Horror stories of living on Smithdown

‘I accidentally kicked something wet and squishy with my bare foot’

8 years ago

From magical fire-catching microwaves to infestations by supernatural rats, the student tenants of Smithdown have seen it all. If living at Carnatic was grim, this is a whole new kettle of fish.

The elusive super fast rodents

Smithdown houses are notorious for their rat and mice problem. George, a second year student living on Smithdown Road was all too familiar: ”We have mice in the house. The are actually living in the walls.”

Cat, a nursing student living on Gresford Avenue, described her horrific encounter with a rat in the garden: ”I was enjoying a leisurely stroll around my garden with a cup of tea when I accidentally kicked something wet and squishy with my bare foot. To my horror, I looked up to see a massive rat scurrying away.”

Cat’s house-mate, Ciaran, who is also a second year student, helps her with her daily rat hunts

Horror on Langdale Road

The condition of one particular house was so horrific that the tenant deemed it unlivable.

Josh, a second year spent just a week on Langdale before having to move out. He said: ”We stayed there for a week before we had to move houses. It was gross.” Leaving no doubt in our minds about his decision, the pictures show moldy damp and blackened walls unfit for anyone to live in.

Who needs Halloween decorations when you have a living room like this?

Many residents of Smithdown have been disappointed by how little landlords and estate agents have prepared for their arrival. Making houses eventually comfortable involves nagging the agents about all kinds of repairs. Nothing like starting the day with a freezing cold shower and then relaxing in another mouldy living room decorated with your housemates’ selection of damp smelly Raz shoes.

Lucy, a second year student living on Avondale Road shared a picture of the temporary state of her living room. However she adds that her landlord is lovely and will be fixing it soon. Most tenants, who have never met their landlords and only vaguely communicate with them by playing Chinese whispers with the estate agents cannot say the same.

While its hard to obtain a response from estate agents about repairs, you will be sent an abundance of emails regarding keeping premises tidy, constant house viewings and random events. To make things more difficult, there have now been many reports of fraudsters posing to be repair workers. So when you do finally get a knock on the door from the plumbers, they may not even be plumbers at all!

Terrible WiFi

From Netflix and Chill to revision, everything requires a reliable internet connection. Yet so many estate agents fail to provide one. With no internet to turn to for hours of uninterrupted procrastination, some students report the miracle of reading actual books.

Yaz, a third year medicine student from Allerton Road describes his greatest frustration with his house so far: ”Having paid extra for a fancy gold package, I was overjoyed to have WiFi and bills sorted for me but it has been absolutely horrendous. You have not experienced frustration if you haven’t had to reset your WiFi 20 times during one episode of Suits.”

The amazing fire-catching microwave of Gresford Avenue

As if rats and damp walls weren’t enough, add dangerous appliances to the list.

When accidentally left on for mere seconds, this microwave bursts into flames. If that is not a safety hazard, we really don’t know what is. The same house has experienced mysterious crackling noises and smoke from an unknown source.

The black burnt interior of the microwave

Collapsed roofs

If you aren’t yet convinced, we have saved the best for last.

When asked what had happened, Cara, a second year law student from Gresford Avenue says ”yeah there was a leak in the pipes and it collapsed.” What could usually lead to serious investigations about health and safety, led to the land lord casually somehow managing to fix the pipes himself.

Over the moon after the repair

Eela Muhaimin