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Covering a Smoke Detector

Last night at a party in our flat, one of the guests covered up the smoke detector with aluminium foil. The flats in my uni accommodation are basically 6 students staying together so with everyones friends, a lot of people turned out. While me and the other residents were outside the building smoking, someone covered the detector with aluminium foil because the room was filled with smoke from burned food.

The uni has accused us of smoking and tampering with the fire alarms, neither of which me and the other residents are responsible for. Has anyone else has a similar experience.? and if yes what sort of punishment did you get.?

Reply 1

999tigger

The responsibility for a party in your flat is that of the people who orgqanised the party i.e you and the others, because they were your guests.
You may be called to a meeting or asked for a written explanation at which point you cna admit that the foil was placed over the alarm, but then claim it was someone else and that it was burning food. They can choose whether to believe you or not.

If found guilty you are likely to get a warning and probably a fine. You cna find out by reading the erms and conditions of your tenancy. there will be a handbook or document you signed beforehand. So just to repeat you are repsonsible because it was your flat. You might get slight credit if the person who did it owns up and admits it was them, but you are probably going to get fined anyway imo.

Reply 2

Reue

Original post by 999tigger

If found guilty you are likely to get a warning and probably a fine.

You cannot be fined by a private company. They could invoice you.

(edited 8 years ago)

Reply 3

999tigger

Original post by Reue

You cannot be fined by a private company.

I dont know what the terms and conditions of their accommodation are. Show me the contract. It says its the Uni.

Reply 4

Reue

Original post by 999tigger

I dont know what the terms and conditions of their accommodation are. Show me the contract. It says its the Uni.

No contract allows a private organisation to fine you. Only a court or public authority can issue fines.

Reply 5

999tigger

Original post by Reue

No contract allows a private organisation to fine you. Only a court or public authority can issue fines.

Not what CAB says and not what the Universities say.

Student housing - your behaviour in halls If you live in halls of residence or other university accommodation and you breach your tenancy or licence agreement, your university may deal with the matter using its disciplinary procedure.This means that, how you behave can have an impact on your accommodation. This page highlights some of the issues you may need to be aware of.What is different about universities as landlords?Universities as landlords are different from other landlords because they have the power to discipline student residents using university codes of conduct or disciplinary procedure. These are in addition to legal action that they can take using your tenancy or licence agreement.
For example, a student who behaved anti-socially in their halls of residence by deliberately setting of a fire alarm, could be fined or face some other penalty under the code of conduct or disciplinary procedure. A private landlord could not do that for a similar incident in private rented accommodation – they could only take action if the tenant had breached a term in their tenancy agreement.
Where there is a very serious breach of a code of conduct or disciplinary procedure, a university could ask you to leave the university accommodation and start legal action to evict you.

Reply 6

Reue

Original post by 999tigger

Not what CAB says and not what the Universities say.

Would love to see that enforced. No judge is going to allow a fine without the university being able to demonstrate associated costs. Now they could well invoice people for the time/effort taken to restore the smoke detector to working order.

Reply 7

999tigger

Btw OP it looks like £50-£150. probably £50 each would be my guess but they vary and ofc they might believe you.

http://www.theguardian.com/education/2013/feb/15/universities-fine-students-550000

Universities across the UK issued disciplinary and administrative fines totalling more than £550,000 to students last year.

Freedom of information requests from the Guardian have shown students were fined a total of £551,237.30 for offences such as smoking, drunkenness, and unauthorised parties in the last academic year. One institution said it used the money collected to fund the annual staff outing.

http://accommodation.leeds.ac.uk/info/200127/current_students/23/fines_and_charges

http://www.abdn.ac.uk/accommodation/current-students/fire-safety-73.php

http://www.accommodation.manchester.ac.uk/current-students/finance-and-legal/additionalchargesfines/

Reply 8

999tigger

Original post by Reue

They dont have to refer it to a judge, they are probably granted the power under Royal charter. As you see virtually all Uni's impose fines. Ofc if the Op decides they want to onject then the uni cna boot them out of their accommodation for breaching their tenancy agreement. Without reading it then its hard to say what their termination clause says.

Reply 9

999tigger

Original post by Reue

No contract allows a private organisation to fine you. Only a court or public authority can issue fines.

This is the thing for Cambridge

The discrepancies between college's fining policies would appear to stem from Statutes and Ordinances which lays out that the University "shall have all the powers of a natural person to acquire, manage, charge, deal with, and dispose of property, both real and personal so that it may exercise any power and may enter into and carry out any kind of transaction without limitation." In agreeing to the Ordinances at matriculation, students at the University of Cambridge effectively acknowledge the University's authority to deal with damage to property in any way the University sees fit.
As every student must agree to abide by Statutes and Ordinances at matriculation, each member of the university is acknowledging the University's power to fine, discipline or punish them as they wish. "The University appears to have absolute power over its students and there is absolutely nothing we can do about it- this is very worrying," another student told TCS. The fining and discipline system is inherently unfair and reveals the University's failure to communicate with its students from the day of their matriculation.

Reply 10

Reue

Original post by 999tigger

This is the thing for Cambridge

Well I never. How disgusting.

Reply 11

JoeTSR

Original post by Reue

No contract allows a private organisation to fine you. Only a court or public authority can issue fines.

May be true, but it comes down to semantics in the end - they can just take the money out of your deposit.

Reply 12

jo_2506

Yeah that does sound terrible, if the university can do whatever they want. I have already got an email saying 'inviting' all of us to a formal hearing where they will assess the situation and penalise us with one of the following. A warning, A fine of up to 250 quid or termination of the accommodation lease. Im hoping to get off with a warning and a fine.

All of us have already accepted responsibility for the incident, Just hoping this incident doesn't go to the police or fire department.Also if anyone has or knows someone who has had a similar experience please let me know what happened

Reply 13

doodle_333

Just make sure you're contrite. You're responsible for your guests so while you should say you wouldn't have done it personally or knowingly allowed it to happen you do still have to take responsibility.