Students paying full rent over summer holidays

Studentsmum_3

My daughter is studying at Bath Spa and is just starting her second year. She and her housemates have had to pay full rent all summer whilst the property was empty despite the lettings company advertising themselves as a student accomodation agency (see www.bathstudentaccommodation.co.uk) - most student agencies charge half rent, as I understand it.

Their website also states that "tenancies are Assured Shorthold Tenancies and run from the beginning of September until the end of June" so I don't understand why they can then charge rent over the summer holidays.

As a result my daughter has had to work full time throughout the summer to meet the bill of £990 (three months full rent). I wrote to the agency and received quite a rude letter back saying that my daughter should check her student's handbook.

There are 6 people in that house earning the agency close to £6,000 for a property that was unoccupied for several months. Is this an unusual case and is there anything more we can do?

Soot2006

Studentsmum wrote: »

My daughter is studying at Bath Spa and is just starting her second year. She and her housemates have had to pay full rent all summer whilst the property was empty despite the lettings company advertising themselves as a student accomodation agency (see www.bathstudentaccommodation.co.uk) - most student agencies charge half rent, as I understand it.

Their website also states that "tenancies are Assured Shorthold Tenancies and run from the beginning of September until the end of June" so I don't understand why they can then charge rent over the summer holidays.

As a result my daughter has had to work full time throughout the summer to meet the bill of £990 (three months full rent). I wrote to the agency and received quite a rude letter back saying that my daughter should check her student's handbook.

There are 6 people in that house earning the agency close to £6,000 for a property that was unoccupied for several months. Is this an unusual case and is there anything more we can do?

Surely this is something that would be agreed in advance?

The lease seems to indicate that she could have moved out in June (and then looked for another place to live in September), but your daughter chose to stay in the accommodation. "Summer rents" can be offered by some LL as an incentive to not have en empty house all summer - it's a two-way favour in that situation. But many LL cannot afford to let a house go cheap just to keep tenants, esp if there are enough students around that they will easily replace her.

Studentsmum_3

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Sorry, I should have been clearer; she was in a different property previously. They were under pressure to sort something out for the next student year before they went home for the holidays and were trying to do it without involving their parents - so contracts were signed without our knowledge. Most of the parents were pretty upset when it came to light but I think have just accepted it now. My feeling is that our kids' naivety has been exploited and I can't rest easy knowing that this will happen to a new bunch of students next year, and so on and so on :-(

dirtysexymonkey

Sorry I'm confused. I don't really see the problem. Your daughter was paying full rent for somewhere that, if she hadn't chosen to move home, she could've lived in? Am I right? If so, what is the problem? It's not as if she was paying rent for somewhere that she could not live in, is it? Would you expect her to not have to pay rent for when she has trips home?

Soot2006

Studentsmum wrote: »

Hi. Thanks for your reply. Sorry, I should have been clearer; she was in a different property previously. They were under pressure to sort something out for the next student year before they went home for the holidays and were trying to do it without involving their parents - so contracts were signed without our knowledge. Most of the parents were pretty upset when it came to light but I think have just accepted it now. My feeling is that our kids' naivety has been exploited and I can't rest easy knowing that this will happen to a new bunch of students next year, and so on and so on :-(

K, I think I get it.

Your daughter started uni in 2007 - was in accomm A from September 2007 to June 2008.

She + friends then looked for new accommodation (accomm , but instead of getting a contract starting in September 2008 they signed something binding them to accomm B from June 2008 (until June 2009) and have paid full rent through the summer.

Sadly this sounds about right. Students feel pressured to look for a place when their first tenancy runs out, as by September the larger/better houses are often already let out. However, the "summer rent" thing is simply something some landlords do when they might otherwise have an empty property or if they're particularly keen on securing a group of students (e.g. I got summer rent in 2003 on shared house because all 4 sharers were happy to pay whole summer in advance - this meant the LL could sleep easy in the knowledge that we really wanted to live there and we had money!). Summer rent or not though, I wouldn't pay rent on anything I wasn't going to be living in!

The only way round it would have been for your daughter + friends to put all their stuff in storage and find a contract starting in September instead. Definitely a lesson learned ...

CLAPTON

basically it works like this
the LL wants to get a return on his investmnent and wants a total income from the property for the year

some divide the yearly amount into 12 equal portions
some charge less during the summer but then charge more for the term time

some divide the mount by 9 months (like halls of residences) which looks good but is in practice just as expensive overall.

then only lesson to be learnt is to look at the total yearly committed cost and not to get hung up about how the money is distributed over the year

Surfbabe

Same sort of problem with DS. He had to pay rent over the summer (not full rent but half rent) but they were not allowed access to house so we had to bring all his stuff the 300 miles home and take it all back again on 1st September. He was in Uni accomadation 1st year and now private this year. It seems to be standard practice with landlords that contracts start the 1st july to 30th June.

Idiophreak

Studentsmum wrote: »

My feeling is that our kids' naivety has been exploited and I can't rest easy knowing that this will happen to a new bunch of students next year, and so on and so on :-(

Do you really feel they've been exploited, or have they just signed up for something you don't think they should have?

When I was at uni, I rented a number of different places on different terms, but always knew / found out ahead of time what the conditions would be for holidays etc.

If your daughter had a problem with having to pay rent for the summer, she shouldn't have signed up for it in the first place...she's old enough to make these decisions for herself...if she thought the contact was fair enough to sign, I don't see why there's any dispute about it now?

Rikki

Most student accommodation is on a 12 month lease.
The idea is you find your accommodation early and secure it. This is before you leave for the holiday break and you know where you are going to stay when you come back for your second year. Imagine having to travel 300 miles and stay over until you find suitable accommodation in time for September. You'll be more rushed and under pressure.

You normally move in from the 1st September onwards. The July and August prior to this are when the landlord repairs, makes good and decorates after the previous tenants.

Studentsmum_3

Thanks for your replies. I guess the message is 'Get over it'! So I will.

sahun

Rikki wrote: »

You normally move in from the 1st September onwards. The July and August prior to this are when the landlord repairs, makes good and decorates after the previous tenants.

This is the problem I had, as am now renting my first property during 2nd year of Uni. When signing contract I was under impression that I could move in from start of August. Contacted the LL then to arrange collecting keys and he turned round and said no because we were paying a 'retainer' (2/3 rent). Therefore we were paying £175 each for a month where the house doesnt get used, and the LL was supposed to fix problems through the property and tidy up (this didnt fully happen btw and had loads of problems when moving in as so much was still damaged and not fixed, still have problems now and have lived here for over a month.)

I suppose because they know we need houses they feel theyre not under pressure to fix it to a satisfactory standard, and that they can impose whatever extrast to the contract they want to make extra money.

However as your daughter was paying full rent, legally the LL could not stop her having access to the property as she is paying the full stated amount for those months. It may be a matter of a small claims court at the end of the year to try and claim the money back, but you will need to check the contract thoroughly.