Student House Hell - Need Advice

lookstraightahead

Comms69 wrote: »

But the vast majority of discrimination is perfectly legal.


In this case students put up with worse conditions because LLs generally don't want to rent to students; so you tend to have a smaller pool to choose from.

That is absolutely not the case. In uni towns there are whole streets / areas of student accommodation. Terraced housing is snapped up by landlords who know they can get 4-6 students paying rent through their maintenance loan. some of these landlords are extremely professional and some are dire. Students have the same rights and private tenants.

macman

Mr.Generous wrote: »

So in that case almost every tenant could just say they weren't given a copy and win in court. The landlord's ability to show a certificate and claim he gave a copy would obviously count for nothing.


I let a house last year to a young couple, they locked both sets of keys in the house after a few days and expected me to drop everything and come and let them in. They didn't think they had to pay rent at the end of the month because they had paid the agent 2 months rent in advance, (ie deposit and 1 months rent) do you think they even read the tenancy agreement let alone knew about the deposit bonding or the gas safety?


Don't take everything posted on behalf of students as being accurate, the landlord may be at fault, but then again we are only getting one side of the story.

Er, no, because any LL with common sense will supply the GSC and the other required documentation at the time of occupation, and will get the tenant to sign a receipt for it. It's hardly rocket science.Your examples are not relevant: because student tenants are naive doesn't absolve their LL's from doing the job legally and professionally.

elsien

Unless I've missed something, it's still not clear from the OP whether they have requested the repairs in writing to the correct address as suggested towards the beginning of this post.
So have you?

Comms69

silvercar wrote: »

I disagree. Landlords in heavily populated student areas expect to let to students. Then run their tenancies August to August, they plan maintenance for student holidays, they sign students up Dec-Jan etc

I'm sure that some do. Perhaps my area is different to most; though I wouldn't have thought so with two universities.


I have found that as more and more specialised accommodation is built, landlords have moved away from that market.


(many never entered it either).


But that doesn't change what I said; students still face renting only that accommodation which landlords have available, and for students that tends to be larger, older, properties - which come with their own problems.

lookstraightahead wrote: »

That is absolutely not the case. In uni towns there are whole streets / areas of student accommodation. Terraced housing is snapped up by landlords who know they can get 4-6 students paying rent through their maintenance loan. some of these landlords are extremely professional and some are dire. Students have the same rights and private tenants.

I didn't say they had different rights. Just to be clear - no-one has the right to rent ANY accommodation. These are voluntary agreements between parties.


If you're suggesting that landlords don't discriminate, legally, then I wholly disagree

Doozergirl

Comms69 wrote: »

I'm sure that some do. Perhaps my area is different to most; though I wouldn't have thought so with two universities.


I have found that as more and more specialised accommodation is built, landlords have moved away from that market.


(many never entered it either).


But that doesn't change what I said; students still face renting only that accommodation which landlords have available, and for students that tends to be larger, older, properties - which come with their own problems.





I didn't say they had different rights. Just to be clear - no-one has the right to rent ANY accommodation. These are voluntary agreements between parties.


If you're suggesting that landlords don't discriminate, legally, then I wholly disagree

Maybe your area is different! Maybe you aren't right about everything.

Birmingham, as another example, has entire streets of student housing around the university in Selly Oak. They're not big houses, they're fairly typical terraces that have loft conversions and rear extensions.

More and more brand new student apartments are popping up with good quality provisions. Students still want to try a bit of independence with their friends and will rent those houses.

But the result of the newer, high quality accommodation is raising standards across the board and so the shoddier student housing (where they do pay far more than families for houses that cost less to buy than homes in family areas), that you think is expected, is in fact having to be improved in order for landlords to fill their house.

None of us should be expected to put up with sub- standard treatment from profiteering slumlords. It doesn't matter if they didn't spot problems before they moved in; how many posts do we get here each day when someone's newly purchased house springs a surprise on them, despite having had a survey even?

This thread changed quite quickly from being about the OP to being about you. Let people help the OP, please.

pimento

Comms69 wrote: »

Think you need to lower your expectations tbh.

Really? Were your buttock cheeks clenched as you typed this?

Blimey!

Comms69

Doozergirl wrote: »

Maybe your area is different! Maybe you aren't right about everything. - maybe not. (though having 45,000 students in my rather small city might just give me some insight...)

Birmingham, as another example, has entire streets of student housing around the university in Selly Oak. They're not big houses, they're fairly typical terraces that have loft conversions and rear extensions. - Are you seriously suggesting that Birmingham has more student landlords than non-student?

More and more brand new student apartments are popping up with good quality provisions. Students still want to try a bit of independence with their friends and will rent those houses. - Yes similarly here more and more specialist companies are building student accommodation. So Landlords are moving away from student lettings.

But the result of the newer, high quality accommodation is raising standards across the board and so the shoddier student housing (where they do pay far more than families for houses that cost less to buy than homes in family areas), that you think is expected, is in fact having to be improved in order for landlords to fill their house. - clearly not in the case of the OP though...

None of us should be expected to put up with sub- standard treatment from profiteering slumlords. It doesn't matter if they didn't spot problems before they moved in; how many posts do we get here each day when someone's newly purchased house springs a surprise on them, despite having had a survey even? - And? Sorry don't see the relevance

This thread changed quite quickly from being about the OP to being about you. Let people help the OP, please.

It's not about me. If you don't like what I say, that's fine. But if you keep challenging what I've said, what do you expect.

pimento wrote: »

Really? Were your buttock cheeks clenched as you typed this?

Blimey!

Not at all. Bit of damp, and a lock change. Like I said it's hardly a massive issue.

pimento

rudigarude wrote: »

Comms69, an expert on doors frames, locks, mould management and welsh student grants, appears to have complete disdain for the OP who isn't able to complete said DIY, get a second job to supplement their substantial welsh grants and therefore fund the cheap accommodation and run the dehumidifier. OP, I really hope you are in Wales to get the help Comms69 suggests because I missed that bit in the thread!

...

Things you can do now, ignore the clause in your contract about not fixing stuff. Maybe Comms69 can give you some more DIY tips. Begin finding a new place to move to in September, you've only got a few month of this academic year left! Make sure you tell any new perspective tenants of the issues, and finally, make some memories. You'll be boring your kids and grand-kids in years to come about this crap student house you used to live in.

Perfect!

Doozergirl

Comms69 wrote: »

It's not about me. If you don't like what I say, that's fine. But if you keep challenging what I've said, what do you expect.




Not at all. Bit of damp, and a lock change. Like I said it's hardly a massive issue.

I'm not reading what you wrote in red. It's not relevant. What is relevant it that this student foraying out into the world for the first time is supported and understands that putting up with cruddy accommodation is expected only by you, who lives in a lovely house and forgot to get in the empathy queue when it was being handed out.

*everyone* is challenging you.

Comms69

Doozergirl wrote: »

I'm not reading what you wrote. It's not relevant. What is relevant it that this student foraying out into the world for the first time is supported and understands that putting up with cruddy accommodation is expected only by you, who lives in a lovely house and forgot to get in the empathy queue when it was being handed out.

*everyone* is challenging you. At what point do you want to put the spade down?

Actually several people have suggested that my response is quite reasonable.


But that aside, it's not about empathy. I'm not suggesting anyone put up with cruddy accommodation; I'm saying that these issues mustve been clear when they viewed; so why take it?