Ending University Lettings Agreement

gaggyball

My son who,is at Derby University, has been told that his course finishes on the 5th May this year. Obviously, he wants to return home when his course finishes in May. His lettings agreement with the university doesn't finish until 8th July and he has been told that he has to pay up to this date.

I make it that they will receive £558.18 without him even living there!

Can the university insist on him paying?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Gingernutmeg

Your son's course may finish on May 5th, but possibly he has work to hand in after that, or even exams? I finish on May 5th too, but my hand in date is May 17th ... my partner finishes at the same time but his hand in date isn't until May 30th - he also has exams in the first two weeks of June. I believe that the University contracts last longer to take account of this and to leave some room for students who may have to retake or resubmit - the date for retakes/resubmissions at my uni is early July. I also *think* that although universities have their own semester dates etc, for accomodation and finance purposes they follow the standard LEA terms which go right through 'til July.

It is a pain and it does seem unfair, but it does give your son a bit of breathing room, should he need to retake exams etc. At the end of the day, your son has signed a contract and I doubt that the university would let him off that ... It's the same everywhere - I ended up living in international student accommodation and had to pay right though until August, even though my course finished in May!

melancholly

i'd double check with your son about a finishing date that early - that might be when lectures finish but the derby website has exams listed from 7th-22nd May, so he probably needs to be there for that!

in saying that, the year calender also has the UG end of year date as June 13th, so accommodation into July seems a bit odd.

i don't think you'l get the money back anyway - like gingernut says, it's a signed contract...... most private landlords offer 10 month contracts, so you end up paying for June anyway. it's not really fair but that's the way it seems to work - sorry that that isn't much help to you!

Noctu

I was in the same situation with my university halls - seems that it's quite a common thing.

Crispy_Ambulance

gaggyball wrote: »

My son who,is at Derby University, has been told that his course finishes on the 5th May this year. Obviously, he wants to return home when his course finishes in May. His lettings agreement with the university doesn't finish until 8th July and he has been told that he has to pay up to this date.

I make it that they will receive £558.18 without him even living there!

Can the university insist on him paying?

Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

Yes they can.

He has signed a contract agreeing to pay rent for a fixed term. Whether he is living there or not is immaterial.

If he doesn't pay, they can take him to court and some universities will withhold degree results if the student has any debts. They shouldn't do that for accommodation debts but some might. And they will definitely pursue the debt if he doesn't pay it.

Gingernutmeg

^^ my uni does insist on payment - they will withold our degrees for ANY unpaid debts, be that accommodation or library fines. Also, they will probably withold his deposit, which could be quite large - mine was £200.

jennifernil

Here in Glasgow the Halls of Residence have a rate per term, but the Uni flats are on 12 month contracts, 1st July to 30th June, as are pretty much all private lets. Any place doing 10 month lets would just charge more per month.

lellie

Your son will probably have exams which will take him up to the end of May for the end of his degree. Also it is usual for unis to give you a few weeks after the end of the course still to live in halls for those students that don't want to or can't move back home immediately. Most private student lets will start on 1st July so it is actually very sensible of the uni to have the tenancy for longer than this to allow students moving into private tenancy to move out from their halls to their new place straight away. Some unis finish halls agreement about a week after the exams finish and then students may have to move all their stuff home to their parents, only to move it back to uni again 2 weeks later when their new tenancy agreement starts at the start of July.

The uni will have set length contracts to make it easier to organise. Your son will have to pay and if he isn't there then that's his own loss. He should consider making the most of having halls during this time when he can spend time with friends and enjoy his university city without having to worry about his course!

Money_saving_Martyn

lellie wrote: »

The uni will have set length contracts to make it easier to organise. Your son will have to pay and if he isn't there then that's his own loss. He should consider making the most of having halls during this time when he can spend time with friends and enjoy his university city without having to worry about his course!

I agree, although I did go to uni with the intention of becoming idependant. If you've signed a contract for x Weeks, it means you have to pay the rent for that many weeks. It's that blunt and everywhere seems to be the same. Even if you were to rent privately next time, you will find they're all fixed 9, 10 or 12 month contracts.

gaggyball

Thanks to everyone who has appplied to this post!

It looks like he will have to pay. It seems an exploitation of the students but that seems unfair.

slowlyfading

He will do, I'm a second year student at lancaster, and we have to pay at the start of term for that term. its not nice and works out expensive, but there's nothing we can do about it.
Nicola x