Salient

House Party! Only Vic invited…

By Nicola Kean | 2 Oct, 2006

Several students will be forced to leave their flat at the beginning of next year, after a University attempt to acquire a Fairlie Terrace property through the Public Works Act.

The Public Works Act 1981 gives ‘local authorities’, such as University Councils, the power to compulsorily acquire private land for public works. Many of the properties on Fairlie Terrace are already owned by the University and are used to house schools such as Film and Theatre, Nursing and Midwifery and Music.

One of the property’s tenants says they were informed by their landlords just over three weeks ago that the University was acquiring the property and they would have to leave. The University would not be extending their lease, which expires early next year. The current tenants “definitely” want stay in the house.

Many of the tenants are foreign students who would be leaving at the end of the term to spend their holidays overseas. One tenant says that they will now be forced to find a new place to live before they leave, and pay rent at two places while they are away.

“Otherwise we don’t have anything to come back to,” the tenant says. A spokesperson for the owner of the property says the owner is currently in negotiations with the University. Senior Communications Adviser Antony Paltridge says the University cannot comment “on actual or potential negotiations for the reason that they are commercially sensitive.”