Withdrawing from uni and need to get out of tenancy

Sapindus

My son is withdrawing from his university course in Newcastle due to his mental health having been really bad in his first year.  He had already booked his accommodation for the second year in a private halls of residence, not uni owned.  He can't get out of the tenancy and the halls staff have told him to find a new tenant by putting it on SpareRoom.

He did an ad, but SpareRoom wouldn't allow the ad unless he had his landlord's permission.  Thinking about it overnight, should he have put the ad as "agent letting on behalf of the landlord", not "current flatmate"?  The halls staff said put in the ad that anyone interested needs to ring them quoting the room number and then when the new person has signed a tenancy they'll cancel my son's.

Of course this is causing stress all over again as it's £6000 plus we'll have to pay to rent a room he's not even using if we can't find a new tenant.  He's also posted on StudentRoom but I just don't know how easy it is to find a new tenant.

Any advice would be welcome! 

Flugelhorn

I am not sure of the ins and outs of spareroom and how you advertise but am sure the right wording may be found - possible that when clearing happens in August there may be some late uni applicants who will be looking for places or maybe others haven't sorted their accommodation for next year

Brie

If he finds someone via spareroom (or anywhere else) will that person have a tenancy agreement with the landlord?  Otherwise if he is subletting he's still going to be responsible for the rent whether the subletter lives there or not.  

I assume he's discussed this directly with the landlord?

Sapindus

Brie said:

If he finds someone via spareroom (or anywhere else) will that person have a tenancy agreement with the landlord?  Otherwise if he is subletting he's still going to be responsible for the rent whether the subletter lives there or not.  

I assume he's discussed this directly with the landlord?

The halls staff said put in the ad that anyone interested needs to ring them quoting the room number and then when the new person has signed a tenancy they'll cancel my son's.

Uriziel

There really is nothing else you can do and they are already being nice enough to let you find another tenant since most would just tell you that you're liable for the rent. Let him find a new tenant even if he has to pretend to be the landlord. I don't think they care what he puts on spare room as long he is finding someone to take over the tenancy. Since this is a student place I advise you do this quickly. Nobody is going to want to start living there half way through.

Sapindus

It really does make you wonder how many rooms just stand empty all year, thus pushing up the price for everyone else, and the landlords don't care because they're getting the rent anyway. Certainly when my eldest needed to change room due to a psycho flatmate, the halls he was in found him a different one no problem.  Although that does show that people do want accommodation part way through a year sometimes. 

HampshireH

Your son needs to do more.

Get his room advertised in the student union. Put it on the notice board. Use Facebook or Snapchat or whatever they are using to advertise it to people who will see it as a student there. Get his friends sharing it to their friends etc

Sadly if he can't then it will be a big life lesson and an expensive mistake. But there are always kids needing rooms

Flugelhorn

Sapindus said:

It really does make you wonder how many rooms just stand empty all year, thus pushing up the price for everyone else, and the landlords don't care because they're getting the rent anyway. Certainly when my eldest needed to change room due to a psycho flatmate, the halls he was in found him a different one no problem.  Although that does show that people do want accommodation part way through a year sometimes. 

I suspect that was easier in the same place - there are often some rooms free and if it is a Uni run hall they may actually opt to hold a few rooms empty in case of crisis eg uninhabitable room at one of their residences, I doubt that private halls will run in the same way. 
Some unis have people coming for part of the year for their "semester abroad" - possibly they would be glad to have a room even if it was only part of the year 

2childmum2

My daughter had to withdraw last November due to ill health. She was in a private house and is still having to pay rent for the room because she couldn't find anyone to take it over.
This hasn't been a 'big life lesson' and an 'expensive mistake'. She simply couldn't carry on. Students have to sign up for a year, often very early in one year ready for the next academic year, or it's difficult to find a place to live.
Sometimes we have to make decisions to protect our health (be that mental or physical) rather than our bank balance.

Op - has your son contacted the uni accommodation people? There may be students who get a place through clearing who needs a room. Some unis will help them find something, so it might be worth asking.

QrizB

2childmum2 said:

This hasn't been a 'big life lesson' and an 'expensive mistake'. She simply couldn't carry on. Students have to sign up for a year, often very early in one year ready for the next academic year, or it's difficult to find a place to live.

That's just the private rental market, though. It's nothing specific to being a student. If she'd moved out to a rented flat on an AST to start a job, the job hadn't worked out and she'd moved home, she'd still be liable for the rent for the assured period.

I'm sorry your daughter's ill-health prevented her from continuing her course and I hope it all works out.

Sapindus

"Big life lesson" I'm not quite sure what we are expected to learn from this.  Next time, don't get mental health issues? Don't go to university in the first place? As 2CM2 says, they have to sign up to accommodation really early, too early to necessarily know that months later they're not going to find it possible to continue. Don't rent anywhere until you've seen how the first year went, and then end up not being able to find somewhere?

On the plus side, he barely spent any of this year's maintenance loan due to never going out and not eating for days on end.  It's just a shame he may have to spend all that money on renting a room he's not using. 

The lesson I would pass on to parents in a similar situation is to reassure them that it'll all work out in the end and they're not the only person this has ever happened to, they haven't "let you down", and to help them if necessary with writing the emails and making the phone calls they need to. As a parent, this is not the sort of "big life lesson" you want your child to have to learn.  It's not like "keep a better hold of your ice cream next time".  It's a HUGE impact on the rest of their life. 

Also, look into compelling personal circumstances to try and keep their finance options as open as possible.

He's going to start again with a different subject at our local uni - we're very lucky we have one and lucky they had an open day and he's got a plan B to feel optimistic about.