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!

Do you? Where? Most en-suites are £225 a week.

Charlotte court Sheffield

But a broken boiler can actually wait till office hours

The only house I ever had condensation running down the walls was absolutely not fit for purpose. Should've been bulldozed.
We all learn these things in time, I certainly didn't know how to fix all these issues at university age. In my own home I absolutely roll up my sleeves and get on with jobs but in accommodation such as you describe (and them being young) I would imagine there is hesitation that they might cock something up and get into trouble.
You yourself mention you would call your dad and get stuff sorted. Pot, kettle?

Try leaving the door open between washes and giving it a maintenance clean now and then.

My thoughts exactly. This is like someone taking a job at Next and complaining people leave the clothes all messed up and on the floor. It comes with the territory, as annoying as it can be!

At age 16-18 could change a light bulb, a plug, a complete light fitting and a plug point (my dad was an electrician) wallpaper. use an electric drill, unblock a blocked loo and humanely get rid of spiders.

A large percentage are surprisingly gormless, and lack basic life skills.

Where I live, not the UK, most people have condensation on their windows in winter. We simply open the windows and air the room - it's hardly rocket science! I have never lived in a moldy house in my whole life.

I have been renting for over 25 years and have yet to contact my landlord regarding a smoke alarm. Somehow I have managed to deal with a beeping one myself, and I regularly check it and replace the battery if needed.

@SquirrelGGin one of my student properties you needed a ladder to reach it and I wasn’t prepared to buy a ladder.

Why would that poster automatically know where it was? Ours was outside on the street for one house.

It's not just now, and it's not just young 'uns. Over twenty years ago, my misbegotten mother gave her mature tenant our number, 'for emergencies'. Could we please go around to change her lightbulb? Erm, let me see. . . NO.

And we ourselves had adult tenants who couldn't figure out why there was condensation running down the walls. Having lived in the property ourselves, we immediately got to the root of that very complex problem - open the bloody window, you utter bloody nobbers. We had to tell the PROPERTY MANAGER that was the answer, she hadn't come up with that herself.

As a student, I didn't have the kind of Mummy or Daddy that I could run to for help in solving my problems, so I had to solve them myself. That didn't make me any less dim - I had figured out the dunny needed cleaning, but did have to find out how to clean it! (Was still ahead of my flatmates though - at least I'd realised it wasn't self cleaning. . .)

My children google or ring us

having said that ds1 rang us for some reason and dh said don’t forget the clocks go back tonight

ds1 did not have a clue and dh explained it

then ds1 said ( in a very affronted tone) ‘well when were the university going to tell us that!’

😀

Op Can you not just have a laugh about it rather than knocking your tenants who help to pay your wages.
So what if some of them don’t know stuff that you think they should. Instead of running them down which is very unprofessional by the way why not advised them on how to do the things that will save the letting agency a job of sending someone out.
I get it must be annoying to be called at 2am about a simple job that you think the tenants should be able to do themselves but you are in a job where that would be expected of some students who don’t know how to do simple jobs. If you don’t expect that in your line of work then you are in the wrong job. So instead of coming on here harping on about it use your time to find another job.

Your letting agency is the type that some parents would dread their student kids being responsible to get things done around their accommodation that are faulty. They pay a lot of money for their accommodation so cut them some slack.

My dd actually has plenty of initiative. And she is pretty capable.

But when I was a student, we were not paying the same type of extortionate rents as the young people pay now. These days, I kind of think it's fair enough for them to make their letting agents work for them.

You literally say in your first post that if you had a problem you’d call your Dad!!! Maybe these “snowflakes” don’t have a parent who can help?!!

you’re a letting agent- from what I can see from the houses that my kids have rented, you generally are not doing a very good job making sure these houses are clean and safe before they move in……..

That doesn't alter my point. It's the responsibility of the landlord if it isn't working. If there's a fire and it's discovered that the smoke alarm was faulty, it will be the landlord who is responsible.
As somebody up thread pointed out, smoke alarms, particularly in multi-occupier properties should be on the mains. Occupants shouldn't be able to just remove the batteries so they can, for eg, smoke in the building.

Smoke alarms are vital safety features. It doesn't matter that you never had to call your landlord about it. It's still their responsibility. It's their property.

We rented our own house out years ago and we're told in no uncertain terms that anything we left in the property was our responsibility to maintain. Our choice to leave the house with a fridge, freezer, washing machine and oven meant we were obliged to get those items PAT tested every year. Smoke alarms also had to be checked annually. If your landlord isn't having that done, they should be.

Water on the inside of the windows in the morning isn’t normal.

Because you would find it out when moving in obviously. Just common sense.

Does DS1 really not remember this as a child?!

As a long time tenant of nice housesand now early 60s I’ve had similar lists , which to me is annoying and a bit patronising but yes I totally see why it would benefit others who are students or maybe haven’t rented before - We have twice had rat issues in posh well kept houses , not student houses - 1 time was due to a broken drain that took an expert with underground surveillance to sort and the other time was due to a bunch of old building stuff hidden behind a shed - it’s not always slum houses that have an issue, but sorting it is often beyond the scope of even seasoned mature tenants ! I’ve also had a house that had awful condensation yearsago, nothing to do with airing, everything to do with spectacularly crap old double glazing- on the other hand OP , light bulbs, smoke alarms, fuse boards, smelly washers ( get a washing machine cleaner as a start) etc - yep parents need to give young adults a quick crash skills set in many basics- your list though i think is a great idea-

Depends what the issue with the boiler is.

How is your reading comprehension so bad? She is not complaining that they report a faulty boiler - it's that they decide to make a phone call at 2am to do it!

Normally condensation is because there is adequate heating and ventilation which the tenant doesn't use. They refuse to open windows because it's cold. They block extractor fans and they don't use the heating because it's expensive. Then they hang wet clothes everywhere, again because the dryer is expensive and boil stuff without pan lids, for hours .... But of course, all condensation is the fault of the landlord.