Hythe Mills, colchester

I would not recommend living here if you expect to be treated like a paying customer. In my experience, concerns are not handled professionally and residents are not treated with the level of respect you would expect when paying significant rent. I have now experienced three serious issues with this company. Each time, the situation has been handled in a way that ultimately benefited the company financially, while I was left chasing for answers and resolution. Communication is extremely inefficient. Emails are passed between multiple members of staff before reaching the person responsible, making even urgent matters slow and unnecessarily complicated. It previously took me around a month of chasing just to be able to pay my rent.Not to mention the fact we as customer are not even allowed to contact ourselves the people who are actually in charge and responsible or rectifying issues. Escalating issues feels impossible. You are repeatedly directed back to the same individuals who either cannot resolve the issue or claim they are unable to act. I would strongly advise ensuring that everything is submitted in writing. I have been told that if something is not written down, it is effectively disregarded — even if it was raised in person at reception. This creates a system where accountability feels very limited. Overall, the experience has felt dismissive, slow, and lacking transparency. For something as important as housing, this level of service is extremely disappointing.

Used to be a nice/decent place to live. But the quality of living has gone tremendously down these past months. Since I moved in, the staircases that lead up to our rooms have not been cleaned once. They don’t provide cleaning of the communal kitchen spaces either. Almost every other student accommodation in town has the communal kitchens cleaned every week. Definitely not worth the rent anymore.

This is an excellent student accomodation and I have been enjoying my stay so far. The staff are very helpful and always eager to help and are very quick to sort out any issues that arise. Moreover it helps that it is quite close to the university and supermarkets so commuting is really easy.

Back in September 2025, I discovered that several of my personal items were missing from my room. I immediately reported this to reception. After checking their access system, they confirmed that someone from the cleaning company had entered my room multiple times at 1 a.m. and other unusual hours. This matched the exact dates and times I had already told them, proving that I was being completely accurate from the beginning. The missing items include my Apple AirPods Max, two necklaces, a ring, and a vintage box, with a total value of £2,023.63. I was told that there was “no hope” of recovering any of them. When I asked for a refund or compensation, I was instructed to report the incident to the police which I did and I provided the reference number as evidence. Despite following every step they asked, I was then told there was “nothing they could do,” and that I needed to contact the insurance company. The insurance company, in turn, treated me like I was making the whole thing up. I should not have to keep proving that I was the victim of a theft. I’m the one who was stolen from. The manager at Hythe Mills, Sian, has not been helpful throughout this process, and the situation has made me feel unsafe, unheard, and completely unsupported. I have been dealing with this since September, and now it is November 15, and nothing has been resolved. To make things worse, there are no cameras in the hallways, which means that if anything happens, residents have no protection and as my case shows, you may not be believed or properly helped. Hythe Mills is not a safe place to live, and my experience should be a warning for others.

Since the new management took over, nothing seems to work properly. Since last academic year, the lifts have been a constant problem, and now the hot water isn’t working either — it’s been over a week with no resolution. It even took the new company a day and a half just to send out an email about the issue. Under the previous management, emails were sent out immediately whenever something went wrong. With temperatures dropping, having no hot water is unacceptable for tenants. On top of that, there are no notifications for deliveries because no information has been provided about any new app or system. The staff also seem very unbothered by everything, which is expected since these issues don’t affect them personally. To make matters worse, the car gate isn’t working either, and tenants had to figure that out themselves. Again, no notifications or emails were sent about the problem or how it would be fixed. Despite all these constant issues, the place still expects us to pay full rent. Definitely won’t be rebooking next year.