University of Leeds

Leeds

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Poll: Anyone Else Been Ripped Off By Unite?

Recenly moved out of student accomodation, only to have a letter drop through my letterbox detailing a list of charges that Unite have decided to impose on the 6 of us staying in our accomodation - mine was for £248 - which believe it or not was the lowest!
My parents can confirm that the accomodation was clean and tidy when we left, as they spent most of the weeken tidying and cleaning up.
When I rang the accomodation office i was given an itemised list of charges
here are some of them
3 walls in kitchen need paint £65 wall. (these were patched up from last year)
- how can they justify £65 a wall??
One wall in corridor £65 - wall was left clean??
£40 4 black bags of rubbish from kitchen. - to take 4 bags of rubbish to the bin!!
Deep clean kitchen - the kitchen was cleaned thouroughly before we moved out!
Clean cooker - cooker was perfectly clean??
Clean freezer - again cleft spotless??
Deep clean whole kitchen.- again the kitchen was left clean and tidy
They also want to charge
£500 for a new kitchen carpet!! - when we moved in the carpet was full of burns and paint from last year - when we complained, Unite informed us that "this is the way studfents live" - I wonder if they charged the students moving out last time for a new kitchen carpet??
£500 for a new sofa - there was nothing wrong with the sofa when we left!!

all in all they will be charging all of us a combined total of over £1300
Believe me the place was as good as when we moved in!

Anyone else had similar problems with Unite?
Money for old rope me thinks!! :mad:

Reply 1

DeSiFiEd

Speak to their manager...do NOT pay that, thats ridiculous.

University of Leeds

Leeds

Reply 2

wzwzrd

Trouble is they've already got our £200 bonds = £1200, that they won't give back!

Reply 3

Dr. Funkenstein

I work in a halls of residence at the moment, and you can get charged for the smallest of things. That is a massive bill to pay though.

Reply 4

Freud

Put this into a (civilly written) letter and send it to them, and keep a copy of it to yourself. Try to reason with them, that does sound ridiculous. They're taking the piss, don't take it from them

Reply 5

guitarromantic

This is a good reason to stay away from private halls.

Reply 6

Untitled258

guitarromantic

This is a good reason to stay away from private halls.

Yeah, but next year it should be alright, in houses anyway, theres some thing where landlords have to go threw some people and justify all the charges before they charge you or something, i got told when i signed my contract for private halls, but wasnt listening.

Reply 7

DeepStar

Find the manager but hell dont pay!

Reply 8

Chris90

Now I wish i could change my accommodation for next year :|.What can they do if they don't pay? Seriously though, as if student life isn't expensive enough these days!

Reply 9

fake plastic love

Jesus, that's terrible! I haven't heard the greatest things about Unite, and that's really shocking.

Maybe write a letter to the Student Advice Centre at LUU? They help with this stuff don't they?

Reply 10

Spotty Dog

Chris90

Now I wish i could change my accommodation for next year :|.What can they do if they don't pay? Seriously though, as if student life isn't expensive enough these days!

My suggestion to you and everyone is to get photographic evidence of EVERYTHING. If necessary, photograph every wall, surface and carpet, as well as all furniture before you settle in and present any problems in photographic evidence to Unite, and do the same when you leave. Then, if they bill you, you have at least some evidence to argue.

Reply 11

happy-and-lost

Thanks for the heads up. I'll take photos of every minor scuff now (especially of the hole in the corridor wall and the smashed shelves in the fridge, which maintenance were supposed to fix today) to avoid them doing this to me next year.

Reply 12

Spotty Dog

happy-and-lost

Make sure you hand the photos in asap too (and keep a copy for yourself). And, like I said, photograph EVERYTHING when you leave; Every room, and every surface. Then they have less chance of accussing you of anything - If possible, get your camera to timestamp the photos, although the EXIF data on digital photos will give you proof of time taken (if they say the photos were taken months earlier, for example.)

Reply 13

Darxy

I've seem some pretty rediculous fines that theyve managed to tot up, but some of the rooms i've seen did need a bit of fixing up :s-smilie:

last few days at james baillie were just manic cleaning in my flat, having said that, none of my fines listed were incurred and i got my £200 deposit back :smile:

so the lesson is, if you dont want to worry about losing money, make sure the place is cleaner than when you moved in (but that doesnt always seem to work!)