New legislation to stop student accommodation providers from only offering 51-week leases passed through the Oireachtas yesterday (July 11), is welcomed by the Union of Students in Ireland.
USI had brought the issue to the attention of the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science in January when a number of students came to the union saying they were only being offered 51-week leases instead of the usual term-time leases for the next academic year.
At the time, USI was advised that this practice could not be enforced under the existing USI Student Accommodation Bill, which was enacted in summer 2021, after being tabled by Sinn Fein and accepted by Government.
In January, it was confirmed to us by Department officials that penalising students for terminating a tenancy is illegal and that no one should be forced into taking the 51-week option, but that it should remain an option for those who need it.
However, after continuing to seek confirmation on this, as some students were still only being offered 51-week leases, USI welcomes this move by the Government to use emergency legislation to settle the issue.
USI President, Chris Clifford said: “We are glad that this issue has now been settled ahead of the start of the academic year. It will take some stress and pressure off students that were trying to deal with these specific private student accommodation providers. But this issue yet again shows why we should not be relying on private developers to provide our student accommodation. They just want to squeeze as much money as possible from students and know how desperate many students are because of the housing crisis. Yet again, we call on Government to publish the long-awaited Student Accommodation Strategy urgently.”