Advice about student accommodation

need_an_answer

It varies from university town to university town and even LL to LL.

My off spring has been in uni accommodation now for 4 years and the length of contract has varied each year from 32 weeks up to 42 weeks...I have seen them for 52 weeks but we have avoided those.

The sensible way of working out what might be applicable as a reduction in this case would be to take the daily rate given the contract length and days that the kitchen area cant be used.

what you then need to factor in is that its just a portion of the property that will be unuseable for that period of time...thinking outside the box the students might need to move maybe a microwave and kettle into the communal lounge and use that for meal preparation,washing dishes in the bathroom.
Its not an ideal situation but there are work arounds and its probably been decided to do the work over the Christmas break as most students are either out in the run up to Christmas or return home around 13th December....

What they should also see the benefit of is a new kitchen after Christmas that the LL wont be putting their rent up as a result of.

Yalpsmol

The rent is £550 (stated in the other thread).

need_an_answer

So for example working on the maximum contract of 12 months and £550 per month the daily rate would be £18.08 which would equate to £325.44 however this figure would be based upon a maximum 1 year contract and also doesn't take into account that other parts of the property would be unaffected....it would therefore probably be argued by the LL that in the property it is just one area that cant be used so full rent wouldn't be offered back just perhaps a portion seen as bathing and personal rooms are not affected.

OP... to get a clearer picture exactly what contract is your niece on...as I said earlier 42 weeks is a possibility.

In the other thread posters suggested the use of a launderette for washing machine usage...the OP came back stating they were expensive and some distance from where the property is located.
Again thinking outside the box is there a friends shared house where your niece could perhaps use the facility of their machine and dryer in return for a few drinks on a night out....I know mine has done this when their communal washers were out last year for several weeks. I believe on the days when the machines were borrowed they all cooked together too and enjoyed quite a sociable afternoon!

Whilst I do think the compensation could be classed as not enough at least something has been offered and my guess is if you take a basic equation of contract length and only a portion of the property being out of bounds then whist it doesn't on the face of it seem much ,it actually equates to what is charged for the use of the kitchen

Sachs

I agree with people who said that most of the advice in the other thread was u helpful and entirely missed the point.

HMO regulation is a bit specialist. Your niece needs to:

A. Ring the Council's HMO licencing team ASAP and find out if the property is licensed and what they would advise.

B. In line with UK government guidance she needs to ring Shelter and see what they think.

Bexgrossman

lookstraightahead wrote: »

Because landlords still think they can go into these properties during the summer and treat them as if they are empty. They want to do checkouts early, show people round in February for the July and so on. I went with my daughter to her new accommodation in August and the landlord was in the property without having told them - none of their stuff was there but so what? There is no gap between check out and next check-in, things are rarely mended and things don't work properly. For this the landlord gets about £3k per month (and as you say, it's at least).

I think you need to elaborate. Firstly private houses or halls (which are mostly private). Check out early? What do you mean?
Yeah, it can be bad if the landlord didn't give them notice - but what was the landlord doing ta the property? I found the landlords were reasonable in term time.
Yes its unfortunate that student houses are generally changed on the same day - so planning has to be advised - when people buy a house they usually exchange monday and complete friday. However everyone is in the same boat and it benefits everyone. Daughter can rent in the open market with non-students etc