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There was absolutely no compassion, empathy or relief. “They literally just left us there.”
Water poured through the windows of a student’s flat, forcing a master’s-degree student to walk through puddles inside his bedroom.
Eden Lochridge is a student of business at Liverpool John Moores University. He and his friends moved to The Exchange, in the city center, for 2022/23 while he studied for his masters. The problems caused him to leave the building early, two months earlier than planned. He cited poor Wi-Fi and faulty lighting as well as leaky windows, which left his bedroom covered with water.
Urban Evolution, a letting agency that oversees student flats located behind Lime Street Station in London, has said standards are “extremely high” and unmatched by other schemes.
Eden: “We were unable to use the internet in our dormitory for 6 months. It was just not working. The majority of students there relied on their mobile data. The majority of people that I talked to were forced to upgrade their mobile contracts.
When I walked in my door, there was dampness under the window sill. Over the next few months, this intensified. It started to rain heavily outside during the winter. I was awakened at 3am when rain came through my window. The rain was just coming through. It was like my floor looked like a pool. My feet were soaked when I got up from bed. My shoes were on when I walked around my bedroom.
The extractor fan in the bathroom did not work. In the winter, there was a lot of damp. One night, because my room was so wet, I was working and part of the roof collapsed.
The lack of Wi-Fi really affected us. It was a big blow to us all because we were doing our masters. You should be worried if you cannot do all your work at university in your flat.
There was absolutely no compassion, empathy or relief. “They literally just left us there.”
Eden and his friends had complained to Urban Evolutions several times, but the problem persisted. “Water was pouring through the windows,” Eden stated.
Urban Evolutions’ spokesman said that the excess damp growing underneath the bed of the student was due to “a fault on the floor in the shower room”. When this issue was raised, they said that all the bathrooms in the building were reviewed. The two we found to be defective had been corrected immediately. Tenants drying their clothes in rooms without windows and with no ventilation are often responsible for dampness in other rooms. Students are often unaware of damage caused by drying clothes in unventilated rooms and not opening windows.
We repaired the leak in 2022 that was caused by lack of sealant. We waited for a couple of days to repair the ceiling beneath the room as a precaution. After the tenant reported the problem, the room was redecorated on the 22nd of February.
The accommodation also denied that there were ongoing problems with wi-fi, saying “Hot water and Wi-fi have never been out for an extended period of time.” Our team observed that there was an issue with the boiler which resulted in temperatures dropping to 48/49°C during high usage. “This has been fixed.”
In a letter to The ECHO, broadband provider Internet TY stated that rooms at The Exchange were equipped with individual routers, ethernet, and a Wi-Fi access point. “We are aware of the complaints we received from clients who could not keep a constant Wi-Fi signal via a shared Wi-Fi service after Covid-19 in September 2022.” Wi-fi spectrum analyzers and specialist engineers diagnosed possible causes. As a result, alternative equipment was installed by Christmas 2022.
We have had eight different complaints in 2023 from this building. Each complaint was addressed within 48 hours.
Urban Evolutions stated that other problems such as washers and ventilation units not working were due to “user error”. They added: “Students can be very active, which results in more maintenance issues than standard residential buildings.”
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