Students
Students we have helped get their rent back
Flat Justice is an expert in helping students recover rent from private student accommodation operators who commit Rent Repayment Order offences. Students are often exploited by corporate landlords chasing profits, who ignore their statutory obligations.
The Upper Tribunal has twice held that cluster flats in privately operated student accommodation are HMOs. Do not be put off by an operator saying the block is code-compliant — the exemption depends on who manages the building, and it does not cover commercial operators. How to check.
Lived at Chelsea Lightfoot Hall on Manresa Road in 2025–26? The Council says the building needed an HMO licence. Find out if you can get your rent back.
The blocks
| Block | Students who got rent back | Judgment or directions |
|---|---|---|
| Student Castle, Oxford | 37 | Aug 22 |
| Unite: North Lodge, Haringey | 6 | May 23 |
| Unite: North Lodge, Emily Bowes Court, Station Court, Haringey | 114 | Nov 24 |
| Unite: Dorset House, Oxford | 53 | Jun 24 Settled before hearing |
| Unite: Horizon Heights, Liverpool | 1 | Jun 24 |
| Unite: St Luke’s View, Lennon Studios, Horizon Heights, Grand Central, Liverpool | 15 | Jan 25 |
| Unite: Queens Park House, Coventry | 4 | Jun 24 |
| Unite: Queens Park House, Coventry | 6 | Jan 26 Settled before final hearing |
| Unite: Arrad House, Atlantic Point, Cambridge Court, Cedar House, Grand Central, Horizon Heights, Lennon Studios, Moorfield, Prospect Point, St Luke’s View, Liverpool | 340 | To be decided First hearing on preliminary issue: decision due |
| Dean House, Lewisham | 49 | Case ongoing |
See our Google reviews — many are recent, from Unite students we helped get their rent back.
Media coverage
- Rats, mould, damp: UK’s biggest student homes provider faces legal action over poor accommodation The Guardian, 7 September 2024, on our Unite cases.
- Rats run riot in infested student halls The Observer, on our work with Dean House students. Dean House is mainly occupied by Goldsmiths students.
- BBC Breakfast: George Penny on the Supreme Court ruling in Rakusen v Jepsen The ruling overturned a principle Flat Justice had established on the liability of superior landlords. It has now been restored by the Renters’ Rights Act. Watch it on the About page.
Why you can trust Flat Justice
- Flat Justice has assisted hundreds of tenants to Get Rent Back in the five years since we started. See our Google reviews.
- You can check our past cases on the government tribunal decisions website.
- We have been involved in many of the important appeal cases on Rent Repayment Orders. See the Upper Tribunal decisions website.
- Our work has been funded by the Trust for London. Those grants are awarded only after careful due diligence by the funder.
- Flat Justice was founded by students, so we know the problems student accommodation can bring.
- We work with other tenants’ rights groups including Shelter and Generation Rent.
- We work in partnership with many councils in England, helping them enforce their licensing schemes — even Bristol, the home town of Unite.
- Flat Justice is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company: check our company listing.
Still sceptical? Give us a ring on the number on our contact page. Yes, you can talk to us — but preferably at reasonable hours, please.
Think you have a claim?
If you lived in a private student block and it turns out not to have been licensed, you may be able to recover up to two years’ rent. Deadlines are tight and they run from the last day of the offence, so it is worth asking early rather than late.