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Unite repairs?

Was just wondering how long Unite usually / are allowed to take to repair things? my shower’s been broken since Friday and my flatmate’s also broke last MONDAY, and they’ve not come to repair them yet. thankfully our other flatmate is letting us use his but it’s not a great situation on the second week in!

Anyone know how long i can expect to wait and what i can do to make them hurry up?? The flat has other issues but this is the worst one.

Reply 1

Muttly

Maintenance at rented student accommodation is notoriously bad, sometimes completely ignored for months, if ever resolved.

Keep hassling the accommodation office for your flat. They are not fulfilling their side of the contract - check on your accommodation terms and check that it is Unite who are the legal landlords. Sadly this is all too common behaviour by student accommodation landlords. You pay a huge amount of money for the accommodation you rent and once they have your rent payments typically landlords don't much care about anything else.

Keep a record of the times you contact the Unite accommodation office, and who you spoke to, and what their response is. Take photo's and video of all faults and the rest of the flat to prove that it is kept clean, tidy and maintained as you are expected to. It depends what the fault is. Take photo's or video of the shower fault that prevents you living there. This all sounds a lot of work but if you decide to take the issue further and seek compensation you need to prove your issues, and then prove your steps taken to rectify them, Do not stop paying your rent as they will have a bigger cosh to hit you with and you will lose. Keep hard copy records of everything and all communications relating to this. Not being able to bathe is a basic essential need. Make sure the Unite office know this and state that you cannot live in your accommodation because of this.

If after a reasonable amount of time, say ten days and they still have not made contact with you or repaired your shower escalate the issue up the Unite chain and make a noise. You cannot be expected to live without a means to keep clean. Do you have an emergency Unite contact number for your accommodation? If yes, use it. Contact them every day, morning and night until the problem is resolved. Sometimes aggravation and persistence is the only way to get things done.

Provide a written notification to Unite that if after a reasonable amount of time they have not rectified the fault or made any contact with state that you will terminate the contract and seek damages through court for all of the costs involved and of seeking and moving to new accommodation, plus all of your time taken to pursue this problem.

Have a check on your Student Union membership to see if you are covered by legal expenses. Check on any content rental insurance you might hold to see if you are covered for legal expenses (and disputes with landlords) Get advice and support from your Uni accommodation department and research what your options are to live elsewhere.

Fingers crossed