Students really pull the short straw when it comes to housing. Often, living in a shared flat teeming with mould, inhabited by mice or reeking of damp is dismissed as a rite of passage, a fact of life, a character-building experience that every undergrad simply has to suffer through.
But now, a group of students has launched a campaign to ‘Break the Mould’. The University of Bristol’s student-run Epigram Paper is bringing attention to the ‘dangerous’ levels of mould in the city’s rented accommodation and urging for landlords to be held more accountable.
The campaign has proposed a TripAdvisor-style website where students can anonymously review their landlords or letting agents. Renters would be able to rate them based on the condition of the property, any issues that arise and how quickly and effectively they’re dealt with. It’s hoped that the site would incentivise landlords to better maintain their properties, become more responsive and have improved relationships with their tenants.
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In a survey by the uni newspaper, 93 percent of students said they have experienced mould or damp in their house. A shocking 60 percent said that they’d experienced health issues as a result. Since launching the campaign, Epigram has collected stories of mould from several uni students. One discovered a mushroom growing on their ceiling and another fell sick after finding a pungent spread of black mould in her bedroom.
The students have launched a petition and are calling on the Bristol Students’ Union to help set up their ‘Rent Review’ site.
Livy Naylor, the managing director of Epigram, told the Big Issue: ‘This is a massive issue. Up and down the country students are paying thousands of pounds in rent every year and living in the most awful conditions[…] There is definitely scope for policy to be made to improve the right of renters and for greater accountability measures for landlords and letting agencies.’
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What’s life like for uni students in 2025, you ask? Well, you’re in the right place. At Time Out, we’ve looked into whether university hazing is still a thing, given advice on how to navigate London’s student housing market, determined what your British uni really says about you and reported on the top universities for student satisfaction.
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