MELISSA Chisholm is a 20-year-old History student who has had her fair share of housing nightmares since moving into a property on Bryn Road in Brynmill this August.
With seven other girls, the house has been let out by a private landlord and letting agency.

Like many other students, Melissa and her friends felt pressured to sign the contract and pay a deposit as quickly as possible:

“We put down a deposit on the house in December 2011 and signed the contract in January 2012. We felt pressured to do it really
quickly because we were looking for an eightbed house and we were constantly told that the bigger houses are snapped up the quickest.

“Since paying the deposit we have moved letting agency three times, eventually to the landlord’s own company, and we have found
our landlord incredibly difficult to deal with.”

Damp and Decay

The Rate Your Landlord survey, set up by the Students’ Union’s Welfare Officer, Charlotte Britton, has found so far that damp and mould are the most common problem found by students, with 74.9% being affected.

Melissa is one of these students: “When I first moved into my room in August this year, situated at the rear of the house, there was dog food everywhere, no curtains, a heavily damaged mattress and a strong smell of decay.

“The main problem in my room is the damp and cold. Before I moved in, there had been a big leak in my room that caused water damage and was then rectified by a handyman.

“I thought that was the end of my worries until I started to notice that the damp smell returned and one day whilst tidying my room, I found my shoes were all mouldy.

“To add to this, black mould had grown on my floor. I tried ringing the landlord and estate agent every day and after a week the resolution was to have additional heaters in my room.

“This has caused a massive issue with electricity bills and I have one working plug, so my room is now a tripping hazard of wires.”

Final Straw

“I didn’t think it could get any worse, until I returned home from a weekend away to find that an oblong bubble of water had collected underneath the wallpaper. This was the final straw.

“Someone has come over to seal it but I’m not convinced this is the end of my troubles with my room.”

On top of Melissa’s room, she and her housemates have had a series of housing nightmares.

“We had to wait two months for a working oven, a kitchen table, fixed lighting, curtains and new mattresses, all of which were expected to be done before we moved in.

“I wish that we had sought more advice and completed more research on housing, instead of rushing into signing contracts.”

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