Southampton Uni chat thread

My house last year was £55 a week, straight through a lovely landlord who fixed everything, had a huge double room and nice other areas. I saved over a grand on rent from the year before. Walk around the area you want to live and look for numbers of private landlords on houses! xxx

Reply 6261

makinghistory

Also it's so bloody early to start looking for houses, it's so bad they put the signs up and pressure people into it!

Reply 6262

chaz1992

15

Got 2 viewings on Kitchener road today and many tomorrow which a friend has organised. Hmm, may take the advice on looking around for private landlords, thanks for that suggestion makinghistory!

Reply 6263

marcusmerehay

OP

17

What's the big news today, I hear you ask?

It's only bloody post-Xmas deadline extensions! :party:

http://blogs.susu.org/sabbs/2011/12/02/deadline-extensions/#content

Considering I have 6 assignments (including 3 projects) due on Jan 13th, it means they're being pushed back by six days to the 19th. :coma:

Reply 6264

Like_A_G6

19

Original post by marcusmerehay

What's the big news today, I hear you ask?

It's only bloody post-Xmas deadline extensions! :party:

http://blogs.susu.org/sabbs/2011/12/02/deadline-extensions/#content

Considering I have 6 assignments (including 3 projects) due on Jan 13th, it means they're being pushed back by six days to the 19th. :coma:

DAMN! All my assignments are due in before Christmas :frown:

Reply 6265

jonnythemoose

15

I have 5 assignments due in January, the 4 extra days aren't going to make the biggest difference, but I'm happy still

Reply 6266

hothedgehog

16

Original post by cloop

How come you dislike Cryers so muuuch? We went through them (not my choice!), and I don't love them, but just wondered why you would advise people against?

So today, we have "viewings between 9am - 6pm". So sweet of them to be so specific!

A few points but I could literally go on all day:

1) this summer we were told the landlord was putting in a new kitchen and would take 5 days to do this. They never wrote to us to tell us this (but we were too stupid and excited to get this put in writing like legally they have to). Landlord took 4 months to put in the kitchen. We ring up cryers saying 'what the ****'s happening and what are you going to do about the fact that we have paid full rent with no working kitchen for 4 months' only to find that 'they are only mediators and can't do anything'. Bull**** there - they should have done their paperwork properly and drawn up a contract on schedule of work.
2) when I moved into the house I wrote a letter requesting maintenance which wasn't urgent but if wasn't seen to would lead to massive problems later on. Fast forward a few months where water's pouring through our kitchen ceiling through our boiler and they 'will see if they can get someone over within a few days to fix it'. No, you'll get someone over today so we can have a shower, hot water and heating thank you'.
3) they have constantly let the landlord keep the set of keys which should be kept in the cryers office so that they can conduct viewings and let workmen into the house without us being present. It's meant that we've had to stay in to get things fixed and has always ended up with someone missing lectures because of their vague timings. We have gotten to the point where we are now refusing to go our of our way on giving a clear answer when someone will be in the house to let them in for a viewing. It's all 'oh, well someone might be in at some time between 2-5pm' just to make life really inconvenient for them and give them a piece of what they've been making us do.
4) the lock on our basement froze meaning we couldn't put our bikes away (and we definitely can't keep them in our hall - space!) and we also couldn't get out our tents which would have meant that a whole society couldn't have gone camping. Their reply was 'can't you squirt some wd40 in it?' 'no, it's in the basement' 'oh, well we'll send someone over soon' 'how soon?' 'within a few days' 'well, if you don't do it by tomorrow at 4pm we'll be sending the bill for the money we'll have lost out on because you stopped us going on camp' 'oh ok, we'll send someone out today'. They sent out one of their office staff who looked at the look and decided he didn't know how to fix it and then finally got a locksmith to do it. Absolutely ridiculous.
5) when we went to keep our house on for the year we paid our administration fee. Then they sent paperwork out to our parents and invited us in later to sign our contract. At no point were we told that our rent had gone up from the previous year... it was not until we read the contract prior to signing it that this was the case. We were livid that they'd let us pay about £360 non-refundable without telling us the rent had gone up.

yeah... I could just go on and on and on...

Reply 6267

Boom Boom Pow

13

Wow seems like I'm paying an extortionate amount at £81 pw considering £60 is common. :confused:

Reply 6268

hothedgehog

16

I would say £60 is the lowest end you'll get. I definitely wouldn't go above £65. We're paying £62 at the moment.

Reply 6269

chaz1992

15

Saw a property and we immediately signed for it. Brilliant home, everything we've been looking for in a home, the only thing is it has 1 single room and 5 doubles. We agreed the single room person will pay £70 per week for that room and double room will pay £76 per week so not a bad deal all round. It's close to the uni and about a 10 minute walk to portswood.

Agency was Dynamic Lettings who have great service tbf. The property is solely managed by them which is good. Paid £120 admin fee, my parents need to sign the consent form and then I have to pay a £350 deposit.

Reply 6270

Deutsch_Beth

16

It's definitely stupid how much people panic about houses, me friend who just started here went to me the other day "we've got to get a house THIS WEEK as apparently there's hardly any left in Portswood at all!!" and then signed for a crappy house the next day, ignoring my points that a) we didnt get a house til feb last year and ours is really nice and b) loads of houses come on the market after christmas.

I'm lucky with my rent, when we moved into the house it had been extended - 5 of the rooms are HUGE but the 6th bedroom was a lot smaller than they'd described (though its still far from a box room). My housemates all said they couldn't fit their stuff in the room and refused to move in, so I got them to agree to all pay me £3 a week extra, so now I pay £65 per week but still benefit from a lushh bathroom, kitchen and living area whereas they pay £83

Reply 6271

chaz1992

15

Original post by Deutsch_Beth

It's definitely stupid how much people panic about houses, me friend who just started here went to me the other day "we've got to get a house THIS WEEK as apparently there's hardly any left in Portswood at all!!" and then signed for a crappy house the next day, ignoring my points that a) we didnt get a house til feb last year and ours is really nice and b) loads of houses come on the market after christmas.

I'm lucky with my rent, when we moved into the house it had been extended - 5 of the rooms are HUGE but the 6th bedroom was a lot smaller than they'd described (though its still far from a box room). My housemates all said they couldn't fit their stuff in the room and refused to move in, so I got them to agree to all pay me £3 a week extra, so now I pay £65 per week but still benefit from a lushh bathroom, kitchen and living area whereas they pay £83

Do they realise they're getting ripped off :tongue:

That's a bargain!

Reply 6272

Deutsch_Beth

16

Original post by chaz1992

Do they realise they're getting ripped off :tongue:

That's a bargain!

Yeah of course they do, they were just desperate not to have to move into the room themselves so they agreed to this condition straight away haha. I like the room tho, its the warmest as its right above the kitchen and still has a double bed,decent sized desk haha, its really cosy :biggrin:

Reply 6273

unamed

13

That extension gives me more time to do my maths! :biggrin:

Although, really, maths is the only one affected by the downtime. 'Cause the down-time doesn't affect ECS (they did it over the summer). :smile:

I like being special.
Apparently I've been lied to, we're also affected. Although I don't believe my source...

Also, for whoever it was that asked, I'm guaranteed a room in halls for all 4 years. :biggrin:

(although I see the benefits of a house. Especially since I do NOT want to go through meeting new flatmates again. We don't gel well this year and it makes me sad. Which is why I spend most of my time outside of my room.)

(edited 12 years ago)

Reply 6274

hamijack

15

Ted's band tonight was shiiiiiiiiiiit. Waited about 3 hours for a 20 min set. Not even worth the 4 quid I paid for it.

Reply 6275

hothedgehog

16

If the union thing I'm even going to bother ever going up to the union then they should give my society a budget. As social sec I am officially boycotting any event the union runs.

Reply 6276

cloop

13

Original post by hamijack

Ted's band tonight was shiiiiiiiiiiit. Waited about 3 hours for a 20 min set. Not even worth the 4 quid I paid for it.

hamijack, were you on guestlist?

Reply 6277

marcusmerehay

OP

17

I was at Sobar last night and for the first time ever two guys tried to start on me on the dancefloor. :lol:

There was the standard dancefloor jostling as they kept converging on our circle before one of them went to grab me by the throat.

I grabbed his arm and told him to chill the **** out - they were thrown out soon afterwards.