Caledon Court - Campus Accommodation

It’s okay, though a bit pricey for student accommodation. It is directly opposite Gray School of Arts. My daughter’s ground-floor disabled studio was very draughty, and the blind kept moving because of the windows. She also complains that smoke alarms go off constantly, apparently because the detectors are too close to the cooking facilities. The washer and dryer would take her money without working, so every couple of weeks I had to bring her clothes home to wash and dry them.

So far, we’ve had a really good experience. It’s easy to rebook your room with your friends, and the area is quiet and incredibly close to the uni, so there’s no excuse for being late. There’s a pool table and cinema room too. Joe has been awesome and made everything easy for us.

The accommodation is nice and in a great location, but the fire alarms are a serious problem. They go off often, including a lot at night, and everyone has to evacuate and wait for security to switch them off. For some reason, there’s no hot water after an alarm either. When I visited, the woman there said student events would often be held at the accommodation. That turned out to be false, and it’s been very difficult to meet other students. I’m really disappointed with this place.

I’ve lived here for my first two years at uni. The location is good, but I think it’s too expensive now and not worth the money. I only rebooked because I couldn’t find a private flat to share with someone. The fire alarms go off fairly regularly at night. The laundry machines are expensive and do a poor job, and I’ve had clothes come out marked. I complained to Circuit Laundry, but it was a waste of time. The laundry room floor is often dirty and full of rubbish. There are only three washers and three dryers, so weekends can get busy. Moving in can also be awkward, since there are very few parking spaces for unloading. My room wasn’t properly cleaned before I arrived last year. I had to clean most of it myself, including the bathroom. There were red felt-tip marks beside the desk on the wardrobe, a dirty sticker mark left on the window by the previous resident, white paint specks on the lino, and yellow bleach-like marks near the toilet floor, along with a strong chemical smell. My dad noticed the smell too when he helped me move in. I know move-out cleaning is down to the previous tenant and that mistakes happen, but it didn’t feel like the room had been deep-cleaned at all. It’s unpleasant to move into a partly dirty room when you’re paying so much. There were lots of problems with the bathroom fan in my second year. It was very noisy, made a grinding, crackling sound, then hummed through the night and kept me awake. I reported it through the app, but fixes took a while. The fridge thermostat in our flat was faulty when we arrived last year. All my flatmates reported it, but we didn’t get a replacement until November 2023. One freezer shelf was completely frozen over and stuck shut when I arrived. Our food was spoiling, but they wouldn’t compensate us, even though a previous resident had told them it was faulty over the summer. They still charged us rent. Maintenance did try to fix things, but I seemed to end up with a bad room with lots of issues, which also seemed to be the case for a lot of students I spoke to. Known problems should be dealt with within a reasonable time, even if they can’t be fixed straight away. They should properly check students’ rooms before charging rent. The poor maintenance and service are why I’m put off rebooking. I found the staff friendly enough, but felt they acted like I was the problem. I also had trouble with the supposed “24 hour” security. I called during the night because the broken bathroom fan was keeping me awake, and the person who answered complained that I was calling at 1am. It wasn’t my fault the fan was broken. They came across as uncaring, rude and patronising. Given how high the rent is, it’s disappointing there isn’t really 24-hour security, especially when students in other all-inclusive places have it. Some flatmates were messy and uncaring, though I accept there isn’t much the accommodation can do about that. Some other residents were unfriendly or aggressive and didn’t clean up after themselves. The bin room can be dangerous because some students don’t put their rubbish in the large bins. I’ve tripped a few times. I spent a lot of time sweeping lint off my bedroom floor, and it kept collecting on the toilet seat too, making it hard to keep the place clean by sweeping and mopping all the time.