Student moves in to find decomposing mouse in their new Edi uni flat

An honours student moved into their brand new Edinburgh University-owned flat in Tollcross yesterday to discover a ‘decomposing mouse’ under their bed. 

The student, who wishes to remain anonymous, said they found it when they went to move their bed: “The boiler closet is in the room right next to the bed, and the boiler makes a ticking noise that’s fairly annoying when you’re trying to sleep, so I was going to move the bed to the other side of the room so it would be less audible.”

“The bed doesn’t seem to have been moved for a while, so my best guess is it got stuck under the bed at some point, died there, and no one noticed?”

To make matters worse, when the student called accommodation services to ask them to get rid of it, management told them they’d have to call back on Monday, days after the mouse was originally discovered.

The student said: “It’s sort of disappointing, since the uni accommodation people claim to go over flats before turnovers, and what with the mouse, broken knob on stove, and broken cabinet we’ve found since moving in this week, it’s obvious they either don’t, or just don’t really care.”

“I honestly wouldn’t have minded just fixing it myself with a vacuum or something (since it’s a bit too far into decomposition to pick up with a plastic bag or something), but the vacuum that came with the flat is broken.”

“It’s not really the fact that it’s dead that bothers me – lots of student flats have mice, and mousetraps to go along with them – it’s more the bugs eating it and the smell that’s really just horrible.”

Competition is fierce for the university-owned flats, with students having to enter a lottery system in February to be in with a chance at getting selected. A list of available accommodation is drawn up, and names of tenants are picked out of a spinning drum, while students wait for their names to be called.

The Edinburgh uni owned flats, known as Student Homes, are among the small amount of accommodation offered to students in second or subsequent years of study, including couples and families.

The university have been contacted for comment.