Farhan Chowdhury said he had “no idea what was coming” when he was told leaving his university-owned accommodation early would cost him almost 10-times his weekly rent in outstanding fees.
But the Bangladeshi engineering student said his shock turned to anger when Sydney’s University of Technology (UTS) warned him what would happen if he didn’t pay up.
“They just said the amount was $2,700 and this needs to be paid or else I won’t be able to graduate,” the 24-year-old told SBS News.
Mr Chowdhury claimed he had given the required two weeks’ notice at the university’s Yura Mudang accommodation after deciding to leave early, but said costs continued to accumulate after the university failed to properly terminate his lease. The university disputes this.
Farhan Chowdhury was told he wouldn't be able to graduate. Source: SBS News
Mr Chowdhury said the dispute risked his enrolment, according to the terms of his signed housing agreement, which he in turn feared would carry serious consequences as an international student.
“Obviously it will be reported to Department of Immigration, that will eventually cancel my visa,” Mr Chowdhury said.
“I just felt that it was wrong for them to treat us like that.”
An SBS News investigation has found international students must already contend with overcrowding in the privately owned units.
But advocates say Mr Chowdhury’s case highlights the potential for a new type of exploitation, this time in the burgeoning specialist student housing market.
“Ultimately you have to reach a point where people say enough is enough,” Sean Stimson, an international student services solicitor from the Redfern Legal Centre, said.
Digs in demand
As record numbers of overseas students boost the lecture halls and coffers of Australian universities and private colleges, the market to house them is also booming.
According to global real estate firm Savills, there were more than 71,000 beds in purpose-built student accommodation in Australia’s eight capital cities in 2017, including UniLodge, Campus Living Villages and Urbanest.
The number of beds in Melbourne’s development pipeline was expected to rise to more than 16,000 in 2018- almost double the figure of 12 months prior, its analysis found. A further 5,435 beds were in the works in Sydney, about two-thirds of which was being built by universities themselves.
International students account for up 40 per cent of those living in purpose-built student housing, but critics say the housing gold rush has run ahead of regulation, with this group among the most vulnerable to gaps in the law.
“A lot of the protections are stripped away which allows the owners and operators to pretty much do whatever they want to do,” Mr Stimson said.
Sean Stimson advocates for the legal rights of international students. Source: SBS News
In both NSW and Victoria, the two states with the most international students, housing located within or owned by an institution is exempt from providing regulatory protections required under their respective Residential Tenancy Acts, he said.
This exemption also applies to any housing provider that has a written agreement to provide accommodation for the students of that institution.
For instance, a Campus Living Villages spokeswoman confirmed that all of its NSW properties were covered by the exemption, including a 995-bed and 650-bed site it operates on behalf of the University of Sydney.
“We work very closely with our universities in relation to any residential agreements and the terms and conditions of those,” she said.
‘Unfair leverage’
But Mr Stimson said the exemption potentially opened up students to excessive fees or bonds, unfair notice periods and a narrower avenue for determining disputes.
“You can write anything into these contracts, but certainly the contracts we’ve reviewed there are not those protections in place that are in place under the Residential Tenancy Act,” Mr Stimson said.
Redfern Legal Centre is calling for the exemption from the Residential Tenancy Act to be scrapped, as well as a ban on any agreements expressly linking accommodation fees to student enrolment.
The threat of being able to remove someone like Mr Chowdhury from his studies was “certainly unjust and unconscionable”, but it also wasn’t rare, he added.
“We see that across many education providers and many halls of residence or purpose-built student accommodation,” he said.
According to UTS’s license agreement for student residences signed by Mr Chowdhury, if a student has an outstanding debt “UTS may withhold academic results, transcripts, conferral of degree or award and may decline re-enrolment of the Occupier”.
Mr Chowdhury, who said he contacted UTS to terminate his housing agreement early in order to spend some time in Bangladesh with family while unwell, ultimately agreed to pay off a lower debt of $2000 in instalments rather than contest the amount further.
The dispute meant he was forced to graduate six months later than expected, he said.
“Obviously I didn’t want to pay that amount anyway, but I had to because they had that unfair leverage on me,” he said. The 24-year-old now works for a tech start-up and lives in a share house in Sydney.
A UTS spokeswoman told SBS News the university “is proud of the environment provided to international students [and] has transparent licence agreements that students sign up to”.
She acknowledged the agreement Mr Chowdhury signed meant UTS may withhold his re-enrolment due to the outstanding debt. But she said the university also took into consideration any mitigating circumstances and routinely forgave or reduced debts on that basis.
However, “students cannot expect to void their agreement and vacate simply on the basis of a change of plans,” she said.
“UTS has debt management procedures that apply to all outstanding debts by students, and processes for students to apply to pay by instalments.”
