Student Housing Lancaster - Lancaster

Jude B.

From my experience renting a house from Student Housing Lancaster, it is awfully managed and has no place being a student housing agency or for that matter a housing agency at all.
From repeatedly failing to deal with issues that were reported many times as well as lengthy waits on the rare occasion that they did sort out an issue. I cannot stress enough how badly run the company is, the system they use for reporting issues is shocking, as well as actual contact with the team themselves. They reply to your issue reports saying that they will sort the issues and months later the issues still remain. Even when following up on the issues it required multiple complaints to them before they eventually act on it.
Additionally, during my time in one of their properties, one of my housemates at the start of the year left and was replaced, but he left a few large items of rubbish which the housing agency said they would remove, whilst they removed some they didn't remove all of it despite all of it being left together and come the end of our tenancy they have tried to charge us from our deposits for the removal of the stuff that THEY left there and we repeatedly asked them to remove.
They will try anything they can to take away as much of your deposit as they can in our case they tried charging us for a broken lock on a bedroom door that never had a lock from the start of our tenancy.
The system they use for reclaiming your deposit is also extremely bad and only allows the lead tenant to make the claim back for the deposit, submit any evidence or question anything that they try to charge you for.
All in all it is an awful housing agency that tries to exploit vulnerable students that are new to the world of renting houses whilst providing the absolute minimum service that they can. I cannot stress highly enough how bad this company is to rent from, you could find anywhere else better than here to rent a house from, even with your eyes closed.

Harry R.

My experience with Student Housing Lancaster was fairly positive during my tenancy. They were genuinely helpful and accommodating (pun intended!) throughout my time renting with them. From addressing minor issues promptly to ensuring the accommodation met my needs, they certainly made living there stress-free.

However, my opinion has taken a hit post-tenancy. Since moving out, communication has been practically non-existent. I've sent multiple emails regarding my deposit and its status, yet I've received no response—it's like I've been completely ghosted. This lack of professionalism and follow-up after tenancy is disappointing and leaves a sour note on an otherwise good experience.

James C.

Student Housing Lancaster fully manage a few properites for me. They have always made sure the properties have tennats in and they resolve any issues with the properties. I checked in with the students that recently finished their tenancy at one of the properties and they gave very positive feedback about SHL - "Our experiences were great this past year. Anytime we had a problem or an issue in the house, they were very quick to respond and come over to deal with the issue. They also communicated well on when there would be inspections and drop-ins, so we were not taken by surprise." I recommend using SHL.

Erin M.

As a student new to renting, navigating your rights can be extremely difficult and often not done correctly due to lack of experience and guidance. Our experience with Student Housing Lancaster and a private landlord was abysmal. The property we rented was in poor condition for all of our tenancy, despite multiple warnings from the council to the landlord about the state of the house (the safety of the decking and stairs - they were fixed months later). Issues such as a leaking roof, mold, and water damage remained unresolved for months, impacting our living conditions.

We faced multiple challenges, including being unable to access parts of the property we paid for, sleeping on a sofa for days due to the state of the bedrooms, and dealing with mold in a room where water dripped from the ceiling. Unfortunately, no rent reductions or compensation were offered, and our attempts to get support from the Property Redress Scheme (PRS) were unsuccessful since our landlord wasn’t legally required to be registered.

Despite Student Housing Lancaster being accredited, they did not disclose the limitations of renting from a private landlord and provided minimal support when issues arose. (only rent from lancaster university homes approved agencies) We encountered various problems, such as scaffolding, mold, and harassment from contractors employed by the landlord. Disturbingly, one contractor made an inappropriate comment towards me, and even after informing the landlord, the contractor was rehired and allowed them to come without any notice (multiple times).

Our concerns were communicated to Student Housing Lancaster on multiple occasions, but the support was lacking after the contract was signed. This situation highlighted a lack of standards for properties advertised through them. We dealt with numerous breaches of contract, including health and safety issues, no notice for contractors, disclosure of personal information and much more.

We are now pursuing further action due to the significant impact these conditions had on our lives. We believe it is important for other students to be aware of these experiences and save themselves the pain and struggle of even having to interact with student housing lancaster.

(As of now, we are still waiting to receive our deposit back, despite leaving the property in a better condition than we found it.)

Dominic J.

Genuinely the worst housing company I’ve let with. There is a reason they don’t have a Lancaster University Homes stamp because they’re absolutely awful at managing their properties.

Compared to my new agency, where any faults have been dealt with swiftly, my old house was left to rot. Moved in with rotten food from 2015 back in my second year and a back garden full of trash. Our tv literally never worked the whole two years I was there because they never fixed it.

By the end of third year our sofa had deteriorated, they’d painted over a mould patch that reappeared to no one’s surprise and my room had the largest damp patch known to man.

Appalling company. They need to learn how to manage their properties.

Sami S.

Liars and thieves. Beware of this company. They shouldn’t be allowed to operate (I am suspended the local universities have not intervened re: student welfare)The director is also a very rude and obnoxious man

Lucy M.

Literally the worst company I’ve ever gone with for housing. Firstly it’s October and we’ve only just got our deposit back. I had tried to contact the company over five times and got nothing back, even phoning them. During the year it took weeks for most repairs to be fixed. There was also a flat below ours and we were told that we would have access to that in part of our contract, we didn’t and in fact they rented the place out separately. We were not informed of this and came home one night to find people moving in below us. Would definitely not recommend this company as it’s not worth all the hassle especially when you’re a busy uni student

Charlie P.

Edit: 21.0224: It was the Student Union that said this, not the University. You went to the wrong people.

Consistently poor management from this agency. They don't respond to emails or even to formal complaints letters that we are contractually obliged to serve on them. There's a reason the Student Union representative we spoke to told us that she would never approve SHL for university accreditation. RENT WITH LITERALLY ANYBODY ELSE, SAVE YOURSELF THE TROUBLE.

In response to their reply:

I'm fully aware that they don't manage the property. It doesn't change that on the several occasions we have emailed to them about topics they do handle (e.g. the letter we sent to them, which we chased up by email and by phone), they have ignored us. We have had to take the initiative every time - they never called us about the letter, it was the other way around.

The letter we sent detailed explicit instructions to email us for the evidence of our claims. There was too much to send in a physical letter so we wanted to provide a cloud document, but the agency never requested their information.

They also like to throw 'defamation' and 'slander' at negative reviews, but if their goal is to intimidate their customers then it's unlikely to work.

I have sent them an email in private but it remains to be seen whether they will bother to reply.