A recent Concrete article, ‘You signed the contract, pay the rent’, made the argument that students should be required to pay their rent no matter what, even though we’re under lockdown. The writer claimed students should have budgeted for this and implied that students who couldn’t afford rent with their maintenance loan were poorly prepared….
News
Activist campaigners protest rent policy at City Hall
On Tuesday 19 March, around 20 UEA students protested in front of the Norwich City Hall in opposition of unjust eviction policy, serving a giant Section 21 eviction notice to the Norwich City Council. The purpose of the protest was to highlight the issue of landlords who use Section 21 to evict their tenants. Section…
Features
Scarlet Francis on the exploitation of students by landlords
As an UEA student, the notion of landlords ripping off students seems to be an epidemic – but is this actually true? I distributed a survey via social media, imploring students to answer questions based on their own experiences with landlords. Amongst the anonymous respondents, 74 percent stated that they felt landlords were taking advantage…
Finance
Life after halls: the good, the bad and the money
Moving out of halls can be a financially complex endeavor, with rising demand fueling an increase in rental costs. The national rent average increased by eleven percent in 2016 alone, and the added burden of dealing with bills only makes matters worse. It sparked one of the largest rent strikes in the history of England,…
Finance
Queens Speech confirms abolition of tenant lettings fees
It was confirmed in the Queen’s Speech that the new minority Conservative government will ensure that “unfair” tenant fees are banned. A new Tenants’ Fees Bill was announced, which will stop tenants having to pay money to lettings agents. It is thought the bill will pass easily, given all main parties mentioned banning the fees…
Comment
Legislation needs to hold landlords to account
Cameron, Osborne and around 39% of Tory MPs share an interesting private vocation: not golf, as it turns out, but landlordship. Indeed, 194 MPs from across the Commons are landlords – one of whom, Newbury MP Richard Benyon, tried to turf out an entire estate of tenants in the New Era scandal last year. Is…