Dd can't collect keys to student house

[a8mint]

Dd is in catered University owned She has to move out by 2nd July. She has signed a contract with 5 friends for a private house starting 1st July. The estate agents have told them that they cannot now move in then because one of the current tenants has covid and they cant collect the keys til the 9th.She and her housemates pay £105 each per week rent and have had to pay 3months up front.
The letting agent is saying they are not due rent back relating to 1-8th inclusive. Not only that she is on placement that week so cant come home and will have to find alternative accommodation. The college may met her stay an extra week, but the catering will have ended and she has no
cooking facilities so will incur £££ on takeaways.
The owner has breached the contract surely they haveto pay me rent costs for the first week? And what about food. Takeaway food will be a lot more expensive than cooking for herself

Speak to a Solicitor immediately 🌸

Can anyone at the Student Union advise? Or else there's a free helpline that Shelter offer to renters. Appreciate that the amount you're talking about makes it disproportionate to take paid-for legal advice - that's probably what the letting agents are relying on.

The uni will probably let her stay yes.

No she doesn't need to live on takeaways. Even catered student accommodation includes some kind of access to booking water for making tea, doesn't it? There's lots of things available in supermarkets that can just be prepared by adding boiling water e.g. couscous and noodle-based options.

When I was a student I had one of these in my room because sometimes the shared kitchen was too crowded with other students to use, or someone else had dirtied every pot and pan in the house, and it was good to be able to cook independently of the kitchen. There's loads of things you can cook with something like this and she'll get lots of use out of it beyond this 8 day emergency.

Yes its crap that she can't move in on time but no one has been deliberately malicious or incompetent so talk of suing and solicitors is inappropriate. This is not a massive hardship to cope with.

Chances are the landlord’s charging the current tenants too… Talk to Student Services ASAP as they should be able to help. www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-57644652

@KihoBebiluPute

The uni will probably let her stay yes.

No she doesn't need to live on takeaways. Even catered student accommodation includes some kind of access to booking water for making tea, doesn't it? There's lots of things available in supermarkets that can just be prepared by adding boiling water e.g. couscous and noodle-based options.

When I was a student I had one of these in my room because sometimes the shared kitchen was too crowded with other students to use, or someone else had dirtied every pot and pan in the house, and it was good to be able to cook independently of the kitchen. There's loads of things you can cook with something like this and she'll get lots of use out of it beyond this 8 day emergency.

Yes its crap that she can't move in on time but no one has been deliberately malicious or incompetent so talk of suing and solicitors is inappropriate. This is not a massive hardship to cope with.

They ARE taking the piss though by still collecting rent. It may not be a ‘massive hardship’ but she stil has to pay extra and LL’s see students as cash cows. Good if you ti stand up OP but bear in mind that the owner could make life very difficult for the tenants should the relationship sour…