Are you tired of dealing with landlords? The questionable plumbing skills, the endless ignored requests to have that grim shower curtain replaced, the battle to get your deposit returned?

For students in the UK, riding the rental rollercoaster is considered an unavoidable part of the university experience, and the ups and downs don't come cheap. The National Union of Students (NUS) reports that English students can expect to pay £4,834 a year in rent; in London the average student shells out £6,143.

Gordon Maloney, president of NUS Scotland says: "From charging illegal fees, to withholding deposits for spurious reasons, and worse, far too many tenants still find themselves in an unequal and unfair position."

There could soon be an alternative. Across the UK, student housing cooperatives are emerging as a way for students to bypass landlords and take control of their own accommodation.

In a housing cooperative, each tenant is also a shareholder and has an interest in building and maintaining the property as a communal space. It's a model that's been used across the pond for decades, and student activists are hoping that they can repeat the success of housing cooperatives in California and Canada over here.

Most housing co-ops are small and have maybe a dozen tenants, but projects like the Berkeley student cooperative in the US house hundreds. Cooking is done communally, and essential maintenance duties are also performed by students. Many cooperatives operate on a democratic basis, with decisions about matters large and small – from which colour to repaint a wall to how the cooperative invests any profits – voted on by its members. The result is rather like a student-run halls of residence.

"I've had a blast," said Matija Tomanovic, a third-year economics and politics student who's currently staying in a co-op in Kingston, Ontario, while studying at Queen's University.

"To be honest the day-to-day life is not too different at all. But the atmosphere around the co-op has been really good, because you're more involved in the running of your own community and your own living space. It is a comfortable environment, and being responsible makes you think much more about your place in the co-op and makes your house feel a little more like a home."

In Edinburgh – where the average rent rose by 5% last year – the Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op was launched this year by students at the university and aims to offer cut-price rooms to students from September.

The project has secured a 106-bed property in the sought-after area of Bruntsfield Links, and is currently accepting applications from students wanting to live in one of the co-op's 26 flats.

Mike Shaw, one of the central figures behind the project, told me the cooperative aims to offer rooms for as little as £260 a month. "It was an idea we had over a cup of tea a year ago. Basically, we want it to be a good community that people want to live in, the sort of place they can get excited about."

Independent from the students' union and the university, it could offer an alternative for the city's 37,000-strong student population to lacklustre landlords. "It'll be a different way of doing business," says Shaw.

A year ago, students in Birmingham had hoped to open a housing cooperative. However, after obtaining £500,000 in funding from the Co-op Community & Finance, the project was delayed as they were unable to find enough tenants willing to commit to the venture. Sean Farmelo, one of the students behind the cooperative, says: "I wouldn't say it has stalled, but we've definitely been limited by the timings of the academic year and the need for people to sign contracts."

Although Tomanovic enjoyed the team spirit of his housing co-op, others say that community spirit doesn't come guaranteed. Emmeline Hoogland, a fourth-year geography student who stayed in a co-op during her year abroad in Canada, says that the democratic parts of the co-op model didn't help when it came to dealing with difficult flatmates. "I have lived in 4 different flats," she says. "I would say the co-operative created the most tension."

Despite this, she says that certain experiences unique to a housing cooperative made it worthwhile. "The community feeling stood out for me the most, especially during our kitchen shifts. The people who were on meal plans had to cook for 3 hours each week. During the kitchen shifts you learn cooking skills, help to feed loads of people (including yourself) and generally just have a good time."

Edinburgh and Birmingham co-ops are leading the trend, but they aren't alone. Student co-ops have sprung up in Aberdeen and Sheffield, and in the past year, Students for Cooperation – who held their founding conference in February – have set up a nationwide network of cooperative projects. The foundations are truly in place for a new solution to student housing.