Unite Students faces legal action over rats, mould and damp in student accommodations

The UK’s biggest provider of student homes, Unite Students, is facing legal action over alleged poor quality housing.

Unite Students has accommodations across Britain, including in Cardiff, Bournemouth, Newcastle, and Edinburgh, to name a few.

Flat Justice, a not for profit tenants’ rights group, is leading the claim against the student housing provider, saying the quality of the accommodation is affecting students’ health, The Guardian reports.

The group shared some of the issues with the accommodation which it’s putting forward to Unite Students, including mice and bug infestations, mould, damp, and bed bugs.

Owning 68,000 student rooms in 151 purpose built blocks across the country, Unite Students told The Guardian that student welfare is its “top priority”.

A tribunal is currently hearing from more than 300 students who lived in a Unite Students block in Liverpool between 2022 and 2023. The block in question, Atlantic Point, was said to have a problem with rats and mice.

Unite Students’ Atlantic Point in Liverpool via Google Maps

Chakotay Williams, a student who lived in the accommodation, submitted a complaint about the alleged infestations during his time there.

Another student, known only as Tom, told The Guardian that he started to have breathing problems whilst living there. He said: “There was mould everywhere and the place was perpetually damp.”

He also explained that he spent hours removing silverfish, “only for them to be back in the same numbers the next day.”

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Flat Justice is also looking into complaints surrounding nine Unite Students blocks in Birmingham. One student who lived in the Mary Sturge block in the city centre explained that after reporting seeing a rat in her kitchen, the company told her that her flatmate may just be secretly keeping a hamster.

Unite Students’ Mary Sturge at Aston University, Birmingham via Google Maps

Niamh Reynolds is another student who has had issues with Unite Students. Living in Emily Bowes Court, Haringey back in 2021, Niamh alleged that when she put her name down for the property, she didn’t know there would be year long recladding work taking place. She said she was only notified of this a few weeks before the work started.

She said: “My flatmate’s window was completely covered [with scaffolding and tarpaulin] and they had no daylight, which had a big impact on their mental health. I had light but I had to keep my blinds shut for privacy because there were people walking around on the scaffolding.”

By the end of the year, Niamh said dust from the work had become “really bad” and a problem with the central heating meant her flat was “boiling all the time”.

She claimed she has a mould allergy, and alleges mould in her room was causing her to wheeze and be sick, saying: “Maintenance did not take the issue seriously, and it was not treated properly.

“I feel let down.”

Flat Justice is currently fighting for rent refunds for 113 students across three Unite Students halls in Haringey, including Emily Bowes Court with the lack of notification about the building work when students signed up being the principal complaint.

According to The Guardian, other issues at Emily Bowes Court include “unbearable heat” from broken radiators, bed bugs, lifts broken for weeks, and students arriving to find a dirty flat and a fridge filled with gone off food.

When asked by The Observer about these claims, a Unite Students spokesperson said: “While we acknowledge issues may arise, our teams always work hard to resolve these as quickly as possible.”

However, one of Flat Justice’s directors, Guy Morris said: “Unite portrays a shiny image to its prospective customers through their marketing … but the reality is often very different,” and added that many students have complained to the group about infestations, including maggots, flies, bed bugs, rodents and silverfish.

The tenants’ rights group also found that some of Unite Students’ accommodations weren’t originally signed up to local authority rental licensing schemes which are designed to make sure basic safety standards are met. According to The Guardian, recent tribunals found that Unite Students should have licensed properties in Liverpool, Oxford, Coventry and Haringey, but the company has now done this.