My daughter dropped out of uni this summer to pursue a different path – which we support her with.

However despite us pestering over the last few months she hasn’t formally cancelled anything. We’ve managed to fend off student finance and get her off the course now, but she had signed (and we had guarantored) accommodation in halls.

They have basically said too late, and started taking rent despite her not taking up the room. They won’t cancel at all so we are now looking at a £12k bill for an empty room (It’s in Bath so couldn’t be much more expensive anyway).

Any suggestions as this is stressing me out and relations with daughter are somewhat strained!

Seems unlikely that nobody wants a room (although that’s some price !)

I’d be asking them to demonstrate that they’ve made appropriate attempts to re-let, at the very least

After that, AirBnB !

If it was me, firstly I’d stop supporting your daughter financially at least until she took some responsibility. Secondly I’d rewatch Old School and then move into the halls of residence and have some fun for the year.

when I was at uni back in the dark ages it was the responsibility of the vacating student to find someone to replace themselves if they left halls and they were liable until they did.

That’s a hell of a price.  Catered?

If you can’t get out of, or reduce the contractual commitment you could always look at bankruptcy for her.  Given how young she is the chances of needing credit is less and hopefully she can repair her credit rating by the time she needs a mortgage etc…

Expensive life lesson about not ignoring stuff.

Def read the contract.

Surely it’s the same principle as a letting agreement?

Stop paying and then she is in breach of contract.

Civil matter and they must prove a loss and make every attempt to minimise it, advertise etc. If they get another tenant then you are off the hook, Else you pay the £12k anyway.

and started taking rent

Cancel the Direct Debit.

Bankruptcy for her won’t help this situation, as 40mpg is a guarantor.

I’d be reading the cancellation terms in the contract. If nothing else, and you end up paying, I think your daughter should be stumping up a significant chunk herself, either in actual repayments or other financial you help you may have given in the future being foregone. She needs to learn a lesson from this (as do you, to be fair, you signed to be the guarantor in full knowledge of the consequences)

Sub-let it to a dealer.

Seriously, though, what does the contract actually say?

Cancelling the Direct Debit would probably be a bad move at this stage, read the contract first.

I live in Bath. We have so much student accommodation it may be that they can’t let it as there’s oversupply.

If I were you I’d get onto the local rag – they love bashing the unis and so any excuse to stick the boot in might make the uni change their stance.

I’d be surprised if you had to pay for the whole year though – I’d have thought just the term. What does the agreement say?

it was the responsibility of the vacating student ( and sponsors/parents) to find someone to replace themselves if they left halls and they were liable until they did.

IME this^^

Hopefully someone else will want the room although as term has started you’d think most students would already have sorted accom (and signed their own contracts). £12k though 😲 Is that just a private room & shared kitchen, or fully catered, gym, butler, etc? And presumably Sept-Jun not even 12 months!

Don’t do anything until you’ve read and understood the contract.

No point playing the game if you don’t know what the rules are.

For £12k I be prepared to sit down with a solicitor.

You can stonewall them, but you might just end up back here in 6 months with a CCJ notice and all that crap.

I guess the plan was to stick it on the student loan?

That’s insanely expensive though £1200 a month (assuming 10 months a year) you can rent some pretty grand houses for that.

That’s insanely expensive though £1200 a month (assuming 10 months a year) you can rent some pretty grand houses for that.

Not round here…

it was the responsibility of the vacating student ( and sponsors/parents) to find someone to replace themselves if they left halls and they were liable until they did.

We had a mix up this year with my daughter’s university application, and that affected the halls so I checked out the contract she was supposed to sign – and they made it pretty clear that this was the case. I don’t think it would have been much of a problem finding someone in London, but it would still have been our problem.

If you do have to start advertising it don’t forget that there’s no need to limit yourself to first-year students, anyone can stay there (at least AFAIK), certainly in my daughter’s flat there are second year students too.

<div class=”bbp-reply-author”>jakester
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That’s insanely expensive though £1200 a month (assuming 10 months a year) you can rent some pretty grand houses for that.

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Not round here…

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Ouch, seems my market knowledge was wildly out of date… seems you can rent some pretty normal 2 bed flats for that ha ha.

Well your daughter has well and truly dropped you in the sh1t there.

Room mate of my daughter tried to do something similar in Manchester and the Student Accommodation company went after her parents who were the guarantor’s. They ended up having to pay up.

Check the full contract which you signed and the throw yourself on their mercy. However if its a commercial accommodation provider my guess is you are screwed.

I’d make her go and live in the bloody place, teach her a lesson in responsibility.

HOW MUCH???!?!

Bloody hell, I’ve stayed there during residential schools and to describe them as spartan would be putting it mildly. Food isn’t all that either.

Student accommodation does seem ridiculously expensive, all mostly added to massive student loans which are never going to get repaid, seems bonkers what’s going on in further education these days.

Good luck OP btw

However despite us pestering over the last few months she hasn’t formally cancelled anything.

This has to be her problem to solve.  If she’s grown up enough to make life decisions like leaving university then she has to understand that she’s grown up enough to face the consequences.  Perhaps you can make it easier by having her owe the money to you rather than to the accommodation provider, but it’s her issue to solve.  Especially if it’s at least partly because she was just too effin lazy to make it never be a problem in the first place by cancelling in time.

Any suggestions as this is stressing me out and relations with daughter are somewhat strained!

I can imagine, and I’d hate to be in your shoes, but making them better by just ignoring a 12k screwup isn’t actually making the relations better, it’s ignoring the problem.  Good luck in any case.

Tell people you now have a Pied-a-Terre in Bath and will be spending your weekends there for the next year?

Seriously, if you can sublet then do (does it have to be a student), but Id’ imagine the contract is specifically drawn up to catch out students who do a few weeks then split, not those that don;t even start so look at any cooling off periods etc.

Dropped out in the summer – do you have a date. Did she inform and sort before August 16th (the start of the clearing process). If she did it would seem crazy that they could not have ‘resold’ her place in halls. If she didn’t I feel she/you probably are liable.

edit – just reread and missed the tense the first time through. So she didn’t cancel….messy. Nasty life less for her but suspect you will end up soaking it up and defending her from her responsibilities.

Was the fee for catered accom? If so and it is not being used it should be hard for them to charge for an ongoing cost that they could mitigate for.

First she has dropped you in it, and should be expected to pay at least some of it.

Second the university should have really gone through the consequences of withdrawing with her – if she has actually withdrawn at all or just stopped going? If they didn’t explain then complain.

Third speak to the student accommodation office and make sure they are advertising the room, as you never know someone may have come through clearing and desperately need a room, and some uni’s have students starting in January.

There are usually loads of students that drop out in the first two weeks, as they are home sick, wrong choice etc etc, so there will be empty rooms all over so the chance of actually getting someone is highly unlikely, unless its a new build right next to the campus.

Read the contract, sometimes with medical reasons you can get out of it, but you will need dr’s evidence.

AirBNB it

Not round here…

Hmmm, room in student accommodation or lovely 1 bed flat on the Royal Crescent? I know which one I’d choose.

That does seem ridiculously expensive for something which you only use for about 7-8 months in a calendar year.

They won’t cancel at all

Assuming it’s through the uni themselves?

If so, then their own website seems to suggest that if you’re leaving the uni / suspending, they will charge you 4 weeks rent?

https://www.bath.ac.uk/guides/ending-your-accommodation-contract-early/

Edit: Just seen these lot too…

https://www.hellostudent.co.uk/how-it-works/booking-cancellation-policy/

Which is less promising…

if it’s that hellostudent bunch, all their Bath options are sold out which implies that it may be possible to find someone else to take it on

Cannabis farm with built in clientele. YoullY be raking it in

A student had taken a lease, then cancelled it really late so we cant re-let. We’ve started taking rent despite her not taking up the room. They won’t pay at all so we are now looking at a £12k loss for an empty room that cost us as a business tens of thousands to build. (It’s in Bath so couldn’t be much more expensive anyway to build around here).

The flip side.

I wonder how many folk would be doing the same if wriggling out if it was another business line, you know, like ordering an expensive bike or million paperclips then not paying.

Read your contract, but I think your difficulty is with your daughter, not the company you signed a contract with to hire an expensive item.

That said, I would ask company for evidence of trying to re-let.

As a student, I have unfortunately been through something similar. We had resigned a new contract pretty early on to stay in the same place a second year, turns out we had a pretty awful time in the flat, it was incredibly noisy amongst other problems, we told the estate agents and landlord that we wanted out, but they wouldn’t release us unless we found someone else to take over, which we did in the end, even after that the estate agents took some fees. It’ll be in the contract unfortunately, if it’s similar to our experience you’ll need someone to take it over.