diff --git a/app/models/user.rb b/app/models/user.rb
index ff6a149..c0595e9 100644
--- a/app/models/user.rb
+++ b/app/models/user.rb
@@ -8,10 +8,7 @@
          :trackable, :validatable, :confirmable, :omniauthable, :omniauth_providers => [:shibboleth]
 
     #associations between tables
-    belongs_to :user_type
-    belongs_to :user_status
     has_many :answers
-    has_many :user_org_roles
     has_many :project_groups, :dependent => :destroy
     has_many :user_role_types, through: :user_org_roles
     belongs_to :language
@@ -49,7 +46,7 @@
                     :other_organisation, :accept_terms, :role_ids, :dmponline3, :api_token,
                     :organisation, :language, :language_id
 
-    validates :email, email: true, allow_nil: true, uniqueness: true
+    #validates :email, email: true, allow_nil: true, uniqueness: true
 
     # FIXME: The duplication in the block is to set defaults. It might be better if
     #        they could be set in Settings::PlanList itself, if possible.
diff --git a/db/migrate/20161115105808_drop_unused_user_tables.rb b/db/migrate/20161115105808_drop_unused_user_tables.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..9558098
--- /dev/null
+++ b/db/migrate/20161115105808_drop_unused_user_tables.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
+class DropUnusedUserTables < ActiveRecord::Migration
+  def change
+    drop_table :user_statuses
+    remove_column :users, :user_status_id
+    drop_table :user_role_types
+    drop_table :user_types
+    remove_column :users, :user_type_id
+  end
+end