These grim housing nightmares prove that estate agents are the devil incarnate
‘She had to get a tetanus shot’
Estate agents are the tricksters of the housing world. They tempt us by waiving the admin fees and we stupidly go along with it, enticed by their charm and the prospect of handing over as little of our precious loan as possible.
Yet as soon as we sign our names on that dotted line, the cloud of sweet, blissful ignorance vanishes and we are faced with the stark reality of our housing situation – a grim hole that makes our skin crawl.
We asked students to tell us about the live-action accommodation nightmares they’ve lived because of swindling estate agents.
With SPCE, you’ll never have to pay a deposit for your student house again – download the app here
We had a rat problem so bad, that one actually ran across my face whilst I was sleeping. Turns out their entry point into the house was my room, so after a lot of calls and pestering, the estate agent finally sent round someone to board up the hole.
However, one morning we woke up to a blue bottle infestation, which was a result of the maggots eating the dead rats that had died in the walls.
– Conor, 2nd Year, Leeds
When we moved into our second-year house, the only sofa in the living room had massive rusty nails sticking out of it. My housemate practically impaled herself – she had to get a tetanus shot. It took the agent the entire first semester to replace it.
– Lottie, 2nd year, Manchester
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For the first month of living in our second-year house, the bath and sink would always take hours to drain. We asked our estate agent to fix it and they did nothing at all. Luckily one of our housemate’s boyfriend was a plumber so he checked it out. He managed to pull out three full Bags for Life of human hair from the drain.
– Gemma, 3rd year, Leeds
My flatmate had bedbugs so bad her body was absolutely covered in bites. After months of pestering the agent, they finally sent around pest control. The problem was so severe that they had to quarantine her room to spray it. They even burnt the mattress.
– Katie, 2nd year, Cardiff
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Once my basement room was flooded when a pipe burst over the Christmas break – it was ankle deep. It took the estate agent a week to send someone over to drain the swamp out of my room.
– Laurie, 3rd year, Manchester
After living in my first student house for a few weeks, I pulled my fave top out of the wardrobe to find it had gone completely mouldy. I’m talking furry.
I went behind the wardrobe and found a solid wall of black mould. I had to throw out most of my clothes. When I called the estate agent, they just sent over the landlord’s creepy nephew. All he did was cover it up with a board – he put more effort into trying to hit on me. I didn’t go in that room for the rest of the year.
-Ari, 3rd year, Reading
SPCE is the latest housing provider that makes finding your next student house a breeze