A "stranger" has a key to my house. Martin and Co don't care.

I would be deeply concerned. theres a lot to steal in my hoose and it wouldn't be easy to replace with my limited income. My first reaction would be to change the locks, if the letting agency wont do it, then I would do it myself. Security is one of those things that I would never take lightly.
 
I rented a property from a Martin & Co branch when I was a student and I will never deal with them again. Flat was not cleaned for us moving in and none of the refurbishments they promised were done at one point we were without carpets for 5 weeks cause the guy they sent to fit new carpets was unable to remove the old ones so some other guy turns up one day rips up the old carpets and didn't fit the new ones! To top it off despite having an inventory that said we left the flat in a much better condition than we moved in they still withheld the majority of our deposit for a cleaning.

Not followed the whole thread but if you haven't already I'd write to them recorded delivery saying if its not sorted or arrangements arent in place with in 2 weeks you'll start to withhold rent payments. Obviously make sure you set the money aside and don't blow it.
 
Post like this make me so glad that I have a mortgage and my own house. I think, you would rather just be able to sort the issues yourself if you could but because being a rental, you in theory shouldn't/can't. But thankfully, although I have to foot the bill for issues at least I know what is going on and can get things sorted when they need to be.

I feel for your pain, but glad you've got 2 of 3 problems fixed.
 
we used to get the same problem with our boiler in a rented house where it simply wouldn't turn on due to low pressure. You just had to let a little water in by turning a valve for a second or two and it would kick into life again.
 
^
Unless that light was flashing, there was no low pressure problem :/
Sub hasn't actually said what the problem was.


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5UB said:
I didn't have a feeling someone has come in the house. Someone has deadlocked my front door with a key. - As far as I am aware you cannot deadlock someones front door without a key. Unless you're some incredible pick-lock artist! Or you have a key and you have entered the house. I highly doubt someone with a key didn't enter and just decided to deadlock it.
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Is it not possible that you deadlocked it yourself by accident?

Pretty amusing if this thread was created and panic caused due to a small lapse of memory. :p

Of course, if it was somebody else then I feel for you. Hope you get this sorted (or have already, have not got to the end of the posts yet...)
 
Most if not all letting agents are dodgy and out for what they can get. My sister moved into a rental house, the garden was a mess, knee high grass, borders full of weeds and loads of rubbish.

She actually tidied it up, got rid of all the weeds and rubbish and kept the lawn cut. When she moved out a year later they held part of the deposit because they said the garden wasn't tidy! It was 100% better condition than what it was in when she moved in, it was just due another cutting of the lawn at most.

After taking the money they never did tidy the garden, it was left to go to rack and ruin again for a couple of months until a new tenant moved it.

And to top it off, she was only moving out because she was buying a house through the same estate agency she had been renting from.
 
Had nothing but bad experiences with renting, landlords, and letting agents.

First house: all went well until we moved out. We gave the landlord the date of our final day and spent the week before that slowly moving stuff over to the new place. 3 days before the final day we went over to get more stuff and found the landlord had not only let himself in, but start demolishing stuff as he was turning it into a student house. He had wrecked some minor things of ours in the process, and other things were buried in dust and rubble. Needless to say we were livid. His response - "oh, I thought you had finished moving" :rolleyes:

First apartment: sitting on the crapper reading magazine, I hear somebody unlock the front door and come inside. I knew it wasn't the wife, and by the time I was able to get out the bathroom they had gone and I couldn't see any trace of anybody. Went to the office and they denied any knowledge of anything. Was very unsettling. Whoever it was knew that we were both usually at work (I just happened to have the morning off), so we insisted they changed the lock, which they eventually did after much moaning.

Never again!
 
5UB said:
I've managed to fix the boiler, no idea if it is a permanent fix. But it is working now, so I am fine with that. :)
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FWIW I've always been told 1.6 bar is what it should be set to. Too high or too low damages the boiler if it doesn't have a cut off switch.
 
5UB said:
I wish I could just easily move again. A nice little flat would be ideal. Maybe I can sort it out again in the new year.

After reading up on the mold, apparently it can be pretty dangerous to someones health... So I might be dead before I get chance to move if Martins do not fix it at this rate.
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Without knowing your price range I'd recommend looking at the Mill off Enderley Street (opposite Sainsburys on the 34) they served us well for five years, walking distance to town as well as sainsburys/morrisons/aldi/lidl and about a mile down the road for OCUK HQ. Just had a quick look and there aren't any up at the moment but they come up fairly regularly. The two landlord's who deal with the flats there were spot on for us. Failing that there are some to consider in wolstanton, I think it was faulds court possibly?
 
craig_t said:
Post like this make me so glad that I have a mortgage and my own house. I think, you would rather just be able to sort the issues yourself if you could but because being a rental, you in theory shouldn't/can't. But thankfully, although I have to foot the bill for issues at least I know what is going on and can get things sorted when they need to be.
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While I completely agree about owning rather than renting, it does really just swap one set of problems for a completely different set, and it's a crap-shoot which are the worse. And of course, owning doesn't suit everybody. Obviously, one problem is money, in that these days, coming up with the necessary deposit isn't easy, unless the Bank of Mum and Dad can help, and not everyone has parents that can, or will. But even if they will, owning is a major commitment to a specific location and it ties you down. Selling, and buying somewhere else can get very expensive indeed.

In truth, both owning and renting have their advantages and disadvantages.
 
Aldav said:
While I completely agree about owning rather than renting, it does really just swap one set of problems for a completely different set, and it's a crap-shoot which are the worse. And of course, owning doesn't suit everybody. Obviously, one problem is money, in that these days, coming up with the necessary deposit isn't easy, unless the Bank of Mum and Dad can help, and not everyone has parents that can, or will. But even if they will, owning is a major commitment to a specific location and it ties you down. Selling, and buying somewhere else can get very expensive indeed.

In truth, both owning and renting have their advantages and disadvantages.
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Yes, I agree 100%! It was nice renting when something went wrong because you could just yell at the landlord to fix it, and they usually would get it sorted ASAP. Now we have our own house it's a nightmare when things go wrong....is it under warranty? Do I have to fix it myself? Will I have to take time off work? How many hours will I spend on the phone?

Despite the problems we had with renting, it was the best choice for us at the time.
 
I think you need to put your concerns in writing to them asking them to fix them with immediate effect. Emails and phone calls will go un-answered.

Letter them via recorded delivery stating what you want done and fixed. Give them 14 days to respond and see what happens.
 
Curio said:
Yes, I agree 100%! It was nice renting when something went wrong because you could just yell at the landlord to fix it, and they usually would get it sorted ASAP. Now we have our own house it's a nightmare when things go wrong....is it under warranty? Do I have to fix it myself? Will I have to take time off work? How many hours will I spend on the phone?

Despite the problems we had with renting, it was the best choice for us at the time.
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Money is behind a lot of the problems with owning, like when it turns out the house needs rewiring, the boiler packs up and is beyond repair, the windows need updating and the roof is about to fall off.

But it's not just that. If, three months after you buy and move in, the house next door is sold to the neighbours from hell, your newly bought little dream home can turn into a nightmare. And given the cost of selling up, moving may well not be an option. Moving if you rent is a right pain, for sure, but compared to moving when you own, it can be like a stubbed toe compared to compound breaks in both legs.
 
5SUB I read pretty much all of this, so I haven't anything new to say, except maybe this,

Because Martin & Co are breaking the law (or what ever you want to call it) by renting out a property that is "unfit for purpose" I think you have a right in not paying them rent until the damp problem is fixed
do some reach via the government site regarding landlords etc I am pretty sure your in the right here, locks should have been changed on Day 1, end of.

Good luck and I hope you get it all sorted, I would start looking for a new place to rent
 
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