Halley from our Student Welfare & Community Life team shares top tips for handling issues with flatmates…

Whether you are living on or off campus, we know that sharing space and living with other people can sometimes be stressful, and if you are having ongoing issues with flatmates then this can have a negative impact on your experience at University and on your studies.

Whether it is issues with noise and guests, messy kitchens, shared household responsibilities, etc most of the flat issues that students have are related to not communicating, and not addressing issues when they first arise.

Top tips to help with flatmate issues:

Address issues right away: Report, get help, or try to resolve issues when things first happen, to minimise the negative impact on you and your flatmates. The longer you leave it, the more stressful it will become.

Communicate: Sometimes a conversation is all that you need. Try speaking to the person or people involved directly and let them know:

• What you have observed, or what is happening from your perspective,
• How it is impacting you and why you feel it is an issue,
• What you think would help to resolve the issue.

Focus on a plan: Whatever the issue, try not to blame anyone and instead try to agree on a plan that will help everyone feel comfortable and take shared responsibility.

• If the issue is related to bins or shared household responsibilities, Accommodation has a good Household Planner (PDF) that can help you agree on a plan to cover cleaning and household tasks.
• If the issue is related to noise or guests, it can help to agree on quiet hours, or times that are best to have guests in the flat.

Do not assume: It will help you to resolve issues if you try to remember that everyone has a different background and perspective. People have different personal habits and different ideas of what is normal. People may be personally struggling with things that you are not aware of which can lead them to act in ways that negatively impact everyone in the flat.

Get support if you need help or if you think that a flatmate may be struggling:

• Off-campus: If there is an incident, or if you are concerned that someone may be in danger of self-harm or harming other people, then contact emergency services right away.
• On-campus: If there is an incident in your flat, if you want help to handle a situation, if you want someone to check-in, or if you want to report an issue like noise, Campus Security is available every day, 24 hours a day, and you should contact the team right away.

For all students on-and-off-campus: Student Welfare & Community Life is available to email, call or visit:

• If you have noticed that a flatmate seems to be struggling and may need support.
• If you are not comfortable discussing issues with flatmates directly and want Student Welfare to facilitate the conversation,
• If you have ongoing issues with flatmates that you have not been able to resolve,
• If you are not comfortable or do not feel safe in your flat and want to discuss options for support.

Final word of advice – if you are having issues with flatmates, remember that we are here to help!