CPS Homes Cardiff reviews

Hi Leigh-Ann,Thank you for leaving a review. We’re sorry to hear that you’ve had a less than positive experience with us and have been sure to look into your comments to see how we may have delivered a better level of service.Having reduced to limited staff over the Christmas period, customers may have experienced a longer-than-normal response time to their queries, though we can see that when you contacted us on 22nd December, we did reply on the same day.We apologise for initially mistakenly sending you the incorrect inventory to peruse, annotate if necessary and sign. This error was corrected as soon as it was noted and the correct version then sent to you via e-mail. You signed this without any annotations; confirming the condition stated within the report was accurate.When we conduct our check-out inspections, we have to reply upon the documentation and evidence we have on file from the commencement of the tenancy as our ‘starting point’, as well as considering anything that may have happened during it. Tenants are not expected to return the property in any better condition than they found it, though they are expected to return it to the same standard, save for fair wear and tear. Unfortunately, cleaning does not fall under wear and tear, and it was noted when conducting our check-out inspection that cleaning was required. We have provided you with evidence that the property was cleaned prior to you moving in and note that you didn’t raise any issues with cleanliness upon arrival on your signed inventory or via email. We have also asked that, if you have photos or videos that substantiate your claim that it was not cleaned to the necessary standard, you provide them to us so we can approach the landlord about reconsidering the claim. Ultimately, our role as an agent is to collect evidence on behalf of the landlord, present it to him/her along with our thoughts, then take their instruction in terms of how much, if anything, they would like us to claim from the deposit. This often depends on contractors’ costs, of course.We feel it’s important to point out that with landlords and tenants starting at opposing ends of the spectrum, deposit returns can sometimes be contentious matters. Quite rightly, tenants are keen to receive as much of their deposit back as possible, whereas landlords would like to be compensated for dilapidations that aren’t wear and tear. Our job as agent is to find the ‘happy medium’ and most of the time we’re able to do so, but we fully accept there will be times when we’re unable to fulfil this remit. In these instances, we’re grateful of the free, independent adjudication service offered by deposit protection schemes, where a legally-qualified adjudicator will collect evidence from both parties and make a binding decision on how the disputed amount is to be distributed between landlord and tenant. You retain the right to use this service, known as ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution).We’ve responded via e-mail to your more specific issues and we look forward to reaching an amicable resolution.Kind regards,The CPS Homes Team.

Dear Sarah,Thank you for leaving a review, and thank you for providing us with further information via Trustpilot's private messaging platform.We're sorry to hear that you haven't had a positive experience with us. We will use your feedback to learn from and make amends moving forward; starting with ensuring the communication and knowledge of procedures between lettings and accounts is looked at.On a more positive note, we were pleased to read about the other dealings you have had with our lettings team.Kind regards,The CPS Homes Team.

Thank you, Phoebe! We’re so glad you and your friends had a wonderful experience with Marta.

Thanks Lloyd, much appreciated!

Thank you for taking the time to leave us feedback. We are sorry to read that you are unhappy with the experience you have received. Could you email us at general@cpshomes.co.uk so that we can look into this further and try to resolve this with you? We would like the opportunity to address your concerns. Thank you, and we look forward to hearing from you. CPS Homes

Thank you for taking the time to leave us feedback. We're glad you had such a wonderful experience with us! We do hope we can be of assistance in the future. Take care! CPS Homes

Good Afternoon Carly,Thank you for taking the time to place your comments on record. We’re sorry to learn you haven’t had a positive experience with CPS Homes.Looking at our records, it appears you let a property through CPS Homes where we acted in a tenant-find only capacity for the Landlord, so you came to us seeking accommodation and we matched you with a property that you liked. If you were dissatisfied with the viewing and/or tenancy signing process, we apologise and would appreciate your feedback via lettings@cpshomes.co.uk. If your dissatisfaction came after this, then I’m afraid CPS Homes cannot be held accountable as you dealt directly with the Landlord for everything, including rent payments, maintenance issues and the deposit return.Thank you again for your feedback.

Dear Angel,We are sorry to hear that you haven’t had a positive experience with CPS Homes. We have had a look into the matters you raise in your review and we hope we can provide some insight on the issues you have highlighted.We feel that we must firstly clarify CPS Homes’ role as a managing agent. Whilst we do manage the property on your landlord’s behalf, we don’t own it, so we take instruction from your landlord on how to proceed with matters. The vast majority of our landlords agreed with our proposal to refund tenants their deposit in full if they signed for a new term, but there were a handful who were not prepared to offer this.After you expressed an interest in staying for another year, your landlord notified us that he was not prepared to refund the deposit as we initially suggested. We notified you of this in good time before you signed the new agreement, so that you could make a considered decision on whether you wished to stay or not. The last thing we would want is for you to feel that you had no alternative, so we also offered to find you another home with a landlord who was offering a deposit-free tenancy. In the end, you decided to sign for another year in the same property and, as agreed, the deposit has remained registered with the DPS. This is reflected in your tenancy agreement and deposit documentation. Regardless of whether it’s a positive or a negative review, we always look forward to reading our customers’ experiences and learning/improving in whichever ways possible. CPS Homes cannot simply remove a review from Trustpilot. Trustpilot have a robust procedure in place that allows them to verify genuine reviews or remove those that are not, based on evidence (or a lack of). We hope you would agree that allowing a false review to remain on a review website would be extremely misleading.Whether they be students or professionals, as always, we encourage all of our tenants who are experiencing any difficulty to come forward so that we are able to liaise between them and the landlord and come to mutual agreement/plan moving forward. If you or any of your housemates are experiencing any difficulty with arranging your rental payments, please do email us on roath@cpshomes.co.uk or call us on 02920454555 to discuss your position, following which we’d be more than happy to approach the landlord for you.Kind regards,The CPS Homes Team.

Dear Enya,We are sorry to hear that you haven’t had a positive experience with CPS Homes. We have had a look into the matters you raise in your review and we hope we can provide some insight on the issues you have highlighted.Whilst we did send out communication to our tenants concerning property viewings at shorter-than-usual notice, our intentions and reasoning should have been clearer, and we should have provided tenants with a clear option to request a longer period of notice. We hope you will accept our apologies for this. Once you signaled your intent to stay on in the property and your landlord agreed, we ensured the property was no longer advertised for viewings.Regarding inspections, it is standard practice for landlords and letting agents like to document the condition of the property in photos and/or video(s), so that they can be referred back to at a later date if needed. Inspection photos/videos are often referenced where this is a dispute at the end of a tenancy, for example.Finally, deposits are not and cannot be taken "for no reason". In line with legislation, deposits are protected and landlords/tenants must come to an agreement over how the deposit is to be returned. If a tenant disagrees with any element of a landlord's claim, they reserve the right to use the deposit protection scheme's Alternate Dispute Resolution (ADR), where an independent adjudicator will make a decision on the matter.Should you have any further concerns, please do not hesitate to contact us via roath@cpshomes.co.uk or 02920 454555.Kind regards,The CPS Homes Team.

Dear Matt, We’re sorry to hear that you and your daughter haven’t had a positive experience so far. We’ve been able to look into the matter and we hope we can provide some insight what has been done so far to resolve the problems you have commented on. We have completed a check-out inspection for the vacating tenants shortly before your daughters tenancy began and instructed some remedial work; cleaning included. The time we have between two tenancies to inspect the property and arrange repairs is relatively short, so it’s possible some things are not attended to in a quick enough time. Likewise, sometimes it’s not possible for problems to come to light until the property is lived in. This is something we always endeavour to communicate with incoming tenants, and they will have received correspondence around this time to advise them as such, but also to re-assure them that if they have any problems when they arrive, we’ll ensure they are attended to swiftly. The tenants moved in on 1st August and we arranged to meet them on the same day to complete a ‘check in’ inspection. This gave the opportunity for the tenants to raise any concerns they had. At this point we agreed the cleaners needed to re-attend and a handyman was required to attend to a number of issues; both of which were instructed to contractors immediately after the inspection. Whilst the cleaning was resolved very swiftly, the handyman works have, unfortunately, been a slow process to resolve completely. Contractors are in extreme demand around this time of year because of the amount of tenancies ending/starting within a short space of time, so sometimes it’s not possible for problems to be resolved as quickly as we would like. Additionally, as we sub-contract the work, it’s hard for us to dictate when they are attending to jobs. I can see that there is an outstanding, open job for a blind to be fitted. The restrictions posed by COVID-19 means some items are in low supply, and we’ve found that made-to-measure blinds are very slow to arrive. We’ll ensure the tenants receive updates on the progress of this job. A few weeks into the tenancy, the tenants reported an issue with pests, which is not an uncommon problem in Cathays, unfortunately. We instructed pest control immediately. The property was treated and considered clear until recently when the tenants raised that the issue had re-occurred. The pest control company were immediately instructed to attend again and these visits will continue until the property is considered ‘clear’ again. Given that we can’t control the movement of pests in the area, we can’t eradicate this problem completely, but it’s evident that we are doing what we can to improve things for the tenants when any concerns are raised.The landlord has always been happy to fulfil any repair requests raised by us without any threat of withholding rent being raised with them, so this won’t be a contributing factor in the repairs being arranged. We hope you’ll agree that, although things weren’t perfect on arrival, repairs are being actioned when raised with us. We recognise this has taken longer than necessary and that things don’t always run smoothly with our sub-contractors, but with our contractor response times now back to relative normality, we believe the tenants will have a more positive experience for the duration of their tenancy. If the tenants do have any ongoing concerns that our contractors aren’t completing repairs in quick enough time or to a good enough standard, I’d encourage them to contact our maintenance team to let us know. We are available either in person, over the phone or via video call to discuss any concerns. If you wish to discuss the property in any more detail, please contact us on maintenance@cpshomes.co.uk. Many thanks,The CPS Homes Team.

Hi Tess,Thank you for leaving us a review. We're sorry that your experience was not a positive one.Having looked into the matter, we can see that you originally requested the viewing on 21st Sept, and we were able to book you in at short notice for the following day. As we don't yet hold keys for the property, we required the landlord to be in attendance in order to allow access, which fortunately he told us he would be.On the morning of your appointment, we called you pre-9am to let you know that we'd be informed access could not be granted after all. Thankfully, we were able to turn this around soon afterwards and still show you the flat that day, albeit slightly later than originally planned.We're sorry for any inconvenience caused by the possibility of a cancellation, though we are pleased that we were able to show you around on the day as intended. Finally, we're glad that you liked the flat. It is still available, so if you do change your mind and decide it's the one for you after all, we will be glad to assist.Kind regards,The CPS Homes Team.

Dear Stéphane,Thank you for leaving us a review. We have now had the opportunity to look into your comments.The property was professionally cleaned before you moved in, though we do have a record that you referenced a few areas that could do with further cleaning when you took up occupancy.We would not agree that the property was in a "very advanced state of disrepair". Cardiff Council have granted the landlord with a licence to rent the property, which means it was inspected by them prior to granting the licence and meets their strict standards. We note that you reported a few maintenance-related items during the course of the tenancy, which is unfortunate but not unusual. These were promptly communicated to your landlord, who tends to deal with maintenance issues himself or through contractors he knows.The condition of the property upon arrival was documented very thoroughly via the inventory/schedule of condition, signed by both parties. You annotated this where needed, so everyone had an accurate, agreed representation of the condition of the property, that we could then reference when the tenancy came to an end.After inspecting at the end of tenancy, we passed our findings to the landlord, who agreed that there was a significant amount of cleaning required, and certain dilapidations were over and beyond fair wear and tear. We communicated these to you and you agreed; choosing not to use the deposit scheme's Alternative Dispute Resolution procedure.We're sorry that you have had an unhappy experience. Having looked into things, we do believe we have followed the correct procedures.Kind regards,The CPS Homes Team.

Hi Ashley,Thank you for leaving us a review. We're sorry for the inconvenience caused by delayed or poor communication.Having looked into the matter, we can see that there have been considerably longer periods of time between correspondence than we would typically expect. Additionally, e-mails haven't contained the level of detail we would usually aim for. Both of these matters are being addressed internally and we reiterate our apologies for the inconvenience caused.In terms of the deposit return itself, we can see that you disputed the landlord's initial claim amount and instead offered to pay 64% of it. We communicated this 'counteroffer' to your landlord and he accepted. We initiated the return of the agreed amount via the Deposit Protection Service (DPS) in May and, since then, the deposit status has been "awaiting tenant response".The clean of the property was carried out by Simply Clean, who were instructed by CPS Homes following our check-out appointment. During this appointment, we collected photographic evidence that demonstrated which areas of the property required cleaning. We have recently asked Simply Clean to change the way in which they invoice so they are clearer and easier to share with tenants and landlords, but in any case, they did conduct the clean and invoiced accordingly. You have been advised that you are welcome to confirm this with them directly. Their website is https://simplycleancardiff.com/.The DPS are currently awaiting your response in order to progress the deposit return. You reserve the right to use their Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) service.Kind regards,The CPS Homes Team.*UPDATE FOLLOWING REPLY*: Due to COVID-19-related restrictions, we were unable to offer an accompanied check-out inspection at the time. There may not be further invoices to provide as landlords sometimes claim compensation towards the diminished lifespan of an item, rather than replace new. The Deposit Protection Service states that "where an item has had its value reduced or its lifespan shortened, for example by damage, a landlord may claim compensation", rather than the cost of a brand-new replacement. If we can agree a compensatory cost with a landlord rather than a repair or replacement, it will be of benefit to tenants for a couple of reasons. Firstly, compensation is frequently significantly less costly than a repair or replacement. Secondly, it speeds up the deposit return process because it can take several weeks to organise work, then receive and process a contractor’s invoices. Compensation, on the other hand, can be calculated relatively quickly and easily. The Tenant Deposit Scheme goes on to say that, where compensation has been claimed, "it is the landlord's choice as to whether they use any awarded money to fix/replace the item”. They continue: "a tenant may complain that they were charged for redecoration, or the replacement of something (carpet, or curtains for example) yet when they revisited the property with new tenants there, they realised the landlord had not replaced the item they were charged for! Despite tenants perhaps feeling this is unfair, it is the landlord's choice as to whether they use any awarded money to fix/replace the item." We’ll always try and adopt compensation over repair/replacement because of the reasons stated above.

Thank you so much, Rajendra. We really appreciate your kind words and are delighted you felt supported and well-informed throughout :)

Good afternoon,Thank you for leaving us a review.We apologise for the difficulties you have had since moving in. To allow us to look into your concerns further and attempt to put things in the house right, we would appreciate it if you could provide us with your name, contact details and the property you rent from us. You can do this via e-mail to feedback@cpshomes.co.uk, or answer the message we've just sent you via Trustpilot's private messaging platform.Many thanks,The CPS Homes Team.