Ending student accommodation lease early

davidmcn

kuratowski said:

greatcrested said:

But that's the crux of the OP's query.

University is telling the students to 'go home' and OP is asking whether this justifies (legally? morally?) ending the tenancy early. The answer is

a) 'go home' does not mean vacate current accommodation and

This is not true.  I have seen an actual example of such an email (from UCL in this case) and it is crystal clear they are telling students to leave their student accommodation and go back to their family homes.  There will only be a skeleton staff remaining to cater for the few (mostly international) students who cannot return due to travel restrictions.  All university buildings and libraries will be closed indefinitely.

That might be understandable where the university is the student's landlord, but I don't think that's the case here.

sajmal2980

Good afternoon,  I have a similar problem with my daughter. The university has closed until September and she is contracted to rent her accommodation until the end of June. This £140 a week for no reason. Since everything has gone online the students don't need to be close to the university to attend lecturers. Is there any help for students to get out of their contracts early or even some financial help to pay the rent? I don't see why my daughter should have additional financial debt when not necessary.
Appreciate some advice from other in same situation. 

need_an_answer

sajmal2980 said:

Good afternoon,  I have a similar problem with my daughter. The university has closed until September and she is contracted to rent her accommodation until the end of June. This £140 a week for no reason. Since everything has gone online the students don't need to be close to the university to attend lecturers. Is there any help for students to get out of their contracts early or even some financial help to pay the rent? I don't see why my daughter should have additional financial debt when not necessary.
Appreciate some advice from other in same situation. 

All I can reiterate is the other posts I've made and the potential that the student grant due to be paid in April to all students still goes through.
My thinking is although they are not living in the accommodation and presumably not paying for food etc,because they are back with the family then potentially the grant will go some way to funding the rental payment.

I've not checked with my student offspring what grant is likely to come through in April but I  do know that we are still under contract to pay just over £1200 to cover April to the end of term.

greatcrested

I stand corrected:UCL has changed its advice:

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/mar/message-students-provost-and-registrar-about-building-closures-and-returning-home

But that won't affect private contractual obligations unless the government changes the law.

sajmal2980

need_an_answer said:

sajmal2980 said:

Good afternoon,  I have a similar problem with my daughter. The university has closed until September and she is contracted to rent her accommodation until the end of June. This £140 a week for no reason. Since everything has gone online the students don't need to be close to the university to attend lecturers. Is there any help for students to get out of their contracts early or even some financial help to pay the rent? I don't see why my daughter should have additional financial debt when not necessary.
Appreciate some advice from other in same situation. 

All I can reiterate is the other posts I've made and the potential that the student grant due to be paid in April to all students still goes through.
My thinking is although they are not living in the accommodation and presumably not paying for food etc,because they are back with the family then potentially the grant will go some way to funding the rental payment.

I've not checked with my student offspring what grant is likely to come through in April but I  do know that we are still under contract to pay just over £1200 to cover April to the end of term.

She gets her loan in April for the last term, most of it goes on rent. I usually top her up every month for food etc. This situation is increasingly becoming a bad situation for a lot of people. 

diggingdude

Why shouldn't landlords get their contractual rent? You could perhaps ask to defer payment but you would still owe it

silvercar

Although I appreciate how galling it is to have to pay rent for somewhere you won't live, I don't see that moving home incurs any more financial hardship than students expected to incur had the academic year continued as usual.

Retireby40

If he is renting a house I assume he is sharing it? Are the others living there or has everyone moved back to their parents.

It's a difficult situation because technically the landlord is providing him (plus whoever else) a property to live in. Although classes have been suspended technically they could still live there. Still study and carry on with their work online from there. He has a choice to stay there. 

I dont know why the university would tell adults to go back to their parents home when they can easily cook, clean, study from wherever they currently were. Maybe it is more to encourage non idle behaviour like having parties and drinking and generally being students with time on their hands.

Maybe they could try with the others to negotiate and pay half rent or something but ultimately the landlord may not be able to afford that. It all depends on their economic situation. 

hagus72

Wow cheers for all the replies guys 
He is in Halls of residence in Salford. I suppose things might be different if the Halls of residence actually closed and he was told to go "home" home if you get my drift.? 🤔 

bris

My daughter is having to end the tenancy early but as it's Aberdeen uni she is at she has a new Scottish tenancy agreement that means she only has to give 28 days notice, none of the old rules apply in Scotland. As the rents paid in advance its only a 1 week cross over for her so they can leave for just 1 more weeks rent.

Has England still not followed this model lease yet? I thought they were adopting it in the rest of the UK

For me the term go home is to where they are living at the time, so thats not back to parents.