My first website

[fgrunta]

I just finished a site which allows tenants to review their landlord and prospective tentants to lookup any prior feedback about a landlord. Also provides legal information on tenancy and a forum.

My first website, so please let me know what you think. Any feedback (positive or negative) is welcome!
Landlords on Trial (http://www.landlordsontrial.com)

[yurxcom]

cool,

Nice job! What software are you using or did you develop it yourself? I think you should also have the tenant "watch" review too. It's NOT always the landlords fault. Some tenants can be a real pain.

Looks like you had a bad experience with a landlord, so is this for revenge or is it to actually make a difference?

Just being devil's advocate

good job!

Chris

-----------------------------
Chris

[fgrunta]

Thanks!

I used Drupal to make it but wrote a few custom modules in php and a bunch of mysql queries for it all. Took me about 2 months , part time - I probably could have done it faster had I known what I was doing.

I know tenants can be painful too I've also heard horrid stories about what tenants do and I've thought long and hard about a "tenant review" idea myself but ultimately decided against it, for two reasons:

a) With a lot of laws covering you, a large deposit and ultimatly another roof over your head I just don't feel the situation is the same for a landlord.
and
b) What I would really like to happen - and I don't know if this is realistic - is a sort of community where people can get together, moan and whinge and help each other out. If you have landlords posting there, some of that atmosphere will be taken away and the site will loose some of its focus.

If the site really takes off and I get more requests for that, I might implement it, but I think I would put it on another page - www.tenantsontrial.com, for example. Then the landlords can have a place to be together and help each other out.

And, not it's not (just) revenge When I was having difficulty a quick google search found lots of random forum posting about people complaining about their landlords but no one place for them. Additionaly, there is no easy way to find out what the law protects you from and what it doesn't. For example, I just met a girl yesterday who's landlord has increased the rent three times over the past month, each time adding £200 - this is illegal but she never knew that.

Anyway, sorry to ramble on and thanks for taking the time to check it out!

[Pumazooma]

Nice design.
It looks more like a personal gripe at one landlord at the moment though.
You should get on to some student unions or something similar to get some more reviews in. If you can bag the universities I would think you would have a pretty big market there.

You should also check some legal issues as to any comebacks with personal attacks on comapnies without their right to reply.

[fgrunta]

Pumazooma,

Thanks very much for your reply!

I know the site is a bit lonely at the moment As it just launched today all I have managed to do it get my housemates to add stories - and of course they all wrote stories on the same agent.

Thanks for that comment regarding the legal rights...While doing this I have been aware that I'll have to cover myself legally and thats an issue I didn't think of.

I'm a bit new to the United Kingdom so I'm not sure sure about how universities work here. I know they frequently provide living areas to students...Is your point that the students might be having difficulties with their universities regarding their tenancy?

[jon123]

I also like the design of the site, very clean and easy on the eye.
If I had a negative comment to make, it would be that I struggle to read the small text. I gather it is an information site so it needs to be easy enough to read.

Of course we can increase the font size on our pcs' as i regulary do, but some don't know how to accomplish this so maybe an accessibility link somewhere? or'and a javascript option to increase text size?

Also maybe worth noting that on IE7 you can't increased the size of the text on your site.

But as mentioned, really like the look and feel of the site.

[Pumazooma]

Originally Posted by fgrunta

I'm a bit new to the United Kingdom so I'm not sure sure about how universities work here. I know they frequently provide living areas to students...Is your point that the students might be having difficulties with their universities regarding their tenancy?

It's a long time since I was at university but most students live in digs (houses they rent out in groups). I'm guessing the student unions will have lists of agents they let through. It might be an idea to get in touch with them and provide some sort of base where they can exchange views on particular agents. Start with a couple of universities in your area and see what you get. Just an idea.

[fgrunta]

jon123:

If I had a negative comment to make, it would be that I struggle to read the small text. I gather it is an information site so it needs to be easy enough to read.

Good point. It's a reading-intensive site yet the site just ins't comfortable to read. Will fix this. Thanks!

Pumazooma:

It's a long time since I was at university but most students live in digs (houses they rent out in groups). I'm guessing the student unions will have lists of agents they let through. It might be an idea to get in touch with them and provide some sort of base where they can exchange views on particular agents. Start with a couple of universities in your area and see what you get. Just an idea.

Good idea! Thanks!

[Sean]

Entire website is good, but I think you should change the navigation link's text of the title bar.

[sam123]

nice design, good color combination keep it up

[devon_123]

its really good. like it