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?

the room is unfit and should not be used for living in or sleeping in. end of.

the council has a duty under the relevant Housing Act to act when they are made aware of something being unfit.

the landlord is indeed greedy and I would also question whether he is meeting fire safety standards etc because I would almost bet on it that he isn't. self closing doors, electrical certs, boiler certs??

if your dd found this let through her uni then she needs to report him to them as well.

people like this rely on tenants not making a fuss, that's how they get away with it and that's why people still die in HMO fires.

if your dd has to go through another room to reach a means of escape then this could be relevant as well.

www.firesafe.org.uk/houses-in-multiple-occupation/

the local fire brigade would be more than interested in this if it applies.

Student housing!
I really don't believe you are going to get the landlord to alter the room.

This is a lesson to all those freshers who rush into house shares in November with people they have only known a few weeks. They are not "friends" at least not yet. They are a bunch of 18 year olds on a steep learning curve.
I knew student lets were supposed to be grotty but DS had the most awful room in an awful house in his second year. The people he rented the house with had long since drifted apart into new friendship groups so it was also lonely.
They were paying £2400 a month, excluding bills, for 11 months when they only really wanted 10, plus a deposit of £2400, plus an agents fee.
He finally got his deposit back last week 3 months after moving out.

Us - but op says there's a door opening onto a hallway? So ask the landlord to add ventilation in that door at the bottom, and add a window above door. Sorted

The DD has two doors on the ground floor through which to escape in a fire. I don't think that's an issue.

I also think its a friends problem, rather than LL, thats not to say the LL is doing things correctly of course, the doors don't sound great at all & I'm guessing they might fail fire regs in most places.

Have you tried speaking with the councils fire officer? Ive found that they can often be more help than EH

Though if they decide it it is in breach of regs, she may find herself homeless, so hardly a win situation.

A large sized Himalayan Salt Lamp can really help air quality, we have a few & really noticed the difference when we bought the first one for DDs room - she was ill at the time so was spending 99% of her time in there & it became really stuff. Its a soft glow light, so its good as a night light & during the day you wont notice it is on, so combining with daylight lamps/bulbs would be good too

mummymeister she opens the door into the hall and exits through the front door. If the fire is coming through the front door then she goes through the lounge door and out of that window.

I'm sorry to say I too know students who've had rooms with no windows - it's shocking and you must feel bad for her. Both housemates and landlord are being dicks. Could she suggest a rotation of rooms halfway through the year? I know they'll probably say no, but worth a try, if only to remind them how mean they're being. Failing that I'd suggest that she puts extra effort into getting the house to work as a group - shared meals etc - in the hope that the others feel guilty.

I've just had to find dd alternative accommodation & while it's hard it is do-able

I'd cut your losses & run (maybe speak to shelter about the legalaties of it)

The hall doesn't really give any fresh air - there are a further 2 doors between her and the outside that way, no window - it's a terrace house.

DD has spoken directly to the university housing team, to the council officer and to the LL, as I am encouraging her to take responsibility for it.

She is up and down. Sometimes she says she is fine, other times she is in tears over it.

She would rather stay in the house and put up with it than leave, obviously the ideal is that it gets rectified quickly and she can get on with it.

Studying late at night at the library and walking home alone in the dark is not ideal. She works late sometimes til past midnight. Plus she has multiple reference books she needs, so much easier for her to study at home than try to lug them to the library, or run the risk she can't access them there.

Btw, I note that the reason for your concern is your dd's mental health. Otherwise, you might mitigate and let it lie, is that right?

Do her housemates even know about this?

How much of an issue does she want to make of it with them? Is she very open about having had depression and explaining what that means? Do they understand?

Is she happy to (appear) to be granted 'special snowflake' status on account of it? (Of course she's only expecting fairness and decency, regardless of MH issues but they won't see it that way - they'll just think 'it's a great house, it's only one year, be more resilient')

People generally but young people especially, are often utterly ignorant of MH issues and can be breathtakingly intolerant.

Can you keep the whole thing focused on 'what is right' and take the 'blame' for 'officious busybodying' yourself, without her having to open up about her health? Your actions will still reflect on her to an extent, with her housemates, though.

The situation is intractable because the housemates have embedded injustice in the set up unfortunately. But what's the best option for your dd's well being?

Yes that's right. I would be much more inclined to let it lie if I wasn't concerned about the long term effect on her. I did last year with older DD's room.

I don't believe her housemates have any idea no, and I don't think she will want to tell them. Yes her friends think she should just put up with it and that she's being 'precious', which is also what the LL has said to them. Including that the previous tenants have been fine with it.

I think being without her friendship group would be more detrimental - there are 3 houses of friends in this road. She is very against any suggestion of moving. I think she has suggested a swap around at Christmas but no joy.

Grrr. If they think it's not a big deal and she is being precious, funny how none of them will agree to swap.

Ok then, so the crucial thing is what the consequences might be, could the house be changed to 5 bed and she kicked out?

The quickest way to stop all the fuss would be for one of the housemates to swap rooms.

For that to happen, they would need to perceive negative consequences to them of either ongoing fuss, or your dd being forced to move out.

How do you think they feel about that possibility?

The risk is that by going far enough down a complaints process to make clear the potential consequences, you'll be unable to backtrack.

Any chance that after gaining best advice (Uni accommodation office etc) you can put together a short summary for them all, highlighting likely consequences, with a few days for them to ponder - before the deadline for submission of evidence to inform the HMO renewal?

If the house is changed to 5 bed would their rent go up?

Finally spoken to HMO officer after I rang and he was 'out' again. I asked for the manager's contact details and then he rang me back within 5 minutes.

He is renewing the licence. Apparently ventilation is not something they assess and the light he has scored as 2, meaning that it is not a Hazard 1.

The LL is claiming he would make the changes, but that the other 5 housemates don't want the disruption, despite him saying to DD that he wouldn't do it until next summer.

I am absolutely AMAZED that this is legal.

It sounds more like the thing some dodgy slum landlord would do to cram in extra illegal immigrants.

I just feel so helpless. The HMO officer insists it is all legal. I can't get through to the uni student guild.

The LL is insisting that he can't do the work because the other housemates don't want it done.

I need to talk to DD, to find out if they have actually said that to the LL.

This gets weirder and weirder. Why would the housemates have said that? Surely it wouldn't be that disruptive anywhere other than your DD's room?

It would be disruptive for the duration of the work in the kitchen/lounge, but it's just in one corner. Plus it could be done over the Christmas holidays when none of them are there I would have thought.

Can't believe it would take more than a couple of days. Plus don't trust the LL/council guy. I saw her message to her that said he wouldn't do anything until the summer, so I think he's just telling the council that.

I need DD to speak to her friends and get them to all confirm they are fine for the work to be done, over Christmas if necessary. I think though if he's not compelled to do it he won't.

*his message to her.

Do the housemates understand what the work involves. Presumably there will be times that fewer are there, over weekends or breaks when it could take place with less disruption. Is there an external wall where a vent or small window could be inserted? Tbh I'm not surprised if it officially passes the minimum standard , she could open either door while working and/or the small window and there is secondary daylight. Maybe if the others understood that the alternative is her moving out and their rent rising by £25 per week each it might focus them more on the issue and resolution.

Evalina it was all perfectly legal in DS's house too, so I'm not in the least amazed.

It seems a bit rough that the housemates will neither agree to a room swap or a rent reduction. I think DS was happy to trade his windowless room for the best pick of the rooms in the fifth year house but I think his friends would have agreed to a move around if he'd pushed for it. This lot do sound very selfish - not great friends and the bit about them refusing to have work done takes the biscuit, unless that's simply the landlords line to the council.

If you're sure the housing officer's practice doesn't match the housing regs (any experienced advisor supporting that view?), you could make a complaint against the council - or talk to the councillor and say you're going to do this. They might prod a bit, talk to the manager.

If no joy, you can then escalate, step by step, up to the local authority ombudsman. But, most likely, the regs allow for housing officers to exercise some discretion.

Hmm, you need some disadvantage to the housemates of the current set up. If they just don't care, you don't have one.