Unite Students - Stratford One — Local services in London

I am angry. Actually I am beyond angry. There are no words to describe how I feel about the way Stratford One has treated me and my friends over the past month of staying here.

Firstly I shall begin with the shambles that was moving day. There was no coordination or communication whatsoever. There were even queues for lifts, bigger than queues I’ve seen at Thorpe park for rides because they were broken. Just to mention - some of these lifts are still broken. One of my friends entered her flat on the first day to find the kitchen a complete disgrace and RAT DROPPINGS all over the floor. This was apparently because “the cleaners hadn’t cleaned the rooms yet”. Excuse me what. It was the day everyone was moving in you would have the cleaning finished beforehand. If this were to happen it a hotel for example you would be given a full refund and moved to a different location. But no what did Stratford One do about this situation. NOTHING.

Moving onto my next point. Bed bugs. Now I understand it is a uni accommodation and that there is a bed bug problem in London currently but the way the situation was handled was outrageous. Firstly I received an email from Stratford One out of the blue about 10pm at night stating that the next day I had to be out of my flat for the full day so they could spray my room for bed bugs. They also stated I had to wash all my clothes. Number 1, I wasn’t even aware my flat had bed bugs. Number 2, so much for giving notice. I did as the email said and went straight to wash all my clothes. I was down in the laundry room for 7 hours. Me and my friends mental health were EFFECTED. The next day I didn’t go into my room as told, only to be told later that they didn’t end up spraying my room and that they would come again tomorrow meaning I couldn’t be in my room AGAIN. Stratford One said they were going to pay for the washing and £60 compensation for the 2 days. Fair enough but this £60 has taken about 2 weeks to process. I’m a uni student I don’t have the time to be waiting for all that money.

Next. There is a terrible silverfish problem at Stratford One. Fair enough, uni accom BUT we were sent a large email stating we had to be out of the flat for a few hours whilst they sprayed to remove them. They never came to spray and there is still a silverfish problem.

Special mentions to the boiler that burst and flooded reception, the mezzanine level and all rooms in block D, floor 6 and down. The amount of maintenance issues Stratford One has would make the think the building was about 50 years old.

Finally. For the amount of sh*t we have had to put up with in the space of 5 WEEKS is ridiculous. Because of all this a sensible amount Stratford One should be charging would be around £220-£240 per week. But no we are paying much more than that. AND whilst trying to rebook for next year they have stated the prices are rising to an average of £290 a week. This is an average price increase of about £20 a week which is ridiculous. Not to mention this is just for rebookers. It will be more expensive for new customers. I get that it’s London and prices are higher but for the shocking facilities and the fact that NO ONE has this amount of money because of student loans it is disgusting to up prices like this. UNITE should be ashamed of themself.

You might be saying, why stay there then? ITS CONVENIENT. It’s a 10 minute walk from university. I don’t want to be travelling 30 minutes a day. If Stratford One don’t sort themselves out they will loose many more customers. My university have even started recommending you don’t stay here due to the extortionate prices.

SORT IT OUT UNITE!!!!

p.s the one star is for my friends who I met because of stratford one, the only good thing to come out of...

AVOID THIS ACCOMMODATION AT ALL COST.

The management in this building does not care about their clients who are PAYING to stay here. They only care about themselves. They do not care about what the tenancy agreement says, they just do whatever they want. They do not want to get blamed at for anything, instead they just throw it around at everyone else.

I was staying at a room here from Sept-June and was supposed to move into a new room over the summer. They gave me a room that was clearly dirty and disgusting (floor was extremely dirty, there were pee stains on the toilet seat, mattress had stains and was not changed after the previous tenant). And when I filed a complaint, they told me it’s not their responsibility to clean it as this room was occupied by a short-term tenant. It was clearly not my responsibility too because according to my tenancy agreement, I was supposed to receive a room in a clean state. But they did not want to take the blame at all. First of all, I understand that it’s the previous tenant’s responsibility to clean it but second of all, how is it that an accommodation does not have a standard of practice where they check if the rooms are ready before people move in? If only they actually did this, they would have contacted the previous tenant to ask them to pay for a professional cleaning before my check-in date. Because how is it that only now after I filed the complaint that they are doing this? It’s fortunate that I actually still have my previous room here so I still have a place to stay until everything is sorted out. Imagine if I were a new student, I would probably have to book a hotel or just be homeless.

On top of that, what really angers me is the fact that they have given me so much misinformation to the point that I felt that I have been deceived. One member told me it’s not possible to extend my current contract, while others told me it’s possible. It’s like the people in the management don’t even talk to one another because no one knows the correct information. And when I asked them to give me the correct information, they refused to tell me and instead proceeded to gaslight me into thinking that this was all my fault. I felt EXTREMELY disrespected and I have completely lost my trust for Unite Students but I’m guessing they don’t care about having to keep a positive reputation because they clearly don’t care about providing a safe living environment for their clients. So the only thing I could do now is to advise anyone who wants to stay here, TO RUN.

DO NOT EVEN TRY TO CONSIDER THIS ACCOMMODATION. If you go to LCF or UCL, there are plenty of accommodations to go to that are not too far from the campus that would cost less or even the same price for a room that is way bigger and WAY MUCH BETTER than this accommodation.

And accept the fact that no one in the management cares about the people living here and will not be listening to any of your complaints because they think that they are never wrong.

Before moving in to this place, I did not want to believe the negative Google reviews because how can a place be that bad? But now I regret not listening to...

Not recommended at all. Your personal safety and property safety could be threatened if you stay here. There could be someone else who is able to suddenly break into your room with his card in the evening (not for facility check and maintenance). After I reporting it, the property did not take it serious although they have responsibility to deal with and prevent such problem. And I also notice that there are some other comments also complain that their reported personal safety issues were also ignored by the property. The phone number of the reception always cannot be called successfully, instead it’s only telling you leave your message. And of course the management team will tell you that you could send complaint email to them but you will only get an “no-reply” template email sent automatically by their email, claiming that the reported issue will be dealt in 10 working days and no more follow-up. Thus if you’re gonna stay here, always lock your valuable belongings, and take care of your personal safety even if you’re staying in your own room. Heating and hot water frequently have problems in winter. Obviously the wet heating system needs to be repaired frequently, although this building is only 10 years old. Silverfishes can be frequently seen in the room, although they don’t threat much. What I wanna say is that I’m from a city which both humidity and temperature are far more higher than London in most of the time, but I rarely seen a single silverfish there, and it’s the first time to meet so large amount of silverfish. The management of hygiene in this building can be seen from that. The bin area is the worst hygienic place I’ve ever seen. It’s in basement, not ventilated and you can tell by the smell that it harbors a lot of bacteria and viruses. I understand that the location of the bin area was determined when this building is completed. However, forcing all residents to throw garbage in such place with poor sanity conditions poses a threat to the health of the them. Residents should of course throw their trash to the garbage bins, but forcing them to perform this responsibility in harsh...