Jack Simm: Winning A Legal Battle At 19 - The Positives, The Negatives, And How We Look To The Future

Pictured: Jack Simm

A BBC producer in my ear counts down the minutes to when I will be live in the newsroom. My screen shows the guests before me, discussing current affairs in front of millions, with the realisation that I would soon be joining them to discuss how I, a 19 year old law student, had successfully taken his landlord to court. 

You may be wondering how such recognition came about, and to that, you must be taken back to August 2020: A Level results day. The crippling impact of lockdown stemmed far beyond businesses and travel, reaching into the academics, bringing the seemingly dystopian creature that was the known as “the algorithm”: the coding introduced by the Department of Education that would go through every grade, assessment and performance you have ever produced as a student through your many years of school, to then finally, alongside the input of teachers, decide what grade it thinks you would have gotten, should you have sat the now cancelled exams. 

It would be no stretch to say that the first time round the algorithm was used in 2020 was a horrendous disaster. Students such as myself missed out on grades that they had worked so hard for, and instead given disappointing grades that both my firm and insurance choice universities declared were not good enough, denying me entrance. Much of the nation’s students found themselves in the same position. After a day or so of stressed households and UCAS clearing going into meltdown, the government decided that the “algorithm grades” were to be discarded, and that grades initially submitted by tutors, before the government’s interference, were to be our actual grades. But alas, my desired universities’ law schools were already full, leaving clearing as the only viable option for me. 

This is when the University of East Anglia (UEA), my current university, came into light. I had only heard of this place once before, but I knew it was a reputable university outside of the Russell Group, and so with little option left I applied through clearing, and enrolled to study Law. 

The next hurdle I faced was finding accommodation, which is where I came across the company I would eventually take to court. The student halls at UEA were reportedly at full capacity, according to their accommodation office, as students who firmed the university and got the grades to be let in were prioritised to be housed first. Alongside other student accommodations around the city quoting the same reason, I was left with the only option of going to the last remaining accommodation with available rooms left. 

Due to the late finding of this room, there was little time until term started, and with Norwich being so far from my home city Newcastle, our only indication of what we were paying for was the material provided on the website. There was no time to travel and see this place for ourselves.

So, come September 19th 2020, my family and I set off for an early morning car journey that would see us arrive in Norwich in the afternoon. Such a long car journey was made even worse by what was waiting for us at the end of it: dire accommodation. 

The place was that of a building site, with skips, dusty floors, hammering and drilling echoing the hallways, alongside no working shower, security, a promised intercom, wifi or heating. I still count my blessings that it was still warm in that September, because if it weren't to be, I would’ve been in for a very cold night. The room I was given also happened to look different to photos we had seen online previously. We were promised by the landlord that these problems were momentary, and would be solved soon, and so I persevered. Having showered in my parent’s hotel room and wrapped up at night time, I was hoping for the best, but nothing came of these supposed efforts for a week. Despite tradesmen walking around the building throughout the days, not much material progress seemed to occur apart from the shower now finally working, but even this led to further issues of damp and condensation as there was no extractor fan fitted. 

After communicating these issues with various site managers and officials for a week, to which we received responses that the judge described as “negative and unhelpful”, I decided that there was no longer any good reason for me to remain in such conditions: it was impossible to comprehensively study law in a place with no wifi, heating or any homely conditions in general. I moved into a now vacant room in the student halls after cancelling my direct debit of rent to my former accommodation, and all seemed fine for a while. This was until, of course, I was threatened with recovery action as I had not been paying rent. 

This was the straw the broke the camel's back: the breach of contract, the misrepresentation of the accommodation, and now the threat of this was too much for a student to handle, and so the only way we could halt this was to take them to court, and claim for our money we paid, which was the deposit and the first months rent, alongside recission of the contract. This was also the preferred method of dispute resolution, as by resorting to civil litigation, other fellow students in the same position as me could refer to my case in their own struggles in a courtroom or other tribunal, and hopefully achieve the same just outcome. 

The preparation for the trial created a sharp anticipation in the air. Three of my friends who lived in my former accommodation with me wrote witness statements that helped me a great deal: all four of us felt the anxiety as the court date drew near. I was sure there was no way we could lose this case, but that small bit of doubt still loomed around like a bad smell. Our submission also consisted of photos, a lengthy exchange of emails between us and the landlord, previous news articles written about the landlord in question, clauses in the tenancy agreement that were broken, and the Misrepresentation Act. It is common knowledge in the contractual world that a failure to deliver on terms of an agreement means the other party no longer has to perform their obligations either, which was the basis of our submission: no reasonable conditions as stated in the contract, no rent paid. I had always thought that this was the biggest exam I would ever sit: the biggest test of knowledge and conviction I would ever undergo as a student, ironically on the same contract law material that I had been tested on in the previous semester.

My landlord counterclaimed that there was not enough time to rectify the issues that arose within the property, and cited that he must have been given 14 days to rectify such issues. However the judge found that there was no legal authority detailing such a provision, and referred him back to an early clause in the contract stating that the property was to be in sound condition upon arrival of tenants. 

And so, as was reported in many media outlets in late December, I had successfully sued my landlord at the ripe age of 19, in what I wanted to be a landmark case for all other students to follow against their own unscrupulous landlords. The story spread like wildfire as more people became interested in what had happened, and ultimately, the negative press the landlord got was, in my opinion, the most just outcome. People needed to know what life was like behind all the fancy websites and clever slogans that try and sell you student accommodation, and it's darker than you think. Students from both my University and from everywhere all over the country began messaging me asking for advice and what to do in such desperation. I would email, message and call as many people as I could advising and telling them what to do and how to navigate the world of civil litigation. I will always be proud of the people who read my story and got inspired to do the same: the nerves, difficulty and lack of knowledge surrounding this area are high hurdles to the average person, but nonetheless they persisted. 

However, it is not to be forgotten how much time I lost to this case. The time consuming nature of taking another to court meant that I couldn't do the things I normally did and loved: play university rugby, go on nights out and indulge in student life, or even get my own university work done. On top of this: the stress of a ‘must-win’ mentally is a rotting and regressive mindset that makes even the most confident of advocates lose sleep on a nightime. A heavy price was paid for such a young victory, and it’s something I'll never forget. 

Looking forward, on the other hand, it is imperative we differentiate between landlords who are good, and the ones that aren't. It's true that the semantics of that word evokes thoughts of mistrust and trouble, and this case only adds to that, but it must be remembered that there are indeed good landlords, who do a superb job of looking after a property and its tenants. My current landlord, for example, provides good properties, fast service when something goes wrong, and is understanding of student needs. I'm sure there are many others like him. We must not confuse the bad with the potentially bad, and I believe this should be the attitude towards this sector of self-employment, rather than one of hostility and apprehensiveness. Although this could be seen as wishful thinking and ironic to anyone reading this with a woeful landlord already, but the relationship between tenant and landlord varies on a large scale, and so everyone: tenants, legislators, politicians and the courts must be watchful in their attempts to suffocate the practices of unscrupulous landlords: or they may just strangle every good landlord out of the work sector through overregulation. 

And so, we land ourselves back at the start. The producer now whispers that I am on in 15 seconds and to standby: my heart racing, my palms sweating. It was a pleasure to tell the nation what can be done when people, particularly young people, put their minds to the task and produce outstanding results, especially when the labels of ‘snowflake’ and ‘fickle’ are attached to anyone below 25. But who knows what the future holds if the public had more conviction about the law and their rights. Maybe we would live in a vastly more just world. As always, only time will tell.

By Jack Simm