Two students in Canberra are fighting to recoup thousands of dollars in rent that their university charged them while they were stranded interstate by COVID-19 lockdowns.
Lawyers in the case say more than 600 students were caught up in the same situation.
Australian National University (ANU) students Kate Aston and Sigourney Vallis left the ACT to see their families on June 22, 2021, after finishing their first semester.
They were unable to return because, the next day, the ACT closed its border to people who had been in Sydney's eastern suburbs to try to stop the spread of a COVID-19 outbreak.
Within days, all of Greater Sydney was locked down as more people became infected.
During a three-day hearing in the ACT Civil and Administrative Tribunal, Ms Vallis gave evidence that she tried several times to obtain an exemption to return to Canberra, but was told she was not regarded as an ACT resident.
The pair had also communicated with the ANU in forums, which discussed options such as quarantining in one of the university's halls, but none of those plans eventuated.
On August 26, ANU vice-chancellor Brian Schmidt sent the students an email about their situation.
"We had hoped we would not be in this position by semester 2, 2021," Professor Schmidt wrote.
"We have made persistent representations to authorities with alternative solutions, however we must follow their directions, as much as we sometimes wish those instructions were different.
"At the moment, those directions make it impossible to bring many of our students home to Canberra."
Students were responsible for risk, university argues
With the second semester already underway, Ms Aston enquired about ending her rental agreement with the university, because she was unable to return.
She says she was told the public health order preventing her return to Canberra was insufficient grounds for terminating the agreement.
Ms Aston said she was also told students were warned before signing rental agreements to live on campus that they would still be liable for the full cost if a public health order prevented them from travelling.
In a statement given to the tribunal, Ms Aston said she was unable to find any such correspondence.
Under questioning from the student's lawyer Steve Whybrow, an ANU witness admitted he had been unable to find any email warning students that a COVID-19 shutdown would not be grounds to end their rental agreement.
But barrister Prue Bindon, representing the university, argued that neither the health order nor COVID-19 needed to be specifically named in the contract.
She told the tribunal the contract passed the risk of loss onto the students, no matter how unfair that might seem.
"The circumstances of [this] application came about through their own decisions," Ms Bindon said.
Ms Vallis had also enquired about ending her rental agreement but was met with the same response.
She continued to pay rent despite being unable to return to the ANU, until her agreement ran out in December last year. In total, she paid more than $9,000.
Ms Aston cancelled her direct debit payments when she was unable to return to Canberra — only to find the ANU charged her anyway and threatened to withhold her academic results unless the debt was paid.
Ms Aston hopes to recover more than $6,000, and Ms Vallis nearly $5,000, in rent paid during the lockdown.
Both also want an acknowledgement that the university should have recognised that public health orders could terminate their rental agreements.
