“Really poor service all round. We rented a property with ......”
1 Star Review
Feb 01,2022
By:
'Niall'
Feb 01,2022
Branch: Crawley, 13 Tilgate Parade
Services: Lettings (as a Tenant)
Would you recommend?: No
Postcode: RH11
Branch: Crawley, 13 Tilgate Parade
Lettings (as a Tenant)
Postcode: RH11
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Really poor service all round. We rented a property with Inspire for two years and that tenancy has just come to an end. Throughout the tenancy, we were met with resistance, procrastination, and excuses whenever repairs were required. Some of the low-lights include refusing to repair a faulty appliance that was clearly included on the signed inventory, refusing to repair a dangerous electrical issue due to ‘high cost’, and refusing to allow access to the whole of the property despite this being explicitly allowed on the Tenancy Agreement*.
At each step of the way, Inspire persisted with a dishonest and patronising attitude towards us which really left a bitter taste in the mouth. Inspire did everything in their power to ensure that the greedy landlord wouldn’t have to put his hand in his pocket to make necessary repairs, instead shifting the cost onto us, the tenants. I understand that this is their prerogative as the landlord is their client but things like requesting that the tenants perform repairs themselves and blaming condensation caused by a faulty seal on ‘sideways rain’ bordered on the ridiculous.
All of this came to head when instead of performing the required repairs, Inspire/the landlord chose to illegally serve us with a Section 21 notice. However, Inspire were so incompetent that they had broken not one, but multiple gas and electrical safety laws during our tenancy so this allowed us to overturn the retaliatory eviction and stay until the end of our fixed term. We were fortunate that we had the time and resources to fight the eviction, but others might not be so lucky.
Obviously, this review is anecdotal, and I wouldn’t expect anyone to take my word as Gospel, so here are some other sources:
“We discussed your current dispute(s) with your landlord and you confirmed that you have not received from your landlord an updated Gas Safety Certificate since the one you received at the start of the tenancy in February 2020. Therefore, on this basis the s21 Notice is invalid” – Citizen’s Advice
*“You have a legal right to access” – Citizen’s Advice
“As you were not given the gas certificate upon receiving the notice, this could be an argument to say the notice is invalid.” – Shelter
“your landlord is acting disgracefully. It's unacceptable that landlords are using Section 21s to throw people out of their homes and you shouldn’t have to put up with this.” – Acorn
TL;DR I have dealt with a few dodgy agents during my time as a student but Inspire easily set a new low. I would warn anyone thinking about renting with Inspire to proceed with caution.
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