Waterside Flat in Central Leeds

After more than eight years living in Leeds, this has been the worst place I’ve lived. Management is poor, and the building is overrun with Airbnbs. People leave litter outside and bags of mouldy food in the carpeted hallways. Car windows have been smashed in the supposedly secure car park, and the lift can stay broken for over a month. Rent goes up by ridiculous amounts every year. It really isn’t worth it. You can find somewhere much better for less.

In the two years I’ve lived here, four people have tried to get into my flat. The front doors are often broken, so the building feels insecure, and it feels awfully unsafe. More Airbnbs keep appearing, bringing noise, rubbish and parking problems. Over the last six months the place has gone downhill horrendously. The lifts can be out of service for weeks with no updates. I’d give zero stars if I could. Don’t move here under any circumstances. Rent anywhere else.

Short-term lets are pushing residents out, which is a shame because this building has potential to be a lovely place to live. A lot of flats are becoming Airbnbs, and that’s causing disturbance and damage. Parcels are constantly stolen, my car has been broken into twice, and management does nothing to help prevent it. They also take ages to fix anything. Someone even tried to set fire to a doormat and push it through the letterbox. I wouldn’t recommend living here at all.

The property management is what really lets this building down. It was well known among tenants, and someone we knew had flooding with nothing done about it. We had carpet beetles in the second flat and no one dealt with it. At the end of the tenancy, they charged cleaning fees again. I challenged that and asked for proof, but R, the building manager, ignored me. R is known for being horribly rude and useless, and I had to wait for the TDS scheme to get my money back. Our first flat was lovely, but too cold because it got no sun. We left it in great condition, yet were charged cleaning fees that we paid, though they seemed unreasonable. The second flat hadn’t been cleaned at all before we moved in. Both flats had washing machine and oven problems. There were also ongoing issues with the washing machines and ovens breaking.