How depressing student house is

[topcat2014]

Just dropped DD off for year 2 in Birmingham. Between her and friends they will be paying 30k rent for a victorian terrace.

Honestly it mings.

Shitty worn out white goods.
Sticky floors. Shabby paint. Broken blinds. No shower curtains.

Dd won't care much (thankfully) but I have to earn a grand a month to leave enough to pay her rent.

(Rant over..)

30k for the year? How many of them are there?

Find something else?

That’s horrible. Such a lot of money for next to nothing.

Presumably this is the going rate there for student accommodation. If your DD starts to care, maybe they should look slightly further afield for 3rd year.

I lived outside the student area for one year of uni and ended up enjoying the longish walk from campus. We got a much nicer place for less.

This is so common. Fucking mank accommodation for students. It’s why landlords always want students to pay 11.5 or 12 months rent. If the property wasn’t shitty, the students could pay 9 months rent and the property could go on Airbnb for 3 months. But nobody in their right mind would want to stay in these properties. Students are a captive market and they are imo abused. Lots of the rentals in my ds uni town look like they were furnished from the tip. I know a student who ended up on an inhaler due to a mould problem.

I don’t actually know why it’s legal. I think that landlords often take care to obey the letter of the law but not the spirit, at all.

This is what most rented/shared l

I took foster son to his house yesterday. He's in his second year. His bedroom is tiny, yet they put a huge desk in it that takes up almost 1/4 of the room and it's broken on top with splinters. Bedroom carpets not nice. I've told him not to walk barefoot on it. 2 toilets but 1 has been put into such a tiny cupboard you have to back into it to get on toilet and you can't pull trousers up until you open the door and step forward. Kitchen has sofas in it and flooring is broken. This is the first time I've seen it and I could have cried. His friends chose it and they don't have a lot of money so probably chose the cheapest they could find. Not that it's cheap. Now I know why he wouldn't let me see it at the end of last year when he was paying the deposit. DH says it's up to him. Foster son saw my face and said It'll be ok. I'll just come home more.

Have they raised all the issues with the landlord?

I've experienced the opposite with DD - her student accommodation has been of a good standard and any issues are dealt with promptly (her last year's landlord came round to change a lightbulb because the ceilings were high and they were all too short to reach it, for example). It is expensive though (York). I thought the days of students living in awful places because they were cheap were over.

Posted too soon...

It might surprise you to learn that this is what most rented/shared places are like. Your DD will probably be living like this for the rest of their twenties and possibly thirties, and you will learn why people are so pissed off about the housing crisis.

How many of them? If it's three it's very expensive (esp for Brum), if it's four it's about right, if it's five then it's pretty cheap tbh.

My DC lived in various student houses and flats and some were better than others for sure. DS2's fourth-year house had broken furniture in his room and was a bit grim; but his final year house was a lot nicer and he had a great top-floor room with loads of space and nicely decorated. Pretty much the same ££ IIRC.

Can they look around for something better? or ask the LL to fix anythign broken at least?

No in my experience. I rented for all of my 20s and the places were nice enough, not swanky but not gross.

Students are not discerning though are they? My DDs were but they didn’t find it easy to find like minded others! Some landlords are very good too. DD and friends had a flat in a group of 4 converted houses with bike storage, pleasant gardens and an on site caretaker. I would say that was upper mid priced. If they were late looking it’s possible all the decent houses were gone. Also why didn’t dc say no? Or even look themselves? Dd did. She took the lead because she didn’t want a rubbish flat!

Make sure she has taken a very good look and video and photo of current state of the property. It includes lifting things, mattress to see the state of the bed, all rugs, marks on walls, even small amounts of mould. If it is a joint tenancy of the whole property including other tenants rooms for getting back deposit. Report current issues.

Keep records of communication with the landlord. I have a good landlord but don’t feel I can complain too much (and I’m way past being a student). Do still feel vulnerable. The Agency is great and landlord pretty good. There are more renter rights now, but just because there are rights I worry they will stop being great about repairs if I complain too much. All would be legal, but a landlord can be very slow if they want.

Two of my DC lived in Hubert Road, which seems a common location for Birmingham students. The houses were terrible. DD2 and her housemates had the charming experience of CO2 poisoning (after a trip to A & E and a visit from a gas engineer all were okay, fortunately). Despite this, my DDs look back fondly on their time in Birmingham.

I've told DD to report outstanding issues weekly to the letting agent. (There is an app)

Be interesting to see if there is any functional heading when the time comes.

Can you answer the question about how many sharing? No-one can comment about value for money without knowing how much she is paying.

It really is a total rip off, but it’s a captive market. DD actually had one decent house with a reasonable landlord and not too expensive either.

It's shit. Housing is ridiculously expensive now and it's galling what landlords get away with.

Hopefully she finds a better option for next year!

Sounds like my student accommodation in the 90s, but mine was at least cheap. Any merit in getting together with friends to track down something a bit nicer but maybe slightly out of the student areas?

Birmingham was definitely the worst of the cities my DC ended up for uni. Sadly your experience is very common.

Birmingham student housing is grim in my experience - partially because they don’t seem to have any time in between lets - so the houses don’t get an end of tenancy clean or any repairs done. My other DC was in another uni
town where there was empty time in the summer. House cleaned, items replaced, rooms repainted - very different experience.

My DD’s house was £900 each per month for a house with 5 sharing do the annual rent was astronomical! It was a pretty nice house with new white goods and fairly robust nice furniture, newish carpets etc. The letting agents were very good and would fix any issues in a day or two.