Living away from home while attending college is an exciting adventure for many students. However, sharing a space with roommates and dealing with landlords can be frustrating.

Continuing an annual tradition, here are just some of the worst housing experiences students have faced. Responses have been lightly edited for clarity.

“Secondhand smoke”

Freshman year, my randomly assigned roommates were obsessed with smoking weed in the dorm. When I got COVID-19, I asked if they could stop for a couple of days — and they said no.

“Sticky situation”

My roommate knocked on my door one morning, asking if he could use my bathroom. He then clogged the toilet and was unable to plunge it. My anxiety spiked when he placed the dirty plunger, sopping wet, directly onto my tile wood floor.

“Everything but the bathroom sink”

While I still lived at College-in-the-Woods, I went into the bathroom one night and the entire sink was clogged with someone’s Friday night vomit. The vomit stayed there for two days until cleaning day on Monday.

“Third wheeling”

Two of my roommates started dating when we lived together and would fight right outside my door in the living room at least once a week. Like, half the time they would hook up in one of their rooms after (also right next to my door). It was like I was a ghost haunting one of the couples from “90 Day Fiancé.”

“Living at Stonebridge”

When we moved in, there was lingerie on the floor and a mousetrap on the ceiling. They said we had to clean it ourselves. Eventually, we had to withhold rent to fix our moldy ceiling leak and then they threatened to evict us (even though they agreed to the rent withholding).

They kept the security deposit even though they returned it months past. I looked them up and there’s an active case against them because they didn’t pay contractors over $20,000, so I don’t think I’ll get my deposit back.

“House of Horrors” 

Arriving in the United States as an international student is already overwhelming — new country, new culture and endless uncertainties. For me, what should have been an exciting start quickly turned into a housing nightmare that lasted my entire first year.

Before I arrived, my friends and I signed a lease for a specific property. However, when we landed, the landlord shocked us by saying the house wasn’t ready. He placed us in a temporary apartment instead, insisting we pay rent for it and promising the original property would be ready within a month.

That first month passed, and when we asked about moving into the place we had actually signed for, he delayed it by yet another month. The temporary unit we were stuck in was in terrible shape — broken windows that let in freezing air, nails sticking out of the stairs, and a visible layer of dust coating everything. It was so dirty and unsafe that we had to scrub and clean the entire apartment ourselves just to make it livable.

By October, after repeated promises, the landlord finally admitted the original property wouldn’t be ready anytime soon. But since it was already mid-semester, most decent housing options were gone, leaving us with no choice but to stay.

When we signed a full 10-month lease for the temporary place, we even provided the landlord with a detailed list of problems to fix — cracked windows, missing furniture, holes in the walls. Most of these issues were ignored.

Battling the Cold and a Broken Home 

As winter approached, our situation worsened. The house was unbearably cold, and we had to wear puffer jackets inside. Our lease included utilities, yet when we repeatedly complained about the freezing temperatures, the landlord dismissed us, saying, “It’s just your first winter — you’re not used to the cold.”

When his electricity bill suddenly spiked, he finally sent someone to check the heaters. The technician confirmed the heaters worked fine — the real problem was the cracked windows that couldn’t keep the heat in. Even with this proof, the landlord delayed fixing them and only replaced the windows after January, once the harshest part of winter had already passed.

Rats, Cardboard Repairs and Excuses 

Because of a large hole in the apartment, rats began entering and destroying our groceries — not once, but twice. Instead of calling a professional to fix it properly, the landlord sent his nephew, who tried to “patch” the hole using cardboard and paper.

When we questioned this absurd solution, the landlord casually claimed, “The rats probably just like the smell of Indian spices.”

The Roommate From Hell 

As if dealing with the property wasn’t enough, we also had to live with a nightmare roommate. She was 26 years old, but her behavior was unbelievably reckless.

She once clogged the bathroom toilet by flushing cardboard tubes, then refused to clean up. She left the electric stove on for 12 hours straight, creating a serious fire hazard. At one point, she insisted that eggs needed to be refrigerated or they would hatch into chicks. She also refused to take out the trash for eight whole months and didn’t even know what day trash pickup was.

The most shocking incident was with her pressure cooker. She argued that because her pressure cooker was “new technology,” it didn’t require water. We had to carefully explain that pressure cookers only work by creating steam from water — otherwise, they could be extremely dangerous.

On top of all this, she repeatedly lied to our landlord about us, blaming us for things we didn’t do. Eventually, we caught her red-handed and had to show the landlord video recordings, pictures and chat screenshots to prove our innocence. Even the landlord eventually had to move her out because she became a serious safety risk to the household.

The Final Straw: A Snake in the House 

In the last ten days of our lease, things hit rock bottom. A snake appeared inside the house because the landlord had never maintained the grass or yard. When we reported it, his response was disturbingly casual:

“Don’t worry, the snake won’t do anything — it’ll just kiss you and go.”

A Legal Battle for My Deposit

When our lease finally ended, the landlord refused to return my security deposit. I had to send a formal legal notice before he finally paid it back, over a month later.

Looking Back 

This entire experience taught me how vulnerable international students can be when navigating housing in a new country. Between false promises, unsafe living conditions, a toxic roommate and a dismissive landlord, my first year was filled with constant stress.

I am deeply relieved to be free of that property and that landlord now. By sharing my story, I hope to warn other students to ask tough questions, document everything, and never settle for unsafe or unfair treatment.