waragainstcrooks said about Wideway

Services : Letting( As a Tenant )Date: 13th Aug 2014

Underneath is my leaving notice to Wideway. I hope people will get a good sense of what sort of agents Wideway are. In my experience they were the worst agents/landlords I ever had, and I would strongly advise against renting from them.
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15 Dec 2013


Dear Sirs

I would like to end my tenancy and leave the property on 20 Jan 2014.
I believe you have not provided me with a satisfactory living environment.
The problems I'm encountering in this property are as follows:


NOISE:

I contacted you on 7 Aug about this issue. It's now 15 Dec (4 months later) and the issue is still present. I explained the issue in great detail in my email on 7 Aug.

In short my front door is structurally not fit for the purpose of blocking noise from outside.

It has huge gaps between the door and the frame (1.6cm). Because of this I'm constantly exposed to noise from the flat next door and also two flats from the floor below. I'm constantly hearing shouting from both flats from the floor below.

Since I moved in in June I've been exposed to domestic violence noises from Flat 7 on a daily basis. I had to call the Police 4 times because of this. Because of this situation I am forced to sleep with earplugs, and to use them throughout the day as this is the only way to stop the TV noise from Flat 7.

The tenants in that flat have changed now, but the noise issue is still present. I can hear my new neighbours' TV throughout the day, their arguments, and I can hear them having sex quite vividly.

This is completely unacceptable.

SEWAGE:

There is sewage smell coming from my shower plughole, from under my kitchen sink, and from outside my window. The sewage system is constantly getting blocked and this smell is always present. 

I brought this to the attention of your contractor Tayab when he visited the flat on 01 Oct.

I can't keep my window open because my whole flat smells of sewage when I do. Your contractor Tayab said that he can clearly smell the sewage coming from the window, and said that something is blocked somewhere in the building and that he is aware there have been blockage problems with my flat in the past.

When Flat 7 tenants use their kitchen or bathroom I get that sewage water coming up from my shower plughole, and it already flooded my bathroom once. When they use the plunger in their bathroom it is all coming out in my shower.

When my bathroom got flooded with this sewage water, the person from drainage company who came to unblock the pipes said the plumbing job has been done completely against the plumbing regulations, because kitchen and bathroom from my flat and the kitchen and bathroom from Flat 7 are all using the same drain pipe. He also added that because of this, this is always going to be blocking and flooding, and it's just a matter of time before it happens again.


OTHER ISSUES


DRAUGHT
Because of the huge gap between my front door and the door frame, I have wind blowing under my door and I'm paying huge electric bill for heating.

BATHROOM HEATER:
The only way to dry my clothes is in the bathroom which is so small without any air circulation so I have to have my bathroom heater engaged on maximum setting for hours and spend huge amounts on electricity. This heater was broken since I moved in and I brought it to your attention on 11 Sep. It took almost two months for you to get it fixed. It was finally re-installed on 2 Nov, and the electrician Steve who came with your contractor Jim said that it was installed against the health and safety regulations, because it was right next to the shower, and this constitutes a very serious and potentially deadly threat.

SHOWER:
I can't stand up properly in my shower cabin, my head is touching the ceiling. It's been installed unnecessarily high (20cm off the ground) and it's in an attic flat with already very low ceiling. Because of this issue, ever since I moved in the paint from the ceiling has been peeling off and crumbling all over my hair when I shower, and the mould has been growing everywhere in the shower cabin. It was finally painted over by your contractor Jim on 7 Nov (2 months after I brought it to your attention). When he painted it he said that even with the new paint, because the shower cabin is so low, and the humidity has nowhere to go, the paint will start crumbling again, and the mould growing.

FLUSH:
The toilet flush doesn't work properly. It doesn't fill enough water so the stream is too short and it can't flush anything in one go. Sometimes I need to flush it five times, and sometimes it just can't flush the contents of the toilet bowl, and I need to leave them there to naturally dissolve over time. And sometimes it is just getting stuck on refilling and I need to keep pressing it until it stops overfilling.

INTERCOM:
Intercom is working intermittently, and because of this I am regularly missing parcel deliveries and have to go to the delivery office or spend money on repeated deliveries.

HOBS:
The hobs are very unreliable. It takes about 10 minutes for them to start working, and one of the big hobs is not working properly. It needs to be turned to high setting to work at all, otherwise it just doesn't generate any heat.

STORAGE:
Apart from the wardrobe, there is not a single storage unit anywhere in the flat. I have to keep my toiletries, my crockery and cutlery and my food in cardboard boxes.

SMOKE ALARM:
The smoke alarm has been installed right above the only kitchen surface, where the hobs and toaster are, so it gets activated right into my ears every time I use the toaster.

UNREGISTERED ADDRESS:
This address hasn't been registered with the council. I spoke to the Geographic and Property information officer with Lambeth Council Street Naming and Numbering department, and he said that they only have record of one property at this address, and not a building with 9 flats with separate letterboxes. He also added that this needs to be registered with the council by the landlord. Because this address is non-existent on Council records, I was refused application for credit and couldn't register for the Electoral Roll.

FINANCIAL DISCREPANCIES:
- I have been charged £200 'Agreement Fee' when I signed the contract, and was told that this was the agency fee plus the inventory check, but the inventory check hasn't been carried out.
- This address is not registered with the Lambeth Council Tax office, and yet I am paying £80 monthly in Council Tax (confirmed by Mr. Latif, the landlord).


From 7 Aug until today I have made exactly 33 phone calls to you and your contractors, and have emailed you exactly 36 times. Great number of my emails have been ignored. And the issues are still present.

In the light of all these issues I consider you are not providing me with a satisfactory living environment as per contract, and this is causing me great distress.

I would like a break of contract with a leaving date on 20 Jan 2014, and full deposit refunded.

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