Health & Safety in Student Accomodation?

[Louster]

Okay so. I'm living in at a college, doing a year's Access course to get into a University next year, and ever since they turned the central heating on, my room has been unbearably hot, even with my radiator off (duh), my fan on, and my window open (though, living next to a busy A-road renders this somewhat... crap, especially at night as the noise really doesn't die down at all. Also, when I tried opening my window yesterday, within 2 minutes my room was full of flies, which was fucking great. I have no idea why, either, but whatever.)
Anyhow, I've been "complaining" politely about this for a while, and have been fobbed off with various excuses, and after a good month or so this situation hasn't changed a jot. My room is hot enough that I'm having serious difficulty sleeping, which is, obviously, affecting my studies.

Earlier today I went down and complained once more, and I was basically told that "there's nothing they can do", that I'm the only person they've received complaints from, and, when my mother rang up to talk to them about this, she was told that there's "no upper limit on room temperature in the health and safety guidelines", or something to that effect. Firstly, I think by "nothing they can do" they mean "nothing they can do without spending any money". Secondly, although I may well be the only person that's complained semi-formally so far, I've talked to various other people on my floor (it's a tower block) and my problem is far from unique (Edit: and I'm attempting to convince people to complain also, of course, to lend some weight to the cause.) Thirdly, and this is what the question's really about, is there really no upper limit on room temperature in their health and safety obligations? That kinda smells of bullshit, to me. Surely that's not true. I've tried googling for information about this but can't seem to find anything.

I understand it's quite a cliché for student accomodation to be pretty poor, but this is unhealthy, surely. Anyone care to offer any insight?

 

[Jonty]

Hi Louster

Forgive me, as I'm not sure of the details, but if you're living in student or other rented accommodation then by law there are certain responsibilities which your landlord is legally bound to remedy. Equally, there are some things which residents are responsible for, but these are generally more cosmetic to a certain extent.

Anyway, first off, check any agreement you may have signed prior to moving in to see if that sheds any light on where you stand. Second, try Googling for advice regarding these types of situations (e.g. University of London Accommodation Office offer free advice on their website and are contactable about specifics, so try finding the equivalent for where you are (there is some general information about problems and your rights in one of their brochures). Finally, if all else fails and you're living in accommodation directly associated with an educational institution, try and get in touch with the institution, or if the accommodation is privately owned try the Citizens' Advice Bureaux who may be able to help, if only generally.

I'm not actually sure if any of this will help, as I don't know whether your specific problem will fall within the kind of obligations you are owed, but never assume you don't have any rights, especially in this day and age

Kind Regards

 

[pcg79]

lucky bastard! my uni accommodation is freezing cold.

 

[Louster]

Thanks for the reply, Jonty.
I think I wasn't given a copy of the accommodation agreement as, I quote, "students don't generally want copies". To be honest, I don't know why I didn't insist, but I'll have to look into that.
The accommodation is directly associated with the institution, and the people I've been complaining to have been the student liaison staff, so yeah. Maybe they'll take more notice once more people start complaining. One thing to note though is that it's not technically a university, only a college. I don't know if that necessarily makes much difference, but it seems that quite a lot of the stuff applicable to universities isn't applicable to colleges.


Also, I WISH that my room was cold. It's so much easier warming up than it is cooling down, seriously.

 

[Tom]

I think they're correct in that there is no legislation to cover the maximum working temperature.

However.

You're not working. You're living there. This fact might entitle you to a legitimate complaint. I'm presuming that the heat is from a wall-mounted radiator? Is the radiator too hot to touch? Try threatening them with the fact that touching the radiator could result in serious burns. What would happen if you were disabled, and fell on the radiator? You could receive serious injuries, and sue the pants off them (cosmetic injuries are quite expensive to a defendant). Get a thermometer, and note the room temperature.

Have you tried your student union?

Finally, can you show me a picture of the radiator? It should have a valve on it. If it does, is the valve working?

You should also bear in mind that overtighting a copper pipe into a radiator valve can crush the olive, which tends to make the pipe leak. If that happens, they'll have to investigate.

Also, it may be that you are unduly sensitive to heat, and that their thermostat needs dropping by a degree or two (something they can't complain about, since it reduces their heating bills).

As for the flies (cluster flies?), get some fly-paper and hang it in the window.

 

[Tom]

I've been complaining to have been the student liaison staff, so yeah.

Fuck them, what do they know about plumbing? Fuck all. Find out who the janitor is, and speak to him/her. Chances are, he'll know what hes talking about, and have a bit of common sense.

 

[rynnor]

Generally uni halls of residence contracts are incredibly restrictive - I actually read mine and was pretty horrified and I doubt much has changed so I wouldnt go down that route...

Best ways to raise it are - A. Do you have any form of residents association or representatives. B. Any form of student representative commitee's - there may be one for your course or one for the whole student body. C. Find out if the Student Union has a welfare section and tell them about it... If not bother the Student Union President to A. Look into it and B. Setup a welfare section!

Its true that the Health and Safety at work act doesnt cover a maximum temperature but your university should take complaints that are effecting students ability to study seriously else you should name n shame em!

 

[Louster]

The radiator is off and it's not hot. As far as anyone can tell, it's simply because the heat from the lower floors is rising - apparently it's even worse on the floor above us. I don't think I'm unduly sensitive to heat, as, like I said, lots of other people on the floor suffer the same problem.
The janitor/caretaker has already been up to look around, and mentioned something about "trapped air", but other than that hasn't been of any help.
They've brought up an air conditioning unit for me it seems, presumably because I'm the loudest complainer, but apparently the input air tube thing has to go out the window, which not only will be pointless at night (which is when the heat is really problematic anyhow), but also I need to, as you say, get some form of fly paper or whatever before even touching the windows again.

I have been to see the student union, and the representative for this kind of thing is apparently "looking into it", whatever that means. I guess I'll leave it a few days and then see if they can clarify exactly what's going on.

 

[Tom]

http://www.diynot.com/forums/

Try posting there in the plumbing section