Right...so it's come to the time of the year when everyone's worried about exams; and on top of that, finding someplace to live next year; and on top of that, worrying about getting your deposit back.
Getting Deposits Back
Okay...let's level. If a window or door or wall has been damaged in your house, you can be fairly sure that you won't be seeing that portion of the deposit back, or if there's an electricity bill due, you may not get it back immediately as the remaining bill may be deducted from it. Anything that's been broken or damaged will be deducted from your deposit, so make sure you take photos of the shiny sparkly cleanliness of the house before you leave as there's nothing that can be done if it's trashed after you hand back your key and the landlord has no proof that you didn't do the damage.
If you have proof that you caused no damage and left no unpaid bills and your landlord is still not paying the deposit back, then it's time to call in the solicitor. In previous years Welfare Officers would have phoned landlords endlessly, but we have no way of enforcing anything on them, so now it's a simple matter of going straight to our solicitor. The details are available from SU Reception or the Welfare Office.
You are entitled to view the original bill for anthing taken as a deduction from your deposit
Looking to next year!!!
If you are panicking that you haven't sorted yourself yet...DON'T. There is plenty of accommodation out there. The Accommodation listing for next semester will be out in mid May. I will post it to the student portal (link works on campus only) when I have a copy.
Checkout the student portal(link works on campus only) for attachments of what to look out for. There's a checklist in there!
Do NOT sign contracts that are not clearly understandable. Our solicitors will look over anything that you reckon might be strange. This advise is contained in teh Accommodation Advice booklet on the student portal and available from me via email.
Showing posts with label accommodation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label accommodation. Show all posts
29 April 2010
16 October 2009
Hello Again Blogland
Hi guys,
My apologies that no office hours were put up this week. I was avaialble all week anyway.
I'm finishing on a half day as soon as I finished telling you what I've been doing for the last while.
It's been about 3 weeks since I updated....madness. I don't know how it's taken me so long!
So...here goes:
The RAG Charities submissions have been reviewed. I've whittled it down to 8 from 20 and the Union Executive will make the call on the final 4 next Thursday. More on that when we have the news. I must organise some bagpacking now!!
Financial Aid is still taking up a nice chunk of my time as is dealing with Accommodation issues. PLEASE, PLEASE mind your accommodation and housemates. If you have done something wrong, all the arguing in the world from me won't help you a whole lot.
I'm trying to organise some Please Talk mugs for Teach Fáilte and ourselves in the Union building. Let me know what ye think?
I've met with a number of the groups who are marketing the Union as part of a module for John Fahy's 4th Year class. The feedback is quite interesting and it will be great to see what their findings are.
I attended KBS Faculty Board, there was nothing of much great interest going on there, but if you would like anything raised let me or Aoife F know. All you need to know is that they are working away on getting KBS degrees as well accredited as possible internationally.
Silver Apples Creche Committee didn't throw up any major shocks and I'm happy enough that the creche there is providing a top class facility, however there are still student spaces in some age groups.
The RAG Charities collection form condoms is coming along nicely, they can now be procured from SU Reception.
I attended a Limerick Association of Students' Unions meeting last week also. Fees was much discussed, but has since gone away as an issue for the immediate future. We will be working on ensuring the University is properly funded. We will be going to FUSU next week in Maynooth.
Prior to the meeting with LASU, I met with Minister Peter Power along with the other Sabbats and we impressed upon him the hardship that fees would cause. See An Focal on tuesday for further details.
I'm sure there's some other stuff falling through the cracks that I've done, but it escapes me right now.
So...off to get a haircut!!
Cya
D
My apologies that no office hours were put up this week. I was avaialble all week anyway.
I'm finishing on a half day as soon as I finished telling you what I've been doing for the last while.
It's been about 3 weeks since I updated....madness. I don't know how it's taken me so long!
So...here goes:
The RAG Charities submissions have been reviewed. I've whittled it down to 8 from 20 and the Union Executive will make the call on the final 4 next Thursday. More on that when we have the news. I must organise some bagpacking now!!
Financial Aid is still taking up a nice chunk of my time as is dealing with Accommodation issues. PLEASE, PLEASE mind your accommodation and housemates. If you have done something wrong, all the arguing in the world from me won't help you a whole lot.
I'm trying to organise some Please Talk mugs for Teach Fáilte and ourselves in the Union building. Let me know what ye think?
I've met with a number of the groups who are marketing the Union as part of a module for John Fahy's 4th Year class. The feedback is quite interesting and it will be great to see what their findings are.
I attended KBS Faculty Board, there was nothing of much great interest going on there, but if you would like anything raised let me or Aoife F know. All you need to know is that they are working away on getting KBS degrees as well accredited as possible internationally.
Silver Apples Creche Committee didn't throw up any major shocks and I'm happy enough that the creche there is providing a top class facility, however there are still student spaces in some age groups.
The RAG Charities collection form condoms is coming along nicely, they can now be procured from SU Reception.
I attended a Limerick Association of Students' Unions meeting last week also. Fees was much discussed, but has since gone away as an issue for the immediate future. We will be working on ensuring the University is properly funded. We will be going to FUSU next week in Maynooth.
Prior to the meeting with LASU, I met with Minister Peter Power along with the other Sabbats and we impressed upon him the hardship that fees would cause. See An Focal on tuesday for further details.
I'm sure there's some other stuff falling through the cracks that I've done, but it escapes me right now.
So...off to get a haircut!!
Cya
D
27 August 2009
And we're back...well almost
Well the last 3 months have been a blur. Where is the time gone. 1/4 of the way through the year. Sorry it's been almost a month since I updated, but anywho, I'm fixing it now.
Right...newses
Right...newses
- The condoms are here - There are ribbed, xtreme and thin skin as well as non latex and magnum. We also have glyde dams (for the purpose of licking a friendly friend out/ muff diving or whatever you want to call it.) I will be asking you all to make a goodwill donation to RAG charities when you come in for condoms, but well below the cost in a shop
- Fees - See the website for details (www.ulsu.ie)
- There is still plenty of accommodation in the estates as far as we are aware. I hope to meet with interested landlords in the upgrade scheme I was researching over the summer next Thursday at 7pm. We've done a few deals with suppliers that should mean they can improve the quality of your accommodation a good lot.
- I'm hoping to finalise details of Welfare Crew this weekend, having spoken to Scott in UCDSU
- I have been attending graduations this week on behalf of all students as a member of Governing Authority. So any of you that were at graduations, yes it actually was me, or Ruán or Burky in the silly hat on the stage behind Don Barry. Well done to all graduates. I look forward to seeing you at the Grad Ball. And on Friday I become Derek Daly BBS :)
- Plenty of the usual meetings and stuff too.
31 July 2009
It's tricky thinking of titles for these posts
Anyhow...what have I been at....Well I'm actually off today, but I completely forgot to do the blog on Wednesday again when the BlackBerry told me to.
I'm just back from having a bit of craic in Galway with the NUIMSU President Brian and a few friends. There were some very well dressed ladies about for Ladies' Day at the races (which I missed because I didn't leave on time.).
We met with Jono, The Southern Area Officer from USI last week and had a bit of a chat about student issues and the thorny subject of Fees. USI still doesn't have a solution, but then again, neither do we.
Our good friend Batt O'Keefe hasn't increased the grant for the coming year, but more of you should be able to get what of it is there...which is always a good thing. Find out more on www.studentfinance.ie. Essentially those of you whose households earn less than €51,360 won't have to pay the €1,500 Student Service Charge. I still reckon more needs to be done with the grant, but Rome wasn't built in a day and all that jazz.
I've been chasing a few issues for a number of students around fees and accommodation.
FEES
If you repeat a year, you normally have to pay fees, the same if you are a non-EU student. Ignoring the letters the University sends won't make the issue go away. If you owe fees, try and pay them every year, otherwise you're going to end up seriously stressed when the University tells you you can't graduate (which you can't if you owe them fees). I can only do my best to have decisions around this dealt with consistently, after all it's not fair for those who have paid their fees, if someone else doesn't have to...so in essence....keep on top of your fees.
ACCOMMODATION
Don't sign anything if you are unsure. Our student solicitor has told us this week that students sign away a whole load of rights simply through not reading leases. He is available to check them out for you if you have any questions. Give myself or Ruán a shout for his contact details.
I have looked into a query on on campus accommodation pricing. Cappavilla was the particular query. The cost has not increased this year, but did increase last year to provide an extra Resident Assistant, extend opening hours and provide more security. I will still be requesting Campus Life Services to review its pricing strategy as soon as I have figures for national trends in rental, but the fact remains that there is an abundance of accommodation in various price ranges from approx €40 per week to €110 per week depending on quality and service. On campus is obviously at the higher end of that scale due to the services provided that are not provided off campus.
I am now referring all deposit issues with individual landlords directly to the PRTB. You can get one of the dispute resolution forms from me and I will go through the process with you, however calling landlords is heavily time consuming. One case can take upwards of 2 hours over the course of the dispute, whereas explaining the PRTB procedure takes less than 10 minutes, so I am discontinuing the practice of phoning landlords in order to be able to represent all students more efficiently.
For students living in places like Troy, Groody, Brookfield, Parkview and Courtyard it is quite easy to deal with issues in these villages as they are easily identifiable companies who do not want to gain a bad reputation and will speak with me and move to resolve issues quickly, whereas landlords are pretty much anonymous and have no great desire to follow my advice or listen to complaints from me.
Long story short......have leases checked by a solicitor before you sign them!
We met with the Student Representaiton Solicitor during the week to review the service....it's all pretty mundane, but we'll be hanging on to him. He has lots of experience in dealing with student cases and we're considering expanding the service to incldue one evening a month on campus to start with and that might become more frequent if it gets used.
Condoms for next year should be ordered next week after some (ahem) investigation.
There's lots more mundane boring stuff that isn't all that noteworthy.
All the best
D
I'm just back from having a bit of craic in Galway with the NUIMSU President Brian and a few friends. There were some very well dressed ladies about for Ladies' Day at the races (which I missed because I didn't leave on time.).
We met with Jono, The Southern Area Officer from USI last week and had a bit of a chat about student issues and the thorny subject of Fees. USI still doesn't have a solution, but then again, neither do we.
Our good friend Batt O'Keefe hasn't increased the grant for the coming year, but more of you should be able to get what of it is there...which is always a good thing. Find out more on www.studentfinance.ie. Essentially those of you whose households earn less than €51,360 won't have to pay the €1,500 Student Service Charge. I still reckon more needs to be done with the grant, but Rome wasn't built in a day and all that jazz.
I've been chasing a few issues for a number of students around fees and accommodation.
FEES
If you repeat a year, you normally have to pay fees, the same if you are a non-EU student. Ignoring the letters the University sends won't make the issue go away. If you owe fees, try and pay them every year, otherwise you're going to end up seriously stressed when the University tells you you can't graduate (which you can't if you owe them fees). I can only do my best to have decisions around this dealt with consistently, after all it's not fair for those who have paid their fees, if someone else doesn't have to...so in essence....keep on top of your fees.
ACCOMMODATION
Don't sign anything if you are unsure. Our student solicitor has told us this week that students sign away a whole load of rights simply through not reading leases. He is available to check them out for you if you have any questions. Give myself or Ruán a shout for his contact details.
I have looked into a query on on campus accommodation pricing. Cappavilla was the particular query. The cost has not increased this year, but did increase last year to provide an extra Resident Assistant, extend opening hours and provide more security. I will still be requesting Campus Life Services to review its pricing strategy as soon as I have figures for national trends in rental, but the fact remains that there is an abundance of accommodation in various price ranges from approx €40 per week to €110 per week depending on quality and service. On campus is obviously at the higher end of that scale due to the services provided that are not provided off campus.
I am now referring all deposit issues with individual landlords directly to the PRTB. You can get one of the dispute resolution forms from me and I will go through the process with you, however calling landlords is heavily time consuming. One case can take upwards of 2 hours over the course of the dispute, whereas explaining the PRTB procedure takes less than 10 minutes, so I am discontinuing the practice of phoning landlords in order to be able to represent all students more efficiently.
For students living in places like Troy, Groody, Brookfield, Parkview and Courtyard it is quite easy to deal with issues in these villages as they are easily identifiable companies who do not want to gain a bad reputation and will speak with me and move to resolve issues quickly, whereas landlords are pretty much anonymous and have no great desire to follow my advice or listen to complaints from me.
Long story short......have leases checked by a solicitor before you sign them!
We met with the Student Representaiton Solicitor during the week to review the service....it's all pretty mundane, but we'll be hanging on to him. He has lots of experience in dealing with student cases and we're considering expanding the service to incldue one evening a month on campus to start with and that might become more frequent if it gets used.
Condoms for next year should be ordered next week after some (ahem) investigation.
There's lots more mundane boring stuff that isn't all that noteworthy.
All the best
D
22 July 2009
And the time flew by like a train in the night
It's well over a week since I did the last update, and that time just flew.
Well all of us have been to Belfast visiting the SU there. It's an absolutely mammoth building and we picked up a few ideas there as well as realising we see a whole lot of students in comparison...we stopped into DCUSU, TCDSU and UCDSU on the way back to grab a look. Trinity's SU President Cónán O'Broin is the younger brother of former ULSU President Eoin O'Brion who served 2 terms from 2002-2004.
I'm still getting feedback from landlords on the group scheme we're getting together, many bringing good ideas as well as expressing interest. I've met a good number of suppliers on their behalf and it's looking godd for the year from those who have responded.
Myself, Aoife F and Paul Lee have been liaising with Aidan Healy on the President's Award, which is still undergoing consultation in the University. Gaisce is one model being discussed that will see students get formal recognition for volunteer work. I'm working with KBS to see if they will be able to facilitate students volunteering to give grinds to Leaving Certs. This system is already in place in for Science and has great scope for expansion.
There are some operation reviews around my Office ongoing, and I'll let you know where that goes.
Myself and Aoife Ní met Tracey from ITD who explained the new email system to us (which you will need to adopt as your own by the end of September.)
An ongoing process is finding a 4x4 for Clubs and Societies, which I was working on on the Clubs and Socs Exec over the last 2 years, hopefully that will be complete soon, and a review of vehicle operations should give us some new rules to govern the fleet usage.
What else....the Accommodation Leaflet is in motion and there's a bit of the regular case work around Childcare Bursary and Hardship Loan as well as other stuff.
Well all of us have been to Belfast visiting the SU there. It's an absolutely mammoth building and we picked up a few ideas there as well as realising we see a whole lot of students in comparison...we stopped into DCUSU, TCDSU and UCDSU on the way back to grab a look. Trinity's SU President Cónán O'Broin is the younger brother of former ULSU President Eoin O'Brion who served 2 terms from 2002-2004.
I'm still getting feedback from landlords on the group scheme we're getting together, many bringing good ideas as well as expressing interest. I've met a good number of suppliers on their behalf and it's looking godd for the year from those who have responded.
Myself, Aoife F and Paul Lee have been liaising with Aidan Healy on the President's Award, which is still undergoing consultation in the University. Gaisce is one model being discussed that will see students get formal recognition for volunteer work. I'm working with KBS to see if they will be able to facilitate students volunteering to give grinds to Leaving Certs. This system is already in place in for Science and has great scope for expansion.
There are some operation reviews around my Office ongoing, and I'll let you know where that goes.
Myself and Aoife Ní met Tracey from ITD who explained the new email system to us (which you will need to adopt as your own by the end of September.)
An ongoing process is finding a 4x4 for Clubs and Societies, which I was working on on the Clubs and Socs Exec over the last 2 years, hopefully that will be complete soon, and a review of vehicle operations should give us some new rules to govern the fleet usage.
What else....the Accommodation Leaflet is in motion and there's a bit of the regular case work around Childcare Bursary and Hardship Loan as well as other stuff.
02 July 2009
June down - 11 months to go!
Hello blogland,
Okay so we're essentially 2 weeks on our own now after having handover with last year's lads. It's a steep learning curve but I woldn't have it any other way. I'm really enjoying the challenge of the job so far.
I did have a blog started elsewhere, but this is going to be that main Deputy Pres and Welfare blog from now on.
I've met with people from the Accommodation Office, Brookfield, Student Affairs, Counselling, Connect and more. I've met builders, energy raters, officers from CIT, DIT and Mary I, Barry from the Please Talk campaign and even more importantly I'm constantly meeting all the other Union officers. We want to ensure you have the best Union and I hope to get some of you involved in that experience.
I'm in the middle of sussing out condoms for next year, there's SOOOOOO many considerations that wouldn't even cross your mind when you just think "I need a condom".
Myself and Ruán have been to Governing Authority with Burky (Postgrad President) where I was settling in asking loads of questions. GA is our monthly suit day where we sit with the University and external members to represent students. There's lots of boring reasons why we have to sit there, but lets just say it's the law, and it works to your benefit to have us there.
Other stuff I've done is opened the RAG Week Charities suggestions. Anyone with ideas of Limerick charities can email me. I've been meeting a good few students regarding Financial Aid for the coming year as well as on Discipline Committee advice. I've been to 2 conferences that have been a great help already and I've been talking to Limerick Mental Health Association on some ideas for UrLife - Positive Mental Health which will be on in October. There's also an entire committee in the University whose task is to enhance the student experience, I've sat on that and will be going back on your behalf. Promoting healthy living in terms of eating, alcohol consumption and mental health are currently topping the agenda.
All you Business Students out there will be delighted to know that I'll be your Sabbatical Rep on the KBS Faculty Board.
I'll post my other 2 blogs up to now in just a little bit.
Any questions, just call, email or drop in.
Back soon,
Derek.
Okay so we're essentially 2 weeks on our own now after having handover with last year's lads. It's a steep learning curve but I woldn't have it any other way. I'm really enjoying the challenge of the job so far.
I did have a blog started elsewhere, but this is going to be that main Deputy Pres and Welfare blog from now on.
I've met with people from the Accommodation Office, Brookfield, Student Affairs, Counselling, Connect and more. I've met builders, energy raters, officers from CIT, DIT and Mary I, Barry from the Please Talk campaign and even more importantly I'm constantly meeting all the other Union officers. We want to ensure you have the best Union and I hope to get some of you involved in that experience.
I'm in the middle of sussing out condoms for next year, there's SOOOOOO many considerations that wouldn't even cross your mind when you just think "I need a condom".
Myself and Ruán have been to Governing Authority with Burky (Postgrad President) where I was settling in asking loads of questions. GA is our monthly suit day where we sit with the University and external members to represent students. There's lots of boring reasons why we have to sit there, but lets just say it's the law, and it works to your benefit to have us there.
Other stuff I've done is opened the RAG Week Charities suggestions. Anyone with ideas of Limerick charities can email me. I've been meeting a good few students regarding Financial Aid for the coming year as well as on Discipline Committee advice. I've been to 2 conferences that have been a great help already and I've been talking to Limerick Mental Health Association on some ideas for UrLife - Positive Mental Health which will be on in October. There's also an entire committee in the University whose task is to enhance the student experience, I've sat on that and will be going back on your behalf. Promoting healthy living in terms of eating, alcohol consumption and mental health are currently topping the agenda.
All you Business Students out there will be delighted to know that I'll be your Sabbatical Rep on the KBS Faculty Board.
I'll post my other 2 blogs up to now in just a little bit.
Any questions, just call, email or drop in.
Back soon,
Derek.
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