iQ Student Accommodation Reviews

Maybe I stayed at one of the better locations (Century Square - Sheffield) as my experience was incredible in comparison to these reviews. Originally, I booked a platinum ensuite but our financial situation changed due to covid so a few days later, I sent an email asking if I could have one of the cheaper rooms and before the weekend was over, I already had a response from a manger showing that my room had been officially changed and the rent was decreased (this was confirmed on my portal as well). While I was there, the staff were extremely friendly and helpful. I once forgot to pick up a parcel for two weeks (Uni engineering stress) and they still held on to it for me sending notification reminders via email that it was ready to collect. When lockdown prevented me from being able to go back to Sheffield, I was able to get 6 weeks worth of rent taken off my bill which meant I had nothing left to pay for the rest of my stay from February till July. One night, our microwave broke and it was replaced the next morning. I managed to forget my keycard in my room multiple times and was able to call a staff member to help me get back in very quickly. At first, they asked for ID to prove it was my room but after, they started to remember my room number from my many parcel collections 😂 I was even able to connect a Nintendo switch to the provided tv in our living room for a larger screen. I will say the Century Square rooms are a little pricer than other options but I chose it as it's a newer build and right in front of a tram stop. I am unable to drive (partially blind) so this convenience is important to me. Considering the rent also includes access to the onsite gym, common rooms, cinema room, quiet study area, and the kind staff members, I think it's worth the price.

This place seems alright at first. Then you realize the staff are the rudest, most self absorbed and untrained people you will find in any student accom in Salford. I have witnessed security guards, possibly in their mid 30's speak to female students aged around 18 with aggression and tone. A maintenance worker threatened me with a steel pole he was using to paint the ceiling. There are bugs infesting every bush, tree and aspect of the outdoor area. Washing machines are very expensive and very bad quality. If you leave your window open for 10 minutes your room will become bugs life 2, even if it's spotless, life finds a way loll. The site manager neglects mental health and discriminates against people for stating their concerns and opinions, claiming using your voice is aggressibe behaviour no matter how calm and collected you may be. Every positive review you can find about this place was made by the staff because they don't want to go bankrupt. Personally I would not come back here if my life depended on it.

I am disgusted with the service I am receiving or NOT as the case may be. I booked a room from September over ten days ago via UniLodger. Once you have made the booking you deal with IQ direct. On making my reservation through UniLodgers it stated on their site that there was no deposit - it clearly says all you have to pay is your rent. It asked me for my card details for future payments. As soon as I had entered my details £250.00 was taken from my account. On challenging UniLodgers I was told it must be an old offer and that they update their website daily. On looking at the site the following day the offer was still there. My circumstances changed so over TEN DAYS ago I cancelled the booking and requested my £250.00 back which on IQ website clearly says you get a refund if you cancel within 7 days. This was the day after. I phoned up the IQ accommodation I was going to be staying at, I emailed UniLodgers, I emailed customer services at IQ, I sent them my account details and I filled in the online form via my IQ personal portal page requesting refund. This was over ten days ago. I have sent several emails and the only update I have got from a lady called Kim was saying my refund is being processed, but it would be 2-3 weeks and I would receive another emailwith an update. I sent another email requesting a Manager call back and also asking for an explanation of why I am having to wait for so long, especially in this day and age when any business can process a faster payment or BACS which would be in your account within a day. Moreover it was not my fault that the money was taken from my account in the first place. I have not received any response - it is totally unacceptable. All I want is the £250.00 that was taken within minutes. I am considering taking matters further. My advice in one word to anyone who is about to book through IQ or UniLodgers - Don’t

Tried asking them about summer lets (email and phone) and they don't appear to have any clue about anything. Woman on email (Jo Anderson) couldn't even point me to any terms+conditions on the website (telling me "The terms and conditions of your summer stay will be detailed on your tenancy agreement."). Different woman on the phone tells me you have to be a student to take a summer let, then corrects herself and just hands the call on to woman on the emails who then swears blind she'd emailed me T&Cs all along and gets all upset when i politely correct her. Their refund policy is... literally no refunds for anything booked after 01 June. Unless you ask them on the phone about this and Jo (woman who couldn't even point me to any T&Cs) will make up a bunch of stuff on the spot for you. What an embarrassing company, any students having to deal with them full-time have all my sympathy.

I booked here through Airbnb. The pictures on Airbnb was very different from the actual room! Specifically: 1. Dilapidated & dirty - various damage on the walls and dirty on check in 2. Broken furniture - chair and desk in need of repair 3. Old/unusable mattress - the springs stuck through - it was so sore to sleep on and caused insomnia 4. Old bedding - the sheets and pillow cases were like sandpaper - I had to buy new ones to sleep on - I had never felt anything like it. 5. The room had a metal cage in front of what was supposed to be a window. 6. Laundry almost impossible to use - instructions wrong and difficult to get a card 7. Repeatedly lied to me when I took up issues with them saying they will get things sorted but never did. Repeatedly promised to contact me but never did. 8. Refused to provide legal contact details. 9. NOISY 10. Unhygienic - tons of doors - all have to be opened by hand.

Bunch of greedy f*** , they don’t care about the students tenets at all and what their situation is. They only care about the money they’re getting. DO NOT SIGN THE CONTRACT WITH THEM it’s a TRAP

So , today , as guarantor I received an email from the credit department of IQ, bearing in mind my son has been in constant contact with them because of financial problems due to covid and a student finance mistake. I write in response to your threatening email to myself in which the following section is blatantly untrue... We have made several attempts to get in touch with ****** regarding their outstanding rental payment. As we have been unable to reach them, and because their rent payment remains outstanding, we are contacting you My son has spoken to your representative via telephone on a regular basis reference his inability to accommodate your demands for money, at least twice within my earshot whilst the young woman on the end of the phone was singularly unsympathetic & reduced him to tears. He was given the lowest possible grant from SFE , who have NOT taken our income into consideration, and, due to Covid and other staffing issues, are impossible to contact to have this rectified . I do have to call them, as my online account refuses to allow me access,&, when I finally get to speak to someone, I will then have to wait another 37 days before we are able to get a resolution, all of which you have already been told. He has applied for over 100 jobs in the run up to starting at Salford and during this term, and, again, due to Covid, has only just managed to find one. He is now working at Tescos Part time , and also told you this. He offered to pay some monies, when paid, towards his debt, at which time, he was told, in no uncertain terms, that if the full amount was not forthcoming he would be evicted from the accommodation before Christmas!! Your staff are singularly unhelpful & unsympathetic during these extreme circumstances , I know of other accommodations who have refunded students part of their rent due to the ongoing pandemic & the awful position these young people have found themselves in, through no fault of their own. They are already under a great deal of stress due to the way in which they are having to learn, and the lack of a normal life for them, without having to deal with the bully boy tactics employed by your company & staff. He has since vacated the accommodation on the 6th December ,having been made to feel so uncomfortable that he no longer wished to stay there. He is now living with his brother ,until such a time as he and a friend can afford to rent somewhere together, for the duration of his time at Salford, forgoing one of the most important parts of university life, the friendships created on campus. He will pay you £50 a month until the arrears for this term are covered , no more, as this is all he can afford . This is an offer of payment, which has already been made to one of your representatives, & which you will allow . He will NOT be paying six months rent , as having perused your terms & conditions, nowhere does it mention this , and telling him he will have a CCJ against his name is not an appropriate item to threaten someone who, on finishing university in 5 years time ,will be in debt to the government until such a time as he is earning enough to repay them ! I will be making an official complaint to the University of Salford regarding your behaviour , it smacks of bailiffs and bullying & in this uncertain time, you would be better employed supporting the students paying your wages rather than causing them distress and undue worry . As stated ,he will be happy to pay the rent due to cover the period up to & including until the 6th December and will pay it in monthly instalments of £50 , please make arrangements for a link through which he can make the payment to be sent to him. The first payment will be made on or just after the 31st of December when he will have his first paycheque. Reference your threatening comment regarding a collections agency, & their additional charges & fees (!), you have heard from me well before the 16th of December and will not be referring myself or my son to an agency of any kind. I am also making you aware that a a copy of this letter is being sent to the MP for the Salford area , & the local paper , who I'm sure , will be interested to know that in these unprecedented times , a multi billion pound company is using these sort of tactics on its vulnerable young people, most of whom are living away from home for the first time , & not just in Salford, but all over the country. This may seem a little longwinded as a review goes, but it is a stark warning to any parent whose offspring are considering using this company for their accommodation DONT.... I don't care how nice it is , if you are one of the percentage of students whose parents cannot afford to throw money at you during university, these people will not care , they are not bothered you cant get a job to support yourself due to Covid , or that your finance payment is wrong, they just want the money!

There was a mix-up with my booking, despite booking specifically to live with a friend we ended up being put in different flats. I decided not to move in and was assured I would receive a refund. I'm aware of the disclaimer and this cannot be guaranteed. However, I had to chase them every step of the way. My emails asking how to proceed with the refund were all ignored. When I called the accommodation I was assured my refund had been "processed" and I would receive a refund within 7 days. When I of course did not receive my money back, which I had paid all upfront, I chased this further and had to escalate it to the Head Office in London. Only then was I told that I had to input my bank details in the portal in order for a refund to be issued. Nobody told me that previously and by this time over 3 weeks had passed. When I did that it then took a further 2 weeks (10 working days) for the refund to be issued. How hard is it to do a BACS payment in this day and age? When I finally got my money back, the value of all of my student loan and more, a whole month had gone by since being back at university. IQ should consider the effect of their inaction, inability to find a solution for their mistakes and constant delaying and passing the buck. It takes its toll on students who are already in a very difficult situation with Covid. Not only was I left with no money to live on for these weeks but I was misled, ignored and passed on to the next person the whole way. IQ need to evaluate their commitment to customer service and to supporting students during such difficult times.

Staying during Covid and alarm bells from the start. On check in, no look or copy of my passport. Sure I answered to my name but unsafe especially as a guarantor to my commitments any resident must have to behaviour and noise during the duration of stay. Management seemed nice enough but I soon discovered that the female management strategy was 'smile and surprise' if there was a request for assistance. My one harmless response to a maintenance email that was sent to me but didn't apply to me, with me saying I am not on that floor as I was no longer allocated that floor, led to a fork in the road of silly gas lighting. An awful destructive time consuming agenda of ill making ill will. I received an email with a deliberate wrong booking. And it continued. I then had my name and room number on the tenancy agreement requested as is normal for tenancy agreements and then on extending my summer stay one more time was told that I was 'creating work for the operations manager' who clearly thinks renewing a tenancy is too much for her and told my room number cannot be put on the tenancy. Then it was put back on after saying it was policy not to put it on. Where do people get the energy to do this. For these people read the William Blake poem: “Love seeketh not itself to please, Nor for itself hath any care, But for another gives its ease, And builds a heaven in hell’s despair.” So sung a little clod of clay, Trodden with the cattle’s feet; But a pebble of the brook Warbled out these meters meet: “Love seeketh only Self to please, To bind another to its delight, Joys in another’s loss of ease, And builds a hell in heaven’s despite.” The 'management' is self-managed meaning the facilities staff(cleaning and maintenance) report to themselves. Cleaners, hang around outside and do not clean the place properly and are also happy to smash around rooms at 8.30am on a Saturday morning. And management rarely check on cleanliness. Cleaning staff explained that slamming doors was because the door was too heavy. I got the picture. I was forced to leave my paid up front room that day because cleaners wrongly thought they could clean on Saturday morning and without notification. They had no fear of disrupting or harassing a resident with management too conflict avoiding. Worse if there are 'issues' the cleaners live on site? Same with maintenance. A form on the portal clearly has a check box too check or tick which allows maintenance permission to access a room in the residents absence. I did not check the box. Maintenance came in anyway. Then organised a bogus entrance by a temp later that day(after Pedro overheard me say to the regional operations manager(whose management style is smile and wait for something to happen) he breached my privacy and lied about the form. After having enough of this harassment I requested a part refund. The regional operations manager eventually agreed but became upset because I pointed out to her that she had not been thorough with my complaint, was wasting my paid up front time and worse had no idea how the maintenance portal form worked and knew I was right. Again with horrendous management naivety and she actually threatened an eviction, a refusal to renew my licence agreement firstly out of pure spite, then without legal knowledge of the then Covid government law about eviction and the rights of a tenancy agreement holder! Due to the jekyll and hyde behaviour of the female management I thought it better to leave believing I would be further harassed and could be on the receiving end of made up stories that I didn't have time for. As it is after receiving an email before I left 1 month ago that my refund was processed, I have now received the old chestnut of type in your bank details again. Oh and do it again, giggle, giggle. Still no refund. The issue and the reason why I am writing this is I was a mature resident and I have more experience about 'try ons' than a first year student, so to parents thinking about spending their hard earned cash, the safety, hygiene and peace of mind is poor. Also taking into account they contract an outside agency to rent rooms amongst students doing limited student checks and are a poor unprofessional outfit is an obvious concern. My hope is that the now lack of easy money Chinese students were bringing due to Covid will instill some sense of humility and a recruitment process that recruits staff who are genuinely interested in managing a student accommodation. The fees are substantial, the exchange no matter what money should be simple, reasonable expectation comfort(rooms are OK), good security(which was better than some for sure but passports must be photocopied as a basic security requirement) and respect to the resident and their privacy and their tenancy agreement must be observed and visa versa.

(IQ KINGSTON)Don't be fooled by the initially modern interior, please bare in my mind my regular room and shared kitchen cost me nearly £10,000 -hence my disgrace. Dirty room when I moved in. Dated bathroom design (a wet room the size of a cupboard that floods when you use the shower because its a curtain not a door). Cold water or no water pressure. Nightmare neighbours who smoke in their room and my complaints about this were initially ignored. Horrifically dirty shared kitchen and only 2 of my 7 neighbours even spoke English so this made communicating about the mess hard. This resulted in living around up to 8 full dirty bin bags, clogged up sinks, oil on surfaces and stagnant water in the fridge. IQ's weekly "kitchen inspections", somehow missed this filth until my numerous complaints finally made them look at it. The staff were either lovely or looked straight through me. I was once harassed until I cried, when I had only just moved in, as my student finance had not come yet, and they were demanding money I had not yet had. Washing machines always full in the day so I had to do my washing at 7;30am. The gym had barely any equipment - only cardio and arms. Thankfully I didn't have to pay my last instalment due to COVID-19, however this was only after 2 emails which were ignored. Then, I was only given 8 days to empty my room (during lockdown), which meant breaking lockdown guidelines to collect my things. They gave my £250 deposit to a 3rd party website, which was hard to get back - I'm sure this was buried in the small print and I now realise I should have read more thoroughly after dealing with a dodgy company. Also note, that they say the site has 24/7 security and someone is always there. This is incorrect, my card didn't work to get into the building one Sunday evening, about 7pm and no one was there to let me in. I rang the bell to the building, and despite the lights being on, it was empty, so I stood in the rain until a resident opened the doors. The social area and social events, are all LIES. Do not move here if you want to make friends. No one uses the social spaces and no one talks. There is a permanently empty subbuteo table in reception. My room, although having a thames view, also overlooks a car park with metal gates, which begin rattling and being noisy at about 8, so don't expect a lie in. I would like to add the head manager Samuel, has been a star, and the only person who seems to care in the whole company, alas he was only here every so often and was only in the picture at the end of my stay. The maintenance man, Matthew was also lovely.

Room was poor for the amount of money paid. Bathroom was in a disgusting state when we first moved in. Staff were rude and some could barely speak english, make it very difficult to receive parcels and provide overall assistance. Room was freezing cold which caused complications with my asthma, we had to buy our own heater to head the tiny room. Frequently found bugs crawling around inside. No hot water for weeks over the christmas period. No oven for a week after it broke and they failed to send someone to fix it. Absolutely appalled by this company and would never want to put anyone through the amount of hassle we had.

I am disgusted with the IQ student accommodation. I am currently a tenant at IQ the Arcade. My room is unfit for purpose, the room is damp and mouldy and has very poor ventilation apart from the hole underneath my bed causing a cold breeze and also allowing a rat to enter. The room is unsanitary and has given me respiratory symptoms. I spoke to the manager to be released from my contract in which he declined. Currently I am homeless as I cannot live In the accommodation due to health and safety concerns and because of my phobia of rats which has caused me multiple panic attacks when even thinking about going back to that dirty accommodation.

My daughter has been living here since October this year. Twice in 2 months she has had to get them to remove mould from her room which is so damp, her clothes and bed are damp. 5 days ago she saw a rat in her room and now is too scared to go back but they won't release her from the year contract even though she's done nothing wrong! Absolutely terrible, unsanitary living conditions. Not fit for purpose and misled with online advertising showing top class accommodation in London.