Student renting off college

The_Suffolk_Ram

Hi

I am currently studying a degree at college, I rent a house off the college with two other people. Came back to the house today to find a cleaners van outside and discovered them cleaning the carpets inside the house, after talking with my house mate I found out that the cleaner had been given the keys by the college to come into the house, we were given no notice of this. Nor had we requested it.

Similar things have happened in the past, we once had someone come round to do a inspection on the rooms (I was not in at the time so my room was not inspected) and a few times before the college have let themselve in to read the eletric meters and such, all of which we were given no warning for or were informed of (we only know when one of us has been at the house at the time).

The college have all our contact details (including mobile phone numbers) so it would not be impossible for them contact us.

My questions are:

1) Is the law different to normal tennent/landlord relationship given were student renting off the college?
2) Can the college let anyone in the house without informing us, even if it is just to read the meter?
3) Should we be given warning before any inspection (trying to find copy of contact to see if random inspections are in there)?
4) Given they did not request the clearning of the carpets, can the college make us pay for that?

Thanks for any help

TSR

silvercar

1) Is the law different to normal tennent/landlord relationship given were student renting off the college?

Yes, you don't get the protection of an AST; what you do get is more akin to a licence to occupy.

3) Should we be given warning before any inspection (trying to find copy of contact to see if random inspections are in there)?

Are they inspecting the state you keep your rooms or making safety checks? If the latter they are allowed.

2) Can the college let anyone in the house without informing us, even if it is just to read the meter?

Maybe not "anyone" but they can let employees or contractors in to do whatever task is necessary.

4) Given they did not request the clearning of the carpets, can the college make us pay for that?

It is probably a scheduled clean and part of the service that you pay rent for.

The_Suffolk_Ram

Hi silvercar, thanks for the reply.

silvercar wrote: »

Are they inspecting the state you keep your rooms or making safety checks? If the latter they are allowed.

They were just looking to see if rooms where tidy (lucky I'm one of the rare breeds of student who is tidy)

silvercar wrote: »

It is probably a scheduled clean and part of the service that you pay rent for.

I was in the same place last year, and they never did that. what i am more concerned about is weather they will try a fob an invoice from the company on us and make us pay, or take it out of our security deposit. from what i can think, given we did not ask for and agree to the cleaning, they can't. And as we are still here and have not had the chance to clean the carpets on our leaving (as we were planning to do) they cant take it from our security deposit. am I right in thinking this? or can they charge us?

Thanks again for you reply!

Cheers

TSR

Suzy_M

The_Suffolk_Ram wrote: »

Came back to the house today to find a cleaners van outside and discovered them cleaning the carpets inside the house, after talking with my house mate I found out that the cleaner had been given the keys by the college to come into the house, we were given no notice of this. Nor had we requested it......

4) Given they did not request the clearning of the carpets, can the college make us pay for that?

Carpet cleaning is often done routinely in accomodation owned by colleges / universities at no charge to the student (something about health and safety or aggravating allergies etc.) In my experience it's never done on time, like dealing with inventory problems, and you've probably just had the clean that was due last year, or even the year before!

The inspections are more to do with health and safety stuff again - checking for damage and safety issues, e.g. too many electrical appliances plugged in to one socket, no blocked loos etc. (it's amazing how many students don't report these) - and not checking up on whether you use sky hooks for your clothes.

I can appreciate it's frustrating for you but these places are mostly dealing with young persons who have had no experience of living away from the parental home and running a home for themselves. In a way they are simply doing what parents do. And don't forget the colleges / universities are responsible for ensuring the safety of the students. - I just wish they'd put as much effort in to sorting out the private landlords that rent some proper ratholes to students.

00ec25

I suggest you read your contract, it is standard for universities to have clauses allowing them to do the sort of things you refer to for the reasons stated above

Suzy_M wrote: »

I just wish they'd put as much effort in to sorting out the private landlords that rent some proper ratholes to students.

believe me, universities want to be able to regulate private LL but they have no legal powers to do so. Their only sanction is not to allow the LL to advertise through university media outlets (big deal!), but as students are very naieve the LL simply advertises on gumtree and gets the student that way and the uni knows nothing about it.

The only solution is to have mandatory accreditation of student lets (who's going to pay for that is why we do not have it). Even then surveys show students have no idea what accreditaion means and are largely driven by location as much as price, hence ratholes near the campus thrive
Sorry for rant but I work in this sector and have to deal with the consequences of students who chose (because they won't get our advice) to live in ratholes

The_Suffolk_Ram

Hi, thanks guys for the advice.

Cheers

TSR

Castleman

Yeah, stay chilled nothing to worry about! Universities don't have much interest in screwing you (beyond the tuition fees, normally high college charges etc etc - after that they know you've got nothing left )

This is one of the sort of things about why students have a laid back attitude - cos things like this happen and you've just got to roll with it!

To be honest though, the world would be much better if everyone did just roll with it a bit more...there are far too many paranoid people on this forum! ('My landlord let himself in to my flat...he claims it was to fix a light...but I think it's cos he's after my silver and my children and probably my kidneys too...what shall I do? I think I'm going to cry I'm so freaked out by it...and ps he did fix the light' sort of threads... :rotfl:)