Estates
We believe that the quality of the area where you live is just as important as the home you live in. For this reason we are committed to making our schemes and estates places where you are proud and happy to live.
To report an issue with your estate, please contact your accommodation office.
Our responsibilities
- Cleaning
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Our cleaning contractors clean shared areas, such as kitchens and corridors, once a week. Check your noticeboard to find out what day they will visit your flat.
- Gardening
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We employ grounds maintenance contractors to carry out gardening work such as:
- grass cutting and edging grassed areas
- maintaining shrubs, hedges and trees
- weed control
- maintaining hedges and trees
- Pests
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We are responsible for removing pests in any part of our student accommodaioon. This includes ants, bees, wasps and mice.
- Tree surgery
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- Every year we carry out a safety survey of trees in shared areas. We then produce a schedule of tree surgery to ensure we prioritise any urgent work.
- We never remove trees unless we have to, and we always check for Tree Preservation Orders before removing them.
- We also regularly trim and prune trees in shared areas.
Your responsibilities
- Cars, bikes and car parking
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Some student schemes do not allow you to have a vehicle onsite. Please contact your accommodation office for more information.
If you are allowed to keep a vehicle at your scheme, remember the following:
- Do not keep unroadworthy or untaxed vehicles on our estates
- Always lock your vehicle
- Do not park lorries, trucks, large vans, caravans or trailers on our estates without our permission.
- Cleaning personal areas
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You are responsible for keeping your home tidy, and for cleaning your own bedroom and bathroom. Each flat has a vacuum cleaner.
We will do regular inspections to make sure you are maintaining your home to a good standard.
If you would like advice on cleaning products and where to buy them, contact your accommodation office.
- Cleaning shared areas
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Our cleaning contractors clean shared areas, such as kitchens and corridors, once a week. Check your noticeboard to find out what day they will visit your flat.
Please remember that cleaners cannot do their jobs properly if clutter is left in the shared areas. It's therefore important to make sure that all surfaces and floors are tidy on the 'cleaning' day. If these areas are not clear we cannot provide a full cleaning service.
The cleaners will not clear up your personal mess, such as washing-up.
You are responsible for cleaning your oven, grill, microwave and fridge/freezer.
- Outside areas (grounds)
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Please keep the shared areas outside your accommodation tidy and litter-free.
- Rubbish
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There is a bin in your kitchen for you to get rid of all waste that cannot be recycled. You must make sure that:
- broken glass is not put straight into the bin, but is wrapped up safely
- larger rubbish is taken to the refuse area and disposed of properly
- all liquid containers are emptied and rinsed
- rubbish bags are not overfilled.
The cleaning staff will remove rubbish on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. If you have rubbish on the other days, you are responsible for taking this to the shared bin area outside.
The local councils provide an onsite recycling facility which you can use for certain items. These vary between our student accommodation schemes. To find out what you can and cannot recycle, contact your accommodation office.
If our cleaning contractor reports that extra cleaning is needed in your flat, we may charge you for this. We will consult about any changes in the way your home is cleaned.
Useful guidance and information
- Laundry services
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Onsite laundry rooms are open seven days a week. They have coin-operated washing machines and tumble dryers.
Please read the operating instructions on the wall before you use the machines.
The laundry room is owned and managed by a separate contractor.
To find out the opening times of your laundry room, or to report a fault with one of the machines, contact your accommodation office.
- Common rooms
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Some student schemes have a common room for residents to use free of charge. If your scheme benefits from a common room, its opening times will be noted on your noticeboard.
You can book the common rooms for private functions. For more information, contact your accommodation office.
- Post and parcel deliveries
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Royal Mail delivers post every day except Sunday. You can access your post box using the key that we give you at the start of your tenancy. You are responsible for collecting your post from your box.
Royal Mail will only deliver correctly addressed mail. So please make sure that you let everyone who writes to you know your full address – including your room number, flat number and postcode.
If you live in any of our student schemes other than Edna Rose or Champneys Court, we will sign for any parcels that are delivered for you. We will tell you if we have a parcel for you and keep it for you at your accommodation office. You must come along and sign for any parcels that are addressed to you. You must not send someone else to collect them.
We are not responsible for any damage caused to parcels while they are waiting to be collected in our accommodation offices.
- Telephone services
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Edna Rose and Champneys Court:
There is a pay phone you can use in the entrance area of each block.
All schemes except for Edna Rose and Champneys Court:
There is a telephone handset in your room, and you are responsible if it is damaged or lost.
There is no charge for receiving incoming calls, and for making internal calls to phones in the university residences and departments.
To make outside calls on your handset you must subscribe to one of the following telephone services depending where you live:
- Uni-Tel, if you live in our Bristol accommodation. You can buy pre-paid cards from the Student Union or The Hawthorns. For more information refer to the flyer in your room or visit www.bris.ac.uk/telephones/telestudent.html.
- Uni-Tel, if you live in our Oxford accommodation. To find out how to put credit on your phone account, pick up a leaflet from the accommodation office. For more information refer to the flyer in your room, email hallphones@brookes.ac.uk, or visit www2.brookes.ac.uk/telecoms/student.
- Internet services
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You can connect to the internet from all rooms (including common rooms) using ResNet (in Bristol) or HallNet (in Oxford), the universities’ non-commercial internet services.
For more information, including costs, contact:
- Bristol University’s Computer Centre at resnet-help@bristol.ac.uk, or
- Oxford Brookes University at hallnet@brookes.ac.uk.
- Television
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All bedrooms and kitchens have television aerial sockets. You must buy a television licence if you use a television or any other device, such as a laptop, to receive or record TV programmes.
You can find more information at www.tvlicensing.co.uk.
- Posters
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You can put posters on your walls by using white-tac only, but you must remove these when you move out.
If you use any other method, such as sticky tape or pins, we may charge you for any redecoration cost.
- Vending machines
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There are chilled-drinks and snack vending machines available at some of our sites.
Please refer to your handbook or more details, or ask at your accommodation office.
- Bicycle and luggage storage
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At some sites, we can provide storage for bicycles, and some empty cases and trunks. Contact the accommodation office for more information.
You must write your name and room number on any items stored. We are not responsible for any damage to or loss of these items.
Energy saving tips
The Energy Saving Trust has lots of helpful hints and tips to help you stop wasting energy and money around your home. Visit their website to view them.
