Student private accomodation

quanto2009

Hi
Just a couple of questions
my son is at uni in Sheffield on his 3rd Year he has arranged private accommodation in a house share I need to be the Guarantor for the property rent is £59 per week excluding bills with 3 other people.

1.Its a 12 month contract running from June 2010 to July 2011 is this normal bearing in mind the term is Sept to May?
2.Rent is due by post dated cheque starting June 2010 10 monthly payments of £306.
3.Will I be only liable for his rent if any of the others default.
4.What happens with Bills such as gas and electric etc.
5. Does he need house insurance?
6.Any experiences of other people will be much appreciated.

Thanks

poet123

1. Yes, it is a common contract, sometimes you pay only a retainer for the summer months, but many including all the ones my 3 sons have had you pay as you have indicated.

2. We have always done it this way and it has been fine, it is a very normal way for rent to be paid for student accom.

3. Depends on the terms of the contract, some may oblige the tenants to pay the full monthly rent regardless of number, some are individual contracts and therefore only liable for their own portion of the rent.

4. One of the students will take a utility in their own name and the others pay as and when. Sometimes this can be a problem, but if they are good friends it usually works out.

5. if he has a room with a lock, your own house insurance may cover him if you ask, otherwise yes.

6. They will need a TV license.

7. Check that the heating has a safety cert and that the property meets all current regs re furniture and smoke alarms.

8. Ask around to see if the letting agent does respond to complaints quickly. My sons have had a lot of issues with their lets and some have really dragged on because the agents were awful. No heating, leaks etc.

9. Ask if the agent belongs to the deposit scheme, which is a securoty net to ensure the deposit is returned, it does take longer to get it back though.

Hope this helps, I have had 3 sons go to Uni, so we have had lots of experience to draw on.

Masomnia

Sheffield, a fine institution, I'm very sad that I may not be living there next year

1. That's perfectly normal, private accomadation in Sheffield in my experience is always 52 weeks.
2. Post-dated cheques are common too, quite often landlords do it by standing order as well and I don't know why others still insist on cheques. Especially when there are ten of them to write out and cash!
3. I think it depends on the contract, if he and his housemates all have separate contracts then you'll just be liable for him. If not it may be worth checking with the landlord in question.
4. They'll have to sort that out themselves! Part of the fun.
5. You can get contents insurance aimed at Students, we were offered a deal from Endsleigh that looked ok as we had their cover in first year. Saxon are supposed to be good too. He may be covered by your home insurance however, so it's worth checking.

Masomnia

Do you know the name of the letting company? I may know them.

Lokolo

The security deposit scheme is required by law. So make sure you get that.

quanto2009

Thanks for the replies.
The accommodation is let by Sheffield student property

Quanto

whitfreak

1. 12 Month lets are standard in student lets. Mine ran from August to July but it the prinicple is the same.

2. A quick look at the companies website says its a single contract per house. So if my memory serves me correctly, if one of them does not pay the go to the other tenants first, and if they don't pay then its down to the guarantors. So yes, unless the form you sign specificly says otherwise, you could be liable for the whole lot. I say could because the other guarantors are equally liable.

3. The bills are the tenants problem. Make sure they take a meter reading when they go in. I didnt and ended up paying more than I should have.

atypical

quanto2009 wrote: »

1.Its a 12 month contract running from June 2010 to July 2011 is this normal bearing in mind the term is Sept to May?

12 months is normal but it's possible to get shorter contracts if you look for a place say 1 month before the term starts. Landlords are pretty desperate to fill their places at that time and you can often get a discount as well as the contract ending in July.

That's assuming there are more places than students in Sheffield though.

Char_pdc

With regards to bills definately get a meter reading as you move in.

It might be worth the house putting some money towards bills when the loan comes in - either into a house pot or into the account of the person who will be paying the bill. This would mean it wasn't a problem if someone was prone to taking ages to pay people back.

We have a house pot - don't use it for bills as we're all pretty good with that but use it for house consumables - milk, cleaning products, bread, butter, sugar for example

minerva_windsong

1.Its a 12 month contract running from June 2010 to July 2011 is this normal bearing in mind the term is Sept to May?

Yes that's normal - generally most students will dump their stuff in the house on the first day of the tenancy and then go home for the summer, but some stay on to do uni work or if they have jobs.

2.Rent is due by post dated cheque starting June 2010 10 monthly payments of £306.

Again, normal, although ours was paid termly rather than monthly to coincide with our loan payments.

3.Will I be only liable for his rent if any of the others default.

If they have separate contracts then yes. I'd check with the letting agency.

4.What happens with Bills such as gas and electric etc.

We all applied for different bills in our own names - so one person got the gas/electricity bill, one person got the phone/internet, one person got the water bill, one got the TV licence etc - and then split the cost equally. My advice would be see if your agency lets you change your providers (ours didn't let us change our gas/electricity provider but yours might) and then shop around for the best deal, going through cashback sites if possible. And always pay by direct debit and get paper-free billing - sometimes you get discounts.

5. Does he need house insurance?

I would get it, if only for the peace of mind. Again, shop around and go through cashback sites. In one of my student houses our letting agency gave us free contents insurance (to a fixed value) - it may be worth seeing if his letting agency do that as well.

6.Any experiences of other people will be much appreciated.

I'd strongly suggest a cleaning rota or cleaning allocation - ours was our own bedrooms plus one each of the lounge, kitchen, bathroom and hall/stairs/landing. That way the house was always clean and tidy and there were no arguments. Additionally, it might be best to set out ground rules about parties/having lots of people over (also issues with boyfriends/girlfriends if they're in the picture), use of the bathroom in the morning etc for similar reasons.

quanto2009

Just a thought are students exempt from council tax?
if so what do they have to do to ensure they don't pay.

Thanks