Student Houses: Hell-ter Shelter?

By Rachel Knox

The thought of getting out of halls and moving into a shared house should be an exciting prospect for any student, it marks a new stage of independence and even mundane tasks like setting up bills adds to the list of valuable life experiences. However, this independence can come at a high price: the experience tarnished by greedy student landlords and letting agencies taking advantage of the naivety of young students.

The usual deposit, of around £300 per student, whilst sometimes difficult to find for students on a basic loan rate, is a legitimate and sensible way for landlords to cover their backs in case of damage to their property (we students do have a wild reputation after all). It’s at the end of the lease that problems arise- and unacceptably often.

Agencies are known to charge ridiculous amounts for such minor ‘offences’ as not dusting bedroom doors and skirting boards. At the end of the last academic year Sinclair (reputed by York students to be the ‘worst’ agency) charged one house £30 for dusty curtain tie-backs. Rival agency IG Properties charged £50 per room for blue-tack marks. But do they actually pay for people to come and clean and repaint these things? Do they actually change locks once they’ve charged £100 for a lost key? The conditions of some of these houses on moving in day suggest that they don’t.

The harsh reality is that many landlords know that they are dealing with younger people who are largely unaware of their legal rights and are therefore less likely to fight to get back their deposits at the end of the lease.

Yet deposits are only small change compared to the vast profits made from rent charges. Most landlords know all the tricks; by charging per week instead of per month (like normal lets) they are able to squeeze as much money out of their tenants as possible.

Despite the fact that some of York’s most threadbare student houses would never be rented under a normal residential let, due to financial restraints some students have no choice but to live in damp, dirty, and sometimes dangerous conditions. The average student let in York is £65 per person per week, for a four-bedroom house. Landlords, before agency fees, tax etc. can make upwards of £1040 a month just off one house.

A short browse on the Internet shows the vast difference between student rental properties and non-student rental properties. Looking online, there are pages and pages of spacious, modernised and clean properties in the York area, all for bargain prices of around £900 per month, but are not available to students.

So why should things be so different for us? The most realistic answer is that most landlords know that they can get away with ripping off students. If all other landlords overcharge on rent while not looking after their tenants as much as they should then why shouldn’t yours treat you the same?

Greedy landlords are not exclusive to York; across the country students are being treated exactly the same. But that shouldn’t give landlords license to rip off their student tenants.

By Kelly Holt

Government legislation on HMOs (Houses of Multiple Occupancy), is being implemented across the country. This legislation requires that all student houses are granted specific planning permission.

York Councillor Roger Pierce, of the Hull Road ward, who is also a former town planner, has suggested that no more than “one student let in any frontage of five houses” should be granted planning permission, in order to solve the perceived problems caused by student housing in the area. The Hull Road ward, with roughly one in six houses occupied by students, has therefore not, by Pierce’s own reckoning, reached it’s maximum capacity for student lets.

Local residents are unlikely to appreciate an additional 5% of houses being used as student HMOs, considering the alleged problems caused by current student numbers. York St. John University told Vision that unlike the University of York, there are no plans to increase student numbers in the next ten years.

However, York St. John are “more likely to build on fruitful private contractor relations”, such as the Percy’s Lane and Gray’s Wharf developments, with private contractor Harrisons. York St. John further added that these developments have “received much praise from both students and local residents”.

The contrast with our university is remarkable. Although the University of York is, as a result of the Hes East development, planning to increase student numbers by fifty percent, there are “no future plans, with private contractors or otherwise, to create purpose built housing developments off campus for students in their second and third years”. When asked whether they had liased with York City Council on the forthcoming implementation of HMO legislation, the University responded simply, ‘no’.

Unfortunately, when asked specifically how the University plans to house increased numbers of second and third years, no actual figures were disclosed. The most information available to Vision was that the University “have made Goodricke College attractive to second and third year students by providing a range of accomodation. A similar approach will be followed in future new colleges on Heslington East, as we recognise that second and third years help colleges to thrive”.

Whilst second and third years may well do this, the fact remains that the same student presence in local communities is often the somewhat unfair target of local tensions. How this can be resolved in the future, with the university admitting that there has been no consultation with the council on student housing legislation, remains to be seen.

By Rachael Healy

The term “studentification” has begun to appear recently in the local and national press to describe the apparent phenomenon that occurs when “too many” students live in the same area. The charges levelled at students include litter problems, unacceptable noise levels, and too many “unsightly” To Let signs cluttering up certain streets.

Local residents also emphasise “ghost town” syndrome, which occurs with the mass exodus of students back to their family homes over the summer and at Christmas. Roger Pierce, local councillor for the Hull Road Ward and former student at the University of York, uses the phrase when referring to areas with a high density of student housing.

He also suggests that “older residents’ concerns are twofold: the impact of students on social networks, and on the physical character of neighbourhoods”.

Students are accused of crimes ranging from threatening the future of local schools (we don’t have kids so school rolls are falling) to tarmac-ing over too many street verges in order to provide parking.

Earlier this term, Pierce personally leafletted the 547 student houses in the Hull Road ward. The leaflet, which encouraged students to ‘introduce themselves to neighbours’ and ‘install conventional curtaining in ground floor rooms’, however kindly meant, was described by one third year student in the ward, Marion Nutter, as “hostile and unfriendly – a victimisation of students”.

In many prominent university cities action is already underway to reduce the number of houses in multiple occupancy (HMOs) and to curb the number of houses and flats being converted to student accommodation- and part of that action includes Houses of Multiple Occupancy Legislation, which each local authority is responsible for implementing.

In Nottingham, home to two universities, the council has already established a maximum threshold of 25% for student houses in any given area. In Newcastle, plans to construct purpose-built student blocks have been viewed as a way to force university students out of the neighbourhoods that they traditionally dominate.

Although spreading students ever more thinly throughout a city, or separating them into council-flat style tower blocks, may ease the appearance of “ghost towns”, can any homeowner honestly say they would be thrilled to find a brand-new block of 300 students living just around the corner?

Judging by Vision’s research online- very few. A casual browse through local websites reveals a number of forums in which York residents regularly vent about the exisiting presence of students in local communities.

In the Badger Hill and Hull Road areas a number of residents claim that the amount of student accommoda ion “has long been a source of friction”. One resident, calling themselves “Justice forYork” felt the need to elaborate upon this point, complaining of litter, petty vandalism and noise, even going so far as to say “a lot of us here dread term-time coming round again”.

By Philippa Hellawell

Think your house is bad? Spare a thought for these poor students…

Sarah J. contacted her letting agency when she found swarms of wasps outside her bedroom window, and a strange buzzing noise from within the wall. The estate agent’s response upon hearing there were no wasps in the actual room? “What’s the problem?” Only after much persistence was pest control sent in, and a wasps nest found in the cavity wall insulation.

Juan P. complained to his landlord about the mould growing in his room after the previous tenants had used the place to grow weed. The landlord maintained that the best way to deal with the mould infestation in this Osbaldwick drug den was to simply gloss over it – in more ways than one.

A group of female second-years moved into their house to find it already occupied- by thousands of small black beetles. Which made their way into everything from beds to cereal boxes. The landlord refused to send in pest control, deeming it “unnecessary and expensive.” Instead he provided the disgusted girls with his personal hoover. Which barely worked. Job well done.

Some third year boys moved into their house, which as one would expect, was fully built. Next door, however, was not. Their landlord said he was under no obligation to tell them about the building work on the next doorflat, forecast to last six to twelve months, before they signed their contract as it was “a separate property.” The unfortunate boys spent their final year not only studying, but practically living, in the library.

And spare your last sympathetic face for third-year girls who, when their shower pull-switch snapped, asked for a new pull switch. When the maintenance men came (two weeks later) they had to call in an electrician, who laughingly told the girls their shower had been mis-wired all along- and that it was a miracle none of them had been killed.