Students paying full rent over summer holidays

proudmum_3

That's the way it is with most landlords I'm afraid.
My son had to pay rent throughout the summer. If you are paying rent then you are allowed to move in. It was your daughters choice that she opted to stay at home throughout the holidays.
From the landlords point of view - whether right or wrong, they still have to pay a mortgage on the property and can't afford to leave it empty for 3 months in the summer.
If she stays there throughout her third year, she will sign another contract and they might be able to negotiate with the landlord for a months free rent as my son did during his final year.
Landlords tend to like to stick with the same students for 2 years as it saves them advertising etc..

Lokolo

I have a nice landlord who only wants 11 months. He then leaves the house empty for 1 month over summer which he can then come in and check the house is all ok.

Its easier for him as he lives quite far away so its a bit of effort for us and him if we're living here and hes staying for a weekend!!

cupid_s

In my experience very few places actually offer half rent over the summer. Those that do give a summer discount charge more for all the other months, and as students can work all summer this is generally when they have the most money. So I'd rather pay rent over the summer and have cheaper rent for the rest of the year.

pinkshoes

I always paid rent over the summer at uni, but then again I did pay over the odds to live in good locations. Some of the houses in more obsure and less desirable areas had half rent for summer.

It's always stated in the contract, which a 19 year old should be perfectly capable of reading, particularly if they're capable of studying at uni! Your daughter will learn from this if she wanted a place with half summer rent and instead signed for one that didn't!

welf_man

In any case, it's not the agency's fault - they are acting for the LL and if they're told the property is on a 12-month contract then that's what they arrange. It is odd that the website states Sept. - June, but the full details would have been on the tenancy agreement. Your daughter will have a copy of this, so if you think there's something dodgy, tell her to go to a University or Students' Union Adviser and get it checked.

Mel.

3plus1

Where I went to university, most 'student' lets were for 12 months. The only ones for shorter periods (e.g. 9 months) or with rent reductions for the summer were the properties that were too far away in the opinion of most students or really grotty and horrible.

You might not think it's fair that your DD pays for 12 months when she only intends to live there for 9 months, but there was nothing stopping her moving into her student property at the start of the holidays and staying there all year. In my first student houseshare, two of my housemates did just that because they had better work opportunities in our student town than back where their parents lived.

For me, I could make more money in my hometown, so that's what I did. I paid rent over the summer, but I didn't pay anything else save the standing charges that needed to be paid. The girls who stayed in the house over the summer paid the usage bills.

scubaangel

As with the majority of other people who posted when I was at uni private lets were charged for the duration of the contract 12 or 9 months, generally the 9 month contracts cost more per month than the 12 month ones.

Or as I did when I first left uni accomodation rented my flat for 12 months September to September (not a student let as the flat was perfect for where I worked and getting to uni without a car as well as being cheaper than most people were paying in town) rented a room from a friend who's lease covered summer but her flatmates didnt want to move in straight away -iirc it was agreed with the landlord as long as one of the tenants was there for the duration as I was a friend staying over.