CPS Homes, the Cardiff-based estate and lettings agency, was in the firing line again this week after a ceiling in one of its student houses collapsed and landed in the living room – despite tenants warning the agency for weeks about a crack in the ceiling.

WalesOnline reported that the seven students who had been living together at the property in Ruthin Gardens in Cathays, in Cardiff, were so ‘shaken up’ after the event that one of them had to go home to their parents.

BROKEN BOILER

The students had noticed several problems – a toilet not working properly and a broken boiler.

It was an accident waiting to happen.”

One of the students told WalesOnline: “When we arrived we saw these cracks and we thought ‘this is definitely going to fall through’. It was an accident waiting to happen. The ceiling was drooping.

“We asked the previous tenants and we’ve established that these cracks have been there for at least two years.”

The Neg approached Nikki Lewis, operations director at CPS Homes, for comment.

A spokesperson for CPS Homes had previously told The Tab Cardiff: “We were sorry to learn of this report when the tenants brought it to our attention.

“The landlord’s own contractor recently attended and performed work that we were told would resolve a leak in the bathroom above the kitchen, though it now appears that the issue was misdiagnosed.

“Clean-up work and initial making good was carried out within four hours of being reported, with full repairs commencing on the next working day.”

TV SHOW

CPS Homes and its treatment of students has previously been featured on Channel 4 TV show Joe Lycett’s Got Your Back.

The segment saw an attempted interview with CPS Homes owner Barrie James, who ignored all questions.

As a result Lycett hosted ‘the UK’s first ever consumer rights rave’ outside the firm, playing music to educate students on their rights.