Housing Foundation Copenhagen - problems

Problems in the Housing Foundation accommodation

There’s no place, where there can not be any problems at all and neither was the Housing Foundation an exception. There were a couple of problems, that aroused while me being there.

First of all, I have mentioned in my other article, that I needed my keys to get changed, because I couldn’t get into the dorm, because the keys for that door was not the ones that the door needed. They said that they had the door locks changed recently and that key was for the former door. So that, I couldn’t get on that floor, where my room was and, hence, I couldn’t get inside my room. Fortunately, my dormmate Lisa was in her room and when I rang the bell, she heard me and she kind of rescued me from sleeping on the stairs there or somewhere else in the building. And by that, I mean, the entrance, because no other doors were open either.

Well, that problem got solved pretty fast. I went to the Housing Foundation office the following day after the lectures and they gave me the new keys, which worked well on both doors, and the staff was very nice and I was really pleased with the attention they made towards me and my problem.

The second problem aroused after one week of me being there in Copenhagen and in the Housing Foundation Gartnerboligen apartments. We had these cards for the door, which was the main one for the building and with those cards and the pass codes on them we could enter the building, which meant, that no other people could enter it without a valid card. And one day, when I got there and used my card, it didn’t let me inside and it didn’t turn green, instead, it was still red and it was raining outside and I was already kind of wet and I was pretty cold, so that it couldn’t be happening! I wrote a message to Lisa; however, she was not at home and then I rang the bell and fortunately a new girl was in her room and she heard the bell ringing, went downstairs and let me in. She told me that the problem was on her card too. However, she had gone to the Housing Foundation, had her card updated and now it worked. But I couldn’t get any help, because it was Friday and the Housing Foundation was not open at the weekend, so that I had to wait until Monday for them to get to their work. It was very bad, because I had all those plans on sightseeing the city of Copenhagen and I couldn’t leave, because then I wouldn’t be able to get inside the house. Then this girl helped me out and she told me that she was going to go to the countryside on that weekend, she could leave her card somewhere nearby the door and I could use it when I needed too, then I would also leave it there after I opened the entrance door. So, she hid the card behind the leaves of some bushes beside the door on the building and I could easily use it when I needed to get inside the building.

Although it was already Friday evening, there was still time to get to the Housing Foundation and I went to the Housing Foundation and told them about my problem and that my card didn’t work. They took my card and told me that they would update it and instead, they gave me all the remaining four cards and told me to check whether they worked or not. And if they didn’t work, then they wouldn’t be able to do anything until my card was updated. And I went home with the hope that one of them could work. However, none of them were valid and I had to tell them that. And they told me to come back on Monday and then my card would be updated, until then, I had to use the card that my dormmate left for me beside the door.

On Monday I went to the Housing Foundation again and they gave me my card. However, this lady was not really sure whether it was updated or not. Fortunately, when I got home and put the card on the scanner and filled in the code, it turned green and I could now enter the building with my own card and I felt so happy at that moment, like something amazing had happened!

Returning the deposit

As I’ve already told you the deposit was 8000 DKK to be paid and that was somewhere about 1500 USD (about 1351 EUR), so that it was not a cheap deposit, that I was making and I wanted to have that money back. That’s why I did my best not to break anything in my room and keep it clean and leave it as it was when I first got in. I cleaned it very well until my departure from the room and I cleaned the kitchen, the bathroom, the common room too, and I even cleaned the corridor on our floor, which was pretty dirty, I must say. And my work was appreciated and I got my money back the 20th of September, which is my father’s birthday, if you want to know the truth. So that, it was kind of a gift to us then!

In conclusion, I would recommend the Housing Foundation rooms to other students, who are willing to study or attend some university courses in Copenhagen. Some people said, that some students didn’t get their deposit back and there were some lawsuits and stuff like that, however, in my experience, they did return the deposit and I was pretty pleased with the services they offered in the Housing Foundation.

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