Leeds students rang police after believing unexpected maintenance man was an intruder

A group of University of Leeds students living in Hyde Park called the police on a maintenance man after they heard an unexpected voice in their house upon returning home.

The maintenance worker showed up on a Saturday night after responding to a request sent a few weeks prior.

The worker was sent by their property management team, RNL, who did not warn them about his arrival, causing the students to lock themselves into one of their rooms in fear of the intruder.

After the man did not announce himself and was seen just leaving with a bag, the students rang 101.

The police sent a squad car with two police officers who arrived at their house to investigate the issue.

It was only after a 27 minute phone call between the police and RNL, in which the company initially refused to cooperate, that they were able to confirm that this mystery man was, in fact, a maintenance worker.

In response to the incident, Millie, a student tenant at the residence, explained to The Leeds Tab: “We’ve had issues with people coming for house viewings and leaving our doors unlocked so our minds jumped to an intruder.”

When ringing the property management’s emergency phone number, they were told: “Yeah, could be the landlord, sounds like him” to which Millie explained “didn’t fill [them] with much confidence”.

Millie also noted that the residents have never met their landlord nor know what he looks like.

“If it weren’t for the police we don’t think we would’ve got an answer,” Millie said.

A West Yorkshire Police spokesperson told The Leeds Tab: “Police received a report at 7:46pm on 9th November of a burglary at a student property on Regent Terrace, Leeds.

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“Officers attended at the scene and following further enquiries it was established that a burglary had not occurred.

“It was found to be a communication issue between the landlord, property management company and the tenants about a maintenance worker attending at the address.”

“We were made to feel so stupid and silly by the man on the phone [RNL], just for trying to ensure our safety. Just an email beforehand would’ve avoided the whole issue.”

The girls also took to TikTok to share their experience, captioning the video: “Reminder to uni maintenance teams to text us if you’re coming over, just rang the police on a guy trying to fix our toilet xx.” However, despite the caption, the home is a privately-rented house, and has no affiliation to the University of Leeds or its maintenance teams.

@millieeorsomething

#hydepark #unihouse #student #leeds

♬ original sound – cami ୨୧

“With regards to the unexpected visit; The landlord had texted RNL on Friday 8th November 2024 at 18:58. As our office closes at 17.30, we did not see this information until the office reopened on Monday 11th November 2024 at 9am, and we were therefore unable to inform the tenants in advance.

“The landlord has apologised for the stress that the situation has caused the tenants, the landlord has assured us that this lapse in communication will not happen again. The police called the RNL emergency out of office line from a mobile number and requested the landlord’s details in order to discuss the incident with them directly, the call handler of the out of hours line promptly arranged for the landlord to discuss with the officer directly.

“The police have since withdrawn any complaints [against RNL].

“Within the statement we would also like to note that the tenant thanked the call handler for this help multiple times, and did not inform the call handler that they had all locked themselves in one room in fear.”