Student House Advice!!

luv_or_h8_me

After living in a house of hell for a year, I just wanted to give those people who are moving into a student house some tips.

-Make sure your deposit is registered within 14 days of you moving in, if its not the agent or landlord is breaking the law. (Yes I having this problem, if it is not done within 14 days you may be entitled to sue for up to 3 times the amount of your deposit).
-Do not put bills solely in one name, there will be arguements.... and your more than likely to be left with the bill.
-When looking for an internet connection, consider what length contract your paying for... its possible that you will still be paying buy the end of your tenancy and after.
- Its up to you but I would not get a phone put in!!! Again just causes arguements and you will get someone who won't stick to just ringing land lines etc.
- Make sure you research the area your living in, you could find that your not with other students and it may be a residential area.
- Good luck !!!

:beer:

LittleSnowBear

I am thankfull that I lived with reasoable people! In my first house we had no landline but my second we did and it caused no end of arguments. Who phoned this number and the rest If you don't write down every call your liable to forget who you called and when!

We never had an internet connection and I am thankfull for that too and got by easily using the uni's internet connection (I am a returning student my connection is currently part of my DSA)

The biggest issue we had was cleaning, we tried a rota and it worked quite well though there were still some arguments!

I think your advice is excellent! :T

Impet_Limpet

I would recommend that you don't bother swapping your address details with your bank everytime you move to new student accomm. Have it sent to your parents house instead. I found that applying for credit was difficult after I graduated because it looked like I moved around alot e.g. I had three addresses in three years - not to mention swapping back to my parents address in the summer holidays!

Also stick to the electoral role at home and opt for a postal vote instead. I discovered when I first checked my credit record that I was still registered at my old student addresses because nobody crossed me off when the form came through in autumn!

If you get a landline have outgoing calls barred. period. (I ended up picking up a £250 bill at the end of the year) and check you are not tied into a 12 month contract.

Fire_Fox

It's against the terms and conditions of most bank accounts not to give your correct address. It's also a legal requirement to be registered to vote at your place of residence, not doing so affects your credit history.

toxic1990

What do you mean by registered deposit within 14 days?

CLAPTON

Fire_Fox wrote: »

It's against the terms and conditions of most bank accounts not to give your correct address. It's also a legal requirement to be registered to vote at your place of residence, not doing so affects your credit history.

it's legal and normal for students to treat their home 'parents' address as their correct and main address
it's normal and legal for students to be registered to vote at both their home address and their student address
it's normal and legal for student to vote in local elections at both adddresses
its only legal to vote at one address for a general election but the student can choose which
I know of no banks that require students to register their term time address although most have the facility to register both if required.

Blacksheep1979

As per Clapton - and if you get a rather forceful council worker coming round to gather your details (as I did) stating that it's illegal for you not to give your details tell them to sod off and take their name and make a complaint. You are well within your rights as a student not to be registered at your term time address.

luv_or_h8_me

toxic1990 wrote: »

What do you mean by registered deposit within 14 days?

When you enter a tenancy agreement, you will need to pay a deposit for damages to the property or unpaid rent if this is the case at the end of the year. The deposit is then used to recover this money. If is it not registered, you have no proof of where your money is sitting and gathering interest. If the company or landlord goes bust then you have no way of getting this deposit back. Under the Housing Act 2004 and other legislation, it states that the agent/landlord must register the deposit money with a scheme such as the Deposit Protection Scheme for example, (there are 2 other schemes, within 14 days of recieving the money, so if you do enter a private tenancy agreement ask which scheme they use before you sign anything!!

We are now finding that our dates on the reciepts which we were given by the letting agent do not have dates, and the contracts we signed do not match the dates we moved in!

Also make sure you double check your inventory before entering the property, take photographs of existing damage (I know this sounds extreme but its very hard to prove what was there 9 months down the line), print them and date them and sign them. Same on exit.

:j

luv_or_h8_me

Oh and if you are Leicester student or a DeMontfort University student....

Do not use The Lettings Company....

I am furious with their conduct, and fobbing of with excuses.

TDQO

I would reccomend NOT using estate agencies/ rental agencies. Go with a private landlord, 90% of the time they will be much easier to negotiate with and more understanding if you are late with rent etc. Also agencies are notorious for being slack with repairs and leaving houses without heating/hot water/electricity for days/weeks while they delay getting problems fixed.

My second piece of advice... NEVER sign a joint tenancy e.g. one where you all sign one contract. This makes you jointly liable for the total rent for the house/flat so one person can run off at any time and the remaining tenants have to make up the difference themselves.

GrammarGirl

TDQO wrote: »

I would reccomend NOT using estate agencies/ rental agencies. Go with a private landlord, 90% of the time they will be much easier to negotiate with and more understanding if you are late with rent etc. Also agencies are notorious for being slack with repairs and leaving houses without heating/hot water/electricity for days/weeks while they delay getting problems fixed.

My second piece of advice... NEVER sign a joint tenancy e.g. one where you all sign one contract. This makes you jointly liable for the total rent for the house/flat so one person can run off at any time and the remaining tenants have to make up the difference themselves.

In my experience, it is very unusual to find individual tenancy agreements for student rentals.

Also, a private LL does not always equal an easier time renting, as I (and I'm sure many others) have found out. I now rent (not student) with a large, professional LA and they are absolutely fantastic. You might say they have a reputation to uphold so want to please their tenants, rather than a private LL who can take advantage of those who don't know their rights and disappear if things go wrong.