I rarely write reviews but I feel a moral obligation to warn others following our experience with Astons. My son and his 3 flatmates viewed 73 The Turnways, Headingley in January 2019, they liked it and attended the agents to sort out paperwork. They were told they should sign without delay as there was other interest in the property but were not permitted to take the lengthy tenancy agreement away to read. Feeling under pressure they signed unwittingly allowing Astons a month after the moving to clean and carry out repairs. At the time of viewing the property was occupied and current tenants present so close scrutiny was not possible but all appeared alright. On 1st July 2019 the keys were collected and they were all very excited about moving in. What they found was horrific, the filth and stench was bad enough but we then found that there was a rat infestation and black mould everywhere. The bathroom was disgusting, the toilet brown stained, the oven was thick with grease and food debris, the fridge freezer dirty and mouldy. The washer was awful and smelt musty, it failed to drain even though we cleaned the drawer, seals and ran through maintenance washes. The waste water ran into a drain on the drive which was also blocked and the dirty water ran onto the neighbouring property, something he said was a long standing problem. The carpet was shredded, the previous occupants claim this damage was caused when they cornered a rat in an effort to get it out of the address. The blinds were broken and missing, furniture was in a state of disrepair, dust and dirt everywhere and rubbish in the garden and thrown over the back fence. The roof leaked over a bed due to blocked guttering, this was clear as there was a wet ceiling and mould showing it had been a long standing problem. They had unfortunately signed up for this and on calling the agents they did state that the cleaners had not yet been as they change over all their properties in a day. We understood this but could never have expected the address to actually be uninhabitable. We told Astons the address was not fit to move in and they did get cleaners out. Following this clean there was little difference, the oven wasn't even touched and the toilet still stained. The cleaners apparently attended again, in the end we cleaned the house ourselves. We asked how they could have handed the keys over knowing the house was in such a state and they did agree it was not in an acceptable condition but blamed the previous tenants. Well, yes it was the previous tenants and years of failing to spend anything on maintaining the property, we asked if their inspectors had been to the address before our moving date, they had! We asked for their photographs and shockingly Astons supplied us with them, they show all of the above and they still went ahead!! We carried out a detailed assessment of the address making a note and photographing all the dirt and disrepair, during this inspection we found that the garage was in a dangerous condition with the whole roof balancing on a shelf. The garage was not part of the let but was directly next to the garden. To our horror we then found that the roof was made of asbestos. We pointed this out to Astons and initially they simply said it was not part of the rent and not to use it, we pointed out it was next to the garden and could collapse at any point posing a health risk that could be fatal to the tenants. To cut a very long, stressful story short the address remained uninhabitable for the first month while Astons said they were negotiating with the landlord for much needed and long overdue repairs to be carried out. The blinds were replaced, the garage removed and new carpets laid throughout but while all this was being done we could still not move in. Astons claimed it would be fine to move in and the carpet fitters would rip out the old carpets around their belongings, if you could have seen the state of these carpets, filthy and no doubt containing rat feces, we did not agree. My son was no longer a student and had a new job starting in July but now had nowhere to live, commuting from our home was not feasible due to cost and he had to give back word and search for another job. This of course was of no concern to Astons at all, they refused to negotiate reimbursing the first months rent at all, We also had a bills package at this point so this month of not being able to live at the address cost us nearly £1,800. Eventually they moved in, they found Astons to be unresponsive and generally slow to attend to carry out repairs many of which were botched requiring repeated repairs. Many of the problems that were there when moving in remained there when moving out, they simply got sick of reporting which I imagine is what agents bargain on. The tenancy agreement as with all tenancy agreements states that the property must be left in at least the condition it was received. Believe me it was very tempting to do this but we are better than that and left the address in a clean and much better condition than received. You can therefore imagine the disgust when we received an email stating we would not be receiving back the whole deposit, £30 - damage to walls, £31 - blown light bulbs, £20 - seal around the bath and £22 coins/debris blocking the washer, total £103. Not a huge amount from a £800 deposit, probably just enough for a tenant to agree rather than bother to argue. We questioned their claims and asked for photographs, the damage to the walls were actually scuffs associated to daily wear and tear, something that they cannot claim for, one bulb had gone near to moving in a light fitting they could not access in the toilet, accepted they did not report as this was pointless, the seal around the bath was black, same as when they move in, the washer photo was from Nov 2019, had never drained properly, hence the call out and the debris/coin could be attributed to the previous tenants. After pointing all this out we asked that Astons refer our dispute to the Deposit Protection Scheme as we would very much like an independent company responsible for such disputes to see how Astons were operating. We had tried to take our complaints further at the outset but at the time Astons were not Unipol accredited and the legal costs of pursuing this prohibitive. Astons ‘discussed’ our objections with the landlord and dropped all charges, deposit in full returned within the day. Now I finally get to tell all...BEWARE, in fact don’t even look, there are a few credible agents out there, Astons are not one of them, their business practices are questionable to say the least, taking advantage of young people and getting away with it.