Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.
A University of Central Florida student’s mother has filed a class action lawsuit against housing provider Preferred Apartment Communities Inc. for continuing to charge rent despite campus closures.
Plaintiff Jennifer Ciccone says Preferred Apartment Inc. should have stopped charging rent after the university ended on-campus classes and activities amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Ciccone states that she leased an apartment at The Retreat at Orlando for her daughter, Madison Ciccone, to live in while taking classes at nearby UCF campus during the fall 2018 through summer 2020 academic school year. Allegedly, The Retreat at Orlando is owned and operated by the Atlanta-based Preferred Apartment Communities Inc.
She explains that during the outbreak of COVID-19 in the spring 2020, UCF closed its campuses in order to help slow the spread of the virus. Additionally, the amenities at The Retreat at Orlando were allegedly affected, as well.
Has your housing or the housing of your loved one been affected by COVID-19? Get legal help by clicking here.
According to the student housing class action, the housing company sent a letter to student housing residents on March 13, 2020 saying that the company would be “closing all fitness centers and other inside amenity spaces” for the foreseeable future.
Additionally, the company also informed residents that the company would stop conducting maintenance repairs other than emergency maintenance in occupied units, says Ciccone.
Ciccone went on to state that the March 13 email was followed up by another email sent on March 19, in which the company informed residents that the office for The Retreat would be temporarily closed to in-person business and traffic until further notice, and instead, the company would communicate with residents by email, online portal and the website. In the same email, the company reiterated the announcement from the March 13 email, explains Ciccone.
The UCF student housing COVID-19 class action lawsuit then notes that Madison Ciccone retuned home in March 2020 after the University of Central Florida suspended operations. This was allegedly done at the recommendation of UCF officials, in an effort to further slow the spread of COVID-19.
Allegedly, Preferred Apartment Communities Inc. continued to collect rent for March, April and May, and has not returned the money paid for these months. According to Ciccone, the company should return this money, because it was not owed to the company.
In Ciccone’s view, the company failed to provide the promised amenities and services during COVID-19 closures, but still charged residents as if the amenities were still being offered. Ciccone says that she and her daughter chose The Retreat at Orlando specifically because of the amenities it offered to students.
Allegedly, the company’s failure to refund residents for the time during which The Retreat’s amenities were not available financially injured Ciccone. She says that she and her daughter would not have chosen the apartment community, nor would she have agreed to pay the rent or would not have agreed to pay as much, if she had known that many of the amenities in the community would become unavailable.
She says that not only was this refusal to refund rent financially damaging, but it ran contrary to recommendations offered by the University of Central Florida.
Allegedly, the school advised off-campus housing managers to consider ending leases early, to allow students to return to their permanent residences, as remaining on or near campus was not necessary given the school had closed.
Ciccone asserts that Preferred Apartment Communities’ refusal to offer refunds also ran contrary to the governor’s recommendations around staying in such facilities, given the danger of close contact in COVID-19.
The COVID-19 campus housing class action lawsuit seeks damages on behalf of Ciccone and many other affected residents. She seeks to represent a Class of all people who paid rent and fees for students residing in Preferred Apartment Communities’ “campus living” complexes during the spring and summer 2020 semesters and who moved out before the semester was over as a result of COVID-19 school closures.
Ciccone is represented by William “Billy” Peerce Howard, Heather H. Jones, and Amanda J. Allen of The Consumer Protection Firm; and by John W. Barrett of Bailey & Glasser LLP.
The UCF Student Housing COVID-19 Refund Class Action Lawsuit is Jennifer Ciccone v. Preferred Apartment Communities Inc., Case No. 0:20-cv-61127, in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, Fort Lauderdale Division.
Join a Free Coronavirus Failure to Refund Class Action Lawsuit Investigation
If you are still being charged for a flight, event or service even though it was canceled due to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus public health emergency, you may be entitled to compensation.
ATTORNEY ADVERTISING
Top Class Actions is a Proud Member of the American Bar Association
LEGAL INFORMATION IS NOT LEGAL ADVICE
Top Class Actions Legal Statement
©2008 – 2024 Top Class Actions® LLC
Various Trademarks held by their respective owners
This website is not intended for viewing or usage by European Union citizens.
