Legal Help With Student Accommodation

HopeAndDriftWood

Hi,
I need some legal help, and my CAB isn't open until Friday...Is there anyone on here who I could PM?

I'd rather not put it on the internet until I'm sure what I'm looking for.

Thank you,
E x

Jowo_2

Just to clarify, do you mean student housing owned and managed by a college/university and managed by them? or one of these private halls of residence such as Unite? Or you simply mean you are a student in private accommodation with an AST, same tenure as most tenants have with a private landlord?

princeofpounds

Would help if you narrow it down a bit. Different posters on here are good for different topics.

You can often phone CAB (I mean a different one to your local one). You can phone Shelter. Your NUS branch would normally have access to lawyers free for 30 mins.

HopeAndDriftWood

Oh okay sorry, I'm not very clued up...

It's owned by a private company (Like Unite, but not). I'll try to get through to Shelter...it's about noise, really, but not the usual 'my neighbours are too noisy'.

Thanks

Jowo_2

I second prince of pounds - even Shelter recommend the NUS

http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/finding_a_place_to_live/student_housing

princeofpounds

You are too noisy? ;-)

Can't understand why you are so cautious about posting the general problem, unless its quite identifiable to your personal situation (and lots of halls are noisy places).

Broadly speaking your halls are either university-licensed academic accomodation, which has its own tenancy rules but can be managed by a private operator, or are private operator owned in which case it is broadly normal AST lettings. Any idea which?

ILW

Just saying it is a noise issue does not give much to go on. It could be any one of half a dozen different agencies ranging from the police through to social services depending on what the problem is. A little more info should mean you can get some decent advice.

tux900

If you're after free, private, legal advice you've come to the wrong place.

If you're after thoughts and ideas from others who may have experience/knowledge in the area you will need to elaborate on your issue.

Mathew

Fang_3

Just put it here.

HopeAndDriftWood

I'm sorry to be so annoying...
I'm having an issue with my accommodation. Obviously...sorry, my head isn't very clear today! We'd had trouble with reception about disabled access, and so I feel they are being unfair based on that. The accommodation has one glass side, with the door in it. This faces a road, which is quite small, and across from there was a park when we moved in. In January builders began to clear the park, and although it was noisy, they said they'd be gone within a few weeks so we stuck it out.
In March they converted the cleared park into a proper building site, and my room is right next to the site access. It is so loud in our studio...the glass shakes, there is HGVs etc outside all the time and my ear drums kept bursting. I was advised by my doctor to leave, so I spoke to Citizens Advice, who told me to move out and ask for a mutual termination.
This is what I did, sending photographs and a sound file. I asked for a mutual termination and offered a cheque which covered the rent until this date. I gave them 5 working days after receiving the letter, paid for. I didn't say 'full and final settlement', but Citizens Advice checked the letter, and said it was good to go.

Today they have said no, and that I need to pay the rent until September (it's a strange contract, we had no idea it was for so long as we moved in late and our contract has no dates written on, we were told it was 'normal' duration...lesson learnt) or find a replacement tenant. No one would move in, it's honestly like living in a building site. With the windows and doors closed it's horribly loud, with them open it's even worse, and we have no way of getting fresh air with it closed.

I'm not sure what to do now. I can't contact the person at citizens advice, and as they cashed the cheque two days after I sent it, I had presumed the matter was closed. I've tried Shelter, Environmental Health and Citizens Advice, but so far haven't managed to speak to anyone in the know...

Please be kind, I'm new to all this and learning fast...I'll avoid student accommodation in the future!

tux900

SaucySecrets wrote: »

I'm sorry to be so annoying...

You're not being annoying so don't worry about that!

We'd had trouble with reception about disabled access, and so I feel they are being unfair based on that.

For your own benefit I would try not to make such assumptions as you risk making things personal when from their perspective nothing could be further from the truth.

I was advised by my doctor to leave, so I spoke to Citizens Advice, who told me to move out and ask for a mutual termination.
[...]
Today they have said no, and that I need to pay the rent until September
[...]
or find a replacement tenant.

I am not a lawyer, and indeed have very little experience of renting (other than also being student, many moons ago!), however speaking from a layman's perspective I can't see that they've done anything wrong.

You've asked for mutual termination, and they have declined. Whilst I can appreciate it is not your fault that this building work has commenced, it is equally not theirs either (I am assuming it's not at least!), hence why should they necessarilly suffer because of the situation? Of course, you might ask why you should suffer but the reality is that both parties must stick to their side of the bargain and unless they breach the agreement I'm not sure there's much you can do.

as they cashed the cheque two days after I sent it, I had presumed the matter was closed.

Presumably you pay rent up front hence them cashing the cheque likely means nothing more than them accepting this rent up front to a particular date and not necessarilly that you won't be owing them any more.

Please be kind, I'm new to all this and learning fast...I'll avoid student accommodation in the future!

As I said, these are just my personal independent thoughts and do not constitute legal (or necessarilly sensible!) advice. For what it's worth, I would try and keep things in perspective as to what's right and wrong. I don't mean to be judgemental, but I do know how mountains can be made out of molehills and dealing with the situation can be worse than the situation itself!

Are there other options you can explore? I won't suggest speaking to the builders because presumably they are only working during daylight hours, and it's not possible to build a house without making some noise! If it is just in the daytime, are you not in lectures all day? Or are you doing an Arts course? I appreciate you don't want to have to stay out of your own 'home', but I'm really not sure what you can do if your grievance is with something that's completely outside of your landlord's control.

Good luck what whatever you do, and hopefully someone else can provide some advice.

Mathew