We (three young professionals) rented a house in Lockleaze, Bristol through CJ Hole from September 2017- September 2018, and I would honestly recommend people to avoid using this agency. From the beginning of our tenancy, we had issues getting the agency to push for things to be fixed at the newly "refurbished" house. As stated in our inventory on the day of move in, there were noticeable issues with the property, such as cupboards broken, dirty kitchen all which the agency said would be sorted. Weeks would go past and these issues we raised had failed to get anywhere. Furthermore, the poor and cheap refurb under taken by our somewhat lazy, ignorant and difficult landlord were apparent from the get go. There was no extractor fan put into the bathroom, this caused mould, the cheaply fitted shower door was leaking just to name a few. Wanting to live in a clean, tidy and functioning house, we reported these issues to CJ Hole to forward to the landlord. Water was leaking from the shower, something we explained unless was tackled quickly the bill at the end of it would be much worse. This was something that was being sorted as we viewed the property, something I can only think of happening due to the issue previously being ignored. Weeks would go past with no response and several attempts at phone calls being made. Each time a different member of staff would pick up the phone or email back and inform us they were waiting for the landlord to respond and “approve works” or they were organising quotes. Months had now passed without any work being carried out and both and landlord and lettings agency reluctant to resolve the issue. We therefore threatened to withhold our rent until the at times, quite dreadful conditions being a flooded bathroom, a broken sink tap for the kitchen and plugs that did not work were fixed. After CJ Hole responded to us, informing us a clause in the contract stated that we would have to pay £90 per day in fees to withhold our rent. This threat of withholding our rent still had no impact on CJ Hole speeding up the process and their understanding our frustration as rent paying tenants. We felt we had no rights so contacted Environmental Health at Bristol City Council. Just to give you some indication of the time line of getting a response and things sorted, an original email was sent to CJ Hole in early October 2017, and on the 24th of February 2018 we were still explaining to CJ Hole the issues with the property. They were not happy we had gone to the council and told us they were “unaware” of the issues. Once again a different member of staff came back to us on this. At this point it was the middle of winter and a considerable amount of mould had built in the bathroom to add to the problems. There was no extractor fan in place and one of us suffered some severe asthma. After inspecting the property (and sending us the report) the council contracted the parties to inform them they had visited and reported this. (please see letter from council confirming contact attached). Only now did CJ Hold decide to contact us. To their discontent at contact from the council did we begin to hear back of some progress being made. We felt neglected and as if we were dirty, loud annoying tenants who did not care for the property. We all worked full time and had to come back to a house that did not function. We felt if this had been a family living here, more notice would be been given. Each time a issue was reported, a new member of staff would pick up the thread of emails and have no idea to our frustration what was going on! Towards the end of our tenancy, we ensured the house was left in a tidy and reasonable state. The house was cleaned head to toe, and left in a better condition to when we moved in. The day after we moved out the landlord went round to look at the property. We were then told by a Gareth Murphy that a check out would occur and a list of things doing to the house would need to be paid for out of our deposit. There was a list of 12 items the landlord wanted to charge us for. We firstly had proof that from the inventory, many of these things had been ignored from original requests such as the kitchen needing a professional clean, but we were trying to be charged for. Other items were just completely made up, and when challenged we had our question ignored and the item removed from the list. Other items being a lampshade that never existed, the entire carpets needing a professional clean (which we already paid for a sent the receipt in) and the wardrobes needing a clean (whatever that is!) were on the list. After much deliberating with CJ Hole we felt again let down, and that the landlord, who knew nothing of the original state of the property had gone in and putting this quite frankly, put a list of lies together to charge us for. CJ Hole here ignored our questions as to why the same person who undertook the inventory on move in day, did not do this on move out day. Their response was “In terms of your query, I should point out that the inventory is not carried out by CJ Hole, we outsource this. However we do carry out the check in, and accompanying report.” This in our eyes is a system that fails to help its tenants and puts the power in the landlord's hands, when they know nothing of the previous state of the property. After relentless battling with CJ Hole and the landlord we were still being charged £65 for gardening at the end because of some overgrown grass and weeds. Again which were there when we moved in. We eventually had enough and gave in to the Landlord for this unwarranted claim. The withholding of our deposit was costing us money every day for unwarranted and false claims made by them. Where we had a door handle that had broken, we provided a new handle at our own expense for someone to come and fit it on. The fee for this was £75 to fit a door handle!! Again we questioned this as it amounted to a half day rate for a contractor in the city (4-5 hours work!). Knowing this was a greedy amount to take we had reduced on our appeal. Long and short of this review I would not recommend CJ Hole. They choose lying landlords who do not care for the state of houses their rent paying tenants are living in, nor for customer service. My main bit of advice would be to take as many photo's as possible on move in day, this along with inventory evidence being as specific as possible, keeping it all saved us a huge amount of made up fees. Our unwillingness to be stood all over ensured the unwarranted claims could not go ahead. Be sure to get environmental health involved where necessary. This is an honest review, where we have the evidence to back these claims up. I hope this helps future students/professionals in our situation. My main points summarised below. - Do not consistently respond to issues - Lack of communication - Do not back up their tenants - No urgency - Different member of staff each response (no clue of what's going on) - Rude - Put you into a position with no leg to stand on - Had to contact environmental health