Magdalen in eviction mayhem

A student at Magdalen was forced to fight back after the college attempted to evict him from college-owned accommodation.

While staying in college accommodation over the long vacation, Michael Worth received an email from the college informing him that he was being evicted. He was told that he had two days to leave the room and that any remaining belongings would be ‘disposed of’.

After seeking advice from bodies including the Citizens’ Advice Bureau and Oxford City Council, the Council’s Tenancy Relations Officer sent the Home Bursar a letter on Worth’s behalf, stating that the actions of the college were illegal under the Protection for Eviction Act 1977. The Act provides that a licensee must be given 28 days notice to evict the premises.

Read: ‘Bitch please’

Following the letter, the college agreed to let Michael stay until the licence terminated, as the remaining duration of the licence was less than the required 28 days, but refused to offer him further accommodation in the future.

Worth has stated that he is willing to assume that the reasons behind the eviction were legitimate – he is taking issue only with the way in which the procedure was conducted.

The Home Bursar refused to give detailed information as to which breaches of the tenancy agreement had occurred, stating that he had “already wasted enough time on this”.

Worth then wrote a letter to the President, David Clary, explaining in detail why he felt that he had been wrongly treated. The response was short: “I am sorry if you feel that the College’s actions were unreasonable and caused you inconvenience.”

Last Sunday Magdalen JCR passed a motion put forward by Worth (19 supported the motion, 10 against, 10 abstaining), asking the college to draw up and circulate a clear eviction policy.

The motion also requested that the new policy require the JCR president to be informed of any planned evictions so that support may be provided.

Worth explained the reasoning behind his motion: “I’m willing to write off what they did as merely incompetent; however they need to ensure it doesn’t happen again.

Assuming that the college has been incompetent in the past [the college has yet to respond to Worth’s Freedom of Information Requests regarding a student who may have previously been wrongly evicted], it is reasonable to take action to prevent the same situation in the future.”

The controversial motion

Samuel Lowe, the student that seconded the motion, said: “I feel that it was incredibly unfair of college to attempt to evict Michael with such short notice… to further threaten the removal and disposal of his personal belongings was dreadfully unjust.”

Not all of the students present during the meeting supported the motion. Millie Ross, JCR President, said: “I don’t think JCR should put its back to this as I’m not comfortable with a brief about eviction notices. I think this motion breeds hostility that we don’t need.”

Henry Waston, a 3rd year student at Magdalen, also expressed his doubts about the motion. He said: “I would want to see a full legal brief before putting the JCR’s name to it.”

Magdalen college declined to comment on either the motion or the eviction in question.