Your student accommodation contract

We know there’s a lot of things to worry about at the moment, but we’ve tried to ensure your university accommodation isn’t one of them.

It’s why Optivo introduced flexibility to contracts starting in September 2020.

One of the flexible terms was clause 12.9 of your contract which said:

You may end this Agreement on either [12 February 2021] [or [2 July 2021]] on immediate notice received before such date if you wish to leave your Accommodation as a result of any mandatory measure imposed by local, regional or central government for the prevention of the spread of Coronavirus which affects the Accommodation or the Institution.
 

So what does this mean?

If there’s a lockdown which has affected your accommodation or institution you can request to be released from your contract immediately.

After the request has been granted, your contract will be terminated at the end date of your payment period.
Here are the payment periods, with the end dates outlined in bold:

• 20 weeks starting from 26 September 2020 – 12 February 2021; and

• 20 weeks starting from 13 February 2020 – 2 July 2021.

If you deferred your stay

In September 2020, we agreed students could defer their stay until 9 January 2021.

To defer, those with contracts due to start in September 2020 were required to make a payment towards their rent.
 

Your position

• If you signed a contract for 2020/21 but didn’t defer, you’ll currently be in the 20 week payment period starting 26 September 2020 and ending on 12 February 2021.

• If you deferred your start date to 9 January 2021, you may terminate your stay on or before 12 February 2021, but you’ll forfeit any money paid for the accommodation from 9 January to your contract end date.  This is because this money was paid to hold your room during the period from 26 September 2020 until 9 January 2021 whilst the payment of the licence fee was deferred. 

• If you’ve deferred and still don’t want to move into your accommodation on 9 January 2021 you’ll be able to defer your stay again. If you opt to do this you’ll be required to sign up to a new licence beginning 25 September 2021. This will be for 40 weeks ending on 2 July 2022; or 50 weeks ending on 9 September 2022. You will not be eligible to defer beyond 25 September 2021 and any licence fee paid will be forfeited.