Calthorpe Court, birmingham

First of all I implore you NOT to book this accommodation, despite some good aspects of living here, the negatives far outweigh the positives.In terms of the location, calthorpe court is around 30 minutes away from campus by walk and 10 minutes away by bus. Between UOB and the city centre. Moreover, an Aldi is 5 minutes away so shopping is relatively cheap and extremely convenient. Despite this, I believe it to be unsafe. From what I've seen there are inebriated people living directly across from calthorpe court in which I've seen the police visit from time to time. From what I've seen some of them are homeless and are using at night. In my experience this makes commuting to uni more difficult as I have on occasion been heckled at night. I found this unavoidable as I primarily had nighttime lectures and this was the quickest way back to the dorms. I find this one of the reasons I would dissuade female students residing in calthorpe court. In relation to this as the second and third floor doors do not have automatic locks on their front doors, people can and as far as I'm aware HAVE broken in. Also I feel it is important to preface the main clientele with international or mature students. My main issue with this is that some Freshers I know have been situated with the older students. I believe it is in no way acceptable to place a 18 year old with someone in their late 20s or 30s, a situation university accommodation accounts for and intentionally prevents. The website is misleading, the room is small and the double bed which seems to be advertised is a single. Moreover, the amenities are deplorable. Upon arrival, my flat was filthy, it appears that at the end of your tenancy you are expected to clean up your flat and the facilities, despite being a cleaning service some flats are apparently skipped so I (and others) arrived to an unclean flat without amenities (which some tenants and all UOB students receive from their accommodation). Despite that incident there are mold problems in some rooms either leaving visible black mould or a lingering smell of mildew in the flat. In addition to the general filth of the flat upon arrival, one of my peers found a paper tissue in her light, which is a fire hazard. Not only did this arouse general concerns as to fire safety, but the calibre of this accommodation.Moreover within my first two weeks here, the railing on my bathroom door had broken off along with some wood from the door itself. As my door was the only door I've encountered to have been painted white, to my surprise the other rooms I've seen here have lacked this feature and subsequently have had no issues with the railing. Also, a sofa in my flat came broken, with no warning my grandmother who recently had knee surgery got stuck in it! I have heard incidents of female tenants using the bathroom and maintenance walking in trying to do their job. These incidents were accidents and I understand that maintenance has a duty to perform and that they followed procedure of letting the tenant know they are there and will enter however the lack of a bathroom lock poses a severe threat to the tenants, they cannot hear maintenance from outside rendering procedure futile.While my experience maintenance has been efficient other have had instances where they have taken too long. For example a tenant's toilet had been left broken for an unacceptable period of time in which she had to use her friends. Moreover in relation to maintenance our shower heads are changed frequently, initially the ones provided had great water pressure however since they have started being replaced frequently the quality has reduced. In my first semester, I was provided with a heater which went up to 30°C. This was perfect for the cold weather and as the walls are bad at retaining heat, a perfect compromise. However when coming back for semester 2 the radiators had been returned and the replacement was capped at only 22 °. I SAW RED. Despite multiple complaints students were told to wear warmer clothes; us tenants were left to freeze.

I am extremely disappointed with this student accommodation. The staff are dismissive, and completely unbothered about student concerns. Once they’ve taken your money, they show little to no interest in actually supporting residents or resolving problems. The biggest issue has been the heating. Right before winter, they replaced the original heaters with a system they can control centrally. This means students have no control over their own room temperature. Even during freezing conditions (around -5°C and snow outside), they fixed the temperature at 22°C and refused to adjust it. When we raised concerns, we were simply told to “wear warmer clothes and use thicker bedding,” which is honestly unacceptable. For accommodation costing around £8,000, this level of service and lack of basic comfort is shocking. Students deserve to feel comfortable in their own living space, especially during winter. Unfortunately, this place prioritises money over student wellbeing. I would not recommend staying here.

Most people that work here are nice. But the management does not care about the residents at all. If you don’t wanna pay like 8k just to freeze the whole winter, do NOT book here. Even tho a lot of students complained about the cold rooms they simply did not care. I emailed them multiple times about how cold the room is and their reply is “students are encouraged to dress warmly and ensure they have suitable bedding for the colder weathers.”💀 So they decided to put a 22 degree celsius limit to the heating panel. Which does NOT even stay at 22 degree for more than 20 minutes. Then the panel automatically goes down to 20 degree which is also questionable because it does not give off any heat. The panel is literally cold most of the time even tho it looks like it’s on. If you think that when it stops heating the room you can turn it off and on and it will start heating again - nope still does not work (at least for me), because again it shows 22 degrees but the panel is cold. Basically it gives off heat for a very very short time and then sleeps - stops giving off any heat for a much longer time. This heating system is so useless it can not even heat these small bedrooms, it’s insane. Oh also, when I arrived the first time my room had not been cleaned, it was very dirty. Their excuse was “oh probably the cleaning company forgot your room”. It was friday evening so ofcourse they did not have any staff to help me with cleaning, I had to deep clean my room and bathroom myself instead of waiting for the whole weekend in a dirty room. I did not make an issue out of it at first. But charging like 8k, not allowing to pay with proper installments unless I give them a guarantor that works in the UK, but giving me a dirty room and then making me live in a cold room in the middle of winter - this is just mad disrespectful and lack of consideration for residents’ needs by the management.

(If 0 stars were an option I would have clicked that!) I just want to warn anyone and everyone who is considering to book this accommodation for the next academic year. Don’t book it !! Don’t live here unless you want to leave with insect bites and mould related health problems ! Initially, when I moved here, I faced numerous problems including, a used shower with hair and mould everywhere, no chair, false advertising and insects scurrying around. I’m pretty confident no thorough cleaning was done after the last tenant left. But I didn’t lose hope all at once I informed the management about the issues and while some things were sorted others including the insects and mould were ignored. After complaining and sending photos of the insects the staff would come in and spray something and leave but that never helped. Eventually the poor staff member who kept coming up to deal with the insects felt bad for me and told me to order my own insecticide so I could deal with the issue on my own. And so I did. I learnt to live with the insects. Over the course of my stay I have found numerous insect bites and possible bed bug bites all over my body and now I’m taking antihistamines on a regular to compact the symptoms. While compared to the rest of Birmingham this accommodation is located in a quiet and comfortable area, insufficient maintenance and lack of adequate cleanliness is what made my stay here unpleasant. Things like this can be worked on and I really hope they are for future tenants.

Do not book here if you want to stay warm during winter!! Since the new heaters were installed, the rooms are freezing. The maximum temperature is capped at 22°C and only lasts for about two hours, which is completely inadequate in winter. Management claims they have no control over the decision to replace the heaters—but if that’s the case, who does? The old heaters worked perfectly fine and there were never any issues before. Tenants should have been consulted before such a downgrade was made. Paying over £9,000 a year in rent only to be cold in your own accommodation is unacceptable. It’s absolutely not worth the price, and I will definitely be moving out next year.