student housing

[nixmix]

is it so wrong to expect that the places that fledgling uni students rent are of a reasonable standard?you want them to stand on there own two feet but I think landlords see the word student to mean rip off city.the latest liverpool house she's sharing is a damp smelly dump,with an endless list of problems.I want to have a rant at lettings agent but i'm trying to stay out of it.I just wanted to bring her straight home.am I alone?

I rent to students in Edinburgh and have an hmo licence. Its far safer than the average family home, with its main smoke alarms, fire resistant doors, safety locks, cookers chained to walls in case they fall over etc

I have second year girls this time round and I do wonder if their parents realise what a nightmare their sheer inexperience of living away from home is to deal with. Last night I had to go round to show then how to switch the tv on. On Tuesday it was the dishwasher. On Sunday one of their mothers phoned me at 8am to tell me 'theres no hot water in the flat!' I explained you either put the heating on or pressed the kitchen holier switch labelled hot water.

Yes, all their mothers come with them. The complaints and whinging and never ending. Generally students are dirty and break things and don't hoover or clean much, so you have to replace things a lot. This is factored into their rent.

Of course in Edinburgh they do benefit from lovely wooden floors, which are also practical and long lasting, but city of Edinburgh council has decreed all rooms in HMOs must be carpetted from next year. Hence have been abroad viewing properties in Germany to buy as selling up here.

Aw YABU, but I am smiling typing that!

In a bizarre turn of events, I ended up visiting a house I lived in as a student about 10 yrs ago. We loved it - huuuge bedrooms, massive kitchen for parties, right near the pubs and supermarket, and the bus route to city centre and uni (Smithdown road, Liverpool!). All our mates lived in the houses surrounding us, it was amazing fun, 5 people to one house.

Holy shit! It is a DUMP! There are bars on the windows, the rank smell of damp which was probably masked by smoke and incense, the shabbiness, the tiny little leaky bathroom, the noisy student neighbours...I could go on.

Point is, your priorities are different when you are younger and everyone is in the same boat. Your need for comfort changes slowly as you grow up depending on your income, where everyone around you is doing, etc. I didn't think DH and I had changed that much since then until we ended up there. Left with the confirmation that we are All Growed Up now

Unless the landlord is breaking the safety rules, then leave her to it. She'll have a ball.

Or tell her there's a MNer who lives nearby with a dishwasher, tumble drier and no beer can pyramid in the kitchen

Oh, and you know how I go to fancy hotels now and then for the weekend to live it up and pamper myself with all the rich, glorious food and luxurious furnishings?

When I was a student, it was called Going Home

yes and no

You get what you pay for.

You should also see the state of some of the properties when the students leave, it's a disgrace. Once you have been burnt once or twice, you can understand why some landlords don't bother too much.
It's no true everywhere. I have visited my nephews in a student shared house last spring, everything was new and of high standard, but I am guessing the price of their rental would have put off many other parents. I have seen the shared kitchen of a uni hall recently... good grief, cockroaches would have been too scared to put their nose in there. The filth was all done to the people living in them, it was pristine when they arrived!

I suppose the solution would be for landlords to have a much much higher deposit, to cover for all possible mess and neglect (or worst) than can occur. Would all students be happy to spend that much more though?

Yeah, you have to not look at it through the eyes of someone about to move a family into the house. DD's house last year was a bit of a shit-hole, but she, and her seven housemates loved it.