CPS Homes Cardiff reviews

Hi Toby, We’re sorry to see your review, but we think some context is important here. CPS Homes does not simply set a charge of £432 for removing a couple of Blu Tack marks. Where remedial work is required and we are asked to arrange it, this is carried out by trusted independent contractors whose pricing is competitive due to the volume of work we place with them. In other cases, landlords may carry out work themselves or appoint their own contractor. Unfortunately, your review does not give us enough information to identify the property or the particular job, so we cannot comment on exactly what the £432 related to. However, if Blu Tack has damaged the decoration to the extent that a whole room needs repainting, a cost of that level is not necessarily unreasonable. Repainting a room can also involve considerably more than simply painting over a few visible marks. Depending on the circumstances, the contractor may need to identify and purchase matching paint, move and protect furniture, prepare and prime damaged areas, apply multiple coats to achieve an even finish, and then return the room and furniture to its original condition. There is labour, materials and often more than one visit involved. What may appear to be a very small area of damage can therefore result in a much larger remedial job, particularly where a localised touch-up would leave an obvious difference in colour or finish. There is also an important distinction between fair wear and tear and damage. A landlord cannot reasonably charge a contract-holder for ordinary wear and tear, but marks or damage caused by Blu Tack and other adhesive products can fall outside of this. This is why we specifically advise contract-holders when they move in not to use Blu Tack, and provide further guidance before moving out on avoiding potential deposit deductions. Of course, any proposed deduction should still reflect the actual loss or reasonable cost of putting the damage right. If you contact us directly with the property address and details of the charge, we’ll happily look into the circumstances and explain exactly what was claimed and why. Kind regards, The CPS Homes Team.

Dear J A, Thank you for your review, though we do not accept this characterisation. Reports of this nature were taken seriously and acted upon. When the matter was first raised, the information available indicated it was isolated to one flat. As further information emerged, additional steps were taken, including arranging further investigation, treatment to communal areas, cooperation with Environmental Health, and wider action within the building. It is therefore incorrect to suggest that residents were simply left to deal with matters independently. Finally, public reviews do not provide the full chronology, and we will not set out private tenancy details or ongoing disputed matters on a public platform. Kind regards, The CPS Homes Team.

Fab - thank you!

Hi Ceri, thanks for your feedback. Sorry if there was a bit of misunderstanding on your employment/student status, but please be assured that whether we're dealing with a student or a professional, our customers receive the same level of service :)

Thank you very much for your review, Jessica - it was a pleasure to read!

No problem at all, Georgie. We're here to help!

Hi Will, Thanks for your review, and sorry to hear that you’ve had a less than positive experience. If a landlord is not abiding by the law, we will always address this with them if/when it’s brought to our attention. We aim to educate them on the practices they should be following and answer any questions they may have. Ultimately, despite our best efforts, we cannot control what they do or don’t do, and as a managing agent we have limitations. There are enforcement bodies who can take action, however. As for moving in and out, it appears as though you chose to rent a new property with a contract start date of 1st July, when your current contract ended on 30th June. Many contract-holders elect to have a brief ‘overlap’ in tenancies to allow them to move belongings from one property to another. This does mean they pay rent on two properties for a short period, but it eliminates any of the complexities that come with ending a contract on one day and not starting a new contract until the next day. Admittedly, there are only few ‘overlap’ opportunities when properties are on what we know as the ‘academic rota’, so we will always allow contract-holders to hold onto the keys to their existing property until as late as possible, or we’ll allow them to collect the keys to their new property early if we’ve had them back from the outgoing tenants. Sometimes, those two scenarios don’t marry up, unfortunately. You are one of thousands of contract-holders in this position, not just with CPS Homes, but with other agents too, and it’s not an easy few days for you, landlords and agents alike. We do our utmost to assist and are grateful for everybody’s cooperation at this time of the year. We’re pleased to say that almost all contract-holders are on board with the process and make arrangements that see them not inconvenienced. We do have a queue to collect new keys, but it isn’t a 5-hour wait, we can assure you. It is significantly less than that, and we send forewarning of the need to queue. Lastly, we’d love to do something about the Cardiff weather, but that is well and truly out of our control, sorry! We wish you well with the move. All the best, The CPS Homes Team.

Thank you so much, David, that really means a lot to hear! 😊

Hi Will, Thanks for your review, and sorry to hear that you’ve had a less than positive experience. If a landlord is not abiding by the law, we will always address this with them if/when it’s brought to our attention. We aim to educate them on the practices they should be following and answer any questions they may have. Ultimately, despite our best efforts, we cannot control what they do or don’t do, and as a managing agent we have limitations. There are enforcement bodies who can take action, however. As for moving in and out, it appears as though you chose to rent a new property with a contract start date of 1st July, when your current contract ended on 30th June. Many contract-holders elect to have a brief ‘overlap’ in tenancies to allow them to move belongings from one property to another. This does mean they pay rent on two properties for a short period, but it eliminates any of the complexities that come with ending a contract on one day and not starting a new contract until the next day. Admittedly, there are only few ‘overlap’ opportunities when properties are on what we know as the ‘academic rota’, so we will always allow contract-holders to hold onto the keys to their existing property until as late as possible, or we’ll allow them to collect the keys to their new property early if we’ve had them back from the outgoing tenants. Sometimes, those two scenarios don’t marry up, unfortunately. You are one of thousands of contract-holders in this position, not just with CPS Homes, but with other agents too, and it’s not an easy few days for you, landlords and agents alike. We do our utmost to assist and are grateful for everybody’s cooperation at this time of the year. We’re pleased to say that almost all contract-holders are on board with the process and make arrangements that see them not inconvenienced. We do have a queue to collect new keys, but it isn’t a 5-hour wait, we can assure you. It is significantly less than that, and we send forewarning of the need to queue. Lastly, we’d love to do something about the Cardiff weather, but that is well and truly out of our control, sorry! We wish you well with the move. All the best, The CPS Homes Team.

Hi Ioannis, thank you for this review, it means a lot to hear that you've had such a fab long-term experience. Nikki and Vicki are fantastic at what they do aren't they :D We'll make sure they read your kind words. Thanks again, take care!

Hi Shuang, Thank for your review. We’re sorry that you’ve had a less than positive experience with CPS Homes. We’d like to address the points you have made. Firstly, we absolutely welcome students. We let to 4,000+ students every year, so we are very used to housing students as well as non-students. Like every agent, we must check that anybody who has enquired about an available property is able to meet the referencing criteria that we agree with landlords in advance of advertising. For students, we appreciate that they are unlikely to have a credit history, may not have rented previously and may not be employed, so we simply ask that they are able to appoint a guarantor who is 25+ years old, resident in the UK and a UK homeowner. Most students are able to meet this criteria, but we recognise that some may not, especially in the case of overseas students. As such, the landlord will typically accept a payment of rent in advance in lieu of the guarantor. We asked you if this was possible so that we may then approach the landlord and say “Shuang is unable to meet the standard referencing criteria we agreed, however, we have checked and they can do XYZ. On that basis, can we proceed?”. We wish you well in your continued property hunt. We are very happy to assist you if you are interested in anything we’re advertising. Kind regards, The CPS Homes Team.

Fantastic, great to hear :) Thanks Henry for taking the time to leave us a review!

Good to hear - cheers Gabe!

Hi, We’re sorry that you’ve had a less than positive experience with us. We cannot currently locate you on our database, so in order to verify and learn more about your experience, we’d appreciate it if you could provide us with more information via feedback@cpshomes.co.uk. We look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, The CPS Homes Team.

That's fab to hear, thanks Christian!

That's great to hear - thank you Amy!

Hi Faye, We’re sorry to hear that your experience with CPS Homes has been a less than positive one. We’re keen to know more about the circumstances and the property, as we inspect every property we manage before, during (multiple times) AND after each tenancy, so your comments regarding never visiting don’t ring true to us. We’d appreciate more information being sent to us on this. You can do so via feedback@cpshomes.co.uk. We wonder if the property you’re referring to is managed by the landlord themselves, rather than CPS Homes. Whilst we may have performed a tenant-find service for the landlord, that’s as much as we do, so the landlord handles all aspects of maintenance and inspections, as they are entitled to do. They will be registered and licensed with Rent Smart Wales for this. If you have concerns over their management of the property, we first recommend raising these with the landlord themselves, but if this doesn’t yield any positive results, then Cardiff Council and Rent Smart Wales are where you may refer your concerns to. We hope this helps. All the best, The CPS Homes Team.