Student flatmates have claimed they were forced to wash themselves in their kitchen after they were left without a working bath or shower for two months.

Beth Collins,19, and her two friends pay £1,050 a month to rent the flat in Canterbury, Kent, but had been waiting since February for their bathroom to be refitted following a suspected leak.

The second year history of art student at Kent University said she and her friends have also had to appeal to their next door neighbours and ask to share their bathroom if they wanted a bath or a shower.

Student flatmates have claimed they were forced to wash themselves in their kitchen after they were left without a working bath or shower for two months. Pictured is the bathroom during the bath fitting process, which started after they complained to the council, and took a week to complete

Beth Collins,19, and her two friends pay £1,050 a month to rent the flat in Canterbury, Kent, but had been waiting since February for their bathroom to be refitted following a suspected leak. It is pictured while the bath was being fitted

Landlord Parham Khandanpour refused to respond to their emails, and the students claim the problem was only fixed after they complained to Canterbury City Council - who ordered the work on their home to be completed.

'In January we had a leak which went into the flat below so when we went away for two weeks on February 1, the landlord sent someone in to take out the bath and fix the problem,' said Miss Collins.

The bath was ripped out after there was a suspected leak, with water seeping into the flat below

'They ripped up the floor, took out the bath and left it in the garden, next to rubbish bins in all weathers.

'But when we got back from being away nothing had been done. The floor had been ripped up, there was no bath or shower.'

Miss Collins, who pays £350 rent before bills at the flat, said that while she is friends with the neighbours the situation 'is not ideal'.

She added: 'Luckily we know them, they're our friends, but it's not ideal.

'It's created a lot of technical and emotional stress for all of us.

'The landlord wouldn't reply to our emails but we know he had seen them because the maintenance man told us.

'It was a nightmare to use the bathroom. We had to message them to ask them if the bathroom was free. We couldn't shower whenever we wanted and it was very annoying.'

After Miss Collins and her flatmates complained to the council, the landlord was forced to hire a plumber who spent seven days fitting a bath, replacing the shower and retiling the floor.

'The council gave the landlord a deadline to fix the bathroom and he finally managed to hire a plumber to fix the bathroom,' said Miss Collins.

'It's such a relief, we can now actually focus on our university work.'

Kent University stressed that generally there are no problems between landlords and students, but said that students should protect themselves by being fully aware of their rights and responsibilities.

Parham Khandanpour is yet to comment.