Letting agent reviews in Edinburgh

**Property condition:** The property was reasonably clean upon collecting the keys, albeit a little dusty and VERY red. (Every room is decorated with red furniture and paint). There was a weird "earthy" smell coming from the kitchen sink and the whole of the bathroom. The smell in the kitchen sink went away quickly but I never managed to find the cause of the smell in the bathroom. The big heavy electric radiator in the bedroom was also full of dust, the tops of the wardrobe were covered in some sort of cracked plasterboard. The lamp in the living room and one of the bedside lamps weren't functional from the get go, over the period I lived there 4 of the ceiling light bulbs died. Also the kitchen table is just an incredibly large, heavy, glass, piece of garden furniture. I have no idea who thought it would be a good idea to put it in the flat, but the landlord refused to remove it. This flat is also VERY poorly insulated and gets unbearably cold during the winter, the radiators work on some ancient alien timing schedule that we weren't able to figure out so could never consistently heat the flat up. **Maintenance & repairs:** We only needed 1 repair in the time that we lived in the property and that was to fix/replace a fridge. We reported it was broken and it took a week for someone to come out and have a look at it, then a further 2 weeks for them to return and replace it. Over 3 weeks without a fridge was tough although Cullen did give us £80 for the inconvenience after a lot of back and forth. **Communication:** The agency were actually pretty good at communication, up until it came time to send someone out to look at the fridge. When asking for an update after we had heard nothing about the workmen coming back, it became a blame game between Cullen and Trinity Domestics as to who was at fault for not returning to the property. Then when we handed our notice to leave the property, communication seemed to get pretty cold. **Deposit:** We got our deposit back after around a month and a half after moving out. We were told there would be charges around a week after we moved out and that they had to wait for invoices, we heard nothing for over a month and decided to request the full amount from Safe Deposit Scotland, only then did they send us through the invoices for cleaning the windows and the whole flat (again). We decided not to dispute because we'd rather have our deposit back than wait any longer. We were also charged a £25 "Work Arrangement Fee" to pay for them to do something they're required to do anyway between tenancies. **Location:** The location is a blessing and a curse. This is probably the flat with the best view I'll ever have in my entire life. On a clear day you can see down the Royal Mile all the way out to East Lothian, you can clearly see St Giles Cathedral to the left and Tolbooth Kirk to the right, as well as anything going on down the Royal Mile. However... During August when you have a leprechaun juggling or an Australian woman swallowing swords on fire outside your kitchen window at 8am, the view gets old really quickly. (I know, what did we expect from moving to the busiest street in Edinburgh?). Most of the acts were great to watch, but the issue is that they rotate, they come back. So you'll hear the same show 3x a day. But that's only during the Fringe Festival right? Wrong. Street performers were still outside the window all the way up until December. Since there is an AirBnB directly above this property, in the same stairwell, we would have people trying to open our front door at all hours of the night, trying to get into our flat instead of the one above. Although they legitimately meant no harm, there's nothing scarier than waking up in the middle of the night hearing someone banging on your front door and trying the lock. Other than that, the stairwell and the area is very safe, very touristy and a lot of foot traffic at all hours of the day and night. **Amenities:** You'd think living as centrally as you possibly could in Edinburgh would be a bonus, it is not. Everything directly around the flat is a tartan tat tourist hellhole owned by the Gold Brothers. Your nearest "supermarket" is either M&S on Princes Street, or the choice between two very small Sainsburys on either West Port or South Bridge (I'd recommend the West Port one, less drunk people). Alternatively you can grab a Number 27 bus from the Victoria Street bus stop all the way out to Big Tesco on Colinton Mains Drive (around 30 minutes each way, this is the most direct way to do a big shop). Pubs and restaurants are plentiful, you have Deacon Brodies and the Ensign Ewart a 30 seconds walk from the stairwell and the Jolly Judge literally in your back garden. But bare in mind, this is a tourist area and drinks will not be cheap. **Neighbours:** We didn't have a single neighbour for longer than 4 days, the property directly below us was vacant during our entire tenancy and the property above is an AirBnB with an ever revolving door of people who cannot read and own the loudest suitcases on earth. The front door has gaps you can actually see movement through so every noise in the stairwell will find its way into the property. The stairs leading up to the flat are also a magnet for tourists to sit on, you will spend the whole summer jumping over entire families taking refuge on your doorstep. **Overall vibe:** This property is genuinely lovely, we didn't move out because we hated it, we moved out because it was way smaller than we thought it would be. We were basically living on top of each other. You can't have 2 people moving around the kitchen at the same time, cant have 2 people in the bedroom because there's not enough space to get round the bed. Space was the issue. This is the perfect flat for a single person who really loves juggling leprechauns and a great view. **Advice for future tenants:** Think REALLY carefully before moving into this flat. It is cold, loud and very small. There are no kitchen drawers.

Rent: £1,050/month

**Property condition:** The property was reasonably tidy on arrival. However previous tenants hair was still stuck in the carpets of both bedrooms. There were scratches on various walls and surfaces, but nothing major. A few tiles in the bathroom were cracked and the shower curtain was mouldy at the bottom upon arrival, but we were going to replace that anyway. It does have its issues, like one bedroom being significantly smaller than the other, we circumvented this by moving the single bed from the boxroom into the living room one weekend and used the box room for clothes drying/storage (if you do this, get a dehumidifier, trust me). Southside were actually very chill about moving the bedroom into the living room and the person inspecting the property said he expected us to eventually do that anyway. The kitchen and fridge have ample storage, we didn't end up using half of the cupboard space. **Maintenance & repairs:** Immediately after moving in my flatmate and I noticed the electric hob was tripping fuses in the flat. Southside contacted an agency who came and fully replaced the hob very quickly. Our 2nd maintenance issue was that the washing machine wasn't draining properly and had flooded the kitchen. Workmen came to the property the first time and "fixed" it, only to leave and have the kitchen flood again. Our 3rd maintenance request was regarding the hot water heater which controls the kitchen tap water, this wasn't functional for the last month of the tenancy despite reporting it, nobody ever attended to fix it and it wasn't fixed by the time our tenancy ended. **Communication:** Southside's communication was acceptable, they kept is informed with plenty of notice for routine inspections (these happened around every 3 months or so and lasted no longer than 5 minutes) **Deposit:** As both tenants of this flat were first time renters, when it came time to vacate the property Southside were pretty useless in explaining the steps we had to take to get our deposit back. We weren't aware that we had to go and action the deposit return request ourselves first, despite several emails asking for an update on the return of our deposit. Eventually when they communicated, they sent a file for deductions which included: - A whiteboard (tenant left personal items behind). This whiteboard was in the property when I first viewed it, and belonged to the landlord. - Cracked bathroom tile. This was there during the initial viewing and I proved so with videos that I took that day, showing the cracked tile before we moved in. - Mirror taken off the back of a door. The mirror was secured into a hollow door with raw plugs and fell off when closing the door a week after moving in. It was not safe to put back on. We reported this and explained it to a member of Southside staff when they visited the property 3 weeks after our move-in date. After a lot of back and forth we got the majority of our deposit back. **Location:** Transport Links: Albert Street is a great place if you want to be reasonably centrally located. You're a 5 minute walk to Leith Walk turning left out the stairwell and a 1 minute walk to Easter Road if you turn right. Both Leith Walk and Easter Road are incredible for catching public transportation. There is on-street parking outside but you can only do this if you have a Edinburgh Council parking permit for the zone. It's not residents parking. Living in this property without a car is absolutely feasible. Safety: My flatmates work van was broken into once and then stolen from outside this property. I personally never felt unsafe in the property or in the surrounding streets. There are a lot of pubs surrounding the area and a lot of those people use Albert Street as a thoroughfare to get home, so at night there is sometimes a lot of drunken shouting, but we never had any problems. Even before or after football games when fans would come down the street, they never caused any bother. Convenience: Albert Street is a super convenient area to live in, with all the public transport, Lidl at one end of the street and a Sainsburys at the other, and two corner shops it's great. **Amenities:** There is a Lidl at one end of the street, a Sainsburys at the other, two corner shops (one across the street from this flat), pubs on Easter Road a minutes walk away and many other pubs no more than 5 minutes walk away. **Neighbours:** I had nothing but positive interactions with everyone in the stairwell. Other than the sound of the heavy front door slamming occasionally, there wasn't really any offensive noise. On a couple weekends the person above would have folk round and play music, but so did we, more often than them, so it wasn't much of a problem. The noise was still minimal with the windows closed and normally quietened down by 11ish. A lot of people in the stairwell also have dogs, including the person directly opposite the flat door, the dog is very friendly, well behaved and doesn't bark. **Overall vibe:** Living in 75/6 Albert Street was great. It was my first flat, shared it with my good friend and made endless memories there. Every room other than kitchen and bathroom face the street. The street is a perfect rat run coming from the east into town so Albert Street has a lot of car traffic at all times of day, sometimes it can get quite noisy but the flat is pretty well soundproofed so it didn't effect sleeping or anything. **Advice for future tenants:** Video every imperfection as soon as you get the keys, ideally during the viewing. We did have a mouse sighting during our first week but wrangled it out into the stairwell, we didn't see it again. Move the single bed from the box room into the living room if you're not too bothered about having a living room. If 2 people are living here then eventually the flatmate in the smaller bedroom will get pissy about living in a cupboard.

Rent: £1,200/month