Is this legal?

cup of tea

We are writing to advise that we intend to run a Fire Drill in your village shortly. Details of the Fire Drill are outlined below.

On hearing the fire alarm, all must adhere to the following procedures:
1. Evacuate your accommodation
2. Make your way to your nearest Fire Assembly Point
3. Check in with Village Staff who will take a roll call
4. Do not re-enter the building until you are told to do so

Please note that failure to comply with our evacuation procedure will result in a penalty of €35.00 from the deposit. Fire Drills are essential for all of us so that we are prepared in the event of an actual emergency.

Is a landlord allowed to take money from a deposit for lack of participation in a fire drill??.

Cathmandooo

No, that's not something your deposit is to be used for.

Was that from your landlord? Does he own every apartment in the building? Sounds a bit odd to me anyway.

JoeyJJ

How would they prove you were at home to participate in the drill?

listermint

Where is this mystical village, never heard of anything like this before

cup of tea

It's student accomodation. I think this is really taking the biscuit to be honest.

Victor

What does your lease say?

ongarboy

OP - this letter sounds like a hoax notice to me. Worse, it could be some opportunist taking the advantage of you all leaving your properties at a definite time so that they can target them for theft!

I've never heard of fire drills in private residential accommodation (rented or otherwise). I also cannot see what a drill in this type of environment would achieve. As someone else similarly questioned, what if 90% of you were at lectures, and the other 8% at a student bar, shopping, at the dentist or any other 1000 things, what would the purpose of the roll call be?
To record that the emergency mock evacuation was successful for the 2% of the residents that were present?? madness!

cosmic

cup of tea wrote: »

It's student accomodation. I think this is really taking the biscuit to be honest.

Have you contacted your RA to see if they have any knowledge of this letter?

TrollHammaren

Is this the Forge Student Village? If so, those guys are absolute crooks, and when you sign up to them you sign away a huge amount of rights.

markpb

ongarboy wrote: »

OP - this letter sounds like a hoax notice to me. Worse, it could be some opportunist taking the advantage of you all leaving your properties at a definite time so that they can target them for theft!

If it's student accommodation, this kind of thing happens all the time.

cup of tea

No it's 100% legitimate and was sent by email.

LizT

Fire drills happen all the time in student accomodation. I think they have a duty to do it. In our halls, the RAs check all the bedrooms to ensure that no one has stayed behind and if they have they get a warning.

Coriolanus

When I was in student accom, we didn't have a Lease, we had a "Right to Reside" contract. There were all sorts of wierd clauses. I don't remember a compulsory fire drill though.