‘There was a rat in our kitchen’: Lincoln students share their uni house horror stories

Who are you Cory and why did you sleep in a stranger’s bed?


For many university students, getting a house in your second year is the next step in the uni journey, and as many of us embark on moving into uni houses in August we decided to see what Lincoln students who have experienced uni house nightmares had to say.

From flies to strangers staying overnight, it is safe to say student houses can be gross, and here is why.

There were rats in the kitchen

“So we moved in in September and the house was a STATE, clearly not been cleaned and so many things weren’t working, we didn’t have hot water but those all got fixed eventually.

“But we had two bins and there were eight of us living in the house so we had a lot of rubbish and the housing company didn’t give us any bins for ages which then resulted with us seeing a rat in the kitchen which was VILE so we messaged and emailed and called and told them they needed to come and sort this.

“So they sent someone out who told us that there were holes behind our cabinets where the rats were coming in but they couldn’t block them off but set traps and after that, we never really saw anymore of them UNTIL we came back in January to find flies absolutely everywhere.

Mum come pick me up, I’m scared

“We reported that there was mould all over the corridor so they came to ‘sort’ it (they scraped it off and painted over it so it just came back). But then my housemate and I were in one day and could hear noises from below us so got a bit freaked and went to look in the bin store and found the door wide open and so obviously we were like what is going on it’s always been locked and then three men appeared from it with shovels and bags only to find out they’d been sent out to clean out under the house but weren’t told about this, so we thought we were being robbed.” – Mollie

How did they even get in there??

We had no heating for two months during winter

“Our house was a bomb site when we walked in, dirty plasters in my bedroom, marks on the walls and carpets. Rotting food still sat in the fridge and freezer and this was just the first day.

“It took them a week to resolve these initial issues. Over the winter, we went without heating for two months, it was reported straight away but after two months someone turned up and said ‘Nah that’s broke’ and took a further few weeks to fix it.

“On the day we had received our keys we had moved into a house with a flooded kitchen and the bathroom and bedrooms covered in mould which we were told to deal with ourselves. There was also black stains on the carpets and curtains. After three weeks these problems were sorted but it was made out as it the housing company had gone out of their way to help us.” – Becca

Ants. Lots of ants

“So last year my Nan and I went to move my stuff into our house and I was the first one there and the house was a state, four lads had lived there before us and the letting agents had forgotten to clean the house and the sofas were covered in ash, etc and the house smelt of smoke.

“We noticed a weird smell and we opened the fridge and it was infested with ants. We had an ant issue throughout the year. The house was in such a bad state the letting agency told us to go back home whilst they sorted it but didn’t knock any rent off or any petrol money.”

The bathroom was unfinished and the kitchen constantly leaked

“My roof leaked in February for about two weeks and it took them a while for maintenance to stop my roof from leaking, it took me around six or seven calls to maintenance as I was very desperate I wanted them to fix it.

“We were promised to have a new second bathroom on the first floor before we moved in and were told it would be finished and we could use it. However, the bathroom, to this day, as we speak, is not done. The only thing that’s working is the toilet and tap.

“We also had problem with the kitchen floor leaking due to old dishwasher and it took them a very long time to fix it. We were then charged for over usage and they gave us a lecture on how to reduce energy. They treated and talked down on us many times and they never acknowledged that it was their fault.” – Monique

I don’t think the bath should look like that…

 

Anyone down for a swim?

The housemate who leaves his leftovers until they mould over

“In first year my boyfriend had a really weird flatmate who was one of those people that liked to come across as an edgy meme lord. From what I’ve been told, he used to basically live off minced meat and microwave rice.

“Except he would just leave the leftovers on the side for a week or more. They would go gross and mouldy, as expected, but he would get annoyed if anyone threw them out. Just a bit grim.” – Lydia

We had broken egg beside our bin for days

“Someone dropped a piece of chicken and just left it there for hours. Someone also threw a box of eggs into the bin and missed and didn’t realise so it was a mess. My housemate also decided a rave at 2am in the kitchen was a good idea. I moved out pretty quick.” – Bethan

The mould started to spread to the blinds, curtains and my clothes

“When I moved in the walls of my room had like a plasterboard layer which felt hollow, the whole room smelled musty and no matter how much we aired it or put the radiators on it wouldn’t shift, and then patches of black mould started to appear on the board, I reported it to our landlord and they came and told me it was because the furniture was too close to the wall.

“Later in the year the mould started to spread to the blinds, curtains and my clothes in my drawers, I had to throw books away from my bookshelf because the wall mould spread to them. Halfway through the year I just moved into my partner’s house and boxed my stuff up and sent it to my parents’ house. On our leaving inspection, my mum pointed out to the lady conducting the inspection that there was significant mould coming through the walls and the lady remarked ‘Yeah we’ll probably have to board up these walls again to cover it’.” – Jess

Brb whilst I puke

We had to shower at the gym

“When we first moved in we had no hot water and heating because no one told us that the boiler was dodgy and that it loses pressure pretty much every day so we have to go outside and climb on a chair because our boiler was high up the wall.

“The upstairs shower from when we moved in didn’t have any hot water so six of us had to use the downstairs shower until that one broke as well and wasn’t fixed for over two weeks. So we had to shower at the gym or at boyfriend’s houses.

“Our doorknob broke at the beginning of February and we had to put a bobby pin in it to keep it together so the door would work and that’s still not been fixed. Our extractor fan also hasn’t worked since we moved in.” – Becky

Bob the builder who?

A complete stranger stayed in my bed because the door was left unlocked

“Someone from our estate agents left our house unlocked over Christmas after the cleaner came or fire alarms testing or something and I came back to a note on my bed from some guy called Cory who had slept in it after a night out saying ‘thanks for letting me stay here sorry if I was a pr*** I have no idea what happened last night’ I guess he was wondering home and found our unlocked door and helped himself Goldilocks style!” – Clara

Hope you’re ok Cory

The landlord had died and the estate agent expected us to fix everything

“We lived in a flat for two years. When we moved in there was water coming through the ceiling and none of the emergency numbers worked. The next day I rang as our WiFi wasn’t working, then the letting agent told us our landlord had died months prior (so we’d essentially signed a contract with a dead person?)
“So we had to sort out the WiFi ourselves. It wasn’t clean when we moved in, my bed was broken for two years, and the lock kept breaking. They had the audacity to try to charge the three of us £250 for damages when there wasn’t any, and when I threatened legal action they paid us the £250 deposit back!” – Laura

It’s safe to say student houses can be very hit or miss. From rotting food to notes from strangers, the events which unfold in these houses are unpredictable, to say the least.

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