The College charged €11,276 in total to a number of residents of College and Trinity Hall for dilapidation of furniture last year. The College also charged €4,277 for room cleaning.

The College charges residents fees when they vacate rooms in College or in Trinity Hall if they leave the room in an unacceptable state which they say ‘includes the presence of rubbish including bottles and cans or a level of dirt or staining on appliances and surfaces that is excessive and beyond what would arise with a moderate domestic regime.’ There is no charge for room cleaning otherwise.

Dilapidation charges only arise in cases where the defects are beyond ‘reasonable wear and tear.’ All residents on arrival in rooms are provided with an inventory and defects form on which they can record any prior damage. 

Although the College makes clear in the conditions of occupancy that all unpaid charges, discipline fines, damage, dilapidations and costs associated with restoring accommodation to a reasonable condition should be paid when they are incurred outstanding fines or charges will be deducted from the deposit paid by residents.

The College says ‘in considering these charges it is worth pointing out that a large majority of residents leave their rooms in a mostly satisfactory condition. The purpose of recovering these charges is to maintain the condition of rooms for subsequent residents and to ensure that the costs are borne by the persons responsible rather than the general body of residents.’

The College conduct two visits to rooms during the year to inspect the rooms’ quality and rooms found in unsatisfactory condition to rechecked a week later to ensure that the resident has rectified the problem.

 The quality assurance visits that are conducted in residences during the year have a particular role in allowing the College to notify residents of unacceptable conditions so that they have the opportunity to minimise cleaning charges on departure.