Poshpad’s poor practice...

Anonymous submitted on

Monday 9th September 2019

Complete

as you may be aware, there’s been much dislike regarding the poor practices of poshpad - particularly call out fees, pretty much guaranteed loss of deposit and the fake reviews they’ve used on google - surely SUSU could publicly advise students about this during the next housing campaign or look into their malpractice? could there be some sort of landlord voting tool in which students can review and leave comments about the local landlords (think ‘rotten tomatoes’  style) ?  

Answers

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Laura Barr submitted on

Friday 13th December 2019

Complete

Hey!

Thanks for all your patience and support in the housing projects we are doing.

We met with them this week and had a lengthy discussion about the general pattern of complaints we have had, and what we would like to do going forward. I can say that it was a positive meeting and Posh Pads are open to working with us and implementing better provisions to give students the appropriate housing they deserve. We will be tracking this and having regular check in’s with Posh Pads going forward, but please still note that the Advice Centre will ALWAYS be there if you have any housing concerns or issues that you need support with.

The four commitments that Posh Pads have agreed to are:

  1.        We will not commission anyone to distribute leaflets in any Southampton or Solent University Halls of Residence or in any University-affiliated building. If any leaflets are distributed they will only be distributed on public highways.
  2.        We understand that there are maintenance issues outstanding on some of our properties. We aim to attend to all maintenance issues within 48 hours at the most. We appreciate you do not wish to disclose the precise details of the properties who have complained to you but if you could ask anyone to send us another e-mail we would be very grateful – we are simply not aware of 11 outstanding maintenance issues. We have 6 full time maintenance staff as well as may sub-contractors and they never cease addressing maintenance issues as they arise. We understand the importance of attending to them swiftly so if there are any outstanding we would welcome the opportunity of being informed of them so we can deal with them swiftly.
  3.        You will not hear of any more deposit disputes concerning Posh Pads. We have taken the decision of not taking any further deposits from any of our tenants. There is no quid pro quo. Tenants may now secure one of our properties paying just the holding reservation which is credited to their first month’s rent. Posh Pads has always aimed at being a pioneer in what we do, and this is a first among the Private Landlords in Southampton.
  4.        We would welcome any communication with the University. We have the willingness to remedy issues so being made aware of them is crucial to improvement. Improvement is in everyone’s interests.

We will be tracking this through the Advice Centre. 

Thanks,

Laura Barr

VP Welfare and Community 

13/12/2019