Lambert & Fairfield House - iQ Student Accommodation Manchester — Attraction in Manchester

My time with Lambert and Fairfield has been so bad I thought I ought to warn others as unfortunately for me, when I was looking here last year there were not any reviews to tell me to stay clear. Firstly, I still start off with the cons of this place.. Or at least the worst of them, otherwise the list could go on. SILVERFISH - Before moving here, I was not even aware these things existed, but alas - they do. They like to appear in groups and live in small, dark and not very well ventilated areas.That's a perfect description of the en-suite bathrooms, ideal for the silverfish to multiply and take over the bathroom and even the bedroom. Upon seeing my first silverfish, I went downstairs to reception and informed them of this problem to which they replied that they have had this reported before but cannot be helped due to the en-suite being small and not well ventilated. This was not very reassuring for a first year student living away from home. POOR INTERNET - We are promised on the website 100MB free internet. This is NOT the case, in fact, it is far from it. It is very rare that the internet is actually working here which can be very frustrating when you're a student, like me, wanting to get your work done. Every time there is a problem with the internet, we are told to contact Ask4 and it is not Lambert/Fairfield's responsibility. NO PRINTING - We are also promised FREE PRINTING on the website, I can assure you that this is false advertising! First we were told we could print, then we were informed there would be a cap on the printing (which is fair enough considering how many students they have here) to then having to buy the paper ourselves if we wanted to use the printer. That's fine. Once I had purchased the paper, I was ready to print an assignment of approx 5 pages, to then be told that they could not allow this as it would cost them too much money to provide the ink. So please do not come here thinking you will get free printing, because you will be bitterly disappointed. NO LOCKS - There are no locks on the cupboards in the kitchen. For the amount of money we pay to stay here, you would at least expect your belongings to be safe. But no - it's a free for all and a struggle to keep things safe. So any valuables you have or kitchen equipment you do not want other people using or stealing, I would advise you keep in your already small and stuffy room. The list could go on with the amount of things wrong with this place, but I would advise you to STAY CLEAR of it and not waste your money. For the EXTORTIONATE price you pay to live here you will get nothing in return. The only good thing about this place is a security guard called Steve, he's the most caring and helpful person you could possibly ask to be around. Well...

This is the 3rd IQ accommodations I’ve stayed in and I’ve only been here for 2 months and can easily say this is the absolute worse. Rooms look absolutely nothing like they were advertised on the website. No toaster or kettle provided. Had to ask for bins in the flat when I got here. Room was dirty, not cleaned at all and handle was missing from the door. Then come to find out half the gym is closed due to construction work (was never mentioned anywhere when booking). Also there are only 4 washing machines and 4 dryers between both Fairfield and lambert house which is insane the previous IQs I stayed at had way more and had toasted and kettles provided and rooms were way better for far less money. And don’t even get me started on the noise it is absolutely constant, I’ve been sleeping with headphones on playing relaxation sounds in any attempt to get some sleep. People screaming, blasting music and slamming doors all through the night, security sounded annoyed at me and did nothing when I rang about a party going on upstairs until 6am. Luckily I got great flatmates who are clean and quiet but other then that this place is a nightmare, such a waste of money and I can’t wait to leave. (Update) It’s now getting towards the end of my stay and somehow this place got worse. If you enjoy sleep don’t book here. Construction work right outside my window started around November, they work all week even Saturdays starting banging and drilling at 7am super fun when you have a weekend bar job getting 4 hours of sleep. Not to mention the fire alarm constantly going off at all hours of the night for months. Nothing is done if you put complaints in against other flats that not only blast music all night but have broken lights, windows, the lift, fire safety equipment in the shared stairwell. So everything on the contract is basically ignored because they just want peoples money. I’m a final year undergraduate and staying here has directly impacted my capability to study and do well in my degree. Many many nights with very little sleep causing me to be sleep deprived and too exhausted to keep on top of my highly demanding course, I’ve felt better rested staying in the library all night just to get some quiet. Also they use incentives to get people to leave good reviews so don’t trust that 4 star rating it was 3 stars...

Location, location location - this is all you’re paying for. I think this might be possibly one of the worst student accommodation on the market for the money you are paying. From early waking with construction mid contact to smelly flat mate rooms and nothing being done, I would urge students look elsewhere when looking for student accommodation in the city. A real shame that on arrival to the flat, there was no IQ provided basics, ie toaster, kettle and working radiators in the kitchen and bedroom - all either being bought by the people in the flat or not having them. Another major issue which the whole property would have encountered would have been the constant water loss, be this work being done on the water tanks or water just suddenly turning off and only having cold water. Within the first week, the noise from the upstairs flats became almost unbearable and caused issues sleeping, pushing us to call for the on-site security who did more or less nothing, only advise us to call again if it happened again - which it continued to happen for another 1-2 months with no action being taken by onsite staff. With every flat not having any carpeted areas, the noise just echoed through the property and was not pleasant at all. We had numerous issues with other flat mates, non of which were solved by staff - even after numerous reports and also a concern about welfare in the flat. The worst of all being a room in the flat which had a strong and pungent odour to it, even after being mentioned to staff 3 to 4 times. With flat mates not keeping the kitchen tidy or take the bins out on a fair rota, maggots appear and this just made the kitchen un-liveable and disgusting - not somewhere you’d want to spend your time eating food - not as if you’d be able to sit there with the kitchen being so small.

Overall, with the unaccommodating and unhelpful staff, unpleasant and uncooperative flat mates I wouldn’t rate this even a 1 star, going even lower might be the right rating.

We have booked with Allied Students City Edge for the new academic year and are very much looking forward to being here, hopefully extending into the 3rd year. I would strongly urge students to look elsewhere, with a more reasonable price and...