International students studying in at least one UK university are being asked to continue paying accommodation fees for belongings they were unable to bring home with them at short notice due to the pandemic.
After it was widely reported in April that students were being forced to pay for empty rooms, many universities allowed students to cancel their contracts.
“There wasn’t any time to collect my things”
However, students at Queen Mary University London have been told that they have to pay fees where their rooms have not been cleared.
Dominik Frej, a student from Poland currently studying at Queen Mary, said he left the country during the coronavirus pandemic at short notice when Poland announced it was going to close its borders.
“There wasn’t any time to collect my things. I simply took the biggest piece of luggage I had and packed as much as I could, but obviously, it wasn’t enough,” he said.
His university was offering students the option to cancel their accommodation contracts if they returned home. However, he was told that he still had to pay unless he removed his belongings.
“I emailed my university [and said] that I had left the UK for Poland and can you give me any kind of support in terms of collecting things, or maybe some kind of change in the amount of money that I have to pay, because I am not using any kind of electricity, internet.
“They responded simply saying that ‘until you have collected your things you have to pay the whole amount’.”
Frej usually pays £750 a month for his accommodation, which includes amenities like bills and internet. For nearly 40 days, he was unable to find somebody to clear his room on his behalf and has not paid the rent for the time that his belongings were in his room.
“Living in London is five times more expensive than in Poland; it is a lot of money,” he said.
A spokesperson for Queen Mary said that students who no longer need to make use of on-campus accommodation were released from their contracts at the earliest opportunity which suited them.
“Students who were unable to clear their rooms before leaving campus have been offered the option of having items disposed of on their behalf, or of their belongings being kept securely in their accommodation at a substantially reduced rate,” they said.
But according to Frej, whether he will pay rent for the time his belongings were in the room, has not been resolved. He says that he has not received any information from his university about the discounted rate.
Frej stressed that over than the problems he has had with accommodation, he feels that his university has done well in dealing with the pandemic.
There has also been confusion at other UK institutions around whether students have to remove their belongings.
An FAQ section on the University of West England’s website asks students to hand in their key/card and remove all belongings from their room.
“We will then be able to release you from your accommodation contract for the final term,” the statement read.
However a spokesperson from UWE told The PIE News that international and domestic students are able to be released from their contracts without collecting their belongings from their accommodation.
When The PIE asked about why the university’s FAQ’s says otherwise, the spokesperson said they were in the process of being updated and that they had been in direct contact with students.
“Where students have belongings to collect, arrangements should be made for this to happen after the current lockdown”
Universities UK told The PIE “that where students have belongings to collect, arrangements should be made for this to happen after the current lockdown period is over”.
“UK government advice is clear that individuals should only leave home for very limited purposes including for food or health reasons or travelling to and from work but only where work cannot be done from home,” a spokesperson said.
“If for any reason accommodation providers or landlords are pressuring students to travel back to halls or private housing to pick up belongings left behind before the government lockdown, this practice should stop.”
