Student house in Leeds - shocking state - ceiling caving in due to mould, not cleaned at all ,…read moreWi-Fi doesn't work across house, wasps nest reported and not removed , keys not working ... told to log everything and maintenance would be in touch - 6 weeks on nothing . asking students to go and buy a booster for Wi-Fi or to read the manual or contact provider . Office staff are not in touch with maintenance. I think they are incentiviews on organising student marketing events no care about those actually renting . Would 100% not recommend. Taking advantage of the students who have not rented before - very sad

After showing me around a few properties I found one that I quite liked, so decided to go for it…read more Being a student I don't have a lot of spare cash so when told there was a signing fee (after completing paperwork) of over £100 I was lost for words. Apparently on big houses these people are also charged over £100 EACH. After my mother also talked to the people there (who were very rude to her) I went to the actual landlord of the property to complain that I did not want to deal with them any longer. I have kept the property (although kind of wishing I didn't) and just deal with the landlord directly now. Please note this is an AGENCY for letting properties and they do not own anything that they rent out (from what I gathered). they just do the paperwork and take a lot of money for it. There are many other rental companies out there that are a lot better than this one. There was no mention of the signing fee on their website or when I originally enquired to them about it.

I was first attracted to Monty-B due to the balance of proximity to Leeds Uni, free internet…read moreaccess, and sinks in rooms. For me, proximity was a top priority, because I just didn't see the point in spending an hour on the bus every morning in rush hour traffic, not to mention the cost of a bus pass. Or attempting to balance a huge art folder on my bike (I was on a design course). And walking a long distance for a 9am lecture seemed unappealing, especially as I tend to be in a rush most mornings! So Monty-B it was! The buildings seem reasonably new and pretty clean and well-presented (at least when you move in!!). The shared bathroom worked fine and the kitchen was a decent size. There was, however, always slight annoyance about the fact that one of the rooms was significantly bigger than the other four in the flat, and I've no idea why! The security gate also worked well...though friends often have to call you to let them in if they aren't Monty-B residents. There is a central outdoor area with a bit of grass and some barbeques, which did get some use in the spring, but there did seem to be a general lack of communal areas. A friend on my course lived in Boddington and, due to them having a completely different layout in which about 70 different people could all access each other's flats, and the fact it was catered accommodation, she ended up with a huge group of friends. Something about the layout of Monty-B seemed to discourage interaction between different flats, as each flat of 5 had a door which remained locked most of the time and there were no communal indoor areas designed for occupants of different flats to congregate. Despite the downsides, Monty-B was probably worth it due to the easy walk to Uni and the fact that you can make friends in other flats...you just have to be a bit assertive!

we only moved into a central property in July of this year, since then we have had nothing but…read moretrouble with them. We were promised by central staff before we signed the tenancy that the house would be professionally cleaned before we moved in, this did not happen. In fairness to them, they did send cleaners back after we had been living there about a week. However this meant we had to re pack all of our things to allow the cleaners access to cupboards etc. There were a large number of repairs to be done on the house most of which Central have addressed although, the attitude of the office staff and maintenance manager tends to be rude and they treat you as if you should be thanking them for doing their job!! There are a number of us living in the house and Central staff will use this to confuse tenants by telling different people different things. I would NOT recommend anyone use them! There are plenty of good, reliable private landlords in Leeds I suggest you use one of them instead!

Central asked us to write a review about them. They have been really helpful right from when they…read moreshowed us a selection of properties to choose from and helped us with the signing up process and everything else. When one of our group dropped out they did everything to help find a new person to share our house. We liked all the houses they showed us and we have just moved in to the one we chose. It was really clean and even my mum couldnt grumble which is unusual. We had some things which needed fixing and these were done the same day. Very happy.

Compared to various University accommodation I have found myself in over the last 5 years, this…read moreplace looks immense. I remember halls of residence being tiny rooms like sardine cans, a communal living room full dirty washing up and pissed people and loads of take away flyers as decorations. I didn't live in halls myself, but despite all of the above, I kind of regret it for the social aspect of sharing your building with about 100 other people in the same boat as you. Never the less it wasn't the end of the world and I did avoid the weekly fire alarm pranks and having to risk death leaning out of the window to smoke. I.Q looks buff. Maybe it is because it is brand spanking new, but it really looks like a nice place to start your University years. The options are a bit more expensive than the usual student halls but they are all ensuite. You have the choice between a bedroom in a shared flat (ensuite) or a studio flat all to yourself. The studio flats come in bronze, silver or gold (not the actual colour but the level of wow factor) and they all look and sound absolutely plush, if not slightly over indulgent. The gold studio flat sounds amazing especially, it is a 30 square ft self contained ensuite studio with a double bed, study area, and kitchen with breakfast bar. Oo-lah-lah. In my first year at University I paid £58 per week for a reasonable sized room in an 8 bed house. It wasn't very homely and did feel like a dorm but it was fine. I guess it depends on whether you want to a) live in halls b) live with other people and c) what your budget is. This place would definitely be comfortable, less likely to fall apart or become an ice box in the winter, and you don't have to worry so much about landlords getting things done in time. But, it is a lot of money compared to other options, and halls just isn't some peoples 'cup of tea'. Plus learning how to deal with landlords is a skill you may need later in life so getting the practice in early won't do any harm. Have a good think about it, visit some places and write down pro's and con's before you make any rash decisions.

I lived here for 10 months when it first opened and it was without a doubt the worst place I've…read moreever lived. Even though it was brand new, everything was so shoddily made it kept falling apart, the electrics were shot and the lift only worked for a few days a month - luckily I was only on the third floor, but it must have been a nightmare for those on the 7th. As it's a business run to make a profit, making money seems to take priority over student welfare, and they constantly shove their organised 'events' - i.e. a chance to plug certain bars and clubs - down your throat. Because the walls are paper thin and there are no wardens on site to control things noise levels are a joke, and the lack of monitoring means tenants can get away with anything - I had to share my kitchen with seven (yes, really) Japanese men who were sharing one tiny room. If you're a Fresher whose only wish is to head to Oceana every night as part of an organised pub crawl with 200 lairy fellow students, you'll probably think you've found your dream home here. If you're someone who might actually want to do some work at some point, though, look elsewhere.

I wish there was a zero stars setting. Unless you're a first year who is looking to party all the…read moretime and accomplish nothing surrounded by oodles of people just like you, then don't live here. It's only here to make money. The rooms are small, the beds are horribly hard (and small) and you can get a MUCH larger place renting a flat in town or Headingley. Don't buy the hype!! This place isn't worth it!

I live in this apartment building. It's rubbish. Don't be fooled by the beautiful exterior of the…read morethirteenth century monestary. These people do not care about the students. They have taken weeks to fix my broken fridge. I put in a total of five maintenance requests all of which were closed without consultation, two formal complaints, and bought a thermometer to prove that the refrigerator was broken. After the third complaint I threatened breach of contract, and they got me a new one within the week. I asked for compensation for the £90 + of food that had gone bad because of the broken fridge and the time taken to fix it, and they told me to all their insurance company. So I did, and they told me that they'd call me back within the day. It's been two weeks and I've called three times now. One week later, my door lock is broken. I cannot enter my own home. I have to call a variety of people. And wait almost an hour for someone to let me into my own studio every time I need to leave. They told me they'd fix it the night I first reported it. The guy said he couldn't fix it, and he'd put a report in and bring a crew in tomorrow morning. No report, no crew. I had to file another report. Sure enough, I leave for classes. Oops. Gotta wait an hour or so just to be let into my flat. I've called the emergency control centre, and the man was very dismissive and told me he'd call back in two minutes. I had to call him back twenty minutes later asking for an update, and got a dismissive "three more minutes" and then hung up on me! I moved in in September, and it's late October now. Can't WAIT to see what the rest of my 52 week contract holds..

Two view is a very family run business still, and were absolutely great with my last year. As I was…read morea student moving in on my own the lady who was at the desk was always great with me and made sure that things got done. I would have loved to have re-signed with this company and really wish that I had done because no one else has been so great with me. My old flat had water damage, so I knew that I could not stay there any longer. Let downs were definitely the "maintenance" team, they don't really know what they are doing a lot of the time and do what they can, and anything to do with boilers they get other people out for but they do try. They accepted payments over the phone for rent on the first every month/ term and I think this makes a great difference for me as now my company takes money on the 23rd of the month for the next months rent, and I find this ridiculously early.

I can only imagine that Avtar have been offering discounted rent for positive reviews as they are…read morethe 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.

Well, in my renewed efforts to find somewhere to live i turned to Avtar…read more 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!

After the oddity of our last house, my housemates and I wanted something entirely new - fresh,…read moreclean and most importantly young professional. We were now completely fed up with student style homes, with awful student style landlords and the poor service they offered. Enter: Park Crest Properties. As soon as we saw the website we felt we'd found a hidden gem, an exciting new mid-way between student life and young professional life. The website was easy to use, simple but classy and offered a great selection of houses and flats. Perfect. After choosing the one we desired (complete with little garden and 'cloud burst' shower head, oh yes!) we called to arrange an appointment. Our landlord-to-be (who is also also the estate agent) could not have been more efficient. He was punctual, informative and honest. After the viewing we signed up almost immediately - although it was a lot smaller than our previous home, it was lovely. It was the eye for detail (as it says on their website) that really made the difference, most especially in the bathroom - it was like some kind of luxury spa and extremely well looked after. Of course, you don't have a rented house without complaint, but anything we took issue with, our landlord was prompt in both communicating with us and acting on our problems. And once we had all decided to go our separate ways sorting out the bonds was, to my great relief, totally fine. We couldn't get them back until we sent proof that we had paid our final utilities, which I think is more than fair, and within the week of doing so we received our cheques with only a small deduction for some minor things. The entire experience was both professional and personal, and this is a lovely, understanding and efficient estate agents. I highly recommend!

Regular readers of my reviews will realise that over the last few years I have had quite a few…read moremoves in a short space of time. What this means is that I have visited practically every estate agent in Leeds. On the occasion that I visited this one I was on a very tight schedule to find somewhere to live and probably came across as quite panicked and desperate. Lucky for me then that the guy in the office was brilliant and calming. At the time they didn't have any properties that were suitable, only because I had to move in three weeks and they didn't have any available that soon. Rather than just tell me to try somewhere else bless him the guy spent nearly an hour with me going through my options. Not only did he tell me where else to try but suggested a couple of places and pointed me in the right direction. He was also lovely in that he told me about a couple of areas in Leeds that I hadn't considered. Although somewhere to live was the main goal of my journey and that wasn't satisfied, he did give me lots of advice that was really valuable. http://beautytruthsnotuglylies.blogspot.com/