The country’s largest provider of private student accommodation was lambasted in yesterday’s decision by the Northern First-tier Tribunal Property Chamber (Residential Property) (FtT) for failing to license their property. Unite was found guilty and a Rent Repayment Order (RRO) award made against them.
In this case, brought by Flat Justice, Unite Group PLC, the £4bn FTSE 250 company (UTG.L), was again found guilty of the criminal offence of not licensing its property. This time it was in Horizon Heights, Liverpool: a block with up to 21 storeys housing over 1000 students: none of the flats had been licensed. This follows successful cases against Unite at their North Lodge block in Haringey and pending cases at neighbouring Emily Bowes Court and Station Court in London, Dorset House in Oxford, Queens Park House in Coventry (heard Jan-24 but still no decision🥺) and nine further blocks in Liverpool.
Licensing is important to ensure that rental properties are safe by forcing landlords to comply with safety standards including fire protection and alarms, electrical safety and gas safety. For example, in our case against Unite in Coventry, there was no valid electrical safety certificate for a block housing 464 students. In another case in Newcastle, Unite’s evidence apparently showed that the global fire alarm system had been out of action for a number of months. Back in Liverpool, Merseyside Fire & Rescue has confirmed that they have attended 89 incidents at Unite run blocks in Liverpool in recent years.
Without licensing, students, and their parents who often fund the rent payments, have to rely on these vital safety measures being taken by profit-driven companies. In the case of Unite, clearly a company that seems prone to “cock-ups”.
In this decision, the Judge adopted the term “cock-up” from Unite’s own defence barrister’s description of Unite’s failure to license the property (and all 10 blocks in Liverpool):
§28. “So far as the reason for delay in making the application is concerned, we find that delay between 1 April and November 2022 was inexcusable. Essentially, as Mr Whately [sic] described it at the hearing, this was a cock-up, and one which should never have been allowed in a large and experienced corporate organisation, which should understand the regulatory environment in which it operates.”
Unite offered no defence against the allegation other than pleading corporate upheaval. No explanation was attempted by Unite to explain how it came to ignore its duty to license so many of its properties in the rest of the country nor, indeed, how it failed to license any of the 6 blocks it owned, at the time, for the entirety of Liverpool’s earlier scheme in 2015-2020.
Many will recall tory Minister Jenrick’s blocking of Liverpool’s subsequent licensing scheme in 2020 which became national news: see e.g. The Tories Just Gave Dodgy Landlords a Massive Helping Hand. But apparently Unite, the largest private HMO operator in the town, indeed the country, was oblivious to the public outcry.
Meanwhile the Liverpool University owned and operated “Liverpool Student Homes”, along with the University itself, were promoting the unlicensed properties to unsuspecting students. Indeed, LSH, presumably on behalf of John Moores University and other stakeholders, was actively campaigning against selective licensing of student properties: see our correspondence here with LSH & JMU.
Despite Unite’s various excuses, it could not explain away why it had taken no action for 9 months after learning about the need to license its properties:
“§47. On the para 46a point, we have reached findings on this issue above. Clearly, part of the period of delay in applying for the licence was inexcusable, and that is a serious failure.”
In setting a RRO award, tribunals must consider any tenant complaint about landlord conduct or the condition of the property. Higher awards are made for serious complaints.
In this case the Applicant had made no complaint about the conditions of the property, built in 2018. The tribunal consequently matched the North Lodge award (where complaints were ignored by the tribunal), setting the RRO at 50% of the rent paid.
In our upcoming cases for the following year, 2022-23, for Horizon Heights and other blocks, Unite will not get such an easy ride. The scandalous conditions students have had to suffer having already been catalogued in the local press, e.g. Liverpool Echo’s “City centre flats with ‘black mould in showers’ and ‘rats in kitchens‘”
Students for these new applications have sent us evidence of pest infestations (especially rats and flies), extended periods of lift breakdowns, disrepairs, mould, poor security etc. in Liverpool.
The follow-on cases for North Lodge and its neighbours in London had similar problems.
For example, this is how students found their flat on arrival in September 2021, with rubbish that had been festering over the summer:
No wonder the students nearly all complained about fly and maggot infestations in the block, e.g. this video from the same flat where such complaints were ignored in the 2020-21 case:
Students at Emily Bowes Court that year spent much of their tenancies shrouded in scaffolding and tarpaulins, suffering from the noise and dust of construction work as the building was re-clad:
Flat Justice Campaigns
Unite has consistently failed to license many of its properties, not only in breach of the law but also in breach of the ANUK/UNIPOL national code which it helped to draw up. This code is almost completely toothless and unfit for purpose: upcoming blog. Flat Justice is in touch with student unions to mount a campaign for its reform. We will also be assisting student unions to fight to prevent another exception for s21 evictions under any new incarnation of the Renters Reform Bill after the election. The now defunct bill had allowed Unite and similar landlords to continue to use the hated s21 eviction notices under a special exemption, after pressure from their lobbyists.
We hope that the increasing number of judgments against such providers and a, hopefully, more sympathetic regime will help prevent such a clearly undeserved exemption for this criminal landlord.
STOP PRESS- The Coventry decision, making another RRO award against Unite, has just been handed down after nearly 5 months’ wait- next blog!