Help Poor Students!

abbas_bhanji

hello there, just wantede to add to ur comment abt unite accomodation. it seems like we are both in a similar situation, i had to move out due to personal reasons, cardiff university helped me look for a replacement student for my room, but the student was late for 1 month and unite charged me for the rent, they havent paid my deposite, despite me having to clean the room, i followed all the rules and made sure i paid all the rent on time. unite have now handed my case to a debt collection agency, i didnt weven know abt any payment s that i had to make, i suddenly recive a letter from credit collection asking me to pay 344.63£ in 7 days, the collection agency didnt even know what the money was for!!!!.....anyways, my question is, how did u manage to clear ur outstanding amount with unite?? please help me, and please advise me on waqt actions to take!

thankyou

meggiemoo_d wrote: »

Unite are rubbish.....I moved out at the start of the year due to family problems, found someone else for my room who moved in. Unite delayed signing contracts then decided at 6pm on a Friday evening to evict her for no reason!!! Now they are trying to get a whole years rent out of me (well actually out of my recently widowed mum!!).

Anyone out there who are considering unite based on the gorgeous show flat......DON'T!!!! Our flat was a state compared to the showflat and we didn't have an oven for 6 weeks despite me popping into the office everyday!!!!

melancholly

abbas_bhanji wrote: »

hello there, just wantede to add to ur comment abt unite accomodation. it seems like we are both in a similar situation, i had to move out due to personal reasons, cardiff university helped me look for a replacement student for my room, but the student was late for 1 month and unite charged me for the rent, they havent paid my deposite, despite me having to clean the room, i followed all the rules and made sure i paid all the rent on time. unite have now handed my case to a debt collection agency, i didnt weven know abt any payment s that i had to make, i suddenly recive a letter from credit collection asking me to pay 344.63£ in 7 days, the collection agency didnt even know what the money was for!!!!.....anyways, my question is, how did u manage to clear ur outstanding amount with unite?? please help me, and please advise me on waqt actions to take!

thankyou

contact cardiff university student services immediately, taking all the paperwork you have with you. hopefully you will have something in writing showing when you stopped being responsible for paying the room. any emails with relevant info could also help.

from the cardiff website it also looks like you can get help from the students union and they have a solicitor who comes in regularly to offer advice on housing situations - go to them with all your paperwork too!
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/advice/housing/index.html

ColdDish

I just read your post and signed up just so I can post this.

Hey all,

Having lived in Unite Student Halls and been flooded, almost electrocuted, cut off, left in the dark, and in such bad coniditons I had to call an ambulance the other day etc. Do not live in Unite.

If any of you have any complaints against unite please let me know.

Also you might like to know a few facts about unite. They are a fund management company too. All your rent goes to a bunch of bankers.

google.co.uk/finance?q=LON:UTG

"Mark Creedy, the former head of Legal & General Property, has joined Unite Group to oversee the management of its £877m UK student accommodation fund.

Creedy, who will be managing director of fund management at Unite, has been working with Unite, the listed student accommodation provider since January 2009 as a consultant to establish best practice procedures and explore opportunities for enhancing its fund and asset management business."


Unite broadband the "lite package" means most ports are blocked. The bandwidth available to you for this "free internet" is less that a 56 dialup modem.

You also have to pay for the 'super' package up front with a fee of £260. NON REFUNDABLE.

Here is a list of UK internet providers. You will note no-one provides a residential 512k line. Most even don't provide a 2mb line anymore. Unite forces you to use U-want which is anticompetitive.

thinkbroadband.com/isps.html

The 2mb never operates at that speed.

The wiring behind the panels in your room uses standard electrical cable (ie same as your 4 way extensions). Its cheap, and breaks easily as do the sockets. Its substandard as is the plumbing.

Pipes will break due to bad plumbing which creates leaks which in turn... hits the electricity supply.

Unite also "wrote off" this year. That's right. You may have noticed a significant increase in the complaints and problems. That's because they had no intention of fixing anything or doing anything about it. They "wrote off" the appalling conditions, falling grades of students, the issues etc.

Most of you have probably had trouble contacting unite. That's because they fired a large majority of their staff to stay in business.

Check their share price

google.co.uk/finance?q=LON:UTG

at the beginning of this year.

So if you fancy airing any grievances against Unite. Please let me know.

The service is non existent as the Connaught Engineer admitted that they just pretend to fix things to make sure they get more money. (Connaught are a joint venture with Unite now). That's why nothing gets fixed.

Unite makes money from uninformed students. Go look for yourself and talk to students who live at these properties. Then check out the prices for living in a normal flat house. Its a lot cheaper and nicer to live out. Also the myth that you'll be with students who will be like you and they will check your preferences is hilarious. They won't and they don't.

There online maintenance system doesn't work. Internally there departments don't even talk to each and that's another reason why nothing gets done.

Check you deposits to ensure they are held in protection with a government scheme.

Most of all, do not trust Unite. Spread the word. I think this point has already been stated many times considering all the complaints on here but Unite only survives because uninformed people use them.

They will be bought out/change for the better.

or

Don't use them then they wont exist.

Unite will simply lie to your face until you sign the contract.

monaug5

I totally understand what you are trying to say!

HopeAndDriftWood

Hmm...I'm torn on this. At the moment I live in Curzon Gateway, in a lovely studio flat. It is lovely. Pristine, and they do whatever they can to help. It's expensive, £160 a week and then £200 internet, but I am not charged for heating, water or electric, and I can be here whenever I need to be.
They aren't without fault. I sat in reception this morning and watched them try to persuade everyone who entered to book for next year now, while there is a 10% discount, as room prices are going up next year. They didn't mention charging for utilities, though.
Contract wise, mine runs from October 28th til June 28th, I haven't been offered any more or any less. I don't know where I'll go in the Summer, because I haven't got a permanent home to go too, so maybe I'm biased.
Unite have been good to me, though, and they are open about how much they charge.

Oldernotwiser

SaucySecrets wrote: »

Hmm...I'm torn on this. At the moment I live in Curzon Gateway, in a lovely studio flat. It is lovely. Pristine, and they do whatever they can to help. It's expensive, £160 a week and then £200 internet, but I am not charged for heating, water or electric, and I can be here whenever I need to be.
They aren't without fault. I sat in reception this morning and watched them try to persuade everyone who entered to book for next year now, while there is a 10% discount, as room prices are going up next year. They didn't mention charging for utilities, though.
Contract wise, mine runs from October 28th til June 28th, I haven't been offered any more or any less. I don't know where I'll go in the Summer, because I haven't got a permanent home to go too, so maybe I'm biased.
Unite have been good to me, though, and they are open about how much they charge.

How much?!:eek::eek:

bestpud

SaucySecrets wrote: »

Hmm...I'm torn on this. At the moment I live in Curzon Gateway, in a lovely studio flat. It is lovely. Pristine, and they do whatever they can to help. It's expensive, £160 a week and then £200 internet, but I am not charged for heating, water or electric, and I can be here whenever I need to be.
They aren't without fault. I sat in reception this morning and watched them try to persuade everyone who entered to book for next year now, while there is a 10% discount, as room prices are going up next year. They didn't mention charging for utilities, though.
Contract wise, mine runs from October 28th til June 28th, I haven't been offered any more or any less. I don't know where I'll go in the Summer, because I haven't got a permanent home to go too, so maybe I'm biased.
Unite have been good to me, though, and they are open about how much they charge.

Good to you???

Maybe they are, but you're being charged for it!!

You surely don't mean £200 a week???

Does that include food?

Do they provide a cleaner?

WolfSong2000

£200 a week for a new unite place sounds about right...some of my friends pay upto £150 p/w for older establishments...I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole, personally...I think it's outrageous how much they charge!!!

Oldernotwiser

WolfSong2000 wrote: »

£200 a week for a new unite place sounds about right...some of my friends pay upto £150 p/w for older establishments...I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole, personally...I think it's outrageous how much they charge!!!

Rather shows up the proposition that all students are skint, doesn't it? Many graduates in decent jobs wouldn't be able to afford this sort of rent, or expect a stuio flat all to themselves!

(I assumed that the £200 was per term or per year.)

melancholly

i couldn't pay £200 a week.... not even an option.... blimey! to be honest, if unite can find enough students prepared to pay stupid money, then fair play to them. it must be like taking candy from a baby - charging over the odds and yet having people queue up.... i'm shocked so many students will pay that much!