united-kingdom residential-lease fair-housing-acts students
Any cases in UK that the student is partly refunded with the student housing payments for not able to obtain a visa or other reasons like COVID?
<p><strong>Scenario:</strong> A student signed a contract with a Purpose-Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) in London, with the term starting Dec 2020. The student was not able to obtain the tier 4 visa on time. The student noticed the PBSA that she cannot arrive on Dec 2020 and must cancel a part of the accommodation. The student asked for a partial refund, excluding an one-month. The PBSA refused to negotiate.</p>
<p><strong>Question:</strong> Are there any legal cases in which the court awarded the student a partial refund for not able to come to UK due to compulsory reasons such as COVID or Visa problems?</p>
<p><strong>My try:</strong> I tried to contact a few students and have done some research online (such as <a href="https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9122/CBP-9122.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the parliament's research briefing</a>, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/cma-to-investigate-concerns-about-cancellation-policies-during-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic-consumer-contracts-cancellation-and-refunds" rel="nofollow noreferrer">the interpretation of the law by CMA</a>, and the <a href="https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus-student-accommodation/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">parliament's resources for students in this case</a>), so I think I have some background knowledge. To my knowledge, there seem to be no ruled legal cases related to these issues. However, some students (hereafter student B) did receive partial refunds by negotiating with the PBSA (in 2021), possibly due to that the PBSA is bound to the National Codes for PBSA. The National Codes put an emphasize on COVID-related issues in 2020 but not in 2021.</p>
<p>Any related information will be deeply appreciated.</p>
<hr />
<p>Updates regarding the frustrated contract, according to Citizens Advice:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>If you’re paying rent to stay in university-owned halls of residence
but it’s impossible for you to travel there because of a local
lockdown, you might be able to argue that your rental agreement has
been “frustrated”.</p>
<p>This is a legal term that means that, due to special circumstances out
of anybody’s control (such as a global pandemic), the rental contract
cannot be ‘performed’, as you can’t actually use something that you’ve
paid for.</p>
<p>Citizens Advice has said that you might also be able to use the
‘frustration’ argument if the purpose of the accommodation is
‘radically altered’.</p>
<p>For example, if your accommodation was closely tied to you attending a
course in a particular location but the course is now being delivered
completely online, you might be able to make the argument that your
rental agreement has been ‘frustrated.</p>
<p>The charity says, however, that <strong>this has not been tested in court</strong> so
there is not much way of knowing how successful this argument would
be.</p>
</blockquote>

<h2>You must do what you contracted to do</h2>
<p>You contracted to pay rent from Dec 2020, they contracted to provide housing from Dec 2020. They <em>did</em> provide the housing, the fact that you were unable to use it is your problem, not theirs.</p>
<p>There is an exception if the the reason you can’t use it is due to some act or omission of theirs but that appears not to be the case. You can’t use it because HMG won’t let you into the country - contractually this is your risk, not theirs, just as it would be if you couldn’t travel because our fell ill, or were jailed, or couldn’t afford a plane ticket. Your issue, your problem, your loss.</p>
<p>Special provisions were made for COVID-19 but again, your situation doesn’t seem to fit that.</p>
