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Is this Dunedin’s next worst student flat?

Hamish McNeilly

An infamous competition to find the best and worst student flats in Dunedin is back, and it should not be too hard to find the winner for worst flat.

The first flat to answer their door on Castle St yesterday afternoon was a strong contender for worst flat if the state of the front yard was anything to go by. But a broken letterbox and the rubbish strewn out front were nothing compared to the flat’s entrance, which smells like a refuse dump.

And there is a good reason for that, explains flatmate Josh Olsen. The odour emanated (largely) from a sewage leak.

Critic editor Erin Gourley was impressed. ‘‘It is quite something,’’ she said.

This year the student magazine had partnered with the Otago University Students Association to revive the best and worst flat competition, which in recent years had stopped publicising the worst flats.

This year’s competition was not about how students lived, but rather the state of their flats ‘‘so we can kind of get a picture of the living standards in Dunedin in general’’, said Gourley.

That follows the introduction of the Healthy Homes Standards, designed to increase the quality of New Zealand’s substandard rental housing stock.

Revisiting the ‘‘worst flat’’ was an opportunity to highlight the student flats not meeting those requirements, Gourley said. ‘‘There are real s. . .holes. They really do exist.’’

It was not unusual for some of the worst flats in the student quarter to have issues with black mould and rodents.

Gourley stressed the competition was not about being anti-landlord, but rather a chance to highlight issues with ‘‘real student flats’’.

Images already supplied to the student paper included flats with mushrooms growing on internal walls, she said.

Eyeing-up the $200 voucher from Delivereasy to be awarded to the worst flat was 20-year-old Olsen.

Each of the six flatmates paid $150 for their rooms, which was one of the cheapest to rent on the notorious party-street in the heart of the student quarter.

And despite ‘‘location, location, location’’ being important, the flat did have its downsides.

That included the area being a magnet for parties and its accompanying rubbish, as well as the actual state of the flat.

‘‘The mould is crazy. I open my window every day. I don’t know what it is about this flat, but the mould is ridiculous,’’ Olsen said.

Flatmate Josh Tatham, 21, conceded that the occupants probably didn’t help their situation, including never heating the flat in an effort to save money.

Once everyone was home ‘‘it soon warms up’’, he said.

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en-nz

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-09-25T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://fairfaxmedia.pressreader.com/article/281848646749764

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