Student Accommodation in Stoke-on-Trent

Your Landlords - Deb and Alan (and a rare occasion when I'm wearing a tie!)

About your Landlord!

As mentioned before, my name is Alan and together with my wife of 28 years, Deb, we manage and maintain the properties ourselves and look to provide a quality service regarding accommodation for students in Stoke-on-Trent.

A bit about us: I am 53 years young, Deb is a bit younger, and we have 2 children of our own - a lad of 24 and a girl of 21 - so we understand a bit about the needs of young adults! My daughter is currently at University herself - but in another part of the country. We also had a - very - Old English Sheepdog, aged 14 (about 98 in human terms!) called "Chief" but sadly he died just a week before Christmas 2008. He had been mentioned on this page for a few years, so I could not just leave him out, even though my best mate is now gone. You can see a picture of us relaxing after a hard day by clicking here!

Anyway, back to the reason we are here..... We see ourselves as friendly and fair and like to think that our tenants feel the same. In fact, we treat our tenants more like friends than tenants! I have found that this way works better for all concerned. Our philosophy is to tell our tenants, "You look after our house, and we'll look after you!"

When I started in this business, people said to me - "Don't rent to students - they'll trash your house!". Well, I have found this to be totally untrue. If you treat people properly, then they will usually respect you and treat your property with respect as well.

Many times students have told me about their other friends who have inferior accommodation (usually at a higher price) and a "horrible" Landlord (their words not mine!). I would like to reassure you that I am not like that at all and is also the reason I have included a "Testimonial" page on the web site.

You may notice that I am currently based in Oxfordshire. That is not really an issue for me as I spend most of the summer living in Stoke and also a couple of weeks over Christmas and the New Year period. I can be in Stoke in less than 2 hours if neccessary and in any case have local specialist contacts if required. As it is, I probably visit the area about once a month anyway - although I don't get to every house each time! Usually, it will be to replace a washing machine or deliver a new bed - something of that nature! We do intend to move nearer shortly, once all this "credit crunch" malarky has died down a bit and the property market is stable again.

Aside from our relaxed and informal attitude with our tenants, we do take our business seriously, and as you can see from the logo's at the top of the page, we are registered with the "Landlord Accreditation Scheme" run by Stoke City Council - which means our properties meet the specified standards in terms of health and safety and living standards. (although we like to think we exceed these!). We are also registered and members of The North Staffordshire Landlords Association.

To re-iterate - All our properties have a CORGI Gas Safety check annually, an NIC/EIC Electrical Safety Inspection Certificate, Energy Performace Certificate, and are equipped with mains powered smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, fire blankets, etc. They all comply with current housing legislation and local council regulations in respect of planning, Building Control, Environmental Health and Fire regulations. The Gas appliances (Cooker & Central Heating Boiler) are professionally serviced each year.

Please feel free to contact us if you would like more details of the properties or just to have a chat about possible accommodation - but if you are currently looking for accommodation for the 2010/11 academic year, please do not wait too long, as our properties tend to be signed up early in the year!