Event aims to pre-empt flatting issues

Tertiary students jumping into the world of flatting for the first time gathered at the University of Otago to get tips on how to do it successfully.

Yesterday, the Otago University Students Association (OUSA) hosted an event on Union Lawn aiming to provide students with all the resources they needed to have a safe and happy flat for 2025.

OUSA education and engagement co-ordinator Sophie Penn said it was really trying to prevent the big things that went wrong in flats before they happened.

‘‘Unfortunately, things generally do go wrong flatting at some point, whether it’s the quality of the home, communication between landlords and tenants or just a breakdown in relationships between flatmates in general,’’ she said.

OUSA often held mediation meetings between flatmates throughout the year when inter-flat relations turned sour.

If she had any advice for students going into their first time flatting, it would be to ‘‘just be respectful of other people’s boundaries and backgrounds’’, she said.

‘‘Everyone was brought up differently. Just have that open communication and make sure you’re all on the same foot.’’

Making a flat contract with expectations and boundaries would help.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand had a fire safety stall at the event. Others with stalls included the Dunedin Curtain Bank, Emergency Management Otago and Tenancy Services.

University of Otago first-year students and flatmates Eryka Cardeno and Maikey Quiachon said all was going well in the new flat they moved into last month.

Miss Cardeno said there were four in total in their flat, and they were confident the year would be smooth sailing.

‘‘We all kind of know each other and we all just kind of click.

‘‘Making a flat agreement was like one of the first things we, like, decided on.’’

laine.priestley@odt.co.nz