A “bucket of cold water” for Chadwick West’s students
After a long and exhausting day of hard work, the only thing a student can think of is dipping into a hot and steamy shower then hitting the pillow. But what if after getting into the shower you realise that this relaxing and comfortable moment is far from that? Your teeth begin to chatter, goosebumps surface, you can’t possibly imagine a time where you felt the beloved warmth.
This is what Chadwick Hall West’s residents will soon find out. In fact, the building will experience a lack of hot water, due to a failure in the heating and hot water system that needs to be repaired.
Last winter, the heating system in Chadwick West stopped working and some flats found themselves without water for up to two weeks. The Accommodation Office provided portable heaters and spare ensuite rooms to those who did not have hot water. These temporary solutions became permanent when the accommodation staff realised they would have to stop providing hot water to successfully fix the problem. Therefore, they decided to continue supplying hot water and let students use the portable heaters and fix the system at a later date.
As British summer is slowly approaching, the accommodation office have sent an email to Chadwick West’s residents to let them know that it is time to fix the system once and for all. “Great news”, everybody would think. And it is actually, except from the fact that hot water will not be provided for ten days from the 12th to the 22nd of June.
The accommodation office is providing private rooms in Elm Grove to those affected by the issue. Along with the possibility to continue staying in their rooms in Chadwick. Accommodation office’s first main concern is not to disturb or stress the resident students too much.
Although all the occupiers seem understanding, the majority of them are not definitely jumping with joy. In fact, they appreciated the accommodation office’s work, but would have preferred different alternatives or a refund, complaining above all about the bad-timing.
Monique, flat 7, asks for a refund: “Roehampton should have made it known to students that they were planning repairs prior the final payment being made. The lease agreement promises that specific utilities will be made available during your stay and not having hot water is a breach of contract”.
Aggeliki and Ioanna, flat 5, are very understanding but they think it would be fair to have a refund as well. “This winter, we did not have access to hot water in our rooms for more than one week and the accommodation office gave us a spare room in another flat to have a shower. We thought it was not going to happen again, so now we would like to have a refund. They should have told us about this solution earlier”, Aggeliki said.
“I am quite disappointed because this building is quite new, it seems like they did not check the system properly last summer, before our arrival. I understand they need to solve the issue and I agree. I would not have problem ‘travelling’ or moving from one building to another for few days, of course, but this is not a good time to ask for that. We are working on our dissertations and we have no time to do anything else. So, moving or travel is terrible in this moment”, Ioanna said.
The accommodation office apologised to the students for the inconvenience and underlined that temporary rooms are the best and most valid solution during these ten days. “Unfortunately the University needs to undertake urgent work to repair the heating and hot water system in Chadwick Hall. We have delayed the work as long as possible to ensure there is minimum impact to students, but we cannot wait any longer without risking significant long-term damage to the system”, they said.
