Room in student house without a window

[Evalina]

DD's in her second year and has moved into what is otherwise a nice student house. However her room has no window. It has 2 doors, one into the hall and the other into a kitchen/lounge. So she has no natural light and no direct ventilation. She does get some light (and reduced privacy) through the frosted glazed door between her and the kitchen, but if she opens it to get air, then she gets cooking fumes and noise too.

We have raised it with local council HMO office who are not being very responsive, although they have spoken to landlord who has put in a brighter lightbulb! Landlord has said to DD's housemates that he knows loads of people at the council, and that if he's told to do anything it won't happen until next summer, so DD is wasting her time complaining about it. He's also said his wife is having a baby and is stressed at the thought they might have to pay to sort it out. As a result DD's housemates, who all have nice rooms with proper windows, are telling her to drop it, even though they have all declined to swap rooms with her.

I believe the problem could be fixed for less than £5k, which given collectively they are paying £38k in rent for the year is not too shocking.

Not sure what else to do really. Anyone got any advice?

No update as yet. I've been away with work so haven't been able to call to chase the last couple of days. Called this morning, but just got voicemail, so have sent an email asking for an update.

are you still following this up evalina?

Yes - I chased the council to respond to my email, as they haven't as yet. However spoke to DD this afternoon, and she said that last night she and her friends had an email from the LL saying that he and members of the Council will be visiting the house tomorrow afternoon - up to 4 of them.

So it looks like they will do that and I will then hopefully get some kind of response. Will update when I know more!

That's good that it's getting looked at. Hope the visit goes well.

Evalina that's good news. I am hoping that it will be the HMO and the fire officer that you spoke about before. the more I have thought about this, the more I reckon this wasn't supposed to be a bedroom.

Thanks, in theory they are there now, although DD isn't and none of her friends are either, so am guessing it still may be a few days before I hear back. Am hoping young councillor went too.

Can't work out if it was a goodbye or bad thing they weren't there, at least they couldn't put your daughter down in front of her friends/ask her in front of everyone if she wanted the work doing to inconvienence everyone, so she felt Shen had to say no I'm fine

Yes, think it was best she wasn't put on the spot. I still haven't heard anything though.

I would give them a call today and ask for an update. you have to keep the pressure on unfortunately if you want to get something moving. I would put in a quick call to all of them and just see what the outcome is. its such a pain for you as it does take up a lot of time but unscrupulous landlords rely on this - that people will give up and not see it through because its such a short term thing with students.

Sorry for the delay in updating - I have recently started a new job, so it's all a bit full on. Ok, so I have had a response from the council - which I am disappointed about. It says:

"As you know the rear extension complies with building regulations, which took into account the presence of your daughter’s room. Since it complies with those regulations there is no action possible by them.
Whilst not ideal the light level in your daughter’s room does not amount to a category 1 hazard and nor does risk of fire, although the fire officer made recommended the installation of a further heat detector which the landlord has taken on board. The landlord has also offered to construct a solid wall further out from the French doors so that the Velux is incorporated into the room, although it is doubtful that this would improve the lighting situation.

The landlord has undertaken to speak to the tenants with this offer but is mindful of the disruption that this will cause. The landlord of this property is one of the few landlords in [University town] accredited under the independent Unipol code, prior to which [Address of house], was subject to inspection by their independent inspector. Clearly the property would have not been accredited if they were of the opinion that there were serious hazards present."

So whilst it is good that he says the Landlord will make the changes, the LL said that before to the other council guy and then told the students he would make the changes next summer only. DD is going to talk to her friends about the "disruption" to see if they will all confirm they agree the work can be done.

I am cross that the council have not responded to my questions about the lack of ventilation and the heat in the room. He also ignored my question about whether the property has an HMO Licence or not, and why the fire regulations don't need to be enforced. He also ignored my request to have a copy of the HHSRS which is supposed to assess the overall risk.

I have emailed Unipol for advice - and am hoping to speak to someone there in the next day or so, and I guess we see what the Landlord says..

It's a start I guess, and there is no reason why the work can't be done and dusted over the Christmas break, as they would likely have more than just a couple of weeks off.
Hope you get somewhere following this up, get back in touch asking them to answer your specific questions.

I would doubt that the work could be completed in the Christmas break! Anyone who knows the building industry knows the Chrismas break for them starts well before Christmas Day and goes on until after January 1st! It is extremely short notice to get the drawings done and the foundations calculated if they are needed. Or indeed load bearing calculations if they are needed. Over Christmas is not realistic. However, in principle, bringing the roof light into the room will make a big difference if the roof light is big enough. We have one on our landing and you could certainly work happily in the light it provides.

I think that as the house has been inspected and meets the Unipol code, my suspicion is that it meets the requirements for student lettings and that this inspection covers the relevant legislation. If it does not, it is pointless. I would guess if the work was carried out in term time your daughter may be seriously inconvenienced with dust, workmen and noise.

It's a tiny job - removing the existing door and frame, adding in 2 small partition walls. Have a family member in building, who says it is a maximum of a day's work to do that, plus another 3 hours to skim the new walls.

I do want to understand from Unipol why they think it complies with the legislation, as I have read it and it doesn't. Maybe I am misunderstanding the legislation but it seems fairly clear to me.

I hope your daughter is not finding the situation too difficult .
Thank you for raising awareness of the problem - I can well imagine my daughter swanning round a house and not noticing a fundamental problem with one of the rooms !

Thank you user1471531877. She seems ok, things with her friends are back to normal so much better. She likes the daylight lamp, but is finding the heat at night unbearable unless she has the door and/or window to the kitchen open.

She was ill and missed an exam, but got mitigation - so am hoping that was a one-off.

Evalina - I still agree with you. there is something not quite right with all of this. you have to keep pursuing it in my opinion. if you don't get an answer from the council then stick in a freedom of information act request stating exactly what you want copies of and giving them 14 working days to do it.

my council never respond unless you do this so I know it works.

Thank you, I will keep at it. Have emailed the LL asking him to confirm he is happy to do the work, and also the council to ask her again for them to answer my points. Also spoke to Unipol who are going to look into it and come back to me.

DD has been to GP and been diagnosed as having anxiety disorder, although it is more related to exams and she seems to be coping with the room situation well at the moment.

I couldn't stand that sorry, I'd move back into halls or somewhere else.

Having been through the whole student house share thing, there is always 'the shit room' and someone always gets stitched up with it, unfortunately for your daughter that was her.
I'm not 100% sure how legal a room with no window actually is? Fire risk anyone? I would complain to the council anyway. I had issues with a house I lived in at uni and we complained to the council and it did get sorted. Bare in mind that this can be a stressful process and could take a year to resolve. but im a heartless cow and I would complain anyway, i wouldn't give a monkeys if the landlords wife is pregnant, unless she's about to do the work on the house this is Irrelevant in my opinion.
The landlord has probably been renting this cupboard out for years in this condition, get an email fired of to the council and act on your daughters behalf so she doesn't have to desl with the stress.

I am sorry but if your daughter has already missed an exam and diagnosed with anxiety, if the landlord hasn't confirmed in writing to do the work at Christmas I would be looking at moving her to start back in January.
Could your building relative give a quote-do the work for the landlord so he has no excuse to be unable to find a builder?

From your previous posts, you have said that the bedroom should be extended to incorporate the skylight, which is in the kitchen. This can presumably be done with partition walls but what about the existing wall? How does the proposed bedroom extension affect the kitchen? Is this load bearing? From what you previously described, this is not a job for one day? A wall has to be demolished presumably, to allow the extension to be effective? Or am I missing something?

The existing door is quite wide - think patio door width. So it would be possible to just remove the door and its frame, then put in the partition walls to incorporate the skylight. This should create a space large enough for a desk which would sit under the skylight. DD would get direct air and light from the skylight. She would lose light via the kitchen of course, but should still be better off, plus would have more privacy and less noise as well.

It's in a corner of the kitchen, and is space that cannot be currently used as it is in front of the door to DD's room. Creating a solid wall here, would mean better use of the space. I don't think there is any need to remove any of the back wall, which as you say would be a bigger job.

Received an email from Unipol this afternoon saying that the Inspector's report doesn't mention that DD's bedroom doesn't have a window, so they are looking into it. Nothing back from the LL or the Council yet...

Actually the doors are french door, not patio door size. Here is DD's room as seen from the kitchen/lounge except that these doors have been replaced with one single frosted glass door opening into DD's bedroom. DD reckons her desk would fit but if not then her chest of drawers could go there. I had forgotten about the other partition wall there, so only one would be needed.

So is the skylight above the recess? Is the top window still in place and opens?

That looks like a really easy job.