A student who was eight months pregnant found herself out of pocket after her accommodation charged her heavily for general repairs.
Warehouse apartments on Victoria Street
The 21-year-old was angry to find her landlord at Warehouse Apartments had taken £156 of her £250 damage deposit for repairs such as repainting walls and re-grouting the shower.
“When I moved in they weren’t painted and the room looked like it hadn’t been cleaned. I was also charged for the shower to be grouted even though it was spotless and I’d taken pictures to prove it,” she said.
“They charged me £22 for each wall to be repainted, £30 for the shower and £5 for a light bulb. There was also a stain on the mattress and they charged £20 for the mattress and £17 labour costs for removing it.
“I tried to avoid getting stressed, the fact they wouldn’t drop the charges for repainting really angered me.
“During my room inspection I wasn’t told I’d be charged for the walls as it was on the inventory. It took them a week to reply to my e-mail and after two weeks I got the Students’ Union Advice Centre involved.
“They looked at my charges and said I shouldn’t have been charged for most of the items on the list. When the Advice Centre rung up they were suddenly willing to drop all the charges. They seemed to think as I was a student I wouldn’t take it further and they could charge whatever they thought they could get away with.”
A spokesman from the Students’ Union said that this was one of many complaints made by students about overcharging by landlords.
“We successfully retrieved a large proportion of the proposed defects deeming them ‘unfair’ deductions.
“Although the landlord had in this case entered the deposit into a TDS they had failed to comply with the regulations as they did not release the undisputed amount of money to the student, therefore leaving the student with none of their deposit, not even the amount they were entitled to in the first instance.”
Many more students have complained about the charges brought against them by the accommodation, situated on Victoria Street.
One of the charge sheets issued to students
Former Events Management student, Joanne Slater, was also charged for wall repaints and re-grouting work in her bathroom due to a sink leak. She said: “There was nothing wrong with the walls or the curtains which they dry-cleaned.
“They replaced our microwave despite the fact it wasn’t broken and charged us and charged my flatmate £10 for a new shower curtain even though it was it fine.
“To top it all off they charged us £3 for miscellaneous. God knows what that was for.”
“I think it’s disgraceful that they can charge students as much as they want and get away with it, I mean we can’t exactly protest when they take the money out of the deposit.
“We should pay be if we’ve totally ruined the walls, damaged the furniture or stained the floors, not for merely eating, sleeping & breathing in the place, it’s called living!”
Third year Fashion Promotion student Amy Pomeroy was charged £189 including a painting charge of £55, £2.50 for a mop and bucket and £10 miscellaneous.
Amy and her flatmates were also charged £11.25 each for a replacement microwave when the previous one was getting old.
“The microwave replacement charge was a joke. It was old and coming apart, not because anything we had done to it. They just needed a new microwave and instead of forking out themselves for a new one, they blamed it on us to pay for a new one,” she said.
“I was really annoyed that they inspected the flat while I was still living there, as I stayed a few extra weeks. I had no warning that they were inspecting so did not do a full clean. They took pictures of a dirty fridge while all my stuff was still in the fridge.
“When I vacated the flat I did a full clean of the kitchen, oven, fridge and freezer without realising that they had already charged us to clean the kitchen. I spent the whole day cleaning before I left to keep charges to a minimum so I was very annoyed to find that I need not have bothered as they had already been to inspect and charged us.”
Amy’s flatmate, Hannah Brearley-Jones, a third year Fashion Design student, was charged a similar amount and said the microwave was cleaned every other week after Warehouse claimed it had become a health and safety risk.
Like others, she tried to contact Warehouse Apartments about the charges.
“I emailed The Warehouse several times but got nowhere. They just replied with explanations that made no sense or avoiding giving me answers.
“I am very annoyed at how they treat students and something needs to be done about it as it isn’t fair at all.”
Another student affected was 20-year-old Film Production student Sean Lyons.
“I had to argue with them because they wanted charge us for stuff we never had originally such as a free view box,” he said.
“They supposedly spread the charges of communal areas between all flat members but one of my flatmates was charged for a microwave plate when none of us were, when there was nothing wrong with the microwave plate at all.
“We’ve all been charged for a new three-seat sofa, when the one we had had a small hole no bigger than a five pence piece. But I e-mailed them offering to buy a new sofa as they could not longer use the broken one but we wanted it but they dismissed it and continued to charge us all for it.”
Other students have expressed their disgust at the charges describing the situation as a scandal and feeling ripped-off as well as saying they no longer trusted the company.
Following the large numbers of complaints by students, the Advice Centre has warned students to make sure they thoroughly read their contracts when living in private accommodation.
“Knowing your rights is pertinent in these circumstances and we can help. The Tenancy Deposit Laws are there to help protect tenants and in the above scenario were actually utilised. However, in many circumstances they are not,” said the centre’s spokesperson.
“All private landlords and letting agents who take a deposit for an assured short hold tenancy within England and Wales must enter it into a Government authorised tenancy deposit protection scheme.
“There is further guidance on this displayed on our website, in the Advice Centre and in leaflet form. Please remember, the Advisors are here to help you, if in doubt ask.”
Despite several attempts to contact them, Warehouse Apartments failed to respond.
By David Stubbings
News Editor
The UCLan Students’ Union Advice Centre is warning students to keep an eye on their finances after adverts for “pay day loans” were included in a fresher’s welcome guide. 
