A window in one of the bedrooms in the flat on Forth Street. Photo / RNZ, Bella Craig
By Bella Craig of RNZ
Vomit up the walls, buckets of faeces on the lawn and surfaces covered in damp and mould – that is what many students are confronted with when they move into their North Dunedin flats.
The local students association calls the area a “slum” and says some landlords do not even bother checking if a property is habitable before they hand the keys over to the next set of tenants.
Students have told Checkpoint the state of their accommodation has been having serious effects on their physical and mental health and their studies.
As she prepared for her second year of studies, Holly James and some fellow University of Otago students decided they wanted a place of their own.
It would be cheaper, was still close to university and would allow them to enjoy Dunedin’s famous student nightlife.
While it was a bit messy upon inspection, the landlord gave them peace of mind. Before they were handed the keys they were told the flat had gone through 12 hours of cleaning.
Then they moved in.
“There was quite literally vomit up the walls. There was dirt all throughout the house and there was like a random pile of dust where they’d fixed a wall. Their excuse for not sweeping it up was that there was no power for a vacuum.
“There [were] also just heaps of empty beer bottles, and like there was rotting food just down the hallway and in the kitchen.”
There was green mould smudged across the ceiling, and dozens of holes in the walls which the flatmates covered with posters.
There was some sort of black sludge splattered across the ceiling, light fixtures and walls. James said this had the distinct aroma of marijuana.
She still does not close her bedroom door for long periods because of the stench of mould and burned cannabis.
“Just up on the lawn over there, there was like a bucket full of murky, we thought it was murky water, and my mum tipped it out and [there was] some kind of like literal faeces in there.”
James and her three flatmates pay $800 per week for the four-bedroom flat on Forth St. They also pay about $250 month for power.
James said when they signed for the flat, they felt under pressure from the landlord.
“They told us they had this company policy that they could only talk to the tenants. So anytime we try to get parents involved, they would completely dismiss us.
“[It felt] like kind of a way to pick on younger people. It felt like they were kind of dismissing us and they kept saying this is what you have to expect. Your first flat you can’t expect too much.”
The group has now signed for a different flat.
Over on Leith St, the smoke alarms constantly go off in one flat because of how damp the air is.
One of the flatmates, Grace Harper, said they had got dehumidifiers running in each of their rooms but it was not helping.
Harper said they viewed the property twice during summer before they moved in, but it meant they did not get to experience how cold it was.
The flatmates said they cleaned off the mould once a week, but after it has been wiped down, it reappears a week later. They have had to throw out clothing, bedding and shoes.
The flatmates have complained to their landlord, but she said he blamed their “student” lifestyle.
“But we’re running dehumidifiers. We’re keeping windows open and we’re trying to heat it when we can, but it’s expensive.
“We’re students, we don’t have fulltime jobs and we’re trying to study and work when we can.
“He’s like ‘it’s all your fault’.”
Harper and her flatmates said they were sick of living in a cold flat.
“We want to go home, it’s not nice coming home to a cold flat all the time, I work at night and then I come home and it’s freezing.”
Fourth-year surveying student Olly Barris pays $210 per week for his flat on Hyde St. His current warm, dry flat is a massive upgrade to the places he has lived.
“Getting up in the morning with ice on the inside of your windows, getting out of bed is the hardest part by far, it’s freezing.”
Otago University Students Association president Liam White said that because of the high demand, most students were still paying rent over summer when they were not even living there.
“The summer period here in Dunedin you would expect would be massively busy with these property management companies.
“But as somebody who stayed here for a couple of summers, it’s incredibly quiet in the student area. You’ll get the odd fellow painting the front of the house, but that’s kind of it.”
White said the University of Otago had a great student culture and academic opportunities, but much of the area’s housing stock was unacceptable.
“I think that third world analogy does really work because they are becoming slums. We’ve left the housing stock too long to upgrade, but there’s really no incentive for landlords to do so.”
As of July 1, all New Zealand rental properties are legally required to meet minimum requirements for heating, insulation, ventilation and moisture to ensure properties are warm and dry for tenants.