The Silk Mill

Don’t believe any good anyone is saying about this place, I can honestly say that I think they are getting paid or they are robots. The landlord and agent is absolutely no help straight away after you sign the contract. They just ignore your existence. The place is way too warm since you can only open one window, or you can’t even do that since some of the rooms don’t allow it. The wifi is awful whenever everyone is home, meaning every night and on weekends, and you cannot even get your own because you aren’t allowed to do so, just because the landlord says so. The smoke detectors are so easy to trigger, we were cooking burgers and it triggered 2 whole fire departments to arrive to the building 10 minutes later because they thought there is a fire, and you can’t even disable it or anything meaning we couldn’t have stopped it in anyways. On top of all these bad experiences, we live on the top floor and the elevator is supposed to be working since we moved in, now it’s nearly 8 weeks into our contract and there isn’t even any signs of it getting repaired. Save yourself with moving somewhere else and not this place.

I rented a property at Silk Mill, Galgate, Lancaster through Vivo Residential Ltd. My tenancy ended on 1st August 2025, and despite repeated attempts, I have still not had my deposit returned. •I contacted the Tenancy Deposit Scheme (TDS), who confirmed that no deposit has been registered under my tenancy. •By law, deposits must be protected in a government-approved scheme, but this was not done in my case. •I have reached out to the agent multiple times, but my messages have been ignored. Tenants should be aware that this conduct is unprofessional and unlawful. If you are considering renting through this agency, please make sure to confirm that your deposit is protected in a government-approved scheme and that you are given the proper certification. I am now being forced to consider further legal action to recover my deposit. My advice to others: Always check that your deposit is properly protected, and think twice before renting through this company.

I currently live in silk mill lancaster & it was out of desperation with the lack of affordable housing currently. The wifi is very pooor quality, the shower sometimes goes from boiling hot to freezing cold in the space of a few short minutes. The lift has been broken since i moved in last year. There are no windows that open inside the "cheaper" rooms so you get no ventilation unless you open your door and that doesn't help sometimes. It also means you never get privacy, you also cannot open the blinds in your room as a lot of the rooms face each other. So a lot of times it can feel like you're paying to be in a prison. Currently it's really warm in lancaster & it's literally unbearable having no ventilation. It's incredibly sad that we're paying almost a grand a month & getting the very bare minimum. I have also seen complaints of people not getting their deposits back ? It's beyond a joke.

1. The lift of the building was broken for more than 6 months and the management team couldn’t find a single person to fix it, we had to climb the stairs to the second floor while carrying heavy luggages. 2. There was no open window in the room which makes it really hot during the summer time, I had to buy a big fan to at least keep the air circulating inside my room. 3. Out of nowhere, there are giant flies appearing in my room from time to time (even if there is no window in the room) 4. The fire alarm gets triggered really easily, it is disturbing especially when it rings during midnight/early morning. I don’t recommend student living here because I don’t think the management team (vivo) is helpful, they don’t reply to emails when it comes to repaying the deposits.

Terrible experience for me and my wife and had to live for a while! For some reason, the fire alarm went off day or night, and despite all the crowds, some days there was no security guard, so we had to call the vivo manager and report the situation. Frankly, this situation does not seem safe at all. Some of the rooms between the floors did not have windows, and when people cooked, they had to open their external doors to get air, which caused the whole building to be surrounded by a strange smell and smoke. The elevator was almost always broken. I injured my back while getting to our room on the 4th floor and couldn't recover for a week. All our e-mails asking when the elevator will be built remained unanswered. Without any reason, they said that they would not refund almost all of the dues we paid for the room we stayed in for only 4 months. "Absurd excuses were told, such as the garbage we had cleaned, bagged, left aside and the bed moved. " I never recommend!

To be honest, the ground floor of this building should not be rented out as the lighting is dim, which seriously affects the living experience, and the need to switch on the lights during the day makes it feel very depressing. I don't think the rooms on the ground floor are up to scratch. Also, the windows are very high and usually closed, which is a major drawback. Overall, you need to be lucky to be allocated a well-lit room to have a good living experience. The on-site manager was more than welcoming and resolved issues quickly. However, the rental company managers are often unresponsive to your needs and take a long time to refund deposits.