Student Halls stinging me with unreasonable charges.

chambta

Guitar wrote: »

You may find the University will refuse to let you graduate or move onto the next year until you pay the fine.

During my time in student halls I was stung for:

'Causing a fire hazard' by riding my bike up to my front door one time = £20
Cost to repair damage of two cigarette burns to my room carpet = £70 (I don't smoke, nobody ever smoked in the room, there were no cigeratte burns when I moved out)
Some joker left a stolen street sign near the flat = £20 fine for all residents.
If someone sets the fire alarm off = £20 fine for all residents unless someone admits fault.

At xmas the cleaners would go around the flats in a gang demanding money from residents ("Are you gonna giz a bung?") I refused so that may be where the cig burns came from.

If anyone had tried any of those you mention on me they'd have got short thrift. £20 fine for someone else setting off the fire alarm? Madness.

moromir

Kierz wrote:

The card has a circular hole in the corner and is on a keyring with other keys such as the flats mailbox key and door fob, therefore not being kept in a wallet.

Im not looking to be told I am wrong, as I already know I am not in the right, Im looking for helpful ideas or things I can say that will get me out of this unreasonable situation.

I really don't mean to insult your intelligence but surely common sense would suggest removing the card from the keyring and placing it in your wallet or purse to stop it flexing and breaking? Of course, hindsight is a wondeful thing etc.

If the University have given you a key card in good condition then I would think they were within their rights to expect to recieve it back in more or less the same condition, especially since you can't have had it that long.

Presumably you also agreed to their terms and conditions and their inventory of the room/any other items - you need to dig this out because if key cards arn't mentioned then you start to have ammunition with which to contest the matter.

However, personally, if it were me, I would take a deep breath, realise it was my fault and take it on the chin and learn from it, pay the fine and send a short polite note to say that I felt the card broke very easily and they may wish to address the matter with their supplier. (Although personally I certainly wouldn't keep a thin plastic card in my pocket and expect it to be ok).

Good luck.

moromir

chambta wrote: »

If anyone had tried any of those you mention on me they'd have got short thrift. £20 fine for someone else setting off the fire alarm? Madness.

I once rescued a flaming lasagne during my time as a Halls fire marshall... all the second floor lost was their tea!

mellymeep

I got charged £50 for a replacement key card in my halls of residence. It's in the contract which you signed, unfortunately now is not the time to be contesting the terms.

Emmzi

*is doing grad recruitment this year*

*Imagines OP using this as an interview answer on showing initiative/ thinking for himself*

*would rather employ a somewhat less argumentative sheep*

No need to get testy just because the answers people give don't say what you want ot hear. If a majority think you are wrong, well, you probably are.

tbs624

Emmzi - how does that post of yours help anyone? The OP is *not* applying to you for a grad job and is probably glad that he's not, as you obviously prefer people to "get back in their box". Note that the OP has already said

Kierz wrote: »

Im not looking to be told I am wrong, as I already know I am not in the right, Im looking for helpful ideas or things I can say that will get me out of this unreasonable situation.

OP - as a previous poster has suggested, students elsewhere have challenged the costs of such things and clearly been successful in doing so. I think I would have been in touch with the SU at an earlier stage.

You could ask the SU to find out what happens at the end of a contract, ie whether returned cards are scrapped, and whether all new room occupants do in fact receive a brand new key card. If they do then a charge of £35 to replace your physically damaged but still working card would seem unreasonable. That's a different issue to the security problems that are caused when students lose their card during their time of occupation. It's also worth asking them how many students get "fleeced" over this issue.

I agree with you that if the card is designed to fit on a key fob then it *should* be able to stand up to some pretty rough treatment or they should make it clear that it needs to be stored flat inside a purse or wallet when not in use.

Unfortunately, many Uni halls are not let on an AST so student deposits do not have to been scheme registered, as they would be if the let was under an AST so a student's only recourse is to the small claims track of the County court if they think that a deduction is being made unfairly.

As a general note to all students, always take *very* detailed photos when you move in and out of your HoR in the same way that you should if using a Private Sector LL for your subsequent years at Uni, and make sure that you adequately amend that inventory (keeping a copy safely with your tenancy/license papers)

princeofpounds

Well, I'm going to back up the OP a bit here. Whilst legally there may not be much they can do (I frankly have no idea in this instance) the charge is steep and ridiculous.

Generally non-state organisations are not permitted to institute punitive civil penalties. This falls in the same category as the £120 'parking ticket' you get for overstaying in the supermarket car park which in fact is nothing of the sort, it's merely an invoice dressed up to look like something official. I am aware that it might be covered in contractual terms that put it in a different territory legally speaking, but morally it's pretty similar.

I have no problem with the charge being somewhat proportional to the work involved and the cost incurred. £35 it is not. At my workplace we have some pretty high-security access passes with holograms, printed photos and RFID chips. You lose it, you have to pay £5. The actual procedure of reissue takes 2 minutes, and the card itself is worth about £1 (I know, because I asked). Hell, even £10 or £15 I could live with. £35 represents something like 7 hours of minimum-wage labour, it's a big deal and clearly in punitive territory.

The university halls is not in the business of policing someone's life or their wallet-management skills, or at least it should not be. It's insulting and paternalistic. Privte sectors tenancies and leasehold/freehold tenancies are not permitted to behave so disproportionately any more.

As someone who wasn't in university all that long ago, I think many people these days are unaware of the sheer commercialisation that has grown up around the expansion of the university sector under Labour. However, it's not a 'fair' consumer/supplier commercialism due to the statist and monopolist nature of the institution, it's the commercialism of the council that taxes you for bin collections, and then charges you again if you want them more than fortnightly. The hospital that has steep fees for car parking and for phone use simply to suck money out of patients who have no alternative.

tbs624

princeofpounds wrote: »

Well, I'm going to back up the OP a bit here. Whilst legally there may not be much they can do (I frankly have no idea in this instance) the charge is steep and ridiculous.

OP should perhaps do a bit more research amongst other students/ his local SU, and on the actual cost of a new card, and if his HoR provider is signed up to ANUK/Unipol, then he may want to consider having a go under this part of their Code :

ANUK/Unipol Codes:[FONT=&quot][/FONT]

• Your contract is clearly written, stating what you are paying for and how much your rent is, with reasonable terms and no hidden costs
  

mynameisdave

I know my residential flat charges a similar fee for a new card but that does not have somebody on site to do it. It all depends on how sophisticated it is. If the entry system is no different to a hotel room then its OTT, if its more technical then it is not entirely unreasonable.

They'd never have got away with it at my uni because they fobs were awful and opened half the doors on campus. Fortunately once in everything was by traditional key.

Oldernotwiser

Kierz wrote: »

Im not looking to be told I am wrong, as I already know I am not in the right, .

Says it all really!