Students Tenant Rights

Student Tenants

Student tenants start the new university year soon. They will be moving into student digs, renting accommodation possibly for the first time in their lives. Part of the fun with student life is to experience a budget lifestyle and many look for rental property according to it's price. As with everything in life, you get what you pay for and many cheap student digs can be undesirable and can cause problems.

There are some important things to look out for to ensure that the student tenant can avoid being ripped off. See below for some ways to avoid the pitfalls of student lodgings and to know your student tenant rights:-

• Letting agencies are not allowed to charge tenants a finders fee, they can only charge a fee when the student accepts accommodation.
  
  
• Sometimes agencies ask parents to sign to guarantee the students rent. Parents should seek legal advise to check the extent of their liability, especially if a house is shared with other tenants.
  
  
• Read the student tenancy agreement. It should be clear and easy to understand with no legal jargon. If the tenancy agreement is not clear, ask for it to be rewritten.
  
  
• Make sure there are no unfair terms in the tenancy agreement such as a landlord having the right to enter the property without advance notice or if the student tenant is liable to pay for repairs to the structure of the property which should be the landlords responsability. Most student unions will read a contract for you to check there are no unfair terms.
  
  
• The property should not be allowed to fall into a very bad state of repair during the tenancy. It is the landlords responsability to ensure that the property is in good working order. This means the loggings structure, guttering, drains, windows, boilers, sinks, baths, toilets, electrical appliances and gas applicances.
  
  
• A landlord is not entitled to withhold your tenants security deposit without reason. A landlord can deduct money to pay for repairs if a student tenant has failed to take reasonable care of the student property but cannot make a profit from the deposit. A security deposit cannot be witheld for normal wear and tear. Increasingly students are witholding their last month's rent in ancipation that their landlord will not refund their original deposit but this is illegal.
  
  
• A landlord must provide a contact name and address (his own or that of the agency acting on behalf of the landlord)
  
  
• The student tenant is responsible for paying the TV licence, normally one licence is needed if a TV is shared but if a tenant has a TV in a room that is locked (e.g. four tenants each have a TV in their bedrooms that can be locked) a separate licence is required.
  
  
• You can usually get advice from your student's union regarding student tenancy, student tenant rights and landlords rights.
  
  

Don't forget that a landlord does not want a property to remain empty. If you like the property but are put off for some reason, talk to the landlord and see what he/she can do about the problem.