A second-year Wadham student narrowly escaped being hurt after the ceiling over her bed suddenly caved in during the early hours of the morning.
Fortunately, Maleha Khan was working at her desk at the moment when the ceiling collapsed without warning.
The cave-in littered her pillow with rubble and large chunks of plaster.
Had she been in bed at the time, the Law student could have suffered severe facial injuries.
“I didn’t really know what to do,” she explained, “I was really shocked, and couldn’t sleep. I stayed up until the next morning.”
She rang the estate agents letting her the property in St Mary’s Road, Cowley the following morning, but the response she got was, “it’s an old property, what do you expect?”
The agents sent contractors to inspect the large hole in the ceiling that afternoon, but Khan said that they were insensitive and rude, and asked them to leave.
The workmen returned to finish the repairs the following day, only to leave Maleha’s room and possessions covered in dust and debris, forcing her to sleep elsewhere for several days.
“They were just really rude and unsympathetic to my situtation,” said Khan. “They just stood on my bed whilst they were trying to fix the roof and didn’t even bother to lay down any protective sheets.
“My clothes were just tossed into my cupboard and there was rubble everywhere, including on my printer, straighteners and handmade quilt.”
The student added that she had subsequently sent a letter to the estate agents demanding compensation for her cleaning expenses and an exemption from this month’s rent.
A spokesperson for the estate agents in question insisted that the company had “acted appropriately in a professional and timely manner” following the ceiling collapse on Thursday last week.
The UK-wide letting agency who own the house added that as far as they were concerned there was no question of negligence.
“The house was in perfectly reasonable condition for letting. No one has ever raised complaints before and it is inevitable to have cracks in old houses,” said a spokesperson.
“The room was vacuumed and wiped down after the workmen left the property.”
