£92 curtains… taking the piss

[kindereggxo]

Hi all,

My sister has returned home from her student accommodation halls recently. She handed in her keys and received the email this morning confirming her departure and about her deposit…

She was charged £92 for bloody replacement CURTAINS

That is almost her entire deposit gone. Before coming home she spent nearly two full days deep cleaning her room and the kitchen. She’s pissed off and upset to say the least and has to ‘top up’ the deposit since she’s staying in the same accommodation next year.

AIBU to think this takes the piss? She’s a clean and respectful students and i fully believe her when she said she left everything in perfect order. Seems so unfair and grabby from these accommodation companies!! Also £92? What the hell are these curtains made of?

This thread just goes to show people on here are not in the real world whatsoever!

The £92 won't just be the cost of the curtains though. There's labour and disposal costs and vat on top too.

I'm shocked you are querying cost of the curtains rather than whether they actually need replacing.

Does she smoke? Could it be that she has been smoking in her room and they smell?

Hahaha to posters show think £92 for curtains is acceptable! Anyone renting to students is not furnishing the flat with £92 curtains!

Agreed time stamped photos are a must which is what I did when I left mine. I would ask them to state what damage was done and prove it was the students fault not just general wear and tear. I would also ask for proof of receipt of replacement curtains to see if they really do spend £92 on curtains for a student flat.

Disposal costs and fittings???

The pole is already up unless the student ripped it off the wall. It doesn't cost anything or much effort to put some curtains up on an existing pole. Again costs nothing to stick the curtain in the bin - no students filling up the rubbish bin during the holidays yet the bins are still collected.

Who are the halls run by, the university, a private company or an individual investor?

What damage and proof have they provided?

What proof does your daughter have that any damage must have occurred since she handed the keys back?

Has she raised a dispute yet?

Assuming the landlord has properly put the deposit into a protection scheme, if she has a photo or similar to show now damage, she can dispute.

Without knowing the particulars of the damage it is hard to give proper guidance on how to dispute.

OP, several people have asked what reason has the landlord given for the curtains needing to be replaced. You haven't answered that

I don't think the price is unreasonable. Someone has to order curtains, take them to the flat, fit them etc. Its not just about the cost of fabric

What are they claiming has happened to the curtains?

I've seen firsthand a student house after a year recently. 2 days is not unlikely at all!

I rent a flat to students in Edinburgh, and some of the curtains cost around £500 a pair. Albeit they were originally in my house and then I moved to one with smaller windows. Others were bought second hand for around £100 or slightly more per pair. Big windows, lined curtains and to ensure a good look and attract good tenants. I've never had curtains damaged in all the years I've rented out that flat. I've had other damage, but never curtains. It is amazing the damage that young people or their visiting friends living away from home for the first time in their lives can cause though, even when they are all quiet, respectable individuals.

Given the sort of accidental, careless damage that students tend to cause, I'd say its perfectly likely that the curtains have been damaged.

The student in the OP is in a hall of residence and I expect they use a single provider, can only provide a new pair of curtains, and £92 is indeed the cost for new curtains and fitting.

I would suspect that a description of the damage has already been provided and that the OP has received this information somewhat glossed over, second hand.

Hi OP, could the curtains be in a communal area? The reason I ask is when I was in uni halls someone broke our postbox. When we left we all had something like £20 taken from our deposit to go toward the cost of the replacement! If that's the case though £90 seems steep if they've got it from everyone in the block (depending on how many there are in the block of course!)

£92 is cheap for curtains, and as she's in halls of residence, there will be purchasing deals in place for all these items so when new this are needed they're just ordered from the original supplier at the agreed price, so they're all the same look, price and quality. They don't just send Brenda from the office down to town to see what she can pick up in a thrift shop. It needs to be a like for like replacement. In any case, the price of the curtains is actually irrelevant to be honest. They're either damaged or they're not. If they're not then she shouldn't be paying for a replacement. If they are, she should, and £92 is getting off relatively lightly for curtains. They just need to provide evidence of the damage they thing your sister has done, then you can take it from there.

Cost of the curtains sounds fine to me. She needs to ask how they are damaged though. It's possible they have the wrong room?

Its student accommodation it will be a particular pair of curtains. Possibly designed to last like hotel curtains. And someone will need to be paid to do the maintenance.

I’m a landlord, accidently after negative equity and renting elsewhere myself at first , and I don’t do these trivial deposit grabs.
The rent accounts for a bit of wear and tear, curtains need replacing every now and then anyway, carpets need a deep clean every now and then, paint needs refreshing. My blinds were broken by own tenant, the string snapped and a slat broke… but they’d been hanging for years and it’s reasonable to expect they couldn’t last a lifetime. I bet the same for these curtains.
I’m a clean and tidy person in my own place, but it doesn’t mean nothing ever needs refreshing and my house stays in a bubble of sameness.
The only thing I’ve charged for is a door kicked with a hole, a windows smashed in an argument and unblocking baby wipes from the loo… ie wilful and deliberate damage that was well outside what you’d expect from day to day long term use.

Hiya, I get you, teens can take a notorious time to clean.
Was it uni halls or private accomodation? Are they replacing curtains or getting them dry cleaned? If private and the are replacing them, I would ask if you can keep the old pair or at least get evidence of a new set being bought. Cheeky fuckers probably do it every year

You said your sister was checking the contract. It’s not the contract she needs to check, it’s the evidence of the damage that the landlord says she has caused.

My DD got clobbered like this the first year of uni - she had spilled a glass of water on her bed at some point during the year. The resulting mark meant that we were charged £95 for a new mattress. I offered to replace the mattress myself (£40 from Argos) but they wouldn't let me. Next year she had two mattress protectors on her bed!

She needs to find out what the damage is. Are you sure it's damage to her own curtains? Could it be communal areas? I'm wondering if there are things like cig burns, stinking of cannabis etc?

Unless they can prove the curtains were brand new, surely she should not be paying full replacement value? A landlord cannot.

Can you ask the student union for some help?

Of course you have to pay replacement value if you've damaged something that need replacing.

I don;t know where you all buy your curtains.
Asda, Dunelm etc all do pairs of curtains for about £30. In Asda they are £15.
£95 is expensive for bog standard student accommodation

Oh give over. Do you know what university halls are like? Communal kitchens and single bedrooms. So yes, that’s perfectly possible.

£92 for curtains is cheap.

£92 for a deposit is cheap.

It’s a learning lesson - make sure she takes photos and a full itinerary, get everything signed/stamped and dated by the landlord/agent.

Her deposit should be protected anyway, so she needs to be keeping her own evidence for next year.

If the deposit is held in a protection scheme she can object / appeal the fee if she believes it to be incorrect. Did she take photos? If the money isn’t being held in a scheme I’d reconsider staying next year as clearly dodgy landlord

Plus you’re cleaning around your stuff until parents come and pick you up. A tiny room takes forever to clean when you’ve got it 80% filled with boxes to navigate around