Kingsmill, Huddersfield

Firstly let me begin by saying that there is reports that some of these reviews are fake have been 'bought' to make the place look better than it actually is, my review however I can assure you is very much real. Having lived in halls in previous years of study, Kingsmill Studios has not lived up to expectation in a few different areas. The management seem to never take things seriously and can never seen to deal with a complaint urgently, no matter if water is coming through your light fitting in the ceiling (as it did in my flat). This incident was reported to the wardens they looked into the matter and advised it "should" be ok and that they would report the matter to Helen who would deal with the matter urgently the next morning as it is seen as a health and safety risk. That was now a whole month ago, and I have had absolutely no contact from Helen (who seems impossible to reach) or anybody else in the management for that matter. It appears that it is more by luck than judgement that the lights are still working correctly and nothing serious happened. More on the lack of communication from management, for over a month now the reception area has been vacant for a lot of time throughout the day when you would expect somebody to be there inside of sociable/working hours to do simple things such as collecting a parcel or raising a complaint. The wardens did there best when they were allowed to cover hours at reception, but now it seems even they have been told to do less work by not allowing access to the office, leaving residents at Kingsmill with a tiny 4 hour window a day in which to get all matters sorted whilst trying to work that around a University schedule. This simply is just not good enough as at Storthes Hall you had 24/7 cover/security at reception and dealt with matters promptly with some sense of urgency. These are just covering some of the bad points: • Smokers leaving the front door on the latch, meaning any tom, dick and harry can just walk right in (which i believe may have led to some damaged property in the study room) which makes residents feel un-safe. • There is a total of 2 washing machines and 2 dryers for 94 rooms (some of which are dual occupied) which makes washing clothes very difficult, other people leaving there stuff in the washing machine/dryer for prolonged periods of time after its done/people taking your washing out upon there own free will so they can put their washing in and leaving yours on top of the dirty machines. • The fire alarm, it simply never stops going off. The sensors are clearly too sensitive and the annoying thing is that every time it goes off, there is no clear procedure for what to do/where to go, as it just gets turned off (sometimes not for a while) leaving you not knowing whether or not to bother to leave your room, or has it been set off from somebody leaving toast on for an extra 10 seconds longer than they were supposed to or an actual fire. • Noisy neighbors (While I am aware management can't exactly control this, they could at least attempt to take your issue on board or issue warnings to help prevent this at unsociable hours). This place is hardly a 'cheap' accommodation to live in at £159 p/week for not even the biggest room size, with all the issues I definitely don't feel it's worth paying that much.. Even without all the issues it's barely worth that much money anyway. I hope by writing this review, I am letting future students know about my honest experience and can decide for themselves rather than reading the bought reviews and being tricked into taking out a tenancy.

Where to begin... There is mold growing on the walls, and on our mattress. Neither the mold on the walls or the mold mattress has been sorted out by management, despite countless complaints. I have also raised the complaint about noise and noisy neighbours, and about smoking, but the manager said they are dealing with it and then just shrugs it off. I made a complaint that my heater was not working in the studio, and i had to wait 4 months before they acknowledged it, in which time i just had to buy my own. They STILL have NOT fixed my heater, and they have offered me a "portable heater", which i have already had to buy. I am NOT happy about this. If we go to reception, we are met by this confrontational woman called Helen, who talks down on you, who treats you like an idiot, who shouts at you when she disagrees, and talks over you constantly. I have asked her if the building allows for pets because a hamster has been brought in next door and it smells, causing the corridor to smell like hamsters, i have told her the room number countless times and she ignores it! The hamster is STILL there. There is constant flooding; the top floor flooded so bad that several rooms were affected, including mine. I was told that it was leaking into peoples rooms below us too, through the light fittings and the cracks. Another time the entire downstairs floor, around the office, was flooded. A warden told us that it was in the disabled toilet, the laundry room (the flood put two washing machines out of order), the gym, the office, the entrance, the study room and the comms room. There are two loft entrances on the top floor that keep falling open, one time it nearly hit my neighbour on the head; he said he was lucky he ducked out of the way, there was a huge thud when that happened. The fire alarm goes off almost every day, and it always goes off in the middle of the night, or in the evening. The warden came to the office to turn it off, but they came back out without keys because the management locked the keys away from him, meaning the alarm was sounding for over 40 minutes before someone who was called, came to turn off the alarm and to give the warden the keys. I would NOT spend your money here, as you will be treated like a "mug", you will be "ignored", you will have to pay "extra" to deal with issues within your room, and you will be made fun of by management behind your back when they think you cant hear them. This place was the worst decision i have ever made. Management have tried to charge me an additional years booking fee of £200, despite me already living here for the year prior; i told them straight that i do not need to pay that as i was ALREADY A TENNENT (they tried to fool me and take additional money from me as they probably will to you). Even couples that live here, there are more arguments here than at the set of Jeremy Kyle, shouting matches, screaming, kicking walls, throwing stuff around. There is stomping on the floor and loud blaring music at 2am in the morning, if you make a complaint about it, youre told to deal with it yourself, so i tried to do that and was threatened by the resident there. I complained about this to management and they told me that i SHOULD NOT have dealt with it myself, despite what they initially said, and told me to contact the warden next time. Not too long ago, the electric went out on the second and third floors, causing distress because the warden couldn't get access to the cupboard to turn the electrics back on, management didn't allow him to, from what he told us. It was off while i was in the shower, finishing up, so i slipped and hit my head beacuse there was no lights. I also told this to management and, you guessed it, they did nothing, saying that it was my own fault. I WOULD NOT RECOMMEND THIS PROPERTY TO MY WORST ENEMY, AND I DO NOT RECOMMEND IT TO YOU, STAY AWAY FROM HERE. Management even told us that there was a major scare with legionnaires disease, concerned that it was in the water supply. This place is expensive for what it is. It costs: £139 a week (51 weeks) to live here. it costs: £99 a week (51 weeks) to live at Kirkgate Residence. (THE ROOMS ARE ALSO BIGGER AT KIRKGATE!!!! Kingsmill is terrible) But at Kingsmill, you have access to a cinema room (that is always booked by someone, and someone always is laying claim to it), two study rooms (but you can only access one because they use the other as a cleaners closet and storage room...), a laundry room (Where machines are normally taken, and if they're not taken, they are out of order), ASK4 internet (that never works, or when it works, it is damn slow), a gym (where the lights dont work and the machines are continuously breaking). You do have a bathroom that will flood from the sink, shower and/or the toilet at any given moment, and there is nothing you can do, as i have spent over £30 on drain cleaner in a week, to continually have floods in my room from the bathroom. Each room has a smoke detector that is better off out of the socket than in the socket because it will go off is the shower lets out a little too much steam, or if you are frying ANYTHING, it doesnt even have to burn. Ours has even gone off when we are using a humidifier in our room. Don't be fooled, the rooms do not look like the images that they are marketing, they are all edited. This is a miserable, grim and horrid place.

I think this accommodation is great for mature students and/ or couples as you have the benefits of having your own kitchen so don't have to deal with other tenants mess, which I've heard can be a problem in shared facilities. The rooms are modern and functional and had no problem with maintenance, although it may benefit from some coat hooks. I think that the building will also benefit from a smoking shelter, I am a non-smoker and notice that despite several non-smoking signs (directing you to the smoking area) people still stand outside the doors and throw their cigarette ends on the floor, but when its raining I can kind of forgive them for this as I wouldn't want to stand in the pouring rain. The room we have (not sure if this applies to everyone) is fairly warn, we haven't had the heating on all winter and usually have the windows open slightly. They are quite expensive compared to some other accommodations, but you are benefiting from a (free) onsite gym which is small but perfectly functional and you normally get this to yourself. I think that if you were planning on living alone and didn't have a part time job you wouldn't have much money to spare. Also the location is great, 5 minute walk to Lidl/Asda/Iceland/KFC/Subway and only a 2 minute walk till you are at the bottom end of campus. There are two washing machines and dryers which apart from one occasion have been free to use and are relatively cheap compared to what I have paid at a laundrette before. One of the only problems I have experienced are the numerous fire alarms that are usually set off by cooking. (not sure why they don't just use the extractor fan which would resolve this problem), however I have been informed that management are looking at a resolution to this and it is usually deactivated quickly. Also they are a couple of residents that are a little loud later in the evening, however this nothing compared to what some of my colleagues have to endure at other accommodation facilities and if you let the wardens know they are quick to resolve this. The wardens did make a considerable effort to plan activities such as game nights, but the turn out wasn't so great so I don't blame them for taking a step back, I think that the living arrangements does mean that people tend to keep to themselves so I think if you are wanting a bit more of a social life outside of your cohort, this might not be the place for you. It has a cinema room but it is usually taken, but to be honest it doesn't bother me that much, it can be booked. Overall good experience