CPS Homes Cardiff reviews

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Don’t use this letting agency.

My student daughter and her friends rented a house (if you could call it that - more like a hovel) via CPS in their 2nd year at uni. They were sold the dream by CPS when they went to view (don’t worry all problems will be sorted, the house will be deep cleaned before you move in etc) and then as soon as they had their money their attitude changed. The house wasn’t clean when they moved in - it was absolutely filthy, honestly you would think a bunch of squatters had been in over the summer. when they complained CPS fobbed them off and treated them with contempt. Parents had to get involved to force CPS to send cleaners round and to sort out repairs. The house was infested with insects, damp on the walls, Mold in the bathroom and the landlord was not interested in sorting it, but CPS did nothing to help the tenants. When the students complained to CPS about the landlords behaviour towards them, it appeared they took no effective action because nothing changed.It is my opinion that CPS were only working on behalf of the landlord and were not interested in dealing with the tenant's concerns. This is demonstrated but the amount of times the tenants had to contact CPS over the same issues only to get nowhere. This is a matter of fact and records were kept. The situation caused my daughter so much stress that she didn’t need while trying to study. Take my advice and don’t use them.

Louise · 17 October 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Negligent and devious

I moved out 1st July, it is now the 5th September as I write this. It took till 22nd August for them to start discussing returning our deposit. Despite mentioning no issues during the actual checkout inspection, they decided to try and take half of our deposit as a house which is about £800. £75 for "handyman" and £180 for "cleaning", bear in mind we spent a whole week cleaning it before inspection, these cleaners must be the best in the country if they are getting these rates for a house that was considered clean to begin with.The other £600 is being claimed for various items that were broken when we moved in, unfortunately the inventory we handed in was "misplaced". So their logical solution to that, was to make us pay for their own negligence/dishonesty.Once we told them we would dispute the charges, they have decided to not put forward any claims on DPS preventing it from going to arbitration.It is clear that they have no intention of treating tenants with any kind of good faith. I have yet to find any previous tenants speak of CPS in a positive way.I would encourage people to avoid letting with them. Before moving in the house was damaged and we were ensured repairs would be made. Not only were the repairs never made, they now wish to repair the house using our deposit. Many others have also reported similar experiences. This would suggest that it will likely occur for any future tenants as well.As it has been 6 weeks since we notified them of our intent to dispute, they continue to drag their feet during the whole process. Refusing to discuss it by any medium other than email to which they will respond every few weeks. Like every other student in this situation, I cannot afford such a slow turn around.We have never been treated so badly by a letting agency and this is a prime example of a need for stricter regulation in the letting agency practices.

Luke · 13 October 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Utterly incompetent

CPS Homes are the worst agency I have ever experienced. They are very slow to respond to issues- I'm currently still waiting for a response regarding the deposit on a house I vacated in June! They have tried to claim ~£1,200 from our £2,020 deposit for a number of things including mostly cleaning and covering blue tack marks (they say that the entire wall needs to be painted, when they clearly don't do that (the walls were patchy from previous 'repairs' when we moved in.)) The inventory I completed when we moved in was thorough and showed a number of defects (including marks on every wall), but they never even read it, and they're now trying to charge us for those things! I've now been waiting 3 weeks for a response to my email and whenever I ring the office I'm told that deposits can only be sorted via email. Communication is poor, as are their efforts of fault resolution. I pointed out a wobbly chair at the time of the inventory signing prompting the response "I can't see how that's loose" only for it to fall apart within a week. And when they did send their maintenance man to fix a broken drawer in the kitchen he left halfway through the job and never came back so I had to finish it off myself (not a problem, just the principle). All in all, terrible service and I will NEVER use CPS again!

Chris · 11 October 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Richmond Road: serious damp/mould problems

Rented ground floor flat on Richmond Road. When viewing I asked if there had been damp in the flat, CPS said no there has never been damp or mould in the flat.After 1 week received letter under door from previous tenants explaining how bad the mould was and that they had to move out.After a few weeks there was water trickling down the inside of the living room wall with mould growing on everything and I became ill. CPS clearly knew that there was a damp problem with previous tenant, covered it up with new paint and a couple of boards and got new tenants in! CPS don't care about their tenants. I had to phone CPS over months trying to end my contract early, they were very unhelpful just saying things like have you tried opening the window and wouldn't visit or put me in touch with the landlord. Eventually after a few months the landlord came round and I ended the contract early.

Curtis · 10 October 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

DISGUSTING company DO NOT TRUST

Genuinely disgusted by the shocking level of customer service from CPS. They have no communication skills at all and by that I mean they just ignore you. When we moved in half of the basic things you need for a house to function were broken and it took an obscene amount of effort to get them fixed, some of them never were and that's a health and safety issue. Now they're withholding our deposits and there is radio silence about when we will be getting them back. Its nearing the 3 month mark and after many many emails and phone calls from all of the tenants they just do not reply or answer. Any sort of update if there is being work done would be lovely but they can't even do that. I have filed to take them to court in the hope of finally getting back our money. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY. Look at all the negative reviews... oh wait you can't as they report all of them.

Lizzie · 10 October 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Disrespectful of tenants and useless

I found CPS to be very dismissive and unhelpful when we had a problem in the house with our plumbing system. They are the only point of contact for resolving issues yet every time they couldn’t get hold of the landlord (All the time) we would have to wait for him to get back in touch with them etc and the problem would not get seen to in a timely fashion. We had numerous severe leaks in the kitchen some in the middle of the night and the two emergency out of hours numbers provided on their website did not go through to anyone. It was a nightmare. The worst thing was that we were advised by every person who came round to fix leaks that the whole pipe system needed replacing or it would keep happening and I relayed this info to CPS homes several times, to be met with a very dismissive ‘oh yeh we’ll mention it to the landlord’. Eventually the ceiling fell in and it was only when it got to this point that they responded to the source of the problem. I feel that they have no respect whatsoever for their tenants right to live in a habitable home, and only care about landlords interests. On top of all this they started hassling us to sign another year contract months before our tenancy was up.

Ruby · 9 October 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

You'll NEVER get your deposit back intact!

Used them in 2nd year, had no running water until 2nd week of September due to ongoing maintenance and the kitchen didn't have fridge/oven until the week after - one of my housemates had been living there for full price rent for 3 weeks before kitchen renovations were completed. Again, let through them in 4th year. Only available checkout appointment was 2 weeks before the end of tenancy, so despite paying full rent was forced to move out halfway through June. At checkout appointment agreed to minor deductions from deposit for a cleaner, but 2 months later they have charged for missing freezer drawers (£150 and not on inventory), handyman (£60 to fix what, we don't know) and another £60 for cleaner. 3 months after checkout they finally agreed to remove the freezer charge although deposit still missing (now October).From my experiences with them they provide a sub par service. The fact that a large percentage of their customer base are students must not have anything to do with how quickly they feel they can resolve issues.

Poppy · 6 October 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

You’ll never get your deposit back

Read reviews before deciding to go with cps but assumed some were exaggerating. However having just finished a years tenancy with cps, I can assure everyone these are not exaggerations. Through out the year cps were ok, they would take a while to get things done but no major complaints. But since moving out of a property (which was left in the same condition we received it) they have been a nightmare. They took almost two months to respond to emails inquiring about the return of our deposit and when they finally did (after numerous emails) the charges were ridiculous. We are still disputing many of them. Do not make the mistake of choosing them. (Ps they report all negative reviews)

Ruth · 4 October 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

DO NOT RENT WITH CPS

Rented a flat with CPS (managed property) starting in August 2019.Arrived to the place being absolutely filthy (dirt and dust everywhere, used pans still in the oven, mold painted over in the bathroom, the list could go on). From what I can gather, CPS want the landlord to deal with issues but as it is a managed property, the landlord wants the issues dealt with by CPS. This leads to a very poorly kept flat. They are very poor at keeping you updated about maintenance issues. I haven't had the pleasure of trying to get my deposit back from them yet however I can predict that it would probably be easier to squeeze blood from a stone.

SAM · 23 September 2019

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Nathan and Angela were both excellent

Nathan and Angela were both excellent; knowledgeable, experienced and full of good advice. Angela is your go to woman if you need someone to have your back throughout the process. She was excellent.

Siobhan · 27 March 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Absolutely awful!!

Absolutely awful!!! Payed for 2 whole months for the property to be cleaned and up to scratch over the summer as a student, I come to it from miles away where I live and it's in absolute filthy, non livable conditions! They claim to have had a cleaner come in over the summer... Speaking to customer services, they said they could arrange alternative living place since I have university the next day and they went back on their words and said they'd rearrange a cleaner to come out. Awful service and complete lies!

Farjana · 21 September 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Awful Experience

Literally one of the worst letting agencies ever and no one can argue with me on it.Are absolutely useless at replying to emails, are very condescending especially in person.When my housemate tried to see them about our property not being clean enough they didn't take her seriously and brushed off her concerns.Still haven't returned our deposits and are trying to take a cut of the money, claiming that it costs £75 to clean Stay as far away from them as humanely possible because it's not worth the stress and hassle.I'm having to rely on my parents for money when I was meant to have £300 in my account.Not happy at all.

Emma · 19 September 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

DO NOT rent with this company!

Do not rent with this company. I was left without hot water for 3 weeks, without a working washing machine for 2 weeks and their solution to fixing a leak in our house was to paint over it. Their customer service is non-existent they refuse to talk to you about issues over the phone as they insist to have a paper trail which would be fair if they actually ever replied to emails. I had to call CPS everyday for 5 days for them to even listen to me about not having hot water - which is not something you want to be doing whilst trying to write a dissertation. After all that, three months after leaving the property I still havn’t received our deposit back.

Georgina · 18 September 2019

★★★★★ 5/5

Google

Vicki was excellent in her communication in arranging the resign of our tenancy. Very clear and concise, customer service was of the highest standard.PositiveResponsiveness, Quality, Professionalism

Jack · 14 June 2021

★★★★★ 1/5

Google

Why is so hard to find a honest and good letting agency in Cardiff?! Don't expect you have your deposit back! Absolute nuisance with papers, advice, service... Avoid if possible.

Artur · 14 June 2020

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

Outstanding Service and a great team of people

I have used CPS for more than 15years to rent out a property and have found them to be efficient with outstanding service. They have always looked after the interest of the landlord and tenant giving advise to both equally. When a tenant leaves, CPS have another one ready to take their place. The rent is always paid promptly into our account each month.Their service is second to none I highly recommend this company.

Roderick · 9 June 2021

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

I wouldn’t go with them again...

I went with them in my final year at uni. It took them months to do the repairs they agreed to do before September. We had to go into the office countless times to complain, they would always note the problems down and then the next time we went in there would be ‘no record’ of our complaints.They do not give 24hrs notice before coming into the property, so we have had to turn them away many times. In my experience- go with the smaller agencies. They are much more attentive...

Grace · 6 September 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Woeful for students

Woeful for students, caused loads of problems and made even worse trying to get our deposits back at the end of the tenancy. Moved out in June, it is now September and still no sign or answer for when the money for the deposit will be returning to us. Moving out inspection required only ‘light cleaning’ which was fussy anyway for things such as a dust on top of the breakfast bar hanging lights etc...Students, please avoid at all costs as this money I needed to pay my next deposit for my house for the following academic year. Will CPS realise how bad these reviews are because there’s plenty being posted on here???

Scott · 4 September 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid CPS!!

Terrible excuse for a lettings company, which only seems concerned about any issue when faced with losing money. Upon moving into our property we found it very unclean despite CPS claiming it was professionally cleaned. When one of our ovens broke a few months into the year, we reported it but it was never fixed. You have to fight for every small issue with this company, and when your property has viewings they never give you more than 24 hours notice (in some cases 20 minutes). If you have any choice don’t choose CPS!

Elliot · 3 September 2019

★★★★★ 2/5

Trustpilot

Miriad of problems throughout our year…

Miriad of problems throughout our year of tenancy. Left our fire alarms not functioning for 6 months before we found out, then actually tried to get us to pay for replacements before backing off when we resisted. We left the house two months ago and are yet to receive our deposit. Additionally, across the year they broke their own promise of giving 24 hours notice for tenancy visits. I honestly think they never once gave us that much notice, usually it was about an hour at most. Furthermore whenever we tried to discuss issues they were dismissive and rude and frequently took a considerable amount of time to reply to emails. If you are a student in Cardiff looking for accommodation, I would look somewhere else.

Jack · 1 September 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Stay away from CPS!!

Issues began as soon as we moved into the property last August. Upon moving in the mattress was covered in blood and dirt, although reported immediately I did not get a new mattress for several weeks which resulted in me sleeping on the floor. Only 1 out of 3 showers worked until the Christmas period, for a house of 6 people. Tumble dryer did not work for the whole tenancy, which made it very difficult for 6 people to dry clothes especially over the winter months. Excess furniture blocked the hallways and the house for months until it was removed.In addition, the letting agency bring people to view the property without 24 hour notice and only notify you up to 20-30 minutes before. Despite continuously telling CPS that we wanted 24 hour notice, they would still turn up for viewings.Staff do not deal with complaints well, and despite consistently reporting issues the agency would claim that they had never been reported.Overall, look for a house with another agency - CPS are not worth the hassle.

Micaela · 30 August 2019

★★★★★ 5/5

Trustpilot

CPS: great for both landlords and tenants.

We have been landlords in Cardiff for 20 years. We specialise in student letting. We have always found CPS to be honest, helpful, and professional. What is more, they care about our tenants, as we do, and clealy have an understanding of young people who are starting their adult life. As a former educator, I appreciate that as well as looking after their landlords, (which they do excellently), CPS always thinks of the well-being of the tenants, too.M.Hague-Morgan OBE

Marilyn · 25 January 2020

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Avoid

Customer service skills are rare throughout the 2 out of the 3 branches we dealt with, and even whilst making a complaint, staff couldn’t care less about what you have to say unless you agree with what they are saying. We were (blindly) messed around from the start and after signing the tenancy agreement were treated with lack of respect throughout. All staff members were friendly until we found ourselves stuck in a contract. All CPS are interested in is your money - this has been proven to us!A good estate agent may be hard to find, especially if you are a student, but avoid CPS Homes unless you want to be taken advantage of.

Anais · 22 August 2019

★★★★★ 1/5

Trustpilot

Awful

CPS are extremely slow at replying and massively over-charge for any deductions from the deposit. Although we were under the impression we would receive the deposit 10 days after the end of our contract, we still have not received the money (2 months later). Trying to get in touch with CPS is extremely difficult as no member of staff is willing to speak to anyone on the phone about the deposit, having been told to email someone we then waited 3 weeks for a reply, only to be told they were 'too busy'. Very poor customer service, I don't recommend.

Sophie · 17 August 2019