Seven Brighton finalists are facing eviction from their uni house
They’ll be evicted in the middle of their final exams
Distraught third years at Brighton have been informed they are to be evicted in two months after their landlord was told to convert the unauthorised student house back into a family home.
Although they appealed against the decision in August last year, owners of the house Mr and Mrs Donald Rayward will have to change the house back into a single occupancy residence, after a planning inspector stated it should never have been converted into a student property in the first place. If they do not comply, they will be prosecuted.
However, the property was still advertised by G4Lets in January, so the unsuspecting third years moved in last month, oblivious to the enforcement notice. They have only just been informed of their impending eviction, and were even told there were no noise complaints at all about the house last year.
Georgia Fleet, one of the unfortunate students being evicted, told Brighton & Hove News “G4Lets have completely ruined our year and the stress we are now under is immense. We’re not the only students in this situation, and I dread to think how many of us are being evicted”.
Only around 30 percent of Brighton university students manage to secure a place in halls, so the majority of them have no choice but to use a private letting agency.
G4Lets has yet to comment on the situation, but ward Councillor Dick Page has been attempting help the students. He said: “These students have been to see me at my ward councillor surgery, and seem very responsible and hardworking…They are victims of the landlord’s greed”.