I can only imagine that Avtar have been offering discounted rent for positive reviews as they are the worst company I have ever had the misfortune to encounter. I lived with them for a year, during which time I had to deal with a rat infestation (the road we lived on is known to have rat problem which we were warned about by neighbours on arrival, yet it took them 7 months and multiple letters from environmental health to fill in the holes in the walls). We also had to live without heating or hot water over the winter as they ignored our requests to have it fixed, telling us that it was "being dealt with" for over 5 weeks. I ended up contacting my local councillor about it. Avtar tried to blame the rat problem with us (despite neighbours and the environmental health leaving the blame on the holes in the side of the house) and would turn up at random times with a camera to try and catch us out as "dirty" but left after seeing that the house was actually clean (hence actually eventually filling the gaps in). These werent cute little rats they were MASSIVE. The only benefit was that I think they ate spiders (they also ate entire loaves of bread). At the time there was a Facebook group dedicated to them which had one person claim that they were actually left living in a house with a hole in the roof. Dont be fooled by the nice bloke who shows you round, as soon as you sign the lease, if you have the misfortune to live in one of the houses that they actually own then get ready to get used to squalor. We also had problems with overflowing drains (one toilet out of order entirely and the other when flushed flooded the downstairs one) and a mould problem in my bedroom that was so bad that I ended up having to take a month off work with chest infections (another thing that environmental health contacted them about - they probably had them on speed dial). I ended up scraping as much of it off as I can but was left feeling "below par" for a long time and having to take a lot of time off work. They eventually dealt with the mould problem by painting over it. T hey also refused to let us terminate our contracts despite having found people to replace us and 2 girls ended up paying rent for the year on 2 properties as they couldnt stand it any more. Bare in mind that I used to use Leeds Student Homes - a company so bad they ended up being featured on Watchdog, you can imagine how appalling Avatar must be as I view them as considerably worse. They own a lot of houses and I am sure that if nothing ever goes wrong with them or they have a different owner then you'll see them as nice enough but heaven forbid anything goes wrong with the property. It all sounds ridiculous in hindsight and I laugh and refer to it as the paid squat now but at the time we were people in our early 20s who had no option but to carry on living there. At the time it seemed like a great deal at £40 a week but we later found out it was usually rented as a 3 bed anyway - probably due to the mould problem in 2 of the rooms. read more

Well, in my renewed efforts to find somewhere to live i turned to Avtar. Unlike previous experiences iv had recently, this was distinctly pleasent and we had a lovely guy show us round a whole bunch of different places scattered around Hyde Park and Headingley. A lot more than i had bargained for but it was nice to see what the same money could get on different roads. We were driven around flat to flat by Prashad who was a really nice guy and knew everyones name in all the houses we saw which was a really nice little touch i thought. I found my dream apartment, but alas as im bound by the student July - June Contracts i couldnt move fast enough to secure it; mega sad times! They are really helpful and friendly and Prashad bent over backwards to try and get me the place i wanted but landlords are interested in money alone rather than quality of tenant. The reason i cant give out a 4 star is the £100 signing fee, i have never paid one before and that amount of money for me seems a little too capitalistic for my liking. Id certainly recommend these guys to anyone i liked! read more

Wow I'm actually horrified that Avtar have managed to get all the negative reviews filtered. Shame on yelp/qype!!! Avtar are a disgrace of a letting agent and should be avoided at all cost. It may look like a nice house, but it is a complete facade. Everyone I know who has rented a property with Avtar has had an absolute nightmare! This is my Avtar story: There were several of us, moving into two neighbouring flats. My future housemate was starting work on the 1st September and wanted to move in earlier to get settled. Unfortunately, they couldn't get it ready before that date, but they assured us the property would most definitely, and surely be ready for the 1st. Before we moved in they promised us "the full Avtar package". WOAH! We thought this meant sofas/beds/desks/chairs/oven etc... turned out to be mold, darkness, damp and cold. On move in day we arrived with all our stuff and neither flat was ready. We couldn't move in for another week. Two of us ended up staying in a flat with a rat infestation and broken windows until work was finished. The landlord blamed Avtar and Avtar blamed the landlord, both taking no responsibility and completely denying any verbal agreement. The minute this problem arose, Avtar sidestepped and told us they would no longer be dealing with our tenancy and that they were only acting as "tenant finders" originally, honestly?! Other silly, but time consuming things happened; Avtar told the council we moved in a month before we even viewed the house, meaning we got an overblown council tax bill. But unfortunately for its tenants, appalling communication and administration is not the worst of Avtar's traits. Our landlord was notoriously terrible, a very personable chap, but unfortunately very much all talk, no action. We had no fridge or freezer for two months. We had no electric lighting in two bedrooms and the living-kitchen area for 5 months. We had a gentleman set up camp in our basement for an unknown period of time... The Environmental Agency inspected the property several times, trying to take him to court. This was made all the worse by the constant demands for "unpaid rent" by the landlord. At the end of the tenancy he claimed we owed a combined figure of nearly £3000. I ended up having to spend nearly two hours going through his bank statements with him, checking off payments. The figure owed was significantly less - equating to the last month's rent that wasn't actually due at the time. This guy has a portfolio of around twenty-five properties!!!!! Part of the imaginary magical monies that our landlord attempted to conjure up from the depths of our bank accounts, was actually the first months rent - paid to (believe it or not) the ever efficient Avtar. Despite receipts and bank statement evidence, it was not till several months after our tenancy had finished that Avtar acknowledged that the payments were made. So, from December to June we had a continuous barrage of viewings with Avtar "estate agents" and unwitting potential tenants. They would often turn up without warning. I heard them giving the same half-truth spiel as they gave to us, which generally we would try and correct. Some of our favourite warnings to viewers were: "Yes if you end up moving here, be sure not to touch that window - the frame falls down the roof upon opening. Yeah that one's a bit dodgey too. Don't worry, we'll put post-it notes up" "The flat downstairs' key actually unlocks this flat's front door and vice versa. It's actually quite useful for us. Maybe not so for you...?" Sometimes they'd ask..."Is the flat cold???" Ha. Hahaha. Hahahahahahaha. It was almost peverse! Anyway, because we didn't trust Avtar, we weren't all that keen on them turning up and no one being around. There was nearly always someone in the house. So we asked them, "Avtar, please could you not show people round the house when we're not there?" They responded by threatening to take us to court for, "blocking access urrrr to people who hmmmm were might ERRRR potentially ummmmm want to not move into the flat". Apparently that is the legal phrase for it. Hmmmmm. Unfortunately for us, once the flat was eventually let, we still had problems with Avtar. But, in fairness to them our deposits were eventually returned. I want to assure you there are good student letting agents in Leeds. Check with the university union too, they can point you in the right direction. Take some time when you're looking at houses, these companies paint over damp and mold instead of fixing the exterior problem - within 6 months it will all be peeling off again. Also, remember that a lot of positive reviews aren't necessarily from a "reliable source". read more

Last minuet choice. Bathroom floor leaked into kitchen after showers. Never fixed. Outside not sealed a rat got in. 3 weeks to call pest control. Past tenants didn't pay electricity bill no warning from avtar, repo men show up at house install a top up meter. Electricity stops working in kitchen, no over, no fridge, no washing machine. 3months and a call to the council before being fixed. Broken bed. 3 emails no response, currently just a mattress on the floor. Bathroom door warps won't lock anymore. Extractor fan falls off oven, firstly Doesn't extract anywhere. Week to fix. Windows didn't lock 2 months to fix. Currently no ceiling lights works and main set of front room plugs don't work. Many emails no response. Given up now moving soon. Feel sorry for the poor bastard who moves in next read more

Have to say VERY surprised after reading the reviews below as I have had the most pleasurable experience dealing with Avtar as my landlords. And believe me I have dealt with some cowboys in my time on the renting ladder! Very helpful in finding me the right property and when there were maintenance things to be done they were sorted very quickly and efficiently. Would definitely recommend to students coming to Leeds. A great property company. 5 stars all round read more

Cannot more strongly recommend to avoid renting with Avtar. I have been renting a student house for 1 year with them and will never consider going back. Upon first moving into the house we found it had not been cleaned at all. There was dirty underwear in some of the bedrooms, chewing gum stuck to pretty much all of the carpets, and just generally everything was filthy. We also found that most of the requirements we had written into the contract had not been fulfilled, resulting in us chasing them up to get the jobs done which took several months in some cases. Over the winter we discovered a very serious damp problem in the house. This was discovered to be a result of a leaking gutter on the roof, which despite Avtar being aware of this problem it still hasn't been fixed (now 8 months later). Instead they will opt to use the 'easy' option of just painting over the mould when it shows in the bedrooms. This is both a health hazard, and actually led to two pairs of my shoes becoming so infested with mould that I had to bin them. We also found that generally Avtar were awful at responding to our issues. Many of the faults and problems that we reported were simply never even responded to. Also, if you enjoy having a group of people turn up unannounced to do a viewing, and for Avtar to then lie and tell you that you had been notified in advance, then Avtar are the ones for you. I could go on and on about further issues I have with Avtar, however I think I've already got my point across well enough. AVOID AT ALL COSTS! read more

Just few words to say. Horrible agent and horrible landlords. Never ever take property from them. You will suffer and your life will be hell. Take my word. read more

This company has to be the worst company I have ever come across. When searching for a property they took us to one that I wouldn't expect mice to live in. We found a flat that we loved and obviously got the spiel "there is someone signing for this property tomorrow so if you want it, you have to have it now." We loved the property so decided we would pay the admin fees. After paying the admin fees, it went from bad to worse I have never ever experienced customer service like it and how they are still trading I will never know. There were three of us moving into a 2 bedroom house - We were told it was free parking for two of our cars - apparently not, we then got told that it was an extra 130 a month for parking!!! We then got told that because there was 3 of us we would have to pay an extra 195 pounds to have the third person, something which they were aware of and told us this was fine. The woman (i don't want to name names) but she was young and exceptionally rude she should NOT have a job. We asked for a contract to look at before we signed for the property - they sent us a specimen!!!! Apparently they don't hand out contracts before signing - we did not accept this and managed to get a contract, my friends dad called up and she was SO rude to him, its appalling she told him she wasn't dealing with this any more. She said it was not her problem. We were keen to sign and pay the deposit but after all this we got a refund on our admin fees. Never ever ever again will we step foot near this company and i hope you don't either. This company is disgusting and I hope they cease to trade.. I would URGE noone to go through this company it's a disgrace of a company. Their customer service is horrendous. read more

Surprised to see so many bad reviews of Avtar, we're renting a house from them this year and so far I've had no issues with them as an agency, and after 5 years of living in Leeds I've used some pretty appalling ones (Park Lane, A-Team, UK Pads and Rent Here especially, stay well away from all of these). We left it very late house hunting ( 2 days before we moved out of our last place) and signed for a house with these guys. Firstly we got a great deal, negotiating the rent down from £65 to £50 per week on a huge 5 bed house for 3 people! and secondly they went out of their way to help us get moved in on the day that we signed, without even asking for reference checks or guarantor forms from anyone. Admittedly we have had to have quite a lot of work done on the house, but we realised this when we moved in, we were more bothered about getting a cheap spacious house than it being perfect and pristine. gave Avtar a checklist of all the jobs we wanted doing on the house, and they have sorted everything out for us. Some jobs have taken longer than others, you just have to nag them a bit and leave messages in the office every day to see what the progress is. People forget these guys own and manage something like 900 houses so you can't expect everything to be perfect straight away. If you get onto them a bit about repairs, and are prepared to haggle a bit over the price of the house, you can get yourself a good deal. Honestly much better than some of the dreadful agencies in Leeds, worth a look. read more

I wouldn't give Avtar any stars if i could. they are the worst landlords i've ever had. i've lived in my property for 8 months now and i have had constant disputes the entire time. The house is moldy and cold and ive had maintenance in my property more than my family. I have been informed that Mr Avtar took out a 100,000 loan in the 80's, bought all the cheapest/moldy houses in the Hyde Park/ Headingley area and rents them to students without spending a penny on any of the properties ( no wonder hes a multi-millionaire) . They are con artists and do not care about their tenants. whenever i had a problem the staff would try and belittle me and try make me look stupid. worst customer service ive ever had bar the maintenance men, they are lovely! DO NOT GO WITH THEM IF YOU WANT STRESS-FREE STUDENT YEARS. They are honestly awful. read more

Had the nerve to not show up to a viewing yesterday, which involved me waiting 30mins in the pouring rain to later see the property 'now off the market' on rightmove. I thought it ridiculously rude that I was not informed of this and would not recommend. Literally.. you've got one job. read more

When I was in Leeds 2 years back I was badly in need of a good student accommodation near by Hyde Park, fortunately I came across this website and got exactly I was looking for, a well furnished student accommodation. In spite of having a low budget I got a very decent place to live. I will recommend avtar properties to all my friends and family out their in Leeds. read more

No really the worse letting agency in History. I've had 7 houses all with different agencies so I thought I'd got the whole thing down. It doesnt matter how many times you ring nothing will ever be sorted. And when thank god you do leave they dont give the deposits over easily. DO NOT RECOMMEND - go with a unipol certified agency trust me! read more

My friends and I got a house with Avtar this year for our second year, we looked round the house and it seemed lovely, it was a little messy but we were reassured that this would not be the case by the time we moved in. The rent was very expensive, but we soon realised that this is just how it is in this popular student area in Leeds and that it is difficult to try and get the price down as it is so competitive and other students are naive and don't realise how badly they are being ripped off. For the price we paid, we expected a good service. However, when my friend came to pick up the keys and look around the house a month after we had already started paying rent, she found the house so filthy it was unliveable, with plants growing up the walls and mess and dirt everywhere and at this point we had already paid £8,000. Since then it has just been problem after problem, with a leaking roof, damp and mould in some of the bedrooms and trivial issues which aren't necessarily the companies fault, but that for the price we are paying should have been addressed much more quickly. Basically, the experience as a whole has been a negative experience that I would never want to repeat and I want to warn other students about this company. Everyone I have spoken to who used Avtar has had nothing but negative feedback about their experience. read more