A recent survey has found that one-third of UK students have had no heating or water at their rented accommodation, while 35% are living with damp. The complaints rank among the top five maintenance problems reported by students, says the research conducted by Student advice website Savethestudent.org.
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Badly Maintained Accommodation at Unaffordable Costs
Of the 2,100 students participating in the survey, nine out of ten had problems with their accommodation, ranging from disruptive building work to rats and bed bugs. The same study found that half of the students found accommodation costs problematic.
The average upfront housing cost for students is £970 – far higher than the average maintenance loan of £541 a month, meaning that two-thirds of students have had to borrow from other sources such as banks and their families just to cover accommodation.
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There were around 1.8 million full-time students in 2018, according to a study
by http://www.cushmanwakefield.co.uk/en-gb/research-and-insight/2018/uk-student-accommodation-report-2018 commercial property and real estate
consultants Cushman & Wakefield, with 627,000 new dedicated bed-spaces
having been provided in that year alone, and over half the market being
supplied by the private sector.
Students have as much right to well-maintained accommodation as other tenants.
Save the Student’s money expert, Jake Butler, said there was a belief that
badly maintained accommodation was normal student life. He said that while new
laws are improving the tenant’s lot, students need an easier way to sort out
their accommodation problems.
Fortunately, the tech is available to help in this regard. But which businesses would use property inventory software?
Automated Accommodation Management
The answer to that question is anyone who manages a property, from an individual
landlord to a property management company. Property inventory software does
much more than count the cutlery in the kitchen drawer: it can manage tenant
moves and multiple accommodation buildings, organise inspections and flag
problems for follow-up. The more sophisticated software serves as a mobile
office, with a facility for tenants to sign agreements and for landlords to
create, print or email reports and follow up on maintenance issues.
With properly scheduled inspections, it can eliminate inappropriate landlord
visits – a complaint raised by 16% of students – and arrange any loud or
disruptive building work for a mutually convenient time.
