Student accommodation fees

kyra595

Just wondering has anybody any info on rights on this. My daughter is in Liverpool John Moore and her accommodation Sanctuary Students are insisting payment for 3rd term at a cost of £1645. Other accommodations are letting students out of this 3rd payment/contract as obviously not using it due to pandemic... but Sanctuary Students aren't.
What are our rights?  Thank you in advance for any help.

gary83

What does her contract say about cancellation? 

Is the accommodation still available?
the fact that other companies have cancelled the contract when the accommodation was available is irrelevant for yourself unfortunately, it was basically a gesture of goodwill in most cases.

poppy12345

We've had a few posts on here regarding this and i haven't heard of anyone not expecting payment for the final term. Students loans are still be paid as normal, i know this because my son is in his final year and he received his loan as normal.

gary83

poppy12345 said:

We've had a few posts on here regarding this and i haven't heard of anyone not expecting payment for the final term. Students loans are still be paid as normal, i know this because my son is in his final year and he received his loan as normal.

Some uni owned halls weren’t expecting payment, unite students accommodation also said they weren’t expecting payment for a final term provided you told them by April 10th: https://www.unitestudents.com/the-common-room/health-and-wellbeing/an-update-from-us-on-covid-19 

basically though it was a nice gesture, not one that they had to make if the accommodation was still available. In the same way that anyone renting a flat or house couldn’t expect to just pack up and move back in with their parents and not be held financially responsible for the duration of the contract they’d signed.

kyra595

Thanks. Contract doesn't really allow for cancellation... you can get a new tenant in instead and swap tenany. But, to be fair I don't suppose pandemics were taken into account when writing. 
Yes... she got her student loan... which at the minute is just in an account. We would rather give loan back for this term.. than pay interest on money to pay for something she doesn't need.Thats like getting a car loan with no car! It's pretty unfortunate... because obviously no jobs now for students, no university... yet all the bill's. 😒 It is pretty unfair at minute as the majority of universities seem to be letting students out of these contracts.

sliphi

kyra595 said:

Just wondering has anybody any info on rights on this. My daughter is in Liverpool John Moore and her accommodation Sanctuary Students are insisting payment for 3rd term at a cost of £1645. Other accommodations are letting students out of this 3rd payment/contract as obviously not using it due to pandemic... but Sanctuary Students aren't.
What are our rights?  Thank you in advance for any help.

https://www.ljmu.ac.uk/~/media/files/ljmu/about-us/news/covid19-student-faqs_accommodation.pdf

sliphi

kyra595 said:

 It is pretty unfair at minute as the majority of universities seem to be letting students out of these contracts.

#FakeNews

Some universities may be allowing people to terminate tenancy agreements early for student accomodation they own and operate/manage, but I seriously doubt any university gets involved in tenancy agreements negotiated directly between a student and their landlord.
Most universities have very little student accomodation that they own and operate/manage. Most university students who live away from home rent accomodation privately

Why have some students been released from their contract but I haven’t?

Some of our rooms are let to students through agreements with their university who have made the decision to release students from their contract. This decision lies entirely with that university. Some of our rooms are contracted directly to students and these contracts will not be terminated.

https://www.sanctuary-students.com/covid-19-an-update-from-sanctuary-students

kyra595

sliphi said:

kyra595 said:

 It is pretty unfair at minute as the majority of universities seem to be letting students out of these contracts.

#FakeNews

Some universities may be allowing people to terminate tenancy agreements early for student accomodation they own and operate/manage, but I seriously doubt any university gets involved in tenancy agreements negotiated directly between a student and their landlord.
Most universities have very little student accomodation that they own and operate/manage. Most university students who live away from home rent accomodation privately

Some of our rooýms are let to students through agreements with their university who have made the decision to release students from their contract. This decision lies entirely with that university. Some of our rooms are contracted directly to students and these contracts 

As I said most universities have released students from the majority of their accommodations. Not fake news. Out of my daughters friendship group... 4 friends released from Queens University accommodation... 1 friend from Edinburgh University accommodation, another friend from Nottingham Trent accommodation, and a few friends from alternate LPJM accommodation. In fact the only one not released from accommodation fees... is my daughter!
I'm sure you can understand how unfair and frustrating this is. We cant afford, especially in these times, to pay for something that can through no fault of her own ... not be used. 

Retireby40

kyra595 said:

sliphi said:

kyra595 said:

 It is pretty unfair at minute as the majority of universities seem to be letting students out of these contracts.

#FakeNews

Some universities may be allowing people to terminate tenancy agreements early for student accomodation they own and operate/manage, but I seriously doubt any university gets involved in tenancy agreements negotiated directly between a student and their landlord.
Most universities have very little student accomodation that they own and operate/manage. Most university students who live away from home rent accomodation privately

Some of our rooýms are let to students through agreements with their university who have made the decision to release students from their contract. This decision lies entirely with that university. Some of our rooms are contracted directly to students and these contracts 

As I said most universities have released students from the majority of their accommodations. Not fake news. Out of my daughters friendship group... 4 friends released from Queens University accommodation... 1 friend from Edinburgh University accommodation, another friend from Nottingham Trent accommodation, and a few friends from alternate LPJM accommodation. In fact the only one not released from accommodation fees... is my daughter!
I'm sure you can understand how unfair and frustrating this is. We cant afford, especially in these times, to pay for something that can through no fault of her own ... not be used. 

But she has a loan if she does need to pay it which means you arent paying for something you cant afford. She may be paying for something she doesnt want to pay or isnt using but affordability isnt the issue.

She will hardly need money for living apart from the extra food you may need to buy etc. Which if she is needed to work there plenty of opportunities at this point albeit some may think twice about working in the public given the circumstances.

You will have to have a chat with the university and see what is what. Are other students still living in the accommodation the uni is providing or did the university advise all students to go back to their family homes?

kyra595

Retireby40 said:

kyra595 said:

sliphi said:

kyra595 said:

 It is pretty unfair at minute as the majority of universities seem to be letting students out of these contracts.

#FakeNews

Some universities may be allowing people to terminate tenancy agreements early for student accomodation they own and operate/manage, but I seriously doubt any university gets involved in tenancy agreements negotiated directly between a student and their landlord.
Most universities have very little student accomodation that they own and operate/manage. Most university students who live away from home rent accomodation privately

Some of our rooýms are let to students through agreements with their university who have made the decision to release students from their contract. This decision lies entirely with that university. Some of our rooms are contracted directly to students and these contracts 

As I said most universities have released students from the majority of their accommodations. Not fake news. Out of my daughters friendship group... 4 friends released from Queens University accommodation... 1 friend from Edinburgh University accommodation, another friend from Nottingham Trent accommodation, and a few friends from alternate LPJM accommodation. In fact the only one not released from accommodation fees... is my daughter!
I'm sure you can understand how unfair and frustrating this is. We cant afford, especially in these times, to pay for something that can through no fault of her own ... not be used. 

But she has a loan if she does need to pay it which means you arent paying for something you cant afford. She may be paying for something she doesnt want to pay or isnt using but affordability isnt the issue.

She will hardly need money for living apart from the extra food you may need to buy etc. Which if she is needed to work there plenty of opportunities at this point albeit some may think twice about working in the public given the circumstances.

You will have to have a chat with the university and see what is what. Are other students still living in the accommodation the uni is providing or did the university advise all students to go back to their family homes?

The maintenance loan does not cover the rent - it only goes some way towards it. We as parents make up shortfall ie we pay approx £550 three times a year to make up rent to the full amount. So therefore my daughter will be out off pocket .. and us too.  
All of this is actually not related to the initial point... which is... the government issued a directive to social distance and isolate as necessary due to a pandemic. Universities and schools were closed. Most university accommodations are releasing students from contracts as would seem morally correct. Small minority are not. The government are making significant financial concessions to millions of people. I was wondering where this minority of students stand..  and asking the question why they are being penalized at such an early stage in their financial lifes. 

Galloglass

Most university accommodations are releasing students from contracts as would seem morally correct.

There is no such thing as "morally correct" in a contractual relation. She/you would have to look at the terms of the agreement to see if there is scope to end the contract early without penalty. Alternatively if you wish to argue in court (which is a possibility) she/you could take the argument that the contract was frustrated and therefore terminated with no cost to her/you. 

It depends on whether you want to take up the 50/50 risk of a court claim. Personally I think a 50/50 chance at court is worth it as the downside is not that much.