This blog was submitted by Brunel University Graduate Kerry Stanley and discusses her experience with student rentals.

A student rental…speaks for itself really. Whenever the term ‘student’ is used in a description you think know what to expect…

Student Bar- A dingy basement bar to which the soles of your shoes pull up sticky tendrils of snakebite that has been there so long it has evolved in to a gummy zap. A place that you would never in your right mind choose to go in; but no worries: you are out of your head every time that you have and if you are not, well at £1.50 a drink, you soon will be.

Student dress- A mish-mash of hip trends that finds designer clothing muddled up with Primark’s best; where Abercrombie or Fitch, Super-dry and Jack Wills are splashed across every chest and bum. The crinkled ‘just rolled out of bed look’ is hot and no one who is anyone actually uses the iron that mum insisted they pack.

Students we are not painting a particularly good picture are we?! But do we really care? Hmm let’s pretend to think about that one. Just living the dream man; we are happy people who will make the best of any situation! Give us a bucket and some hose pipe we can defiantly make an ideal drinking device!

Is it any wonder that Student pads have earned their less than desired reputation? Why would a landlord spend his money doing out a place for bunch of debouched mummy’s boys, living out for the first time, to trash?

There comes in renting, I would say, two types of landlord: the ones who won’t do anything to improve a property and the ones that won’t leave you alone! We had found the former and within no time our prospective luxury pad had become a grotty student slum and this was before we had got {established! It was obvious from our initial viewing that the previous tenant had been supplied with alternative furnishings that had been removed before we took up residence. We were type cast as student bums with no respect for ourselves let alone a rented house that we were sure to trash with raving parties and an inability to cook. Our landlord was not taking any risks; it was cheaper for him to pick some old tat up from a dumpster to furnish our pad with, rather than run the risk of leaving the nice stuff for us to ruin.

I guess it does work out, my friend Kate’s newest landlord is wonderful and continues to supply them with ‘beautiful’ garden fountains…they now have four. You know the type with all the mist and lights and a spinning orbs that roll around as the water passes over/ under them. He indulges them with luxuries like they are his grand children and expects in turn that they respect his old family home.

So from one extreme to the other I guess I do understand a landlords perspective, I have seen how some people chose to live! But is that really just students? Remember that as a student you need a place that you are able to work in; a desk is key and a double bed is just a bonus! If you want people to respect your property then you have to show them some respect also.Treat ‘em like ‘students’ and that’s what you will get!