Are you being charged for next month's rent?

Not surprisingly, students are angry at being charged rent for empty rooms next term. Student leaders in England are saying full rent shouldn’t be charged next term, with university rooms left empty due to the lockdown.

But, privately run accommodation around the country is saying that you must keep paying. The property firm Prime Student Living says students are still obliged to pay, they have pointed out that you are still receiving loans…

Eva Cross Jory, the NUS vice-president, says in the exceptional circumstances of the pandemic there is a “moral duty” on housing firms to give the “option of a no-penalty early release from their contracts”.

The University of Portsmouth have allowed students in university-owned accommodation to end their contracts as many will be studying from home. They can’t unfortunately do anything about privately owned student buildings, this obviously applies to all uni’s.

Is it time for tighter regulations when it comes to private student accommodation?

Unipol say that around 60 uni’s in England have agreed to waive rent in university-owned accommodation next term. Other universities are yet to decide.

This isn’t the case for all privately owned accommodation, as some have allowed students to cancel their rent if they are staying at home and their room is empty.

A big player in privately owned accommodation Unite, say: “We will not be collecting any further payments from students who decide they don’t want to return for the summer term”. This was providing that you let them know by 5pm on Monday 13th April. This was the case for iQ and Scape (housing providers), they also had a deadline of 5pm on Thursday 9th April.