One of the three mandatory ombudsman schemes regulating lettings agents claims that 74 per cent of students have significant problems with their accommodation.
Ombudsman Services says of the 1.7m students with issues about their rooms, apartments or houses, around 60 per cent specify damp, faulty hardware like boilers and refrigerators, leakages and vermin as topping the list of gripes.
Most worryingly perhaps, over half are forced to complain several times to their landlord before any action is taken and some five per cent say their landlords had become threatening or abusive in response to a complaint.
Chief Ombudsman Lewis Shand Smith says: Far from being powerless, being a student doesn't mean having to put up with poor quality accommodation, slow broadband connection speeds or shoddy customer service.
Ombudsman Services is now releasing a Know Your Rights guide aimed specifically at students.
It also covers the issue of utility contacts, often taken out by students for the first time in their lives. The Ombudsman Services survey of over 1,000 students shows that a third experience problems with their telecoms supplier, typically over poor coverage or slow broadband connection speeds.
Almost 10 per cent of students suffer billing discrepancies, with eight per cent saying they are obliged to settle bills run up by their predecessors in specific properties.
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