Is the state of Dunedin student flats a rite of passage, or simply a health hazard? And are all landlords taking advantage?

Pallets for flooring, a leaking roof covered in tarpaulins and rats.

This is not some Third World slum, but the reality for some young people flatting in the heart of Dunedin's student quarter.

A confidential payout to nine female flatmates after they took legal action over toxic mould in their flat, has raised questions over cold, damp student housing – often referred to as "a rite of passage" by former Scarfies.

"When we are talking about flatting as a rite of passage, we are actually talking about health hazards," Otago University Students' Association student support manager Sage Burke explains.

He has a point.

Hamish McNeilly/Stuff Dunedin's student quarter where many are living in homes built at the turn of last century with minimal or no insulation and have had little maintenance.

The students who reached a settlement with their property manager and landlord told Stuff their former Queen St flat made them ill.

"I was the sickest I have ever been in that flat," said one of the tenants, while another developed asthma.

Burke said the flatmates' story made students sit up and take notice.

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"I hope it is precedent setting, it's not acceptable to have properties that are detrimentally affecting people's health."

The weather combined with the older housing stock and high concentration of young people flatting together "makes Dunedin quite unique compared to other places", he said.

SUPPLIED A spoon is used as a lock for a door in a Dunedin student flat. The nine female tenants have since received a payout for the state of the property.

Many of those flats were built at the turn of last century, had minimal insulation, few heating options and were damp as well as cold.

But those flats – often given tongue-in-cheek nicknames such as "The Freezer" and the "Moist Box" – were hot properties if they were around popular streets such as Castle, Hyde and Dundas.

Burke said students paid between $120 and $160 a room, and usually for a full year's lease often signed six months in advance.

He cited a group of students signing on for a flat at the start of this academic year. Nothing wrong with that, except it was not for this year, but 2019.

You can hear the exasperation in Burke's voice when he re-tells that story, but maintains students are starting to listen.

"We are telling them to be picky, stick up for themselves and take back that power."

Even now there were vacant flats in the area, including some on popular streets close to campus.

​Burke said many landlords were doing more than the current minimum standards, including doubling the insulation requirements.

"If you look after your flat you attract a better quality of tenant, and you protect your investment."

HAMISH MCNEILY/STUFF Dunedin landlord Cliff Seque works hard to keep his portfolio of student flats up to a high standard

But other landlords were failing.

A recent flat he visited had wooden pallets for flooring, "you could see the floor underneath".

Another flat had water dripping from the ceiling of a living area during a sunny day. Another added new meaning to the phrase indoor/outdoor flow as the holes in the walls meant "I can see outside from the inside".

One other flat had a tarpaulin covering holes in the roof, and seemingly no rush for repairs as the Dunedin days got colder and shorter.

If these are examples of slum landlords, that phrase won't be coming from Burke or the students' association.

"Our role is to provide support for students … if those tenants we support want to name and shame, well, that is up to them."

And that is what the nine female flatmates did after their settlement. Part of their motivation was to warn other students not to settle for poor housing.

STUDENTS EXPECTED TO 'SUCK IT UP'

Hamish McNeilly/Stuff Sage Burke, Otago University Students' Association student support manager outside flats on Dundas St.

And so does Dr Sara Walton, a senior lecturer at the University of Otago Business School, who teaches in the area of business and sustainability.

She asks her students to do a self-assessment, a warrant of fitness, for their flats. That research showed few got to 18 degrees, the minimum recommended level by the World Health Organisation for a healthy home.

Basics such as window latches to help ventilate homes while keeping out burglars who often targeted the area, were often not included.

Her research found many student flats were reliant on the "hour of power" – one hour a day of free electricity offered by several power companies – to crank their heat pumps and turn on the dishwasher and clothes dryer. For the remaining 23 hours of the day many opted to put up with the cold.

Dr Walton said the issue was not about landlords versus students, and she wanted to see a warrant of fitness to improve the standard of housing and the lives of the tenants.

Part of the issue were former students saying "well, we did it, we put on our sleeping bags, blankets and wool hats ... so suck it up".

"But I think there is a shift away from that now ... you just want to be warm in your house."

Another flat, this time of eight young men, shared their story with Stuff of living in a cold flat on Leith St and who had the same landlord and tenancy manager as the recent payout case.

Their flat had a resident possum in a bedroom, a leak in two bedrooms and leaking waste water from two toilets.

During the interview – held on a clear, sunny day – one of the men recorded the temperature in his room at a solitary one degree. And for their rite of passage they each paid $161 a week, for a combined weekly rent of $1288.

The Leith St and the Queen St properties, which are larger than most student flats, were each valued at $740,000. According to the latest Quotable Value statistics the average value of a Dunedin central/north property was $426,715.

THE LANDLORD

SUPPLIED Mould is commong in many damp, cold student flats.

Attired in paint-spattered clothes, Cliff Seque is often spotted around the city's student quarter attending to his latest task.

While he is reluctant to comment on the number of properties he owns, he has been a full-time landlord since 1988.

The Leith St flat was an example of "the sort of place I'd bulldoze".

The student quarter maybe infamous for its cold, draughty student flats, but Seque said he is trying to offer a better Scarfie experience.

For the last 25 years he has built new student flats, a far cry from the stories many ex students get misty-eyed retelling, which were fully insulated, double glazed, fitted with energy saving bulbs and heat pumps in every room.

Developing an old student flat often depended on the size of the section and district planning rules, but sometimes it was easier to "just bulldoze and start afresh".

As a student landlord he quickly discovered it was important to adapt and "build the damage prevention in"

That included using 9mm customwood to line the walls, paid more for solid core doors, and had a flood prevention device separating bathrooms from a carpeted area.

Seque said he tried every type of carpet before reverting back to wool.

It was important for all landlords to "give students a good, tidy and warm place they tend to treat it a lot better than the [Leith St] flat."

Burke agrees and said students needed to be curious before signing on the dotted line.

That included talking to current tenants, asking about sun, check for mould on the back of curtains, asking landlords about heating, insulation and bathroom ventilation.

If they were unsure the students' association would help them in their quest to find the perfect flat.

"Flats that affect your health aren't a rite of passage".

He particularly wanted students to move away from that rush to secure flats, and if students held off than landlords had time to do the necessary repairs to their properties.

Seque said out-of-town investors attracted to the area needed a good tenancy manager, "someone on the ground who can do the regular checks".

His fulltime role meant he had been called out many times at 2am to students who had locked themselves out of their flat, "you just get out of bed and go".

That commitment meant a quarter of his tenants stayed on, with some "spending their whole time at university with us".

Key to that relationship was landlords keeping the property watertight, but it was just as important for tenants to ventilate the homes, he said.

"Mould was something that needed to be tackled by both the landlord and the tenants."

Outside one of his new builds on Dundas St he tells of an all-male flat which turned the hot water off all year, preferring to shower at the university gym to save money.

And he had no preference for male or female tenants as "long as their references check out".

Hamish McNeilly/Stuff Spray bottles containiing 'mould killer' - 70 per cent white vinegar and 30 per cent water - is offered by the Otago University Students' Association.

He was choosy over the location of the flat, never buying on the notorious party street of Castle St North, but did own a property on Hyde St, home to the annual street party.

The properties were also a big investment for the landlords, and it made sense to look after them, Seque, who is also president of the Otago Property Investors Association, said.

THE MP AND THE COUNCIL

Every New Zealander deserves warm, dry housing as it was "vital for health and wellbeing", that's the message from Dunedin North MP and Health Minister Dr David Clark.

"The housing in the Dunedin student quarter has improved a lot since I was a student, but not all of it is up to scratch.

"Most landlords have already taken sensible steps to ensure the houses they let are warm and dry but some are still dragging their heels."

To tackle that issue one of the Government's first acts was to pass the Healthy Homes Guarantee Act, which enabled rental housing quality standards to be set.

Consultation was also underway to create Healthy Homes standards which would cover heating, insulation, ventilation, draught stopping, drainage and moisture.

A Dunedin City Council mayoral task force has also been set up to advise on long-term social, affordable and healthy housing issues.

A rental WOF, which was trialled by the University of Otago may be one of the tools considered.

The council was also working with the Otago University and Polytech to to improve the standard of student rental properties in the city .

Warm Dunedin was one such programme which provided an advance of up to $5000 to help with the upfront costs of installing insulation and/or approved heating.

Burke was initially unsure why the plight of student housing in Dunedin wasn't a bigger focus, but concedes "it is probably because they are students."

He hoped any change would come before serious illness or death.

"Most students tell us that the year they were in the flat that was cold and mouldy was the worst for their health."

Supplied Dr Sara Walton, of the University of Otago, says students are not to blame for poor flats in Dunedin's student quarter.

Hamish McNeilly/Stuff Hyde St, in Dunedin's student quarter, is home to the notorious annual street party.