Halls and finance

standingupformyself

My son is off to Uni this year, West London... student finance applied for, halls applied for. This Friday he recieved an email stating that a number of vacancies for halls were available and to "be quick" basically... so we did, we paid the £500 deposit and got his room sorted.

I am shocked at that price , just a few pounds under £2000 per term, and all this we had to commit to without seeing in black and white how much he entitled to via finance.

My real worry here though is the small print from Paragon (the student halls company) is that the first terms rent has to be paid before he moves in... are they for real here? Hubby and I scraped the £500 together and it has wiped us out, there is no way in the world we can even lend him £2000 for a few days, we just do not have that kind of money... my daughter is already at uni, she goes to Reading and in her first year at Halls the first terms rent got paid as soon as her finance arrived in the bank, which seems much more realistic...

Can anyone ease my worry, or do I have to find £2000 ????

Lokolo

If that's what he's signed and agreed to, then yes thats what he has to do.

The student finance calulcator will be able to tell him a good estimate of how much he will be entitled to.

standingupformyself

Really? So higher education being accessible to all, is only if your parents can afford to lend you a couple thousand pounds?

Ths student finance calculator has indeed given us the indication of the amount, which as long as it comes through as it appears, then it should be ok..

I am shocked and now highly worried about this.

Lokolo

standingupformyself wrote: »

Really? So higher education being accessible to all, is only if your parents can afford to lend you a couple thousand pounds?

Yes that's exactly what they are saying..... (that was sarcasm)

He had a choice, he chose that university and those halls and they were the conditions.

It says in the accomondation booklet that they will send an email with all dates and payment information. Has your son had this email?

I would also get him to ring them and find out what they say when he tells them his student loan doesn't come in until after that date.

On a side note, I would make sure he takes PLENTY of pictures of the room state so that they don't just try and take the £500 deposit for things that he isn't liable for.

standingupformyself

the payment dates and schedule came through over the weekend after we had paid the £500... the only date I paid attention to was the 3.09.12 but the dates were also there for January and April.. not so concerned about those as he will already be in the halls by then (or will he???)

Has this been mentioned before by other people? Certainly we will phone up and see if we can talk this through with them.

Good advice about the photos's etc.. thank you.

Dunroamin

standingupformyself wrote: »

Really? So higher education being accessible to all, is only if your parents can afford to lend you a couple thousand pounds?

Ths student finance calculator has indeed given us the indication of the amount, which as long as it comes through as it appears, then it should be ok..

I am shocked and now highly worried about this.

I understand why you're concerned but your son has chosen these expensive halls with these conditions that are difficult for you so I really feel that he must bear much of the responsibility for this.

Lokolo

standingupformyself wrote: »

the payment dates and schedule came through over the weekend after we had paid the £500... the only date I paid attention to was the 3.09.12 but the dates were also there for January and April.. not so concerned about those as he will already be in the halls by then (or will he???)

Has this been mentioned before by other people? Certainly we will phone up and see if we can talk this through with them.

Good advice about the photos's etc.. thank you.

It common when halls are run externally (by a company) rather than by the university.

But yes, best bet is to ring them and find out.

standingupformyself

They are the only halls of residence for the uni and he has opted for the cheapest type of accomodation. The alternative would be trying to find private accomodation, in London, in first year of uni... different in the 2nd year when you already have contacts and can house share..

He didn't deliberatly chose expensive halls, he went for uni's option.... certainly he will bear the brunt with us, without a doubt, but with two months to go (and only getting his place at uni confirmed a month ago, when he was still full time at college. He works in a bar a couple evenings a week and is obviously now trying to up his hours, but £2000 is a major problem to any college leaver.

I do hear what you are saying, but at the end of the day you expect to come out of uni in debt these days, you dont expect to go into it in debt,

j-josie

If he has a student account with an overdraft facility, could he not use that for the couple of days before his grant is received? I appreciate that he's not likely to have an overdraft facility of £2000 but I think the Co-op offer about £1400 for 1st years. That would leave a much smaller amount for him to find in cold hard cash!

(at least, I think that's how my son is planning to deal with his similar problem with halls at Birmingham...)

standingupformyself

Someone else has also suggested that, thank you very much... it is certainly a possible solution.
We phoned the uni today, and a very sympathetic lady listened and gave us the email address of her boss, told us to write an in-depth email, explaining the whole situation - no offers, no promises of course, but you never know, something could come of it We also have another child at uni, who is now in a rented shared house, her tenancy runs from July-July, so she had her last grant at Easter and will not have another until October, so is paying rent for her house throughout the summer, she does have a job but it only covers her rent, so therefore we are also supporting her while she is at home...that's life I know.. a child is for life and all that.. (groan!) but it makes it very relevant when you are a low income family and still supporting 2 adult children - I will update this post as and when, in the hope that it might help someone else.

melancholly

Unfortunately, this situation happens a lot and is a real pain.... I don't know how all parents can provide the deposits. Other solutions might be for your son to try and work over the summer and build up a buffer. Not easy, but there won't be any easy solutions. From a quick google, you're not the first person to complain about this (the studentroom has a thread from last year).