Letting Firm Probe Follows Student Complaints

Letting Firm Probe Follows Student Complaints

16:56 PM, 23rd November 2011, About 12 years ago 40

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A student landlord who charged a tenant £290 for cleaning two flies from a windowsill is under investigation by a landlord consumer body after a number of complaints.

Campbell Property, based in Pewsey, Wiltshire, has removed accreditation from the UK Association of Letting Agents from its website pending an inquiry.

The firm specialises in letting to students in Cardiff, Birmingham, Exeter and Portsmouth.

Instead of the UKALA logo, the website says: “Please note that the UKALA logo has been removed from this website pending our renewal application which was submitted to UKALA on 5th October and is currently being processed. Campbell Property has been a member of UKALA since 2007.”

UKALA confirmed other disgruntled tenants had complained about Campbell Property.

A UKALA spokesman told the Birmingham Sunday Mercury newspaper: “They are members but their membership is under review. We have complaints about Campbell Property and we’re looking into them.”

One student, Katie Evans, 20, from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, claims she left a property let to her in Edgbaston, Birmingham, by Campbell Property ‘spotless’ when she moved out – and then received a bill for cleaning together with a photo of the two dead flies as evidence of the cost.

She has also complained to the Midland Landlord Accreditation Scheme, which is also considering a separate complaint against Campbell Property. MLAS declined to comment about cases under investigation.

Property company director Victoria Campbell told the Mercury: “Campbell Property offered Miss Evans the opportunity to request a supervised clean.

“Miss Evans declined the offer and did not complete the cleaning required before she vacated the property and has subsequently been charged, at the rates that she accepted at the commencement of her tenancy, for external contractors to complete the work.”

Landlords can deduct cleaning costs from deposits handed over by tenants – or bill them for the work if there is no deposit.


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Comments

Mary Latham

22:18 PM, 4th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Fay how do they expect to collect the money for these charges if they have no money that is due to be returned?

22:23 PM, 4th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Thanks Mark!! Campbell are a complete nightmare as can be seen on the Facebook page, i just hope someone can stop them doing what they do 🙁 .... i will take a look 🙂

22:32 PM, 4th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Well i think they just get contractors of the cleaning firm AMICUS which incidentally has the same two directors as Campbell property services to just list as much wrong with each property as they can, some maybe factual but i would say much is made up so they can just bill the students, many parents have just been bullied into paying their charges and the students themselves, there are some toe curling costs for some of the students on the facebook page.............. it really does make interesting reading?? they start with e-mails, then other students have had threats of court and bailiffs calling, really quite disturbing, but the volume of people they have done this to and got away with it for for so long is shocking! lets hope now it is being broadcast that students will give them a wide birth??? 🙁

Mary Latham

10:39 AM, 5th December 2011, About 12 years ago

My guess is that they would not go to court and that if their threats are ignored it would fade away. I do realise though that for a young person this is very worrying and that many will just pay them to bring it to an end.

17:15 PM, 5th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Thankfully my son used his initiative when he moved out and took photo's of the room including the mattress!! He has only just forwarded them to me, and to my delight the zoom shows a clean mattress.
Can't wait for campbell to take me to court, if that's their intention.
I do feel for students that don't have support, so this site and facebook page is excellent for them.
Regards

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

17:25 PM, 5th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Hi Karen

Presumably you've shared details of this site with all the students and their parents on facebook?

The more comments that are left here the better.

Our Directory works on Testimonials. We believe that cream rises to the top so in time, the businesses with the most Testimonials will appear first in our Directory and those offering poor services will never be seen. Please encourage all students to leave Testimonials for the good letting agents they have used. That way, the best agencies will get the benefits of extra business from future generations of students and less of them will get ripped off. Hopefully the cowboys will up their game or find themselves with no business at all. That's the power of social media. It's early days as we have only just launched our Directory but I hope you will agree that the concept is a good one?

17:37 PM, 5th December 2011, About 12 years ago

The only trouble we found Karen is that Campbell insist on their photo's as evidence but when you give them yours they say you can't use them!!!!!!! Katie also took pictures as evidence showing rooms and cupboards etc.. they make all kinds of excuses why you CAN'T use them??? i can't see that this is entirely legal but they seem to get away with it?

18:48 PM, 5th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Hi Mary,
quite a few of the students and guarantors have contacted them but the more that do the better!! i would urge everyone that has had a bad time with Campbell to raise their concerns with MLAS 🙂

Mary Latham

19:09 PM, 5th December 2011, About 12 years ago

The only photgraphs that they could use in court would be those what were signed by the tenant at the start of the tenancy.

I will stick my neck out here and tell you that I am 99.9% certain that they will not take you to court.

If there is anyone reading this thread that has had problems with this company in the West Midlands
PLEASE POST THE INFORMATION HERE.

Mark Alexander - Founder of Property118

19:42 PM, 5th December 2011, About 12 years ago

Note to all. I had lunch today with a TV producer with a view to getting some air-time to promote what we are trying to achieve at Property118.com, i.e. a Testimonials based Directory where the cream of businesses rise to the top of our Directory listings and benefit from doing things the right way. Hopefully you can see that if such a service had been created years ago less people would find themselves dealing with issues such as this one. It's not just good Letting Agents we want to promote though, it is every business that offers a reliable and trustworthy service to both landlords and tenants so all related trades and professions are included too. The TV producers are looking for us to package horror stories for them (no name and shame sadly, just the experiences) and are supportive of what we are looking to achieve. We are looking for parents and students who would be prepared to go on TV to tell their story and to help promote Property118.com. There is no pay in this, just the ability to know you've made a difference. If you know of anybody who would be interested please post a comment here or email me mark@property118.com

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