“On arrival, cottage found to be neglected.”
Crockery, cutlery, glasses all dirty and smell of bad drains in kitchen. Fridge door shelf broken, no veg. basket or shelf. Freezer inaccessible due to cleaning tools being piled against it. Also, remains of a plastic bag which had/did contain something, frozen into bottom of freezer. Ice cube trays filthy. Insufficient cooking utensils - no small pans!! Broken toilet seat in downstairs loo - unsafe! Toilet brush upstairs broken AND DIRTY! Rug in twin bedroom had to be lifted - trip hazard - and ...
Crockery, cutlery, glasses all dirty and smell of bad drains in kitchen. Fridge door shelf broken, no veg. basket or shelf. Freezer inaccessible due to cleaning tools being piled against it. Also, remains of a plastic bag which had/did contain something, frozen into bottom of freezer. Ice cube trays filthy. Insufficient cooking utensils - no small pans!! Broken toilet seat in downstairs loo - unsafe! Toilet brush upstairs broken AND DIRTY! Rug in twin bedroom had to be lifted - trip hazard - and then discovered it was dirty, not having been vacuumed for ages. Blind fixings falling out of the wall. Extractor in bathroom, although switched on, not working. Also, drawer units in bathroom had to be cleaned. Not only did we have to deal with these shortcomings in the cottage itself, but we then had to experience outrageous invasions of our privacy. The first issue was to contend with men hanging around at the door to our cottage (in Gun Gutter alley), vaping! This happened on 2 separate occasions. My daughter had been startled one night, when she went out to put rubbish in the bins. She found 2 boys lurking in the darkness, vaping! She challenged the boys, and was met with aggressive responses, and one of them ran away after she caught him peeping into our kitchen window where I was working. We immediately reported this to the local pub, and it seems that someone there had directed their staff to use our sheltered area for vaping/smoking. We still had a second incident, when on another evening, another man was found there and when challenged he agreed that this shouldn't be happening and said he'd speak with the landlord. We had no further problem but not a nice feeling for 2 ladies on their own! The FINAL unacceptable happening and the most shocking I feel - on Friday 15th, on returning from our morning walk, ready to get on with breakfast, we found an ESTATE AGENT waiting at our door. She was waiting for VIEWERS TO ARRIVE, to view the property which we later discovered had been on the market for sale since June this year!!! We had to vacate the cottage whilst 3 people were shown round. A TOTAL INVASION OF OUR PRIVACY. Our personal belongings were on display, and we felt quite violated! We were told the viewers had come a long way, were expected almost immediately, so we had no option other than to go out and find somewhere for coffee. It was too late to cancel the viewing. We were sitting outside at a local eatery for almost an hour. On returning to the cottage, people were still milling around and did eventually leave us to get on with our breakfast, albeit rather shocked by what had happened. Things got better, more shocking!!!!! Later in the day, just after lunchtime, there came a knock at the door. My daughter answered and a woman marched in, saying that she had bought the house that morning, she'd had her offer accepted and she wanted to show her friend around! As she chatted to my daughter, her friend started opening doors and looking into the other rooms, and then she said she was 'just going upstairs, for a nosey'!!!! Yet another violation,. another complete invasion of our privacy - we felt so unable to control or question the situation. We did feel the new 'owner' and her 'friend' were possibly a little inebriate, maybe celebrating the new purchase. BUT, how were we allowed to book cottage in July when it had already gone on the market for sale, and why were we subjected to these invasions of privacy by estate agents, viewers, and then the new owner???? According to the estate agent,the owner had already told Sykes to make no more bookings when the property first went on the market back in June, which might explain just why the place seemed so 'run-down'? Who knows. Overall - Far from the relaxing. peaceful break we had planned.
- Kathleen, September 2023
