Unite Students - East Central house

anandc84

Oh, where do I start. This company offers alternative accomodation for students and key workers all over the country. Basically they offer halls of residence (i.e bills all included) on fixed lease contracts (varies between city I think).

I'm in my final year of university and having been rejected by my university for their halls of residence I found this website and thought great - they have a few places in London. I saw East Central House which seemed perfect for me so I booked a room there in mid-June to move in 17 September. The only correspondance I've heard from them is the receipt for my intial deposit. Seeing as I'm supposed to be moving in NEXT WEEK I called them to what the hell was going on. I started chasing them at the beginning of this week (late I know but I was working during Summer) and I found out that the guy responsible for "move-ins" has been on holiday for the past few weeks so there's a backlog at East Central but he said it was okay because he remembers my name so, I've probably got a place there. Then he said: "I'll just confirm it with the person in charge of the list and get back to you within 24 hours."

Alas, 24 hours passed no reply, so I called them up today and get the voicemail - left a message so we'll see what happens.

But even right from the start the customer service has been shoddy. I first found out about this place in May, then I arranged a look around one of the rooms and then I tried to book. But the only time I could talk to these people was during my lunch break which meant people around and a reluctance from me to give out my card details - so I said call me at 5.00pm and then I'll book. Guess what? No call. It took ME to chase THEM to book this place and work around their schedule.

To be fair to Unite as an organisation I think that these problems may just be at this one property because when I called up the main office to tell them I hadn't received any tenancy papers a week before I had to moved in, they were surprised and apolgetic.

Not sure if this makes much sense but it's theraputic to get it all out even if I'm the only one who understands. Rant over.

16011996

glad you got it off your chest.

lswwong

Hope you get your room. Fingers x-ed. Particularly since this will be your final year and you have enough of other things to worry about. If things do fall through and Unite can't find you another room, have a look on https://www.thegumtree.com. Big section on accommodation.

Unite is a big commercial business. Their shares are listed and their investment bankers are UBS (UBS Warburg at the time). I would be interested to hear what people think of their service/products

anandc84

Well good news is that it is confirmed that I've got the room - now I'm just waiting for the promised copy of the tenancy agreement (I know it's only false hope). These people are just so hard to get hold of.

anandc84

Oh the futility of getting your hopes up with these people: got a call on 17/9/04 - my move-in date to say: "ohhhhh we're sorry we've double booked the rooms and there won't be a single room available until the end of October."

I told them that I booked this room in June and they said that even people that booked in April were having problems getting rooms!!

Absolutely shocking.

lswwong

Oh no! What if they also double book your room when end of October comes? Is Unite offering you an alternative room in another one of their properties either as an interim measure or outright (for the year)? Are they offering you any compensation for the mistake? That really is shocking I do hope you come through this okay.

Someone I just met was looking for a student room and I mentioned that Unite is a possible source of accommodation. Gosh I hope this person will have better luck ....

Keep us posted! Good luck!

anandc84

Good news!! They said that I definitely have a single room there at the end of October - the only thing they are waiting for is the actual move-out date of the current occupant of my allocated room. So, they said by 1 November I should be in and settled.

They did offer me a shared room in the interim but I said no to that because I would be paying for something that I didn't want.