Crystalight Ltd

I am quite surprised by the way their Cardiff flats are managed. From the very beginning, and after the contract signing with their previous agent (let-find only), problems appeared. These should have been dealt with way before advertising the property, especially that they are not so big: 1- The broken window curtain in the bathroom, many blown out bulbs, and, most important, the broken down washing machine programming knob shaft rendering the whole device inoperable. My mistake, of course, is that I did not discover the knob was broken before signing. They made me fill in a useless repair form and take some photographs to send them. The employee named K. who corresponded by e-mail could not be bothered to type his full name or look at the rest of the e-mail attachments, only to ask me to send the photos. I told him to check my e-mail again. To be fair, he was sorry, although he continued to sign K. I phoned the company afterwards to see their repair plans, only to tell me that they were waiting for the inventory, which the agent has not shown to me then. So, I went to the agent without an appointment, only to discover that the inventory was ready for me to sign. After about ten days, Crystalight sent a guy who could only fix the small stuff and were clearly hoping that the washing machine issue did not require a specialist. So, another week gone without washing, despite the fact that I had sent them a clear photo of the broken knob shaft about 10 days earlier when I moved in. The whole washing machine issue took 17 days (from checking in) to be sorted. 2- The deposit. I cannot believe how can they let their agent act the way he did. Two months after checking in, the deposit had not been submitted. Crystalight gave me the deposit number when I asked them and when I checked the status online, it was "Inactive" and "Awaiting Payment". Their agent only told me in an e-mail "Will check", only to ignore me for a few more months until it was time to sign a new 6 month contract. He told me a story of some other tenant being allocated a double-bond in the DPS and that the DPS should sort it out themselves. Month after month, still nothing. Crystalight told me they tried to contact the agent but did not respond, only to advise me afterwards to seek legal action against the agent. I then went to the agent myself and he phoned the DPS in front of me then told me the same (truly believable) story about the double-bond and it will be sorted soon. I sent an e-mail to the DPS telling them what he told me. To my surprise, they responded to me in an e-mail basically saying (implicitly) that non-of this is true. I forwarded this to the agent. After angrily phoning the agent afterwards, surprise, surprise, the payment was submitted. This gives a good idea how Crystalight cares for its reputation, especially that I am the one chasing their agent whom I later discovered (online) that he and (any other agents) had complete control over the bond allocation process. To be fair, I noticed they changed the agent after a couple of months, but....see the next and final problem. 3- At check-out. One month before check out, I noticed that the water meter cabinet in the communal area was locked, unlike the electricity meter. I phoned Crystalight and their new manager told me everything will be sorted at check out. Not surprisingly, nothing had been done to get the cabinet key. Their new agent, whose manager is always on the phone or busy doing something (useful for tenants) made up a story that he (the agent) contacted the building managment company who will send them the key, then made up another story that the key was sent to Crystalight by mistake. Crystalight, unsurprisingly, denied anything was sent. I e-mailed the building management company myself. They responded and denied anyone contacted them about any key. They advised me that the front door key also opens the cabinet. So basically, the new agent turned out to be a liar (I have the e-mail from the building management company). Crystalight manager could not seem to be bothered at all. And now, the laughing bit which no one at the time seemed to know: Neither me nor my new neighbour (before I checked out) were given the front door key at check-in. We could only enter the building using the electronic key code. Plus, the key cylinders were clearly of a different size. In the end, the water company gave me an estimated bill based on a previous one, only for me to discover that they know the building and have the key and could have helped me if I had phoned them way before check-out. I must mention that I tried to let the management company open the cabinet for me through their cleaners but a very bright call centre employee nearly accused me of planning a heist (may be on the empty flat I just checked out from). A side note: being a foreigner in the UK, I had no idea that being open and honest could potentially get me into trouble, just for wanting to take my water meter reading in a communal building area after seeking permission from a management company who does not know that previous tenants, the postman and the water meter man all know the key code. Final note: I have not been given any check out inventory or documents to sign, although, I got back the full amount of the deposit after about 21 days (from check-out) of constant e-mails and phone calls between me and Crystalight, the new agent and the old agent. The phone calls were just because my e-mails were somewhat hard to read (or may be ignored?).