with a breakdown and analysis of the case. Included within this document, was information regarding an argument Olympia Estates tried to raise. They stated that they felt I was to also pay an additional £250 in administration fees, for the whole process of me having to claim back my deposit. The adjudicator accepted this cost, but asked Olympia Estates to provide back up as to where the £250 had come from, to justify its expense. The document states, that Olympia Estates were unable to explain or justify where this additional “administration fee” had come from and were unable to provide any evidence of any administrative work. Olympia Estates had simply thrown this random figure into the equation at the last hurdle, in attempt to withhold more money from me. In light of this, the adjudicator disregarded the additional cost from Olympia Estates, stating that I was not to pay it, as it could not be justified and was not genuine. This was another example of how Olympia Estates have tried to be sneaky and scam me for much more money than they are entitled to. I moved out in July 2017, and have only just received my refunded deposit in February 2018. The whole process took seven months to resolve, which included constant battling. I could have been slightly more understanding, if there were no other tenants interested in the property, which meant that Olympia Estates had lost business. However, this was not the case, as before I had even moved out, viewings after viewings after viewings were being arranged to view the property, so it was clearly in high demand. I knew this because I was still connected to the automated text messaging system, set up by Olympia Estates, that alerted me every time someone was coming to view the property, even after I had moved out. At this point, Olympia Estates had not even responded to my email terminating my contract, to confirm my termination, before they put the property back on the market. As far as I am aware, the issues with the plumbing have STILL not been resolved, and Olympia Estates have absolutely no intention of fixing it, as it would be a costly job. By the looks of things, the plumbing for the entire building needs to be repaired, which Olympia Estates have no intention of rectifying. As well as these issues mentioned, there were many other problems that occurred whilst I stayed in the property, including things such as my post going missing, visible dirty pipework in the bathrooms, furniture already broken when I moved in which Olympia Estates would not fix or replace, you cannot adjust the heating thermostat so you have no control over when the heating is on or off and at what temperature, etc. I would STRONGLY ADVISE looking elsewhere. I understand renting in Central London is pricey and you don't get much for your money, but the service I endured was shocking. I was polite and professional throughout and I was treated terribly. To this day, I have never received an apology or even acknowledgement of my dissatisfaction or discomfort whilst living in the flat, from Olympia Estates. Whilst reading the other comments on this page, I notice other tenants have had similar problems with Olympia Estates, so I am not a one off. Hopefully, these repeated complaints will be adhered to, one day!