Rented Student House outstanding bills previous tennants

amboy

Crispy_Ambulance wrote:

Most student advice centres will advise students to ask for single tenancies and if the landlord refuses, they can always look elsewhere. There are lots of landlords wanting to fill properties and joint tenancies are always to be avoided.

It is much better for any tenant to be responsible for their own rent and nobody elses. A tenant has to be in at least 2 months arrears for a landlord to evict for non payment of rent - I don't see how 1 tenant being evicted has any detrimental effect on the other tenants on single contracts?

You are missing my point in that I stated most LL would not consider single tenancies and (here is the crucial bit) for students who are recruited as a group this implies thatthey are all friends and do not wish to share with people they do not know

which leads me to answer your last question, which would see one person who is being legally evicted (and i know the legal process) being replaced by someone whom the rest of the grou does not know, the LL could move in anybody who he sees fit. I am sure the potential problems in that scenario do not have to be explained.

amboy

Lady_K wrote:

My daughter had to have a guarantor though to be able to move in so we just assumed if they didnt pay thier rent it would be the guarantor they would approach but things are becoming more clear now

Hving a guarantor in place should lessen your worries about the others not paying their rent.

Lady_K

I just rang her house area council and they said the property is registered as a student house so none of them need to produce council tax certificates which at least is one thing they wont have to do

Crispy_Ambulance

amboy wrote:

You are missing my point in that I stated most LL would not consider single tenancies and (here is the crucial bit) for students who are recruited as a group this implies thatthey are all friends and do not wish to share with people they do not know

which leads me to answer your last question, which would see one person who is being legally evicted (and i know the legal process) being replaced by someone whom the rest of the grou does not know, the LL could move in anybody who he sees fit. I am sure the potential problems in that scenario do not have to be explained.

This is getting a bit OT here, but as I remind students every year when they sign up for houses far too early in the year, things change, friendships end, people fall out. So many housing problems for students are the direct result of joint tenancies - when you have spent hours in court with students suing each other because joint tenants fell out, they start to realise that single tenancies are much safer for them and their money. And as I said before, there are lots of student houses and lots of landlords - if they aren't happy with the contract, they don't have to sign it - there are plenty of other landlords who will offer single tenancies.

In the many years I have advised students, I can't remember the last time a student on a fixed term contract was evicted - for any reason. Most landlords will take any arrears from the deposit and then pursue in the county court. There is little point in evicting someone on a fixed term - they will be nearly half way through it by the time the eviction happened and a landlord would struggle to find a replacement tenant who just wanted the house for a couple of months.

The more likely scenario is that the room stays empty. Or the landlord asks the current tenants if they know anybody who wants the room. I think most students would rather the guarantee that they are not responsible for everybody else's rent than the somewhat unlikely scenario that the landlord moves someone they don't like into the house.

Unfortunately, many landlords see letting to students as an easy way to make money. They get far more for renting a 4 bedroom house to 4 students (maybe sticking another one in the living room to make 5) than they would letting the whole house to a family. And because so many of them are only there for 9 months to a year, lots of them don't kick up too much of a fuss about disrepair. Some landlords are great - unfortunately some aren't.

To the OP - I would suggest that your daughter speaks to the student advice centre at her students union as they will be very experienced in dealing with housing issues.