Good advices - Visit the room

1. Take an option

It is interesting to take an option on the room before signing a lease. This option enables you to think about all the aspects, discuss your choice with your parents and if necessary evaluate the lease's contents and submit it to a third party.

This option period is usually short (a few days maximum) and free of charge: the room is reserved for the option taker.

2. Neighbourhood

When evaluating the neighbourhood, you need to ask yourself the following questions:

Aren't there any discos or pubs nearby which may cause too much noise?
Isn't there a busy passage of lorries or buses?Is there a stop for public transport nearby?
Are there any food shops nearby?
Is there a GP, a dentist or a pharmacist nearby?

3. Free room for a student

In some cases the landlord lives in the same house as the students. There are often house rules to live by then, and agreements to be made with the landlord.

For some students (freshmen especially) this system is a good solution because of stricter supervision: there is less difference with the home situation.

In free student's rooms clear agreements have to be made between the student and his 'housemates' concerning maintenance, noise and hours for relaxing and for studying. Often internal house regulations are being called upon. Senior students may also help to obtain peaceful cohabitation and to stimulate the study atmosphere.

4. Access to and construction of the building

For privacy and safety reasons the access door needs to be solid and smoothly lockable. The door to the personal room should also be lockable with a key.

The room should be at least 12 m² big (in case of an inclined roof, only the surface with a free height of 2.10 m can be counted) and sufficiently light (depending on the function, the room should have windows of at least one fifth or one tenth of the room's surface).

You need to check whether you have access to the garden, whether there is a bike shed and whether the building is accessible to handicapped people.

5. Quality label

The "QL QL", "Quartier Latin Quality Label", which has been affixed in a visible manner, enables you to know for sure whether the offered accommodation meets the standards for a student room. These standards are based on the current standards concerning fire safety and comfort.

If a room does not have the QL QL, it does not automatically mean it is a bad room. Sometimes the room is not in the QL file at all, sometimes QL has not yet been able to visit and check the room to award the QL Quality Label. It is best to check the room on the basic criteria and make an evaluation yourself.

6. Isolation and ventilation

The windows preferably have double glazing. In case of an attic room, you need to check whether the roof is thermally insulated. As the room is less insulated, you'll need to heat and cool more. This can cause unpleasant financial surprises, because payment of energy costs sometimes is to be settled extra. Rooms at the southern side (especially attic rooms) are hard to keep cool.

Bad sound insulation can be very unpleasant and make studying very hard. Street noise as well as neighbors and housemates can cause nuisance. Ear plugs are only a temporary solution. Brick inner walls and double glazing are a plus. Light plaster walls do not isolate as good.

Moreover, you should be able to open the windows for sufficient natural ventilation. Pay attention to damp spots or mildew in the room or other rooms in the building

7. Electric equipment

The electric equipment needs to be tested regularly and provided with sufficient automatic fuses and an earth-leak circuit breaker.

Wiring and cables are preferably built in or put safely on the wall.

There should be at least 3 sockets and preferably a possibility to connect telephone and cable. It can be dangerous to connect too many appliances to one socket; in case of damages, the insurance company may regard it as 'fault of the user' and the coverage may lapse.

Even if a room is visited during the day, which is usually the case, it is interesting to find out if there are enough power points through which the room can be sufficiently illuminated.

Which electric appliances can be used?

We recommended you to inform the landlord in advance on the electric appliances you wish to use; maybe the equipment is not suitable for them.

8. Heating

You should pay special attention to the heating. As students look for and visit a place mostly in summer, it is difficult to ascertain that the heating is indeed sufficient. A small radiator is not enough to heat a large attic room with. Therefore, we advise you to turn the heating on for a while during your visit.

In certain cases the heating cannot be regulated per room, so concrete arrangements need to be made with the landlord concerning the hours when you are there or absent.

In any case, it is better to close doors and windows in winter when you are absent: it is safer and ecologically wiser.

Central heating or a heating system with autonomous electric radiators (convector heaters) has preference.

Heating with oil heaters or calor gas is prohibited because of the acute danger of explosion and suffocation.

If an autonomous gas radiator is used, it should be connected to a chimney or an outer wall and be thermally safe. It should be put on a fireproof sheet and not directly on a wooden floor or fitted carpet.

9. Sanitary fittings

Any student's accommodation should at least have a washbasin and warm and cold water.

Preferably, there is one toilet per floor, or at least one per two floors, and at least one per five inhabitants.

There should be at least one shower per five inhabitants.

We advise you to check the following:

Are the toilet, washbasin, bath and showers well-maintained and not clogged?
Do the taps leak or not and do shower sprinklers work?
Can washbasin, shower and bathtub be properly stoppered?

The bathroom door should be properly lockable from the inside.

When the water is heated through a geyser in the bathroom itself, a ventilation possibility is required, via a window or a grid of a least 150 cm² (in the bathroom door for instance).

Sockets should be earthed and be at a safe distance from the water points (60 cm in width, 2.25 m in height).

10. Kitchen

Is the number of kitchen appliances (cooking ring, refrigerator, oven, microwave...) adapted to the number of students who have to share the kitchen?
Check if the appliances work properly, if there is warm and cold water and if the sink is well-maintained and not clogged. Can it be properly stoppered?
Are there any pots, pans and cutlery or does everyone has to bring his own ?
The kitchen should be well-heated and ventilated (with windows that open) and provided with a fire extinguisher and a fire blanket. Normally there should be a hood.

11. Fire safety

Fire safety is first of all a matter of fire prevention

The building should meet all standards concerning fire safety.

Basically, it should be provided with properly maintained evacuation ways (halls, staircases etc.), which have to meet certain standards. It is important that:

Handrails should be solid and properly fastened
The lower parts of the stairs should be sufficiently fireproof
The steps should be at least 60 cm wide, not slippy and not rubbed off
Evacuation ways (halls, stairs and staircases) should be well-maintained and free of inflammable material and obstacles.

Furthermore, the building should have the necessary fire safety provisions, such as:

Emergency lighting
Emergency signalization
Emergency exits (if required)
Smoke ventilation
Fire detection
Fire ladders (if required)
Alarm
Fire extinguishers
Fire doors for accessing the evacuation ways from the rooms.

12. Visit arrangements

It can be important to check which are the rules concerning visitors. Can there be visitors at any time? Are there any restrictions concerning the number of rooms per room? What about lodgings?

13. Carbon monoxide

Every year, people die of carbon monoxide poisoning. Students are also among the victims.

Carbon monoxide is a dangerous, invisible and odourless gas. It is generated by heaters, water warmers or bathroom warmers which are:

in bad condition or insufficiently maintained
not correctly connected to the chimney (or connected to a clogged chimney)
placed with insufficient ventilation in the room

People poisoned by carbon monoxide first get a splitting headache, then fall unconscious and can die of suffocation within a few minutes.

You can protect yourself against carbon monoxide poisoning by:

Checking the fabrication date of the heater; if it is made after 1989, you have nothing to fear. If it is made before 1989 you should be careful. If you get a headache and become dizzy in the shower, it is best to call a doctor immediately and have a blood sample taken.
Ventilating the room sufficiently, especially bathrooms which are smaller than 12m²; if there are no grids at the bottom (to let fresh air in) or at the top (to let air out) of the door, the landlord must install them at once. Until this is done, you should shower with the window open, even in winter.
Maintaining the water or bathroom warmer annually; when visiting the room it is best to ask the date of the last maintenance.
Handling "mobile' heaters carefully; when the room cannot be sufficiently heated, people sometimes have a tendency to add a gas or an oil heater. It is best not to use it for more than two hours and to pay attention that you don't fall asleep.

If another event may prove the possibility of carbon monoxide, it is best to notify the landlord at once, so that he can have the appliance concerned replaced at once. For further information, please contact the 'Antigif Centrum' - anti-poison centre; 070/245.245.

14. Internet and TV

If you want internet and cable TV in your room, ask the landlord the following questions:

Does the room have the necessary infrastructure to take cable TV and internet?
Does every student have to arrange his own facilities or is there a joint contract with all the tenants?

Which cable companies are possible?
Compare prices and inform yourself how the contract can be stopped before leaving.