Who are Cavill Properties?
Briefly, we are a family of landlords who own a small number of student houses in the Headingley area. We have over 20 years experience of helping students to make their new home in Leeds, even if only for a short while. We have owned various properties in North Leeds during this time and have chosen to focus our efforts on the popular student area of Headingley. We have carefully selected our houses, only buying houses that have something to offer to you in terms of location, facilities or character. We all live locally, so we know the area inside out and can respond quickly to any issues or concerns that you may have. We take great pride in offering you and your friends a fantastic house to live in whilst you are studying or working in Leeds.
Who do I speak to if there is a problem during our tenancy?
When you make one of our properties your home during your time in Leeds, you deal directly with us. We don’t hide behind managing agents, we give you our contact details so that we can all communicate with each other and great communication is the key to you loving your time in your new home from home. We generally set up a WhatsApp group for you and your housemates so that you can get in touch quickly when issues do arise and will do our best to come and sort things out as soon as we can. When we can’t fix a problem ourselves, we will arrange for one of our trusted tradesmen to visit to rectify the problem.
We know exactly what it takes to make a tenancy run smoothly and are on hand to answer any questions from either yourselves or your parents from our first meeting until you move out. Many of our students stay with us for the following year when they realise their house is way better than where their mates are staying!
What facilities are there in your houses?
We are very proud of our houses and are sure that you will love them too. We make sure that they are clean and modern in their appearance, with great shared spaces for you all to enjoy. In all our properties, you will find a great sized living room (including comfy sofas and a flatscreen TV) and a well-fitted modern kitchen (dishwasher, loads of fridge/freezer and storage space, and, of course, seating space for you all). You will also find spacious and, importantly, easy to clean bathrooms and at least 2 toilets which means less queuing in the morning! Every house has a washing machine and dryer which will save you taking loads home at the weekend for mum to wash! We also furnish your rooms with good quality, matching furniture so that you can be proud of your own personal space in the house. All our bedrooms have double beds and plenty of storage space for your clothes and belongings. All bedrooms have a secure lock and personal key for your safety and privacy and to help when arranging your belongings insurance. Some of our properties have bike storage facilities as this is a great way to get around North Leeds (often faster than bus or car!).
All of our houses meet the UniPol Code of Standards and are HMO (Houses in Multiple Occupation) licensed so both you and your parents can rest assured that your houses are well maintained and meet all necessary safety standards. We are Golden Owner members of the UniPol Code which means that no complaints have been made against us.
What if we are a large group of friends who want to live together?
We own some neighbouring properties and also some houses are in the same street. This means it is possible (depending on availability) for groups of 10 or 12 to live “together” or, at least, very close to each other. By renting 2 separate houses for your group, you will often find that you will get more space and at a cheaper rent than some of the larger properties in the area and can still enjoy the benefits of being close to each other.
Our previous house was mouldy/dirty/falling apart, are Cavill properties any different?
Unfortunately, not all landlords take the same pride in their properties as we do and give all landlords a bad reputation. Having lived in poor quality accommodation with absent landlords during our time at university, we take great pride in making sure that you have a home that you can be proud to show your friends and parents.
Our houses are regularly checked for maintenance issues, we take advantage of the summer period to repaint and refresh when we can and ensure that fixtures and fittings remain in good condition. We have installed many hidden extras within our properties to combat some of the common problems that students often report in other properties. This includes extra insulation to the walls (to prevent condensation on walls that leads to damp/mould), roof insulation (for the same reason), high-powered cyclone fans near the washing machines and in bathrooms (to remove moisture from the air) and a through-house air ventilation system to keep air circulating, again to prevent the build-up of moisture that can lead to damp spots forming. You probably won’t notice these things in the house but you will notice that they keep your home in a better condition than many houses.
We make sure that you can get in contact with us when an issue arises so that we can sort problems promptly and keep our repair bills and disruption to you to a minimum.
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What do your previous tenants say about you?
Yes, we know, it’s really hard for you to ask them! If you view one of our properties, make sure you ask one of our current tenants how much they enjoy making one of our houses their home. We are sure they will tell you how friendly we are and how we deal with problems as quickly as we can to make sure you love your new home. Every house has its own information booklet to help you settle right in and to make sure you know how things like the washing machine work. These little things are what help us support our tenants and we will try to get to know you as quickly as we can. We know that trust is important and will do our best to support you from the day you sign your tenancy agreement until the day you move out. Our tenants often stay for a second year with us, or, if they are new to us in their third year at university, wish they had been with us in their second year!
See our Testimonials page with recommendations from some of our previous tenants.
Are my utility bills included in the rent?
Most households prefer to go for a bills-included option, covering all Wi-Fi, water, gas, electric and TV licence payments. This means you can move in and before you have unpacked you can log on to our Wi-Fi and you are good to go, ready to share those all-important moving-in pics with your mates!
We are young professionals, can we live in your houses?
Of course you can! Many of our previous tenants have stayed in Headingley beyond the end of their university courses, starting their new careers in the Leeds area. Once you have made one of our houses your home, you are welcome to stay as long as you like. For those of you moving to Leeds, our houses are a in a fantastic location for both work and play.
What is a Tenancy Agreement?
A Tenancy Agreement is a legal document that sets out clearly the landlord’s (us) responsibilities and the tenant’s (you) responsibilities to ensure that life runs as smoothly as possible. We will agree things such as when you can move in and when you must move out, how much rent and deposit is payable and the dates that these should be paid on, anything that you can’t do in the house (e.g. no smoking inside the house) and the expectations surrounding repairs and reporting issues. It is an attempt to cover all eventualities to try and prevent any disagreements that could arise – not usually an issue!
We use a Joint Tenancy Agreement that is based upon the recommendations of UniPol – the Leeds Universities accommodation support service. See their advice on contracts
Please make sure that you read any agreement before you sign it (even if not signing with Cavill Properties) because it is a legally binding document.
Why do I pay a deposit and will I get it back?
The fact is, accidents happen. From the relatively minor (e.g. losing your keys) to more major issues (e.g. broken window). The deposit is paid as security to try and cover damages that may arise during the tenancy period (but, hopefully, won’t!).
We are sure that you will have heard all sorts of horror stories regarding the non-return of deposits and the fact is that some landlords do, wrongly, see this deposit payment as “their” money. As per the legalities for deposits, we always use a Deposit Protection Scheme to insure your deposit and to ensure that there is an independent arbitrator in the case of any dispute. We use the MyDeposits scheme for this.
At the start of your tenancy, we will ensure you receive an Inventory so that we can identify and rectify any issues (that occasionally do get missed during the very busy changeover period in July) at the start of your tenancy. This helps avoid any disputes at the end and it is important you receive one of these in any house that you move into (even if not one of ours).
Towards the end of your tenancy we will make sure that all end-of-tenancy expectations are clear and support you in the form of end-of-tenancy visits/checks to help you return the house to us in a clean and tidy condition, as it was when you moved in.
UniPol have loads of advice about this in case you have further questions. See here
We are Golden Owners with UniPol. This means that we are members of the UniPol Code of Standards and there have been no complaints made against us in the last 4 years (we haven’t had any complaints made).
Why do I need a rent guarantor?
When you sign for a student house, you are likely to sign, as a group, a Joint Tenancy Agreement which means the responsibility for the condition of the house and the payment of rent is shared. Very occasionally, one person may change their mind about living with the group and decide to withdraw. The rent guarantor’s role is to ensure that person continues to pay their rent, rather than it falling onto the remaining group members. The tenant who withdraws may then find a replacement tenant to take on their responsibilities, rather than it falling on the rest of the group. Should this happen to you, you should have no problem finding a replacement and we will do all we can to advise you if your circumstances change.
Can I see some pictures inside your properties?
Yes, we have loads of pictures inside all of our houses. See inside here and also follow the links for a video walkthrough.
How do I get in touch to arrange a viewing?
Easy, contact us here to arrange a viewing at one of our houses.