The security guards take your possessions. Black mould in the bathrooms and the place is like a prison. Do not stay here.
I was offered halls with a shared bathroom by the uni which I dreaded (God forbid someone else uses my shower) so I scrambled to find somewhere cheap that had en-suites and Moor Lane came up. Luckily I got a room despite it being early September and when I came to look around it wasn't too bad. The room in a nutshell is okay. Draws and wardrobes are squeaky and clearly made of some fake wood which means people before you can carve into the desk. The mattress is horrific, I ended up buying three mattress toppers to stop springs from puncturing my lungs at night, and it will squeak to the high heavens. If you get an en-suite room forget about having a high pressure shower too and you'll be lucky if it's hot in the morning. Everything in the kitchen seems to be the bare minimum with sofas that have cushions that aren't even attached and a TV that can't cope with the constant rain that's expected in the North. I can't complain about being shoved with crappy flatmates as I'm pretty sure they just put me in the last room available. But the fact said flatmates leave FIRE DOORS open constantly as well as the front door to the flat, leave food out everywhere and have some incapacity which means they can't empty a bin meant I was constantly complaining to make sure I was never charged for cleaning costs after 'flat inspections'. Not that the staff cared. They e-mail with their advice and give you a number for security (who I saw once) or just smile and nod. Please please please if you're considering getting a room here, take the option to pay your rent near the dates your student loan comes in. I stupidly agreed to pay monthly and ended up having to ask to push a rent payment until the next month as I was so short of money. Reception said it was fine but a few weeks later I was sent a letter containing rent arrears threatening to take the money from my guarantor. So don't bother asking them for help with your rent they clearly don't care. The common room seemed to only be used by people that like pool or if a football match was on. The gym was a nice idea and I used it but the fob to get in rarely worked which meant constantly asking reception to open the door or a call to security out of hours. Safety isn't too bad as you need a fob to get into the blocks and into the courtyard out of hours, plus a key to your flat and your room. But as my boyfriend found out. If you loiter by the doors eventually someone will let you in and ta-da you're outside someones flat door. And if you get lucky you might find drunk guys rifling through your kitchen cupboards at 3 in the morning because your flatmates have left the front door unlocked. The only benefit of living here was the location. I was no more than 15 minutes away from town, the station and lecture halls. And if I had parcels delivered there was always someone to deliver it to and they e-mail when it arrives. All in all, if you want to pay too much money for a load of crappy furniture and a basic kitchen go ahead. But you're much better off doing more research and finding somewhere better.
Moving in was good, I'm in one of the cheapest flats, shared bathroom etc, so I wasn't expecting much, but my flat it pretty bad for £75 a week. Rooms are big though, but that's the best bit. Shared bathrooms are disgusting, the extractor fan doesn't work so there's mould all over the room all the time, and it takes about 6 hours after a shower for the floor to be kind of dry again. Hot water lasts for about 5-10 minutes. When we moved in, the oven in the kitchen didn't work, we asked them to fix it and it took about 3 weeks for them to come and fix the hob, when we had to explain the hob was fine, it was the oven that didn't work. No communal area, just a table with 2 chairs, for 5 people living in the flat, no TV, and we only had one fridge between 5 of us. One of our flatmates was smoking so we went to the office and they said they'd sort it, 5 months and 4 complaints later, our flat still stinks of smoke, clearly they just don't want to get rid of a paying remnant even though what he's doing is illegal. We had a flat inspection a few weeks ago and we failed, even though we cleaned the flat and there was nothing wrong with it, so they threatened to bring someone in to clean it and Bill us for it too. Overall-not good, I wouldn't live here again, the only reason I'm still here is because I live with nice people.
Moving in day in September 2014 was postponed due to the flatmates who had already arrived had told us not to bother, as they had been moved into temporary accommodation, as our flat wasn't even ready at the start date, 8th September. They even had the audacity to charge us for the week that it wasn't ready, despite lots of emails and talks with the staff, who said that they would refund us. The cooker wasn't connected, the TV wasn't connected (Though that is not a main worry), the fridges that they had supplied were temporary fridges, which were old and dirty, as they could not find the ones that were due to be put into our flat. Painting within the flat is quite poor, with paint being found on the kitchen floor, bathroom doors, and carpets in the rooms. Upon entering my room, I found it to have four wheels, rather than the five it actually requires (My flatmate still hasn't received her extra wheel yet), a drawer handle had not been screwed in, so it was just casually left. Mirror had not yet been put into my room, bathroom had not been clean, or even noticeably refurbished. If you want to know about the extraction system, you would probably do a better job by turning on the hoover when you take a shower, as it is virtually non-existent, causing my bathroom to have lots of mould throughout the year... And I mean lots, despite submitting 'Repair Request Forms' in the office, which I presume go straight into the bin. Other problems? Well, try the absolute rubbish quality of the furnishings, namely the cupboards, which decided that they didn't want to have their doors on any more. This happened to five of the eight doors in the kitchen. You would have also thought that attaching wardrobe doors would be a relatively straight forward concept, however, you would be wrong, as they don't fit very well together, having to lift them upwards to close them properly. The tap in the kitchen is useless. It would be quicker to bore a hole into the Earth, to find a source of water in the bedrock, build a water treatment plant, and then fill a bucket and tip it into the sink, than it would to leave the tap on. If you want to do some washing up, leave the tap on, and then go and watch the Lord of the Rings Trilogy - You'll have enough time. So how are the fridges now that they have been replaced? Great. If your name is Hagrid. Reaching the top shelf is sometimes a struggle, as they are thin and tall, as well as the problem of having to share one between three. The cooker itself is okay, although when it broke (Heating element went), we were supplied with a mini-camping like oven, which was a little bit bigger than a microwave, not very good for cooking with. Using the microwave itself is now a guess job, as upon cleaning it, we found out that the writing on the microwave was not water resistant, so it just rubbed off. Also, there is no toaster supplied. Entertainment facilities? They're okay too, with big TVs being supplied in the Common Room (When it was finally finished in March 2015, after being promised it in September 2014), along with a pool table and assorted games, it can be fun. Also, the big tvs in the flat are quite good, although the signal is pretty awful, but okay if you like to watch Top Gear in Stop Motion. Showers? Rubbish. Hardly any pressure. Better served doing the whole drilling-a-hole-in-the-Earth method. 'Shower head cleaning' was a great folk legend within Moor Lane, as they never came. All in all, price too steep for what you're getting, better places elsewhere. Staff here are useless, you don't really ever get your post, despite it actually being delivered by courier companies, and it being on record, it takes five centuries to have a shower, and the furnishings decide that they don't want to be furnishings any more. Please, by all that is Holy, find somewhere else.
I made my booking as the website told us there was going to be a gym and a common room available, amongst other reasons. These weren't available when I moved in; the gym was available reasonably quickly, and the common room only became available in the Spring Term. In January, if I remember rightly, and when the Common Room opened, they threw parties with free drinks and pizza, which gave everyone a chance to meet each other and bond, which I quite liked. There's also a Moor Lane Halls Facebook page, which I'd recommend you join. The other students here really make this place come into its own. There are some fantastic parties, and everyone is reasonably nice. They can be a bit loud, but it's hardly screaming blue murder. The internet goes down on a regular basis, and we're given appallingly short notice when it comes to works in and around our living spaces, and not given a chance to say "No". The emails take a "we're doing it, with or without you there" tone, which doesn't sit right with me. The room itself is reasonable for the money I pay, though the heater turns off too quickly, which made winter very uncomfortable for me - I would wake up able to see my breath. It's in a good location, a minute or two from the library, five minutes or so from the city centre, and not far from the main bus routes. All in all, if you want somewhere cheap and reasonably cheerful, you could do worse, though I think you could do better. If the atmosphere will sway it, then I'd definitely recommend it.
I live in a standard room @ £70 a week. Though I wasn't expecting a palace at such a bargain price, I am extremely dissatisfied with the quality of the flat. Firstly, the rooms, though large have no storage space, secondly there's mould EVERYWHERE. I've had to buy a new damp trap every other week just to stop mould growing on stuff in my room (at one point I even found mould growing on clothes in my wardrobe) The bathrooms are that bad that the ceilings are black, despite the fact that they are bleached and cleaned once week. Security is another issue. There is no lock on any of the windows, meaning they're practically giant cat-flaps, just waiting for someone to crawl through.The main entrance to our block is on an electro magnetic lock, however a quick pull on the door breaks the magnet, meaning any one is free to come and go. Then there's the noise. I know full well to expect noise in student accommodation,but some nights flat parties can last well on until 2am, with no attempt from security to silence them. Not to mention some of the other people that live here stumbling back at 4 - 5 am, wailing like banshees and chanting. Honestly would not recommend this place to anyone who is going in to 2nd or 3rd year. It's very much a place for freshers who don't really take their degrees seriously yet.
Currently a first year and moved here as the uclan halls had already been taken up and I liked the look of the double ensuite rooms at the price they were offering. When I first moved in, the flat was half complete as there was no appliances and some painting/plastering work not done and still haven't been done 6 months on. We have a faulty TV and old couches and cupboard doors that haven't been put on properly and so keep falling off. The wifi on-site is unreliable and drops all the time. I recommend that you use an ethernet cable for desktop pc's as that is much more reliable. We were promised a common room and a gym by the time we moved in but the gym wasn't built and open until Christmas and the common room still isn't complete as I'm writing this. The management of this place is abysmal. It's unfair to the few members of staff that actually do a good job, but others have really let the place down. I've received letters saying I'm thousands in debt (despite the fact I pay my rent on time and in full) only to be told that I was mixed up with someone else even though this has happened twice. Poor communication between manager and the company was the reason behind this. Can't really say much about the safety apart from the fire alarms go off at random times, so much so that if they go off I wait to see if they will go off before I move as 9 times out of 10 they turn off within 20 seconds. Security guards can be a bit grumpy sometimes but we don't see them much as there hasn't been much trouble. The showers are temperamental, my flatmates set on fire while he was in it and it wasn't replaced until the next day. I know of some people who have had a broken fridge for 6 months and have only just got it replaced. washing facilities have recently been upgraded to a card system which is a complete rip off. There are some good points- I have the recently refurbished double en suite which looks really nice and there's a lot of storage under the beds. Brilliant location as the library is just across the road and campus buildings a 10 minute walk away maximum, 15 minute walk into Preston town. Also really handy to have the taxi ranch across the road for when you go out! Good value for money as these halls are a lot cheaper than the uclan ones but seem to offer more, just don't expect things to work, get fixed or be reliable in any way.
Quality of rooms: All excellent except for issues highlighted below. Safety: Low because of fact when painting is being done all doors to flat blocks and individual flats had to be left open, as well as the entrance gate; thus allowing anyone in. By night however, there has been a lock down and most of these have been shut and locked. Value: there are cheaper accommodation, and although this is cheap for the quality, the amount of issues surrounding these flats have ruined it slightly Location: Brilliant! 10 minute walk to my lectures.. easy. Fun/Atmosphere: Great! But am sure thats down due to cool flat mates and friends rather than accommodation itself OVERALL Good - promising. When first arrived, was hugely good value for money. Then large amounts of work started being done around the place. Since i've moved in, there has been several problems. My toilet doesn't flush correctly and has a backlog, meaning i cannot use it really. Also, until end of March we have had a lot of work. Till last week we didn't have new carpets. Till last month we didn't have the gym! (despite being advertised when i came that it would be available from day 1) Staff however, are wonderful and happy to try and help, although they not always can. There have also been emails almost every week or at least every 10 days talking about them bringing down internet for a day, or we can't leave our FLATS during certain days. As i type this i have 4 guys in my room saying i have issues with the plugs and electricity supply to my room. Oops. However, there is now also a common room being readily built! So i do believe that by next academic year, the facilities will have dramatically improved and a lot more will be available
