UPDATE: Uninhabitable student housing. Released from the contract!
Here is my original post
Here are some images of the property in question
First of all I would like to thank everyone for the advice, I may not have followed everyone's advice but every single one of you that commented on my previous post made me feel a lot more confident going forward.
Today I recieved confirmation from the letting company that I had been released from the contract, so that's done with and I no longer have to worry about them coming after us for £10,000. My girlfriend and I have found significantly nicer accommodation in a much better location and we are only paying around £100 a month more than we were paying for the other place. We are NOT with a student company!
So what I did after making my post was to send an email to the head of the letting agency and the head of maintenance detailing all previous phone and in person conversation, complete with exact times and duration of the calls. I requested confirmation of my version of events or amendments if they disagreed. I did not receive a response for 3 days to that email. I also contacted my university and made them aware of the situation, I contacted the charity Shelter and asked for advice and I contacted the council with a detailed email including 20+ images from the property.
My girlfriend and I went to the property every day and saw that no work was being done whatsoever, on either our property or the one above where the leak originated from. The last time I was in the property was Thursday the 4th, 96 hours after reporting the issue, no work had been done.
I originally contacted the letting company on Sunday the 1st, was told it would be a week until the property was ready on Monday the 2nd and I contacted a solicitor on Wednesday the 3rd. He advised me to remove all of my belongings from the property and email them stating they had committed a fundamental breach of contract and I was requesting termination of the contract on those grounds. I asked for this release on Wednesday and stated that as my reason. The letters threatened me so on Thursday morning I spoke to my solicitor again. He reassured me I was in the right and suggested I send a more aggressive email, so I did. This is what I sent.
I have just spoken to my solicitor at [SOLICITOR] and discussed the photographic evidence of the extensive mould and damp damage in the property and he advised me that even paying for him to draft a letter to you is not worth it for me at this time as you are surely in fundamental breach of the contract.
Inspection or not I am informing you now that neither I nor [GIRLFRIEND] have any intention of living in the property or paying you another penny. I demand the return of the £300, and if you genuinely believe you have a leg to stand on then have your solicitors contact me and I will put them in touch with mine.
Obviously I wish for an amicable split but I am well informed of the law and my rights on this matter and I have the resources to fight this all the way to court if that is what is necessary.
I will be returning the keys momentarily and look forward to having this issue resolved today.
Regards, [MY NAME]
After sending this email I went into the letting agency to return the keys. The manager asked "to come and have a chat" and I informed her that I would rather correspond via email like I had previously requested, but that if she insisted on talking I would like to record the conversation. She then decided that just returning the keys was fine.
Four days later we were released from the contract. My girlfriend and I have just returned from a celebratory meal and are relaxing with a bottle of wine. Thanks again r/legaladviceUK!
Posted Sep 10, 2019, 8:40 PM UTC
Love a good update - obviously they quickly realised that you weren't messing around!
I think that was the key. I'm fortunate that my girlfriend and I had some savings and that my dad (the guarantor) was happy to risk a potentially bad outcome to fight this. I'm also a mature student so not your typical 18 year old they are used to.
Student letting companies are just bullies, so my thinking was stand up to them and punch back and they will likely back down, that's exactly what happened!