﻿When the fire alarm starts ringing, Shianne Hart doesn't know whether she has to fear for her life.

Wheelchair-bound and living 10 floors up, whether the alarm is for an emergency or a drill, Hart is trapped.

She is a resident at Te Puni Village, a Victoria University hall of residence in Kelburn run by Australian company Campus Living Villages.

The 18-year-old psychology and criminology student is just one of dozens of students who are increasingly complaining about problems at the residence and a lack of response from administrators despite paying around $14,000 a year.

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A 'secret' Facebook page has been set up as a forum after students became frustrated that complaints on an official Te Puni page were being deleted by hall management.

Hart's concerns are different - and more alarming - to most raised on that page, in that she is the only resident at the 398-student hostel in a wheelchair and lives on a floor accessible only by lift or stairs.

Last year she was told that Te Puni would be the best place to live given her cerebral palsy. "But they didn't put me on the floor which was designed for disability access," she said.

If the lifts break down or the fire alarm sounds, Hart is stuck on her floor. "It takes its toll psychologically if you're stuck in a building you think is on fire. You don't want to go through that." Hart was initially hoping she would be able to stay on at Te Puni, which costs most students $359 a week, for another year, given it's the closest hall to university. But now she can't wait to get out, after being told a move to a wheelchair-accessible floor would cost more money. To help Hart when she moves out of Te Puni, her stepfather, John Coutts, will move down from New Plymouth to Wellington.

The plan is to find somewhere close to university where the pair can live and share costs.

MANY ISSUES AT HALL

Shianne Hart is far from the only student concerned about the way issues have been dealt with by hall management.

First-year law student Hugo Lawrence said residents' main concerns were around how disputes over damage were handled by hall management, recurring leaks and mould on a floor known as "the dungeon" and late move-out charges which had been threatened recently.

On move-out day on November 12, students who have not passed room inspections and left by 10am will be charged $50 per hour until they're gone.

That day is the last day of the university's exam period, leaving little time for some students to pack.

Lawrence said there was "no substance" behind the policy, given there would be a gap of more than two weeks before any of the rooms would be used again.

Students from "the dungeon" said there were issues with flooding on their ground-level floor every time it rained.

As a result, students would have to endure the sounds and smells of industrial heaters and dehumidifiers being used to dry the floor out.

Resident Madeleine Murray said students were just fed up of hall life by now.

Given how much the hall cost, she expected better from management. "The whole thing is just so outrageously expensive. I feel like my parents are being taken advantage of."

Victoria University campus services director Jenny Bentley said the university was committed to ensuring students had "a high quality experience in all aspects of university life".

She said the university was "very concerned to hear that some students at Te Puni Village are dissatisfied with some aspects of their accommodation this year".

An investigation into students' concerns would begin on Monday in conjunction with Campus Living Villages.