Developers of luxury apartments blame tenants for rat issue

Earlier this year, work finished on transforming Conditioning House, on Cape Street in the city centre, into 153 apartments as part of an ambitious £18m redevelopment scheme by Leeds-based Priestley Homes.

But some tenants say they are fed up with litter problems which have led to rats.

Daniel and Dale Hallas were one of the first couples to move into Bradford’s Conditioning House in May of this year.

Mr Hallas - who is paying £825 a month for a two-bed flat on the top floor - claims rubbish has been piled up in their outside bins leading to the rats appearing.

He said: “As more and more people started moving in, more and more rubbish has been generated which has caused rats to chew through the doors.

“They advertised it as luxury apartments which is fine until you sit on your balcony, and you can hear rats squealing.”

The Telegraph & Argus were sent videos taken last Monday night showing a number of rats running up and down the alley where the dustbins are located at Conditioning House.

Pictures also show tons of rubbish has just been dumped outside of these bins and the ground being painted in pigeon droppings.

The pigeon droppings

Since being approached by the Telegraph & Argus, the Priestley Group have decided to relocate some bins and clean up the others.

The company say they have already issued fines to tenants who have been found to cause the problems.

A spokesperson from the group said: “The bin area is cleaned up on a regular basis.

“We do our best to clean up after tenants that have no respect for this beautiful building whatsoever.

“We have a contract with Pest Force that attend on a regular basis, but the tenants are throwing their bags on the floor every day instead of putting them in the actual bins.

“We have caught some of the tenants on CCTV and charged them.

“There are ample bins empty, but they choose to throw the bags on top of the overflowing bins or on the floor, we even keep the lids open for them because they couldn’t be bothered to open them to put their rubbish in.

“We are hoping the more that get fined, that they might start respecting this area.”

Priestley Group were also critical of Bradford Council for not attending to the bins properly.

They added: “Bradford Council emptied the bins this week and left them all outside so the tenants threw their rubbish on the floor for 24 hours until we got our groundsmen back in to put them back in.

“The Council have not been very helpful with the bin collections.

“The owners pay a lot every year for council tax on this building and they will only collect once a week for 153 apartments then leave trails of rubbish as they pull them out and not bring them back in, it’s appalling.”

Bradford Council said it is urgently working with the owners to resolve the matter.

A Bradford Council spokesperson replied to these comments by saying: “We are working with the owners of Conditioning House to increase the frequency of collections for this property which will address the overspill problem.

“We are also talking to them about the location of their bins.

“Council tax pays for much more than just household waste collections - it funds a broad range of services including children and educational services, adult social care, planning, highways, sport and leisure services and parks and green spaces.”

The Priestley Group also said it had flagged up complaints about a smell of cannabis problem to the police.

Its statement added: “The smell of cannabis has been addressed and the police have been informed.

“We have given an entry card for the building to the police so they can check the building when they are doing their rounds.

“We also have security that walk around the building.”

But Mr Hallas said he and his husband Dale have had enough and will be leaving once their contract is up in May 2022.

He said: “It is good that people are investing in Bradford with these projects but as soon as our contract is up in May, we’re going.”