Lighthouse Property Services Ltd

Would not recommend Lighthouse in the slightest. We were warned before signing with them from 3rd years but chose to go with them anyway. When we first arrived the house was in a state. The bannister was broken, my door had a hole in it from where someone had obviously kicked it down previously, my carpet was torn, there were blue tac marks and scratches on the walls and there were bits of rubbish under beds and in draws that obviously weren't cleaned. The whole house was unclean, sticky and dirty. My housemates bed was broken, as another. My other housemates mattress was stained. Two bedroom doors wouldn't even lock as the lock didn't even match up to the latch. The mismatched furniture was cheap and unsafe. We didn't receive a bin, a mirror, a broom, a dustpan and brush or a mop, a dish-bowl in the sink, a kettle, a toaster, an ironing board or any information regarding the house in general. We wrote everything down on the inventory and cleaned the house ourselves before moving in. When we looked round the house initially, one of the sofas was completely torn to shreds, a small leather sofa, where you couldn't sit on it without a layer of something in between you and it because it would cut you from the scratched leather. The guy showing us around said that the sofa would be changed before we moved in. We also noticed that there was no tv, very different from other student housing companies around. The guy said if we asked the landlord for a tv we would get one. Much to our dismay, when we arrived to the house, the sofa wasn't changed and there was no tv. We reported it and around 2 months later a new sofa arrived, a large grey fabric sofa, nice. Meanwhile, whilst living in the house, we soon noticed that the washing machine didn't work. Whenever it was put on a cycle, the water stayed in and wouldn't drain, so we'd have to keep putting it on to drain or spin and clothes were still soaking and ruined, as we had no dryer this was an issue. This was reported and never fixed for the whole year. When going to use the oven, all the markings had rubbed off, so we were left guessing how it worked. (Obviously there was no manual). When cooking on the hob, it took a simple pan of boiling water to set off the smoke detector that was straight above the hob. Also reported. Anytime we went in the shower, water would go everywhere. And we rang up to let them know, someone came out and said it was because of the tiles on the back wall, so he replaced these, and it continued to happen, we reported again and to solve the issue he 'grouted' the plastic shower screen to the edge of the bath so it wouldn't move. Unconventional but did work. My house mate who's bed was broken finally got it replaced after around 3 months. When in this time went to get a piece of clothing out of her wardrobe and it was soaking wet. Other pieces covered in mould. Mould all around the inside of the cupboard, black and green mould ruined all her clothes and the walls. When it would rain, water would appear on the inside of the wardrobe and run down the walls. The mould eventually resulted in my housemate getting really ill with a chest infection, as her subject at university is dance, this affected her performance and wellbeing. This housemate continued to report the mould, someone came around and sprayed general mould cleaner and she was told to clean it off herself. After reporting numerous more times, a vent was fitted in the wardrobe that did nothing to fix this issue! She continued to pay her rent although not actually being able to live in the house for approx 6 months. Mould was an issue in another housemates bedroom and also prominent in the bathroom, as there was no window and an extractor fan that didn't work. This was reported and someone came to “fix” the fan and nothing changed, as for the mould we had to clean it ourselves, again. I myself at one point sat on the end of my bed and it broke straight through, when looking at it, it was obvious that the bed had been broken and “fixed” before. I reported this and it took 2 days for someone to come and fix this. This is not long at all for lighthouse, but as I was sleeping essentially on a hill now, it seemed a long time. The weak wooden bed frame broke once again and when I rang up to let lighthouse know I was met by a very rude middle aged man, I was polite and explained it too him and he was sarcastic and extremely patronising and short tempered with me. My bed did eventually get fixed. The floor in our kitchen was peeling away from the walls, the skirting boards were so high that anything would get underneath and the house was infested with wood lice and ants. We reported the ants and lighthouse said they wouldn't do anything as it was an “occupational hazard” so we had to sort it out our selves yet again. So, here is the worst part... Near the end of our tenancy the pipe under the sink burst, letting water spill out for a good week. We reported as soon as we noticed it, and lighthouse waited a weekend (where we couldn't use the kitchen sink) and then fixed it. Whilst fixing it, the guy said it could be a mouse that cause it. A few days later I went to the bathroom in the morning and noticed wood chippings on the bath mat and all behind the toilet. We reported it to lighthouse and a few days later an exterminator came round. He said there was no traces of any mice and put bait down anyway. He came back to look at the bait a week later and said it hadn't been touched so he took the bait away. That same day, I went to pick up a tshirt our of the corner of my wardrobe and it was TORN TO SHREDS. I looked down where my tshirt had been and there was a hole in my floor! We reported it straight away and the guy came back the next day with some more bait and put some in my room this time. The exterminator seemed the whole time like he couldn't be bothered and still refused to admit any traces of pests. He then came back once again to remove the bait and said it hadn't been touched again! We assumed the pest had gone now, and my house mate walked down the stairs and on the kitchen floor stairing up at her was a small dog sized RAT!!! She screamed and it ran off behind the cupboards. We reported this once more after having proof that it was still alive and the exterminator came back once more with stronger bait. A few weeks went by and we didn't notice anything else. Until one day one of our kitchen cupboards started to smell bad. We asked the maintenance guy to check it out whilst at our house fixing a different issue and he agreed that it smelt really bad. He took the bottom of the cupboard off and underneath was the huge dead decomposing rat! These are just a few of the countless issues encountered with our Lighthouse property, and although these cannot all be blamed on Lighthouse themselves, the utter lack of sympathy or help from them is shocking. Lighthouse have a serious problem regarding communication, often it would take multiple people calling up/emailing/going in to the office for anything to be done. You could report one problem, and then ring up to check what is happening and speak to another person and they have no idea what you're on about! Staff are more often than not, patronising and do not take you seriously as a person. Just because I'm a student does not mean that I am less of a human. I need somewhere safe and clean to live. I need a housing company that will help rather than hinder my life and lighthouse do not help in the slightest. Lighthouse do not treat you like a human being. They are a company that care more about profits than they do the tenants living in their houses. Do not rent with lighthouse.