Late payment charges

[the_thin_man]

Hello all

 

Was hoping somebody out there could give me some advice on this.

 

I'm a student at Durham Uni living in university owned accomodation. Before christmas I had problems paying my accomodation and catering charge of roughly £1300 for the term. I eventually payed 5 weeks late, although the uni has decided to charge me £50 for this late payment.

 

My feelings are that this is probably a similar situation to bank charges - i.e. can only charge me what it costs to chase the payment/lost interest/etc - which is not going to amount to £50.

 

If it turns out that this is the case then they also owe me £170 in fines I paid for similar problems 2 years ago.

 

What are other peoples views on this, and what is the legal view?

 

Thanks

[MrShed]

What type of tenancy agreement do you have? You are absolutely right, other than the possible complication that a lot of uni tenancies(as in issued by the uni themselves) are licences rather than tenancies per se, which changes things slightly...

[the_thin_man]

Yes I think it is a licence, although I'd have to check to be sure? What difference does this make?

[MrShed]

Probably not much. IMO they should give you the moneyback plus interest. However, I wouldnt be doing so while you are still at the uni....

[the_thin_man]

I graduate in June so will prob look into reclaiming it then - although uni policy means they shouldn't be able to penalise me in my degree just because I had made life difficult for them/taken them to court, in reality I realise I could be shooting myself in the foot!

 

Thanks for your help MrShed

[MrShed]

You are probably right, but no point jeapordising your studies and career for the sake of £200! You have 6 years anyway

[blacksheep1979]

yup, would leave any mention of wanting the money back till after graduation

[CourseRep]

Hi there; thin man- i would love for you to keep us posted. as you can imagine, you are not the only one to be in this situation. I wanted to develop a thread about students. You can start us all off! Can you tell us what Uni you are at? (I don't think you need to worry about confidentiality, there are at least few thousand students at any Uni at any time)

[MrShed]

Hes at Durham uni as stated above...

[CourseRep]

Ta, Mr Shed, diligent as ever

[the_thin_man]

I'll keep everybody posted - I'm off to see my senior tutor tomorrow regarding another issue. She also deals with any financial queries for students in my hall of residence - do you think I should mention it to her or make it official by putting it in writing to the central finance department (who have overall control of these things)?

 

Obviously I'd like to avoid taking my uni to court if poss, but i'm def willing to do it!

 

As always, any advice welcomed

[CourseRep]

You will not achieve anything by signalling to the finance that you are not happy or that you are going to complaint. these people are income generators and nothing much will disturb them from this role. You can ask your sabbatical officers though if they intent to run some sort of campaign about as it scandalous etc.

furthermore, most universities will not issue a formal certificate/diploma if you are in debt with them, even if this debt is non-academic. This is a REAL scandal, well known amongst the student advice community. You need to find this out- will you be forced to pay out in order to get your degree? You may then have to send a letter with your payment which makes it very clear that you had no other option as your career is your main goal. Use lots of terms like: reluctantly, you leave me with no choice, complaint valid but I am being held to ransom, unethical approach, forced to agree, financial pressure etc.

 

This will leave you an open gate if you want to pursue you claim further by taking the University to court for penalty charge.

my opinion is; focus now on your final exams, savour the revenge later