Uni halls denies making inappropriate comments to student who couldn’t afford rent

A tweet containing a fake email has gone viral claiming to be from the London-based student accommodation Chapter appearing to show the company make inappropriate comments about the financial situation of the student who couldn’t afford the rent of their uni hall.

The University of West London student allegedly received the email after getting placed in a room that was £200 a week more than the one she was initially assigned.

When she emailed the company to say she could no longer pay the rent, she was allegedly told: “It is not our fault that you do not come from a high-earning household or earn a certain amount of money from work”.

Chapter has denied these allegations in a statement. It said: “We are aware of a post on X relating to an unverified email claiming to be sent by a representative of Chapter, to a student at the University of West London. As soon as we became aware of the post, we conducted a thorough review of our server, and we can confirm that it was not sent by a Chapter employee, nor did it originate from any of our systems.”

The fake email, which also offers a £100 M&S gift voucher and says: “I’m sure you do not get to shop there a lot”, was allegedly sent from the White City branch of Chapter Living at 23:28 pm.

It reads: “We are sorry that you have had such a bad experience with us before moving. However it is not our fault that you are unable to pay the amount of rent charged and that you do not come from a high-earning household or earn a certain amount of money from work, this is something you should perhaps take up with your parents and yourself, Chapter is not in control of how little your finances might be.

It continues: “I do hope you can find someone rented that is more suited to your financial situation. In the meantime, we can offer you a £100 Marks and Spencer gift card. I am sure you do not get to shop there a lot.”

Via Twitter

A statement from the accommodation company said: “We are aware of a Tweet relating to an email claiming to be sent by a representative of Chapter to a student. We have conducted a thorough review of our server, and this was not sent by a Chapter employee nor did it originate from any of our systems. Thank you for bringing this to our attention.”

The original tweet has now reached 12.7k likes and over 4,000 retweets.

According to Maisha who originally tweeted the false email, the Citizen’s Advice Bureau are currently conducting an investigation into the situation. She said: “That last line makes me sick to my stomach @ChapterLondon you should be ashamed of yourselves. What kinds of people do you have working for you if they’re comfortable speaking in such a derogatory manner to your occupants?”

She added: “Although Chapter are denying ever sending this email, there’s more to the story than you think.”

“They’ve turned their comments off on everything btw so take that as you will.”

Chapter offers student accommodation across London including South Bank, Islington, Aldgate and White City, where this fake email was allegedly sent.

According to one tweet, Chapter “are telling people it’s a hoax and ‘anything can happen on the internet’ when you call to complain.”

Featured image before edits via Google Maps. 

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• Grants and free food: Everything UK unis are doing for students in the cost of living crisis

• The Russell Group universities with the highest dropout rates, revealed

• Ranked: These are officially the 20 best universities in the UK right now