Urgent Help Needed Regarding Living In Student Accomodation

top_drawer_2

nimbo wrote: »

the problem is that if you owe your uni money then they can make things hard for you, eg, no books from the library, and not letting you collect certificates etc...

Check this as it may not be the case, I know they are not allowed to stop you re-registering due to a debt but not sure about library services/graduation. If its not the case then it make it easier to fight as you can prolong it for awhile ...

Jen

welf_man

If you have been living in the property and paying rent then you have an implied contract with at least basic rights and responsibilities.

However, if you were never shown a contract and so did not have the opportunity to have the joint tenancy terms explained, then you MIGHT have a case to argue that you did not agree to that part of the agreement.

The manner in which you became aware of the vacancy and moved in may also be relevant.

Mel.

St8_2

Does the university own this property? Or is it just advertised through it?

You do have a case and if I were you would not pay any extra charges.

There is an assumed or verbal agreement between you as you are paying rent etc, but it sounds like you weren't even made aware of the situation. If you had known, seeing as you havn't signed a contract, I would have said still play dumb and say you knew nothing about being liable for all 4 rents as you presumed it was a single room.

But it sounds like you really didn't know, so don't pay any charges without putting up a damn good fight.

I definately would never move into a student house with 3 students I don't know on a joint tenancy like this, and I guess you wouldn't have. It should have been a single tenancy. Joint tenancy for students should only be for groups of friends who know and trust eachother.

If this is university owned accommodation, they have been very neglectful and are not putting their students needs first.

Blacksheep1979

basically you're stuffed as you have an implied contract - however the three of you can chase up the fourth tennant who is no longer there and hold them to their contractual obligations.

JohnSmith_3

St8 wrote: »

Does the university own this property? Or is it just advertised through it?

I definately would never move into a student house with 3 students I don't know on a joint tenancy like this, and I guess you wouldn't have. It should have been a single tenancy. Joint tenancy for students should only be for groups of friends who know and trust eachother.

SO TRUE. If only I had known!

The accommodation was advertised on the university accommodation website.

To Blacksheep1979:

How strong is this implied contract keeping in mind that I have not signed anything?

whitfreak

The strength of the implied contract depends on how much and what you were told, or could have reasonably been expected to know. If the advert said "Room in joint tenancy house" or something like that, then your likely to be stuffed (although I don't like the fact that the others can just leave without still being liable). But if
advert made it look like a lone tenancy then you should be in the clear cus of the stuff on there faq website. Now if they put you in a joint tenancy house when you wanted a individual tenancy and didnt explain the difference then you've got case of misselling, which is probably vaguely illegal, and maybe breaking the distance selling laws (if you did everything via phone/email) among other things.

Good Luck