Current campaign · Students
Lived at Chelsea Lightfoot Hall in 2025–26? Get your rent back.
Chelsea Lightfoot Hall, Manresa Road, London SW3 6NA
What we found
We asked the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea about this building in March 2026. The Council has told us that no HMO licence application was made for it until July 2026.
It is the Council’s view that the building needs an HMO licence, because a large share of the rooms depend on shared kitchens.
The Council also made clear that privately run student accommodation is not exempt from licensing just because the residents are students.
Read our emails with the Council, March to June 2026 (PDF, 8 pages, officers’ names removed).
What this means for you
When a building that needs a licence is let without one, tenants can apply to the First-tier Tribunal (Property Chamber) for a Rent Repayment Order. That is an order that the landlord pays back rent paid while the building was unlicensed.
The tribunal decides how much. It can order repayment of up to all the rent paid for up to 12 months of that period.
Who can claim
- You lived at Chelsea Lightfoot Hall during the 2025–26 year
- You shared a kitchen with other students (twin rooms and cluster flats)
- Lived in a studio? Get in touch anyway and we’ll check your room type
- You paid rent, and you have your tenancy agreement and bank statements or receipts
Why join with other residents
The more residents who apply, the stronger everyone’s case, on who lived there and on how the building was run. We bring applications together so no one has to go to the tribunal alone.
How we help
We pay the tribunal fees, prepare the submissions and advocate at the hearing, for 20% of what is actually recovered, payable only once the money arrives.
No win, no fee
You pay nothing unless money is recovered.
Advice is free
Ask us whether you have a claim. It costs nothing.
What to do now
Email your 2025–26 tenancy agreement to office@flatjustice.org, with “Chelsea Lightfoot Hall” as the subject, or send us an enquiry. Or phone us on 020 7097 5343.
Please don’t wait.
We have done this before
Flat Justice has recovered rent for students in private blocks before, including 114 students across three Unite blocks in Haringey. We are now acting for 340 students across the Unite blocks in Liverpool. See the blocks and the judgments.