A group of York students has won the opportunity to have their very own I-phone application developed after winning The App Challenge final, held at the Ron Cooke Hub on Wednesday, January 18.
YUSU Welfare officer Bob Hughes has warned students to be vigilant after a student loans phishing scam has been revealed.
Her Majesty the Queen will be visiting York on Maundy Thursday, 5th April, as part of the 800th anniversary of York’s Charter for the traditional “Royal Maundy” ceremony.
A flood caused by a heating system “failure” forced the university IT services to shut down many essential systems on Sunday night, causing problems for many students on the eve of their exams and assignment due-dates.
A group of students have claimed that their estate agent Sinclair Properties tried to intimidate them after they became involved in a dispute with their neighbours.
The six students allege that Niall McTurk, owner of Sinclair Properties, arrived unannounced at their home in Heslington and threatened them with eviction— just weeks after they moved into the £90-a-week property.
“The first words I heard come out of his mouth were ‘we’re here to discuss your eviction from this property’”, said Claudia Medina-Moralejo, one of the tenants.
“He was intimidating, he was rude… it was just completely unreasonable, the way he did it” she added.
The tenants, all second year students, had clashed with their next door neighbours over noise levels — but they believed the matter had been resolved after they apologised to them.
The students have told The Yorker that no sanctions had been discussed in any correspondence from Sinclair Properties prior to McTurk’s visit.
Lili Zhang, another of the housemates, said that McTurk mentioned eviction “multiple times” while at the house.
Sinclair later sent a letter to the tenants saying their tenancy would be “jeopardized” if the dispute continued— but Zhang said that she feared they could be evicted immediately.
“He was deadly serious… when I spoke to my parents on the phone I actually said, the chances are that I may have to move somewhere else”, she said.
“I did actually start looking online for houses for the six of us, to move somewhere else.”
Medina-Moralejo said she felt that McTurk, who she alleges visited when just three of the six students were home, was trying to frighten them.
“Everyone was a bit scared”, she said. “He left without speaking to any of the other tenants, and we were all a bit shaken up.
“From then on, it’s just been a constant battle”.
Medina-Moralejo claims that Sinclair has breached their contract on multiple occasions, including visiting without notice several times; adding extra charges to their all-inclusive rent; and failing to provide a bike shed when their contract stated they must do so.
She also said that Sinclair caused difficulties by contacting their financial guarantors about the noise dispute, despite there being no financial issues during their tenancy.
“We’ve lost so much respect for them”, she told The Yorker. “I think they’re one of the most unprofessional businesses I’ve ever had to deal with”.
Stuart Wilson, lettings manager at Sinclair Properties, said that his company had “taken steps to resolve the dispute”.
He said: “Several weeks ago, we invited the tenants to have a meeting with Sinclair Properties and the University of York Welfare Team to work towards a sensible resolution. To date, this proposal has not been taken up”.
He refused to confirm whether McTurk had visited the property, or whether eviction had been discussed.
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