Couldn’t find a place to stay? 4 housing nightmares you’re lucky to avoid

Searching for student accommodation can be a daunting task. If you’re in a foreign country, the difficulty of the task can sometimes be off the roof. And while most students across the globe have little trouble finding and living harmoniously in rented property, others have been less fortunate.

With the experiences of the unlucky in mind, Study International has come up with a short list of student housing nightmares so you can learn from them (or rejoice in the suffering and misfortune of others).

1. Creepy landlord

In late July, Scottish law student Erin Clark, 19, was seeking accommodation in Paris, taking to social media to talk about her predicament on finding an affordable and comfortable place to stay in the city. It was not long before she was offered accommodation by a landlord named “Franciso”, who offered her accommodation for free!

Clark’s excitement of a prospective free room, though, was short-lived after learning of a ridiculous condition set by the landlord: she would have to lick his feet to fulfill his bizarre desires.

Obviously, Clark declined the “generous” offer.

https://twitter.com/ezzaceeybyb/status/890316827070525441

2. Oh, it’s just a drug den

With only a week left to find a house and little cash to spare, Heather Panes settled for a budget accommodation above a fish-and-chip shop. Panes said when she and her boyfriend moved in, there was another guy occupying another room even though there was no furniture there.

“Halfway through moving my boxes he came in, he opened a secret hatch in the ceiling, pulled out a bunch of drugs and left. Long story short, we’d moved into his drug den,” she told Dazed.

She spent an “interesting” year at the unit with incidents including having people in balaclavas breaking the front door which was not repaired for over a month.

3. Renovation works and pests

Over 200 students residing on campus in a prestigious London university complained over noisy, rat-infested accommodation.

According to The Guardian in 2015, the students were embroiled in a dispute with the university over living conditions described as like “living on a construction site”, due to building works that disrupted their sleep and ability to study for their exams. They were also bothered by rodent infestations.

“It was really difficult. You couldn’t study in your own room if you wanted to because of the noise. I wasted a lot of time because I’d have to go somewhere else to study and spend time complaining,” said one student.

Other students also expressed concerns about being watched while living in the student quarters, with many choosing to close curtains, as workers were working directly outside their windows.

However, the nightmare has a happy ending for the students who won over GBP400,000 in compensation after they took the university to court.

4. Filthy, unwashed dishes, and just plain ‘ew’

In May, undergraduates from across the United Kingdom took pictures of their filth-ridden homes filled with mountains of dirty dishes, half-eaten snacks and rubbish strewn across the floor, according to the Daily Mail.

Some of the stomach-churning pictures were shared on social media, while others were sent in as entries for a bizarre photo contest organised by web-blinds.com, which offered a cash prize for the winner.

Graphic images below: ***viewer discretion advised**

Feeling lucky, already?