I Spent 6 Days in My Student Flat Due to COVID. Now My Landlord Is Trying to Sue Me.

Private accommodation providers are threatening students with legal action for not paying rent for flats they’ve been advised not to occupy because of coronavirus-related restrictions.

Tayyaba Iqbal, a 22-year-old postgraduate student at the University of Oxford, signed a contract for a room in August last year with Student Castle, a private student accommodation provider. Six days after moving into the room in mid-September, she returned to London to visit family when she was informed a housemate had tested positive for COVID. After isolating for two weeks in London, the UK went into a national lockdown, where students were advised not to return to their halls. Iqbal remained in London as a result.

After Iqbal’s grandmother became ill with COVID and later died from the virus, she requested to cancel her contract with Student Castle from January onwards. Despite already paying £4,200 for her first term’s rent for an empty flat, Student Castle is refusing to cancel the contract, and is threatening Iqbal with legal action for the second term rent she has not paid. 

Iqbal was advised by the University of Oxford not to return to the university campus from January. An email from the University of Oxford to students from January reads: “Unless you hear from your department, or have already agreed with your college that you can return, you must not travel back to Oxford at this stage.” 

In a letter from solicitor Knights plc, seen by VICE World News, Student Castle – which in 2019 sold its portfolio to Singapore Press Holdings Limited for £448 million – says, “This letter is being sent to you because you have failed to pay the Rent on the agreed due date. The Outstanding Rent due as at today’s date is £4,200.”

“If you do not respond to this letter within the prescribed time frame,” the letter continued, “we reserve our rights, including the right to commence proceedings (without further reference to you should that prove necessary and appropriate) to issue county court proceedings against you.”

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“I got the letter a week ago and honestly, I just half expected it, because they're a private corporation and they only want money,” says Iqbal. “In my head, I'm just angry. This is just rent I'm not even there for – [with] no acknowledgement of my situation or any other student situation.”

“My grandma passed away in November as a result of coronavirus and I mentioned that in the email I sent to them as another reason I couldn't come back,” adds Iqbal. “They didn't even acknowledge that in the email they replied to me.”

VICE World News reached out to Student Castle’s head office, head of marketing, and Oxford office for comment. No one from the company was willing to provide a statement. 

Students across the country have found themselves struggling with debt from rooms they have been advised not to return to. A survey in February from the National Union for Students (NUS) found that students had paid over £1 billion pounds for empty rooms in halls and university accommodation as a result of coronavirus restrictions.  

Although it was not technically illegal to return to rooms during a national lockdown, the government’s official guidance advised students not to return to their room if they were not already there. The UK Office for Students said that students “should not travel back to your university accommodation to collect any of your belongings unless absolutely necessary.”

As it stands, Student Castle has not offered any rent discount policies to its students. The University of Oxford in comparison – including the college that Iqbal studies at – has offered a 100 percent refund to students paying rent who were advised not to travel back to university during the lockdown. 

VICE World News reached out to the University of Oxford but it had not commented at time of publishing.

“This case is shocking, and highlights the lack of support the government has provided to students,” Alicia Kennedy, director of Generation Rent said.

“The government has advised all landlords to ‘show compassion’ but has stopped short of providing any financial support. To help students in this position the government must introduce a Covid Rent Debt Fund to clear rent arrears and help people facing debts they are unable to pay recover from the financial impact of COVID-19.”

“It is no surprise that almost 1/4 students are not able to pay rent, given that student tenants are excluded from accessing housing support through welfare and other aligned systems,” a spokesperson for the NUS said. “Instead of legislating to support students to leave their tenancies early, as they did in Scotland, the government has left students to rely on charitable handouts from universities, huge accommodation companies and private landlords in the form of rent reductions and hardship funds.” 

“NUS recently joined a plethora of other organisations in calling for urgent action on rent debt for all renters,” they continued. “The average student already leaves university with more than £50,000 of debt to the state, the government must not also leave them at risk of eviction, bailiffs and poor credit scores from rent debt.“