Students strike as landlords chase rent despite COVID-19 lockdown

Thousands of UK students have been involved in rent strikes due to COVID-19 pandemic.

According to Rent Strikes, an organisation dedicated for student accommodation campaigns, the movement that started in March brought together students from various institutions across the country, including University of London, SOAS, Surrey, Plymouth and Strathclyde.

A strike of 130 student tenants is to take place in Bristol through the Bristol Cut the Rent Group, which will demand the cancellation of rent payments to be cancelled following the COVID-19 pandemic.

Students from Lancaster, UAL and Sussex are also set to start rent strikes across their campuses, with 200 people signing up at Lancaster within the first 24 hours.

Many students have returned home since face-to-face teaching has been stopped in March, and replaced with online materials.

Various universities across the country, including Nottingham Trent University (NTU), have agreed to waive accommodation fees for the rest of this academic year without charge for students who rent directly through universities’ accommodation providers.

However, this measure does not cover students contracting with private rental sector as they are being rejected for refund or compensation.

A survey provided by Save the Student, an organisation providing free advice on students finance, shows that privately rented accommodation is the UK’s most popular student housing choice, with 44 per cent.

The data published in February also shows that university accommodation comes secondary, with 21 per cent.

An online petition posted in March calls for suspension of student accommodation rent for those who have had to return home amid this pandemic. It has so far gathered more than 66,000 signatures.

It states: “A large number of students cannot run the risk of remaining in these accommodation buildings due to either underlying health conditions or high chance of bring it (the virus) home to family, especially those who also have underlying health conditions or are of old ages.”

A student from Belfast, who signed this petition, Dónall Ó hÉigeartaigh, said: “With people losing their sources of income as a result of the circumstances created by COVID-19, to ask students to continue to pay the outrageous rates is completely unfair.”

In an open letter to National Residential Landlord Association (NRLA), representative body of Private Rented Sector (PRS), Eva Crossan Jory, the vice president for welfare at National Union of Students (NUS) urges the association to communicate with members to ensure “maximum support” is provided for student tenants.

Landlords should offer a no-penalty early release from tenancy contracts for the current and next academic year, adds the letter.

It also says no evictions should take place during the crisis.

Its requests are to either subside, “significantly” reduce, or waive it for the tenants who are financially impacted by the pandemic. This measure would last for six months and suspend all rent increase for a year.

In response to this letter, Ben Beadle, the Chief Executive of NRLA, shares the concerns for the welfare of tenants and says the institution has called on landlords to show “more flexibility” to support all tenants, including students.

The letter adds: “In respect of reducing or waiving rent, this needs to be left up the individual landlord according to their own financial position.

“The vast majority of landlords are ineligible for any of the other business or personal support measures announced by the government, making it extremely difficult to provide direct support to tenants.”

Nottingham Trent Students’ Union (NTSU) has been involved in calling private student accommodation providers to allow early release from their contracts.

More information on private housing rights amid the COVID-19 pandemic at NTU can be found here.

By Na Qing

Feature photo credit: Pixabay