Clever Student Lets Reviews 

To start off nice, the staff member who showed me and my partner various properties was a really nice guy cant fault him.
The issues occurred upon moving in and ongoing since. When collecting our keys my experience was fine but they misplaced my boyfriends paperwork causing him alot of stress.
Then when we arrived we found that my fob to enter the building was broken so if my bf was out id be locked out. We had no wifi for at least a week. The flat hadnt been cleaned, my sink wouldnt drain properly, the bin room smelt like someone had died in there. Come a few weeks, we discover huge rats infesting the bin room. The rats were around for months.
During our time here periodically the wifi cuts out. Actually cut out earlier today and im wasting my data. The front entrance door is broken meaning any random person can let themself intonour building with ease. Just last week i had a terrifying encounter walking home from work at night when i ran into an undressed man outside my building and if he wanted to he couldve followed me into the building. I should note theres no reception in my building that couldve looked after me.
We had a whole issue with clever trying to get them to come sort the lock just for it to break again a few weeks later!!! Making me feel constantly unsafe

We also were never given a postbox key and i have complained like 5 times and here we are 5 months later and still no key meaning i cannot access my post.

There are cleaners who come to our building once a month. They are supposed to clean the communal areas, like the stairs which is great but they also let themselves into your flat without even knocking!!! And they always seem to come at 9/10am and as i work nights this means i tend to sleep into the morning. Imagine my shock and fear when i wake up to strangers voices in my kitchen. Absolutely terrifying. We don’t even get an email warning us when theyll be here.
They do a crap job of cleaning anyway, all they do is hoover and mop. And most of the time ive already hoovered so its completely pointless but there doesnt seem to be a way to opt out?!

Im sure ill remember a host of other issues after i send this!!

Oh yes also their communication is absolutely ridiculous. So bad.

Theyll draw you in with a modern looking nice flat then when u move in the problems will start.

AVOID AVOID AVOID

Having contacted clever lets about damp in my sons flat they have failed to answer and this is an ongoing problem causing health issues for him but the just wash there hands of it.
If you are a student steer well clear of the agency…… you have been warned

Apologies for the long review but people need to be warned about this company and the stress they induce.

Began my contract with them in Sep 2021, attempted to move in but they had given me a key that did not work and took 2 weeks for them to give me one that actually worked, told me i had to share my housemates key until then. They then spring an additional charge on to all of their new tenants of £500 with zero warning, apparently to help with termly payments however this was not shared with anyone until the invoices arrived. I then had to live in a bedroom with black mold all over the walls that they repeatedly refused to do anything about. Their policy is to give tenants 24hrs notice before anyone comes to visit the property. However, we had people turning up at the property all the time with zero warning. Towards the end of the tenancy they repeatedly threatened residents with arrears cases because their systems were not registering peoples rent payments. 4 times i had to go into their office to complain and was reassured each time the situation had been sorted. Only when i threatened to take them to court about the incorrect allegations of arrears did they finally stop.

I have since moved out of the property and am still experiencing issues with clever student lets. I have not had a contract with this company for over 3 months and they have contacted me multiple times attempting to get money out of me, each time being proven, once again, that they cannot do their job properly. The first was them attempting to claim that i wasn't a student when i lived at the property and were trying to get me to pay council tax, even though they already had all of my student details when i signed my contract. The second was that they tried to charge me £40 for a new set of keys for a property i do not live at, and they no longer manage, claiming that i never handed them in... which i did, and provided evidence of. Clearly, the 'Clever' in clever student lets is an attempt to cover up their abysmal service and incompetent staff.

First of all, We asked to move in early, was told we could not move in early as those two weeks between tenants were for checking the flat out. Fair enough.
Got the keys, joint contract between me and my partner, only given one set of keys.. great. Got to the flat, had NOT been cleaned or checked. Kettle was clearly broken and flipping the switch, the coffee table was fully broken and we had no hot water. We called up and thankfully we were lucky and someone came and got the broken stuff straight away. But just defeats the purpose of the ‘checks’. We were without hot water for 5 days, which is illegal. But they did nothing about it. During our time at the property, we had random cars blocking our cars in in the drive way, this meant if we had to leave in an emergency we could not. We had near enough no Wi-Fi for 8 months. Every time we reported the issue they made us feel as though we were lying and kept asking for a speed check. WE COULD NOT GIVE THEM A SPEED CHECK AS WE COULD NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET!! They kept saying well the main router on the ground floor is working so you should be able to connect from the 4th floor and push us away. We had mice in the flat at one point and we new they we’re still in the whole building as we had traps constantly reset, so we new they were chewing the wires from the main router, they never believed us until once day they finally turned up and paid extra time for someone to look at the internet and he said it’s completely broken and it can’t be fixed, we had THREE new routers put in over the space of 8 months. The landlord was a horrible lazy person if he had to fix an issue that week, he would refuse to come back! He should not be owning and renting those flats! However we will give credit to his son and one of the Maintenance guys, both angels and made a horrible experience a little bit easier. Please please do not book with this company. They treat you like crap, lie to you and will leave you without the essentials. We were made to feel so little by the clever staff just for asking for stuff we paid for to be fixed.

I have nothing but bad things to say about Clever Students. Moved into our house September 1st, for 2 weeks we had no hot water, so we had to shower elsewhere. Then for months on end, we had issues with our boiler, it had to keep being topped up on a daily basis. Then we had a fire alarm that would continuously beep every few seconds. The fire alarm took weeks to sort out, even then were told a part of the alarm was broken, so wouldn't have worked if there was a real fire. Then around Feb/March time, my bed had broken (broken when we moved in and help together by small bits of wood attached to the frame) which didn't get replaced until 8 weeks later, even though I expressed discomfort and physical issues stemming from that broken bed. Then a couple months ago, we have had issues with our WI-FI. At first we thought it was an area issue, but 2 weeks later our landlord supposedly fixed it. Not long after that a couple of my house mates found out they could no longer stay in the property the next academic year, as the landlord was no longer letting it out to Clever Students, even though a contract was signed. Currently, not even 2 months later, our internet has gone down again. Clever students have told us numerous times that they don't deal with the internet, the landlord deals with it separately. I then rung clever students up and explained the situation for the 3rd time, in order to get in contact with our landlord to sort this issue. I left that call with a promise of one of Clever Students engineers to be sent out to deal with it, that same day. Come the following Monday, I ring up to see when they will send someone out, we get told that they are not allowed to send their own engineers out, therefore nothing they can do. We were FALSLY PROMISED our issue would be sorted out, but once again let down. Then the next day or two I receive an email, saying and I quote "The landlord has chosen not to sort out the internet issue at your property. We have provided all assistance that we are able and am afraid there is nothing further we can do about the issue." Considering our contract says that the rent we pay includes all bills (electricity, gas and WI-FI), we have had issues with all of them, and for some time been without them. So now, until the 17th August, we have to use our own personal 4g because our landlord doesn't want to fix our internet. I highly recommend you stay away from them, saves any frustration and issues further down the line. So happy I decided not to stay another year in that house.

They didn't return our reservation fee, even though they told us that reservation fees can be returned if we cancel before contract. Also, Communication is worst. They will reply your concern after 2-3 days.

Beware of any “free parking on a first come first served basis”. What they don’t tell you is they have signed up a rogue private parking company to issue parking fines, after you complain they refuse to cancel these fines and only white list your car going forward. Now waiting for a court date to defend a false £800 claim. DO NOT USE THIS SCAMMING COMPANY.

ABSOLUTELY TERRIBLE COMPANY! Avoid them at all costs. I have been living in one of their flats for 8 months now and have nothing good to say about them. On the day me and my girlfriend moved in, there was over 50 different maintenance issues that had not been dealt with over the summer, some of which took months for them to fix and some of them still haven't been dealt with. When we moved in the flat hadn't been cleaned, the washing machine was leaking and flooding the kitchen and the boiler wasn't working (the people in the flat below us are connected to our boiler and had no heating or hot water until we moved in). It took 3 months for me to get a key to the front door of the building. After waiting 2 months for 2 new mattresses and a new bedframe (the old one was quite literally held together with tape), the landlord brought replacements and said he would send someone to pick up the old mattresses from outside the house, this took almost 3 more months for them to be collected. The flat has a cleaning service which is supposed to happen monthly in which they wipe down surfaces in the bathroom and kitchen, there is no specific date that they come and there is no email about when they will be here, some months they don't come at all but the last time they were here, they completely moved things around the kitchen and bathroom, threw things in the bin which we wanted to keep, moved things from the bathroom down into the kitchen, used our bin bags and even knocked things over which spilled all over the floor and didn't clean it up. On the day that I'm writing this a man showed up to do boiler checks without any email letting us know be was coming, he let himself into the flat and was wondering around while I was in the bathroom and my girlfriend was in her underwear and asleep, and the man was 2 steps away from the bedroom before I heard him and stepped out to speak to him (the kitchen is on the opposite side of the flat so there is no reason for him to be looking around the flat. Cleverstudentlets' sales team are incredibly nice and friendly which is how they lure students in but they are often useless with any problems with the flat, if you go to the office to complain about anything maintenance related, they don't let you speak to anyone in the maintenance department so nothing ever gets fixed. The company sometimes replies to these reviews saying that they're up to date on communications or to say how they strive to care for all tennants, both of which are complete lies. If you were thinking of renting from Cleverstudentlets, don't. Stay away from them. If you have already booked a room with them then good luck, maybe you'll be better off than most.

AVOIDD!!

We moved in in September last year. Promised all maintenance issues would be fixed before we moved it. And to my astonishment we had 52 maintenance issues when we moved in. And a good few of them are still present to this day! When we first moved in we had no hot water and boiler was broken. The downstairs flat also shares our boiler and they moved in a week before us! They received no reply from Clever and had to wait for us to move in for it to be fixed. Luckily my dad was with us and got them to send someone down. And which they only started fixing the maintenance issues months in! 8 months later we still have maintenance issues! We still have damp, mould, completely broken and shredded leather chair, cracked microwave, their idea to fix mould is to paint over it, window seals are not in and even gets condensation come in which creates mould on the window sill which is apparently our problem and we have to clean it since we "didn't open the windows enough". And just now we had a random old man walk in to do boiler checks. No email or notice before hand. Why he was near the upstairs bedroom is beyond me. But I was sitting here in my underwear. Who knows what might have happened if my partner wasn't here!

Clever are a shambles, quick to send threatening letters and slow to respond. They don't have the guts to put their contact details on these letters.

It’s been almost 5 weeks since my tenancy came to an end and I still don’t have my deposit back. The communication has been essentially non-existent, and I only received replies to my emails once I threatened legal action. For your own sanity, I would avoid.

Update: after multiple emails and finally an official complaint and conversation with the Property Ombudsman, my deposit has been returned 7 weeks after my contract ended. It is ridiculous that they are incapable of returning a deposit without so much fuss and hassle

Terrible service, and the staff doesn't care about the tenants' needs.

If I could give them 0 I would. I have never experienced such awful customer service and lack of communication. Clever student lets have been nothing but problematic since booking with them. We experienced around 7 weeks with no heating, and at certain times no hot water and Wifi. We have had copious amounts of communication with the team and yet we did not/ and have not got anywhere. Constantly being passed around to different departments and unfortunately being told that our concerns are not valid. Not only was out contract breached, when discussing a discount for lack of heating we were constantly harassed with court threats due to breaching our contract, bit rich I think. Not only do they not provide any sort of customer service, the company is extremely unprofessional as confidentiality of my housemates has been breached many times. Unfortunately this company provided less than the minimum and takes advantage of students in the Plymouth area. Please stay away from this company.

I would put 0 stars if I could. We had so many issues with our house that were never addressed. My bed was broken by the time I moved in and it took me 9 months for them to get a new one. There suggestion for bins when we didn't have enough was "steal one your students" horrible place avoid.

Could put zero if would be possible.
Avoid avoid avoid!
Communication is shocking, staff is so young and unexperienced, no one knows anything, no one replies to emails, or picks up the phone.
Absolutely awful

AVOID MARVEL HOUSE OR JUST DO NOT BOOK WITH CLEVER LETS!

This review does not even deserve one star. I strongly recommend everyone to find an accommodation with another agency. Apart from issues like RATS, beds falling apart, no door locks, main door not closing or the fact that when you call them, they pass you to a new person to speak to everytime or just do not call back, the biggest issue is that there is NO HOT WATER for months! Last year it happened over the winter and it is happening again this year. Rooms are freezing because of no heating and we can not do dishes or take showers because the water is cold. What does Clever Lets do about it? They keep resetting the boiler until the problem arises again, it is a never ending cycle. Apparently, the landlord is not willing to service the boiler but the agency should sort this out as this is ILLEGAL! They keep delaying problems without fixing them!

Terrible company be very careful when renting, or try a different company altogether.

Reply to feedback from Cleverstudentlets: moved into the house late due to it not being cleaned from previous tenants, spent a month with no cooker and hob and had to buy meals to eat which have not been reimbursed as ‘promised’ since october, a broken boiler in winter months for a few weeks, broken and stained beds, desks and kitchen units. Damp walls which were poorly repainted and a massive hole in the ceiling which also postponed our move in. I would of emailed this to you as requested but you don't answer any of your emails.

I recently went to view a property with my grandson and was shown around by Alexandra who was amazing. Very friendly and thoughtful. My grandson is now going to rent a room in one of the properties and I cannot thank her enough.

Clever Student Lets is the single most incompetent company Ive ever had to deal with. When viewing a property the estate agent was rude, and I reported a gas leak outside of the property. When I moved in to the same property a month later, the gas leak was still there- so I had to call out emergency maintenance before I had even moved in. With gas leaking into the street for a month or more, its a wonder nobody was killed. The referencing was delayed by three weeks due to an error on their part- and was only completed after moving in. As such I was unable to hire a moving in van for the day and so went without furniture for the first two weeks of the tenancy. On move-in day I arrived at 08:15 in the morning to collect the keys; and didn't receive a key until 17:50 in the afternoon. They are so incompetent that they lost the master key to the property, so I had to get my own set of keys cut- out of my own pocket. I was infuriated, and when I tracked down the CEO to voice my concerns, he palmed me off saying that I should check my emails; I have and do constantly and have received precious little communication from Clever Student Lets at any stage of this process. He also thought it prudent to remind me that the tenants needs weren't of any concern because the landlords pay his wages, not the tenants. I kindly reminded him that the landlords pay his wages with the rent collected from tenants like me; without tenants the system would collapse. The CEO was as discourteous as he was disinterested. I reported a fault with my toilet two weeks ago and haven't heard anything back from them since; despite having chased them up. Getting any communication from this company is like getting blood from a stone. Moreover, every student, or other tenant I have spoken to has had the same dreadful experience. Im so enraged by the lack of service, that I am considering going to the press about them. I am not exadurating when I say that Ive never had worse service from anyone I have ever dealt with in my entire life. I would recommend that anyone who reads review this should avoid Clever Student Lets like the Plague. In fact, getting the plague would be preferable to dealing with this group of incompetent ragamuffins. What a cr*p show.

My daughter moved into her flat on Wednesday 1st September and found the broadband was not working. She reported this the following morning since then she has phoned, left messages that nobody returns and still has no broadband now on 12th September. I have phoned and also left messages, received promises of returned calls that never happen. Contacting Virgin, they obviously can only discuss with contract holder but say there are no issues with connection. To make things worse my daughter should be attending an online funeral tomorrow and we have made Cleverstudentlets aware of this and still nothing.