Legal Help With Student Accommodation

HopeAndDriftWood

MJNewton wrote: »

You're not being annoying so don't worry about 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 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.



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.



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!

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

Mathew

Thank you for your response
I've started to think as much. I'm not sure what to do...Citizens Advice were convinced they'd agree, and so helped me to find somewhere else to live. I'm there, now, and haven't been to the other place since March.

I can't afford to pay both places, and I can't go back there even if I managed to get away from here, as it really affects my health. I have fibromyalgia, and the noise really affects it. I've tried advertising the room but everyone that views says the noise is just too much, and leaves almost instantly.

I seem to be brilliant at getting myself into bad situations...

Thanks again

princeofpounds

Ok, I can see where you are coming from now.

The problem of the noise is now academic given that you have physically moved on and are contracted into a new place, so let's concentrate on getting you out of the tenancy with minimum fuss. There may have been ways to address the noise (especially out of hours building work), but that's not the issue now.

The first thing that strikes me, reading your post, is that the contract you signed apparently has no dates. Is this really true? Does it have a start date? Does it have a duration? Does it say 'Assured Shorthold Tenancy' at the top? This is really important to be clear on.

The second thing you still haven't confirmed - are the halls owned by the university and privately-run, or are they totally privately owned? If university-owned, the law is more complicated but you might have a better opportunity to go to top management in the university and pressure them (with potential bad publicity) into relenting.

Did you provide a deposit? Was that protected?

Speak to a lawyer through your NUS branch. They will be able to tell you if the letter you sent was enough - it may have been even if you did not specify 'full and final settlement'. Contracts are not just established by letter and verbal methods, but also by actions and cashing the cheque may have implied acceptance of the terms of the letter, but only a lawyer can get that detailed as it depends entirely on wording. Probably in this case it just came across as a rental payment and a non-conditional request to terminate, but you never know.

HopeAndDriftWood

Thank you so much Prince.
Could I PM you the letter? I'd like another opinion...I'll try to get to the NUS department tomorrow, but I'm so worried tonight.

It is private accommodation, across the road from the university. My contract does say 'Assured Shorthold Tenancy', but they were very rushed when filling it in. The room had been rented September - December by a girl who hadn't paid any rent at all, and so when they heard we were looking they wanted to rent us the room fast. We paid a £250 deposit, which I believe is protected. I am reading through the contract now in case I missed anything in my upset this morning but so far, there is no start date, no end date, and numerous durations (shown like 1/2/3 weeks with none selected)

Thank you so much.

sonastin

I'm no expert but if there's no end date expressly set out in the contract, there has to be another way to end the tenancy - you can't be expected to rent the place forever. Under other forms of contract (which I know can be different from tenancy agreements), if one side drafts the contract - or uses standard terms - then any ambiguity should be judged in favour of the other side. If this applies to an undated tenancy agreement, I don't see how they can hold you to any more time than you've already paid for.

But as others have said, this is just an un-informed opinion and a solicitor will see you right!

princeofpounds

You can, but I'm no lawyer so I'm not sure how useful it would be. Try not to be too worried about it tonight, it's a nasty financial burden for sure, but the main thing is that you have your health and that's worth a lot more.

Sorry, I'm not totally clear on the durations, given you mention weeks... what I mean is, does it specify the length of the fixed period of the tenancy anywhere?

At least with no start date we know that the contract started on your day of occupation then. What we need to figure out is when it can be terminated!

Fang_3

You need to see your University's accommodation department, and your Student Union's advice centre. At least one should be able to help you. You'll need to collect as much evidence as possible about the noise and how it affects you, including medical evidence. You then should make an appointment with an adviser at University who can help you apply for the Access to Learning Fund, as they may be able to help you with costs of moving.

lynzpower

SaucySecrets wrote: »

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!

Funnily enough I read a similar case on this fairly recently. I will try to find the link and come back to you although where I have seen it Ive no idea so it could take some time.

OUtcome: It was an environmental health issue. When I find the link you can re-present this to your EHP team and expect them to work with it.
Give me some time Ill come back to you.

princeofpounds

Just to follow up, it might be the case that if the AST was established with no fixed term the tenancy was statutory periodic from the start, meaning that you could give one full rental period's notice and then terminate. I am 80% sure on this point, as you can appreciate it doesn't come up often as the norm is 6 months fixed.

There is a minimum 6 month period that is often mentioned in connection with ASTs, but that in fact is a provision in statute that prevents a landlord requesting no-fault eviction within six months, not actually a minimum period.

This is why looking for a term or an end date is so important.

HopeAndDriftWood

I'm still reading through, so that I can't miss anything! Looking at the website it has a tenancy period in weeks, which I can't remember was there when I applied to be housed by them. So far, it isn't on the contract, though.

Thank you Lynzpower, that'd be really appreciated

I'll post back as soon as I've found anything interesting. I really appreciate all the ideas and help, I was feeling very lost before but I'm feeling a little better now.

lynzpower

Is it a license agreement as opposed to a tenancy?

I think this is why you wont find any direct dates.

I know Unite use license agreements as opposed to tenancies.