New state-of-the-art student accommodation has been condemned by residents who claim they have been left without the amenities they paid for.
Problems with no water, faulty telephone and Internet connections, loud noise and fire alarms going off are being cited by Bradford University students living in Wardley House, a new apartment complex above Bradford's ice skating rink.
Housing charity Unipol, the complex's landlord, said there had been teething problems but claimed it had resolved all issues.
Alex Kemp, 23, a first-year student who moved into the complex on September 13, said: "The first day we arrived we were told the phones weren't working and the furniture was half built. We still don't have hot water and the fire alarms go off regularly."
Some of the residents at Wardley House have paid extra rent with the promise of access to broadband Internet, which they need for their courses, but Mr Kemp said it was slower than a standard dial-up connection.
He added: "And it's a very basic system which means that we can't access some of the services we need, such as the University website that enables us to check timetables and talk to fellow students. I pay £70 a week so I want to be able to study at home."
The rent is higher than normal Bradford student accommodation and students living there were expecting luxury standards.
The Unipol website states their properties have a high standard of sound installation but 20-year-old second-year computer animation student Lois Yap said: "Our rooms are above a club and we can hear everything that goes on.
"The noise level is so bad that on a Friday and Saturday night from 7.30pm until 2am the music causes the walls to vibrate, beds to vibrate and water in the sink to vibrate. It's driving us insane." Miss Yap has also had problems with the apartment's plumbing.
Unipol's housing manager, Matthew Guy, said the building had been renovated to provide accommodation of a very high standard but admitted there had been problems initially.
He said: "On the very top floor we had reports that some people were finding they didn't have hot water between 8am and 9am."
Mr Guy said the engineers had now rectified the problem.
The Internet problems, he said, had only started in the past seven days and the company was working to replace some of the equipment and resolve the issue.
Andrew Abbey, director of accommodation and catering at the University of Bradford, said accommodation was allocated on a first-come-first-served basis, and students requesting en-suite rooms were given the choice of staying in standard accommodation on campus or moving to Wardley House.
He added that the day-to-day running of Wardley House was managed by Unipol but the University continued to provide a full range of support to students who lived on and off campus.
A spokesman for the Students' Union said they had expressed concern about the deal between Unipol and the University. "The Student Union is concerned that if a welfare or safety situation arises there will be no procedure in place to provide students with the help and support they require," he said.
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