Students at the Auckland University of Technology will receive a further $113 rent rebate for the number of weeks they were away from their accommodation due to Covid-19.
The university made the announcement today. It follows a utilities credit of $60 per week that had already been offered by AUT.
The additional amount was negotiated on behalf of students in recent weeks with Charta, which represents the owners of AUT’s largest accommodation facility.
AUT says the rent rebate will be put into the students’ accounts in the next two weeks.
The announcement comes after months of ongoing issues with students paying rent for empty rooms during lockdown, and communication bungles.
Many students haven’t been in their rooms during the Covid-19 lockdown. (Source: Other)
AUT sent an email to students at the end of March threatening to cut them off from student services if they didn't pay rent debt accrued during lockdown.
One AUT student told 1 NEWS she had moved home at the start of lockdown as she knew she had 48 hours to decide where she would live, and made the call in lieu of information from AUT.
AUT initially told 1 NEWS it knew nothing about the email, which it said was sent by property manager Campus Living Villages. The student accommodation buildings are not owned by AUT.
But Campus Living Villages denied that, and said it didn't have the authority to send such an email to students, and any emails the company did send to students is "under instruction from the university".
AUT then went back on its initial response and said a staff member had sent the email, that it was a mistake and that it would be apologising to 24 students affected.
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