student accommodation: partial refund due to unavailable facilities closed due to COVID-19 28 February 2021 at 11:19AM in Student Money Saving 4 replies 102 views

zz99

Hello,

My daughter is in a privately run student hall of residence. The shared facilities such as gym, music practice rooms etc are understandably closed due to COVID-19. Has anyone been able to successfully claim a partial rent refund under these circumstances?

DCFC79

zz99 said:

Hello,

My daughter is in a privately run student hall of residence. The shared facilities such as gym, music practice rooms etc are understandably closed due to COVID-19. Has anyone been able to successfully claim a partial rent refund under these circumstances?

Has she asked her fellow students ?

Is the gym, music rooms etc part of the contract for the hall of residence ?

zz99

An update on this: we requested a partial refund from the hall operator, CRM Students. They refused. However, as I had paid the rent by credit card, the credit card provider gave a partial refund without any quibble. Although the contract does not explicitly mention the facilities, they were advertised on the prominently on their website and the credit card company agreed that this was grounds for a refund.

silvercar

zz99 said:

An update on this: we requested a partial refund from the hall operator, CRM  Students. They refused. However, as I had paid the rent by credit card, the credit card provider gave a partial refund without any quibble. Although the contract does not explicitly mention the facilities, they were advertised on the prominently on their website and the credit card company agreed that this was grounds for a refund.

What sort of discount did they give you? 

zz99

silvercar said:

zz99 said:

An update on this: we requested a partial refund from the hall operator, CRM  Students. They refused. However, as I had paid the rent by credit card, the credit card provider gave a partial refund without any quibble. Although the contract does not explicitly mention the facilities, they were advertised on the prominently on their website and the credit card company agreed that this was grounds for a refund.

What sort of discount did they give you? 

15 pounds for each week that the facilities were closed. It came to about 435 pounds in total. This was our suggestion, which was accepted without any quibbles. I wonder if there is scope for a group collective legal action (aka class action) against such hall operators, as some of the students won't have paid by credit card so can't get a refund from a credit card company. The fact that credit card company said it was a clear case of breach of contract suggests that a claim against the hall operator would have a good chance of succeeding (or small claims courts actions from individual students).