So, what’s the story? 

The ‘cost of living crisis’ is starting to be more than just words in a news article. Student budgets are spread thinner than they’ve ever been. Good money management is essential in order to achieve the basics of a warm home and food on the table. The happy atmosphere of Freshers’ flatmates has vanished and now it seems it’s just every person for themselves. Food that you have budgeted and paid for keeps disappearing from the kitchen. You know it must be one of your housemates but don’t want to confront them and cause an atmosphere. You put your problem solving skills into action and start storing your food in your locker at Uni. This works great! Until your food starts going mouldy and you get the reputation of being the one with the locker that smells bad… 

You try to cheer yourself up by meeting a friend for coffee. They are exhausted and stressed. Their flatmate likes to study through the night listening to music to help with focus. The music isn’t on loud, but the walls are thin and not at all soundproof. So instead of a refreshing sleep your friend is forced to listen to the thumping bass of a tune they don’t even know the name of night after night. Lack of sleep is starting to impact their studies, but Uni won’t accept “my flatmate was playing music at 2am so I overslept and missed my deadline.” as a valid reason for an extension. You admire the fact that your friend has tried to have a chat with their flatmate to sort things out – but it has ended how you feared in that your friends flatmate doesn’t understand what the problem is and now neither of them are talking to each other...

...unhappy households can be so hard.

What can you do? 

The best thing to do in these situations is encourage gentle, honest conversations. This can be daunting, especially if tiredness or negative emotions have become a big part of the problem. Your SU Advice Service can provide impartial advice and suggestions to help you see a clear way through. In this case, we may advise you to have a chat with your accommodation providers to see if they can help take the pressure off you by facilitating some more general communication. 

How can this help?

Your housing provider has a general meeting with all your housemates to chat about good communal living practises including asking before borrowing or taking food. This means that no individual can feel publicly accused or confronted. Soon after this gentle reminder from someone outside the household, you buy yourself an oven pizza as a treat and leave it in your space in the kitchen. When you go to cook it after a long day of lectures, it’s still there! You call your friend, who tells you they have also had a meeting with both their housing provider and flatmate. The housing provider has fixed it so that your friend can switch to a different room in the flat and their flatmate has become a lot better at remembering to wear headphones after 11pm. 

Everyone is starting to feel much happier.

What if things don’t work out this way?

It’s important to remember that sharing a living space with people you’ve never met before can be tough. You are also very unlikely to be alone in the challenges you are experiencing. However impossible it may start to feel, there is always something you can do. If the thieving starts to step up a gear – extending to valuable things like your laptop or tablet - the police can be called. Equally, if housemates refuse to listen to reason and continue or increase anti-social behaviour against you, there is a University disciplinary process you can follow. Your SU Advice Service can help explain all your options and direct you to the best course of action for your individual situation.

We even have a brand new Housing Network Forum, which is the perfect place to help you find someone to take your room if you need to leave early, or give you back a little bit of hope by making it easier to find some new housemates for next year. You can make a post describing a bit about yourself and your hobbies, and find likeminded folks who would be interested in sharing a future student house with you. You may even find the new best friends you never knew you needed. 

If you are hoping to use the forum to help you leave your accommodation early, we recommend you get in touch with us before you put your room up, so we can help check your current contract to see if this is something you can do without there being any consequences for you. 

If you feel like issues with your accommodation or current housemates are getting you down to the point you could use some extra help regarding your mental health, our Wellbeing service are here for you. Find out more and seek support here.