Worried about our young people's utter lack of initiative

[ThisDandyWriter]

I work for an English letting agent and every year I'm utterly shocked at our young people (ie students) utter lack of initiative/entitlement and lack of self resilience. A few examples of the sort of things that we encounter
My smoke alarm is bleeping, why is that?
The light in our bedroom has gone out, can you send someone out to change the bulb
What does a fuse board look like?
My washing machine is smelly, I think it needs replaced
This house has got a massive damp problem as water (ie condensation) is running down the windows in the mornings

We had to stop offering an 'emergency' line (which is not compulsory) because our staff were getting calls at 2am about seeing mice, light bulbs blowing, smoke alarms beeping, boiler not working (in Aug and has an electric shower).

Today a tenant has emailed to say that she's locked herself out and we need to open the office to get her a spare key.

When I was at Uni, Google wasn't a thing, so if there was an issue, I'd call my dad and try and sort it - I very rarely contacted the agency or landlord.

Today, we have all the information at a drop of a hat, but they can't be arsed to Google or try and sort something themselves and the first stop is to email (or get their mum or dad to email - don't get me started on that). The lack of initiative is genuinely worrying.

So please, if you have kids at uni - spend a bit of time with them explaining the basics!!!!

And encourage them to actually read the information they are sent - the amount of questions we are asked which is covered by information sent out (about important things like handing in your keys, how to claim back your deposit) is ridiculous!

Sounds like the landlord needs to fit some extractor fans or provide dehumidifiers. Multi occupancy flats are going to have a lot of washing/showers. You can't expect people to have the windows open all day in freezing or stormy weather.

Yup to the clothes drying. My son rented a flat where the washing machine did washing only, no drying facility, and there was no separate dryer, nor venting/outlet for one, and the lease specified no clothes drying outdoors, and no dehumidifier. The mind boggles what goes through landlord's minds sometimes as to the practicalities! He couldn't even buy one and vent through a window as it was one of those with a very limited opening gap and couldn't be opened more than the width of a hand. Nowhere big enough for him to buy a "ventless" dryer either as it was a tiny flat. He "could" have fitted in one of the small "table top" driers but could only find ones that needed a vent. Ended up with a couple of large airers that caused a lot of condensation.

Our ceiling are too high, we need a ladder to change ours.

I understand this. Although many many many houses have ceilings low enough to change bulbs by standing on a chair, so I don't think every student should be prevented from changing a bulb by not possessing a ladder.

Haven't you ever heard of a drying rack /clotheshorse by an open window??? Or one of those little racks you slip over a radiator? Then open a window to minimise condensation, Flats/houses should be aired out regularly anyway.

Tenants who can't cope with ordinary life suck. Really !

If you forget your key, then you call a locksmith, or your flatmates. Not your landlord.

Heaven forbid you might have used your imitative and gotten a spare or two cut ahead of time and kept one in a safe space.
oh! Initiative. That’s what this thread is about.

Quite - it seems the parents have taught imitative better so that kids don't call them!

At 2am?????

Exactly this, my Dd snd her friends were very self sufficient in sorting stuff, but when they complained about the state of the decking and the rear gate hanging off, compromising their safety, they were constantly fobbed off by landlords ( a large firm) I then had to get involved and wrote a very firm email as a guarantor for one of the students (never mentioned names), it soon got sorted, sometimes young people just need a hand

Last year my DS had to contact his lettings agency for issues including several mice infestations (they were getting into backless kitchen cupboards through an external wall brick that hadn't been fixed/replaced), a broken boiler which was eventually replaced but wasn't fitted properly, leading to an emergency call out after they smelt gas and a key lock box that had been smashed off the outside wall, key stolen, meaning their house wasn't secure, but the agency wasn't interested in changing the locks.

The lettings agency was terrible at responding quickly, showed a distinct lack of care; we intervened only when DS and his housemates had exhausted all efforts to resolve the issues. For £6k per tenant per year, we should expect much better living conditions and a much quicker response rate. The student rental market needs a total overhaul.

Then you should teach her to think things through a bit better.

Didn't you read the bit where the poster says the windows could barely open?

A working smoke alarm is a legal requirement and yes, it's absolutely your responsibility. A beeping smoke alarm likely just equates to needing new batteries, but it can also be a problem with the alarm.
I can't believe you don't think the smoke alarm, that vital safety measure you provided, is your responsibility.

it costs an absolute FORTUNE to rent anywhere in the UK now! SO much more than I rented as a student (obviously accounting for inflation).

I think they think they pay so much, they want to see something for it.

In the mid 90s my rent was less than £200. Student rent is £750 now. That's the equivalent of being charged £360 in 1996!!

I'd have called you to change a bulb if you were charging me that!

Yes, I do agree that students now generally don't seem to be do the basics of changing a light bulb, replace a fuse, check the circuit board etc.

However if you live in halls, all of this is done for you and always was, but when renting from private landlords is so different.

Standards and expectations have risen, naturally, but back in the day you couldn't ring th LL in the early hours for a short circuit. Now though it's more an issue that wifi isn't avaliable.

Decades ago we did just sigh, try everything we could with ringing for parental advice, shrug it off and know on Monday we could start to sort it with LL. Heating went off, we put on more layers, candles, had to suck it up.

This isn't the living standard students accept now and have the on call, which I can absolutely imagine is relentless and for any minor inconvenience.

Perhaps it's time to charge £5 for questions that are covered in the FAQs or because of student-led errors.

People certainly haven’t become smarter given the increased access to information on line.

This

I had a couple of mice in mine tonight. Bright in a gifts from my cats. It's not an " emergency"

I know of someone paying £70 a week including utilities currently. En suite room Not really a fortune

But why haven't their parents taught them this stuff BEFORE they are 18

After turning off the stopcock I hope

When I was at the age for randomly exploring crevices in our house I was told in no uncertain terms to stay well away from the fuse board and the undersink cupboard containing the cleaning products and stopcock etc!

By the time I was leaving home I had therefore learned to ignore such things and had to be shown them specifically by my parents.