Student rents during the Covid-19 crisis

Galloglass

The difference between holiday lets and student rents:

Relatively speaking there is no difference with those and with a caravan site licence. All are licences to occupy for a period and the overwhelming provision of student accomodation is by licence. There will be a few students that have opt for an AST but they'll be under different property legislation. 

So if a number of parents were to club together for legal advice they may find a line of argument. The parallel is holiday lets where some owners seeing the contractual difficulties with a licence, have opted to give a refund instead. 

Petsitter

Student Rents again! - Sorry.
A month ago Martin was on TV saying that students may not be forced to pay the final term's rent "In most cases, the CMA would expect businesses to offer refunds where they cancel bookings or don’t provide any services, or where consumers are not allowed to use them because of lockdown restrictions.”  As the gov had asked everyone to return to primary residences and they had advised students to return home my daughter couldn't use her accommodation due to lockdown restrictions.  She withheld payment as the CMA states “will normally allow the consumer to withhold payment for services that are not provided by the business or which the consumer is not allowed to use because of Government public health measures;”

Has anyone tried this approach and had success? Her landlord's solicitor has replied saying she must pay and he is charging her interest for the late payment. 

poppy12345

Petsitter said:

Student Rents again! - Sorry.
A month ago Martin was on TV saying that students may not be forced to pay the final term's rent "In most cases, the CMA would expect businesses to offer refunds where they cancel bookings or don’t provide any services, or where consumers are not allowed to use them because of lockdown restrictions.”  As the gov had asked everyone to return to primary residences and they had advised students to return home my daughter couldn't use her accommodation due to lockdown restrictions.  She withheld payment as the CMA states “will normally allow the consumer to withhold payment for services that are not provided by the business or which the consumer is not allowed to use because of Government public health measures;”

Has anyone tried this approach and had success? Her landlord's solicitor has replied saying she must pay and he is charging her interest for the late payment. 

Question nas been answered on your other thread here. https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6149203/student-rents-again-sorry#latest posting in multpile places doens't help.

Grumpy_chap

I think there is a distinct difference between University accommodation (particularly on campus) and student accommodation that is rented in the private sector.  I understand the argument in some cases if the University has closed the campus and they have cancelled providing services, it could be extended to interpret that as closing the accommodation also (but not guaranteed).

In the case of a private landlord, they have not cancelled or failed to provide a service and the consumer is not prevented from using the accommodation because of lockdown.  You say your daughter followed advice to return to her primary residence, and that was interpreted as being to return "home" (I assume you mean the family parental home?).  There could be a case that the student's primary residence is their term address as that is where the individual resides for the majority of the year (for a full time course at least 30 week of term time out of 52 weeks in the year).  Many students also choose to stay in their University accommodation even out of term time.

It is difficult to see that either of the criteria to withhold payment have been met:

• services that are not provided by the business, or
• not allowed to use because of Government public health measures
  

Did your daughter just withhold the payment, or did she have a conversation and reach agreement with the landlord first? 
The terms of her contract still stand and have not been frustrated or voided by coronavirus. 
Is there a guarantor for the rent?  It is likely this will be pursued against the guarantor if the student (your daughter) does not fulfill her obligations under the contract.
Is your daughter and any guarantor willing to risk impacts to credit rating?
Has your daughter been financially impacted by coronavirus, giving her a stronger case to argue hardship and 'unable to pay' rather than 'won't pay'?  Student finance (loans) were still paid as per usual. 
You don't mention in your post, but as parents, you may have been impacted going from full pay to furlough.  That is you though, and not your daughter.
Could your daughter still attend and enter the accommodation and could she have done so throughout?  Does she still need this accommodation when the summer term re-starts?

buglawton

I wrote to my local Conservative MP asking if something could be done to encourage universities to temporarily let out their campus accommodation. My local uni has simply closed its accomm including stopping it's customary holiday lets. It would be an ideal solution for self-isolators in HMOs for example.

Only got a boilerplate reply and no follow up, so govt is uninterested. I guess not many MPs live in HMOs.

poppy12345

buglawton said:

I wrote to my local Conservative MP asking if something could be done to encourage universities to temporarily let out their campus accommodation. My local uni has simply closed its accomm including stopping it's customary holiday lets. It would be an ideal solution for self-isolators in HMOs for example.

Only got a boilerplate reply and no follow up, so govt is uninterested. I guess not many MPs live in HMOs.

Rents are due for the duration of the contract that was signed and this includes HMO's. Landlords still have a mortgage to pay. Student loans were still paid in April for the final term, i know because my son received his.

sweetsand

poppy12345 said:

buglawton said:

I wrote to my local Conservative MP asking if something could be done to encourage universities to temporarily let out their campus accommodation. My local uni has simply closed its accomm including stopping it's customary holiday lets. It would be an ideal solution for self-isolators in HMOs for example.

Only got a boilerplate reply and no follow up, so govt is uninterested. I guess not many MPs live in HMOs.

Rents are due for the duration of the contract that was signed and this includes HMO's. Landlords still have a mortgage to pay. Student loans were still paid in April for the final term, i know because my son received his.

And that means case closed. Landlords are not a charity. If many had to return fees many would need to sell up and that would mean less rentals and higher rents.

buglawton

Think you've managed to miss my point about HMOs and Uni managed accommodation.

If anyone in an HMO gets symptoms, all those sharing the property must enter a regime of timetabling kitchen use, fully cleaning shared bathroom after every use, wearing masks in common areas inside the house. This is because the afflicted person has to self isolate and other house occupants must be very circumspect. Now, how long can an HMO go without one of its 6 or 7 occupants getting some symptoms? It's very unfortunate for HMO dwellers that their house could be in semi-lockdown for half a year.

What should happen is that at subsidised cost, that person could use currently empty uni student accom until testing Covid-negative. The subsidy would exist to prevent that person having to pay double rent till they return to their HMO. Now there's nothing to incentivise universities to do this. Yet the unis live by a large dollop of public money and are sitting on 100s of empty rooms per city. Arguably they should be offering the rooms at minimal cost as a Covid-19 resource. Hence this needs to be part of government policy.

And btw, for anyone thinking that HMOs are just for down-and-outs, think again. The biggest occupancy in Southern UK cities is young, busy, working professionals.