1st September
By Tilly Jones
Content Editor
A topic that highly needs deep looking into and yet hasn’t, is still being spectated. Nothing is being actively done across a broad scale to solve the problem. Agents are still working with landlords to rent out shi**y properties to students for exorbitant prices, year after year. The cycle has to stop.
University students are being constantly exploited into living in unhabitable, questionable and poor conditions simply because they do not possess an adequate budget at this stage in their lives. Students feel the pressure to find somewhere to live, the year after spending their first in hall accommodation. In order to complete their studies, 2nd-year students often look for a local shared house early with their friends to gain a nice property for the most reasonable price. Challenges are faced because it can be tough to determine which agents to sign with, which agreement looks safe and the big panic one; “CAN I AFFORD IT?”
Forget the decreasing student loan allowance for now, it is a known fact students have lower budgets than those renting on their own accord with full-time jobs. Many students feel forced into signing a tenancy agreement for one poorly conditioned house, for £500-£600 per month each, simply because it may be cheaper or appear marginally cleaner, or less fallen apart than the next house they had viewed in comparison. A lovely shared flat or studio can cost between £700-£2000 per month per person in most parts of the UK. I speak for Winchester as a third-year student here myself, who has been through looking at the rental market between 2021 and 2023.
The Student Housing Crisis has been broadcasted in both print and online, but I doubt much is being done to solve the problem. A source posted online by iNews predicts the decline of student beds available.
Source 1
As the chart informs, the number of student beds available becomes lower. This is a problem because the student population is only growing.
Source 2. NUS.Org states;
“Housing is a basic right! However, students have been long used as cash cows and landlords, housing companies and purpose-built accommodation management companies have long used tactics to get students to sign up to accommodation which is often overpriced and with longer than required tenancy terms. Students are increasingly having to undertake part- and full-time work to cover additional costs, which limits their ability to study and participate in external activities, resulting in lost social capital and connection with other students and the true university experience, most students want, need and expect.”
NUS, The National Union of Students, are part of leading a movement that appears to have been going on for a while now, since at least before the Coronavirus outbreak.
Furthermore, "students have been left in costly accommodation they cannot call home making student housing more pertinent than ever. Students are staging the largest student rent strike in 40 years, just to be listened to."
It is appalling that students feel they cannot speak up to the agents and landlords to get their basic needs adhered to. As a student myself, who has experienced a year of poor housing in an Assured Shorthold Tenancy Agreement as part of a shared student house, we made do with what he had at our disposal. We were lucky to have a roof over our heads and somewhere to go back to each day after work or study, we made the house as cosy as we could and did our best to keep it clean. We kept it much cleaner than the house looked upon our move-in and apparently the state it was upon move-in was a property that had been certified “professionally cleaned.” I sure don’t think it was done well.
Upon approaching our move-out date, our agents had the audacity to ask us to clear rubbish that wasn’t ours and failed to acknowledge how clean we had just made the property. The rubbish was on the shared pavement (outside other houses that were under other agreements) and some was near our property wall (that had been there long before us or dumped there by others, mind you, because it was by our wall we felt it was kind to clear this one). We felt sad having to dispute this because we are sound people who never want conflict, but we asked our parents for advice and they were also appalled at the cheek of this, considering it is not our responsibility if it is not our rubbish. We are under no obligation to clear it if it is not on our rented land. To top it all off, clearing street rubbish is not a matter that we signed into nor should it come into conversation with our agents, because of the state they were happy to let the property out to us in. I took photos, but I will keep those to myself and names to myself for anonymity.
We didn’t think we were being unreasonable at all. Considering the broken appliance we reported, upon our move-in, was never replaced and the long inventory list of problems was never completed. This is not even going as far as addressing the mould problem that was present before we moved in, when we reported it we were told it was “discolouration” and nothing to worry about. But you can imagine this got worse and nothing was done. Items in the house were falling apart, such as bannisters and fixings. Additionally, it was mainly the neighbours' feral children leaving litter in the street and performing disruptive behaviour; that was borderline worthy of social services involvement.
It shows staggering alarm that the property rent is being increased and re-let to new student tenants!
I understand not all students are concerned enough to keep their space tidy, therefore, I can understand the frustration of agents and landlords. However, you have rights as a tenant, student or not, that during your rental period, you can create a mess as long as you clear it up before you leave, though it is the landlord’s duty to provide habitable conditions to start with, such as insulating, painting and sealing the walls or laying carpet underlay to prevent mould or drafty cracks.
Students are usually required to change a light bulb if it blows during their stay or clean the mess they create, but the following are examples of basic landlord maintenance:
“Take extra fire safety steps
Get electrical installations checked every 5 years
Provide clean rooms and furniture at the start of the tenancy
Keep outbuildings, gardens, outside walls and fences in good condition
Make sure there are enough bins and areas for collecting rubbish”
Source 3 Shelter
Many students report their hot water failures for months and await electrical or boiler repairs. During the time waiting, they are still paying!
“January 2021 saw the long overdue release of the Government’s response to the 2018 Augar review, which confirmed that debt relating to living costs is still a deterrent for the disadvantaged. The Government’s response, declaring that “now is not the right time” to provide a full answer, is inadequate.”
Source 2
The National Union of Students believe that it isn’t required for students to participate in the Rent Strikes Movement because they may not have the financial or legal means to. I, for one, could not have participated during my rental period (2022/23) because of my diagnosed Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, financial inability and physical strain to move back home and try to commute from the Isle of Wight for my studies. Some could argue, I might have had the opportunity to remain in hall accommodation, but for my mental health, I had to move. That lifestyle didn’t suit me and the bedroom windows were so small. The strain of finding a house for my second year was over quickly because I gained advice from third-year students about local agents and the market. We were lucky to get a house within our budget, not so far away from the university (walking distance) and the city centre (by bus or foot) that was habitable enough, in comparison to the more shocking properties we had viewed in the area; with smaller bedrooms at more costly prices, simply for being closer to university.
According to my 4th and final source from savethestudent.org, their 2023 National Student Accommodation Survey shows the findings of the worst student accommodation issues:
“Damp (36%)
Lack of water or heating (29%)
Rodents and pests (17%)
Disruptive building work (15%)
Inappropriate/unannounced landlord visits (14%)
Smoke or carbon monoxide alarms not working (10%)
Dangerous living conditions (9%)
Bed bugs (7%)
Break-ins or burglaries (6%)
Other (2%)”
Credit: BerndBrueggemann – Shutterstock
Source 4
If these types of regurgitated articles, surveys, movement attempts and research analyses don’t trigger authoritative solutions towards a drive for change then I honestly don’t know what will. SOMETHING NEEDS TO CHANGE.
Students! Your agents and landlords wouldn't live in such dire states by choice, so why should this be forced upon you? You might be training and studying to become a Doctor; who might one day cure an illness your landlord could unfortunately develop. Or you become the next big celebrity News Broadcaster, so people can sit on their sofas being entertained by you on the TV. The mistreatment doesn't add up. If you got seriously sick living in a poorly conditioned house, you may never be able to become the person you went to university to be. The future generation is being ruined before it even starts.
Thank you for reading.
Use the comments or send me a private message, Instagram @tillyj0nesx, to interact with this publication.
Signing off,
Tilly
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