We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
PLEASE READ BEFORE POSTING: Hello Forumites! In order to help keep the Forum a useful, safe and friendly place for our users, discussions around non-MoneySaving matters are not permitted per the Forum rules. While we understand that mentioning house prices may sometimes be relevant to a user's specific MoneySaving situation, we ask that you please avoid veering into broad, general debates about the market, the economy and politics, as these can unfortunately lead to abusive or hateful behaviour. Threads that are found to have derailed into wider discussions may be removed. Users who repeatedly disregard this may have their Forum account banned. Please also avoid posting personally identifiable information, including links to your own online property listing which may reveal your address. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
University - Halls of Residence
Tom2010
Posts: 4 Newbie
I live in University owned Halls of Residence under a 'license' rather than a tenancy. The license conditions pretty much state that they can do whatever they please, whenever they please, for as long as they please. On the other hand, it states that I can barely fart in my own room without giving 28 days written notice and enclosing a £25 administration fee...
I've only been living here for a month, and despite paying an incredibly high fee for my en suite flat, I'm becoming very annoyed at the lack of privacy being afforded to me.
I have no problem with the weekly kitchen inspection, as it is well advertisied, done on the same day each week, and doesn't involve staff rummaging through your private cupboards.
However...the following does really annoy me:
1) Constant 'fire drills' at 7am or 11pm, where everybody has to evacuate the whole building. My flatmate was 'fined' £18 from her deposit because she was in the shower, and 'took too long' to leave her room.
During the fire drill, halls staff enter EVERY residents bedroom and bathroom to check that nobody is trying to hide away. During this time they also rummage through your room/personal belongings and note down anything you're not allowed to have. You get a letter from halls staff a few hours later with a fine and a notice to remove the 'offending item'. This also happens during 'genuine' fire alarm activations.
2) The rules say that you are not allowed a mini fridge, candles, kettles, wireless routers, door stops and a million other things. You're also not allowed to open your window fully, despite there being no 'safety mechanism' to prevent this.
Halls staff enter your room whenever they like to conduct 'health & safety checks' or 'smoke detector inspections'. There is a generic notice in the hallway that states 'Health & safety inspection will be carried out in bedrooms at random between the following dates - 1st September until 31st August - These may occur at any time of the day'.
On my last room inspection, halls staff decided my room was too untidy and issued me with a fine. They also noted down the serial number of my TV and DVD Player which they say they will pass on to the TV licensing people to 'check whether I have a TV license' (which is rubbish, I know!). They also said they will be visiting again soon to inspect students computers to ensure they have not been watching live TV online, without a TV license!
I have Aspergers Syndrome and it's bad enough moving to a whole new city without having to cope with ALL my privacy being violated on an almost daily basis.
I appreciate I have a license which affords me less rights than a tenancy agreement, but SURELY there is something me and my flatmates can do to regain a sense of independence over own rooms??
All your help is appreciated!
I've only been living here for a month, and despite paying an incredibly high fee for my en suite flat, I'm becoming very annoyed at the lack of privacy being afforded to me.
I have no problem with the weekly kitchen inspection, as it is well advertisied, done on the same day each week, and doesn't involve staff rummaging through your private cupboards.
However...the following does really annoy me:
1) Constant 'fire drills' at 7am or 11pm, where everybody has to evacuate the whole building. My flatmate was 'fined' £18 from her deposit because she was in the shower, and 'took too long' to leave her room.
During the fire drill, halls staff enter EVERY residents bedroom and bathroom to check that nobody is trying to hide away. During this time they also rummage through your room/personal belongings and note down anything you're not allowed to have. You get a letter from halls staff a few hours later with a fine and a notice to remove the 'offending item'. This also happens during 'genuine' fire alarm activations.
2) The rules say that you are not allowed a mini fridge, candles, kettles, wireless routers, door stops and a million other things. You're also not allowed to open your window fully, despite there being no 'safety mechanism' to prevent this.
Halls staff enter your room whenever they like to conduct 'health & safety checks' or 'smoke detector inspections'. There is a generic notice in the hallway that states 'Health & safety inspection will be carried out in bedrooms at random between the following dates - 1st September until 31st August - These may occur at any time of the day'.
On my last room inspection, halls staff decided my room was too untidy and issued me with a fine. They also noted down the serial number of my TV and DVD Player which they say they will pass on to the TV licensing people to 'check whether I have a TV license' (which is rubbish, I know!). They also said they will be visiting again soon to inspect students computers to ensure they have not been watching live TV online, without a TV license!
I have Aspergers Syndrome and it's bad enough moving to a whole new city without having to cope with ALL my privacy being violated on an almost daily basis.
I appreciate I have a license which affords me less rights than a tenancy agreement, but SURELY there is something me and my flatmates can do to regain a sense of independence over own rooms??
All your help is appreciated!
0
Comments
-
1) Constant 'fire drills' at 7am or 11pm, where everybody has to evacuate the whole building. My flatmate was 'fined' £18 from her deposit because she was in the shower, and 'took too long' to leave her room.
wait til you are kicked out in the snow at 2am - 4am and again at 6am due to drunken *****s who think it is funny!!!!!Saying Thank You doesn't cost anything :beer:0 -
Are you allowed a 'love life' in these detention camps ?"An arrogant and self-righteous Guardian reading tvv@t".
!!!!!! is all that about?0 -
A 'love life' is permitted provide you sign your lover into halls reception and have them issued with a temporary visitor pass. They can stay for 1 night per term. Everyone else has to leave campus by 11pm.
Snow is nothing!! A guy in the flat downstairs set off the smoke alarm by burning some toast at 11pm...we had to wait in the SU bar or outside in the pouring rain for 6 hours, because security staff noticed an unrelated smoke detector 'cover' was missing. They refused to let us in until emergency contractors came out and replaced the single detector head. Bear in mind it was 1 detector out of about 35...it had been broken for weeks....it was raining....and they wouldn't let us back in until 5am because 'there might be a fire by the broken detector and we'd get sued if anyone died'.0 -
Next year find a house or flat to live in.
It sounds horrible.0 -
What uni is this?
I thought mine was bad when they fined us for propping open fire doors with the fire extinguisher, but at least they had their drills at sensible times and they didn't confiscate my goldfish!0 -
Which particular University gulag is this?0
-
my god, what prison of a university have you moved into!
how times have changed, i was in halls 10 years ago and there was none of this crap!
WN0 -
A 'love life' is permitted provide you sign your lover into halls reception and have them issued with a temporary visitor pass. They can stay for 1 night per term. Everyone else has to leave campus by 11pm.
Yikes, we used to have guests stay for months at a time.
Name and shame, here and on every student forum you can find!0 -
A 'love life' is permitted provide you sign your lover into halls reception and have them issued with a temporary visitor pass. They can stay for 1 night per term. Everyone else has to leave campus by 11pm.
:shocked::shocked::shocked::shocked::shocked::shocked::shocked::shocked::shocked::shocked:
do you have standard uni issue condoms that you have to use aswell?
what happened to going to uni to get your independance
WN0 -
I'd like to know which university too. It sounds awful.
My son is in halls at Portsmouth. I've had no complaints from him except a Facebook status a few days ago that there was no hot water at 0730"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." -- Red Adair0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 352.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 253.6K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 454.3K Spending & Discounts
- 245.2K Work, Benefits & Business
- 600.9K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 177.5K Life & Family
- 259K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards