Student accommodation

"A home without books is a body without soul."  Marcus Tullius Cicero

The biggest expense you are likely to incur as a student is your accommodation. However this cost can vary drastically and it pays to shop around.

Living at Home with your Family

Obviously this is the cheapest option! You may feel that, during your first year at least, you want to focus on settling into the pattern of lectures, labs and seminars without also having to cope with juggling rent and household bills. However if the place of study is too far away, this will not be practical. In any case, you may feel that living near or on the campus amongst your fellow students and sharing fully in their social activities is a valuable part of the student experience. 

Getting started

When the university or college sends you an offer of a place, information on accommodation is usually included. If not, contact the university’s accommodation department. You can find the email address or telephone number in the prospectus or on the website.

As a young person living independently you must take on board many details which up till now have been the responsibility of your parents or guardians. In common with your flatmates you may have to deal with suppliers of gas, electricity and telephone, with paying the TV licence and finding a provider of internet services (as a rule the university staff and administrators will be keeping in touch with you through email). You will have to budget for keeping up regular payment for all these amenities.

Halls of residence

Universities and some colleges provide halls of residence for their students. These are large-scale blocks of customised student accommodation. The rent can be relatively expensive, but often includes laundry and cleaning services as well as electricity, heating, telephone and access to broadband. There is a warden to deal with any problems. You can also often choose whether or not to take full board.

Because responsibility for these extras is taken care of, halls of residence offer a young person an easy road into independent living.

Nowadays accommodation in halls is usually in single rooms with ensuite or shared bathroom facilities. A few halls may still offer shared rooms at a reduced rate. The halls themselves usually provide a programme of social events throughout the academic year and so it is easy to make friends.

Halls of residence are often used during the Christmas and Easter vacations to accommodate people taking short courses, and so you may be expected to clear the room out totally at these times.

Places in halls of residence are very much in demand, and universities and colleges generally give preference to First Year students. It is advisable to apply early, as soon as you have accepted your place on the course.

University owned rented accommodation

This is a sort of halfway house between a hall of residence and a privately rented flat or bedsit. It is usually a room in a flat or student house, with shared cooking and bathroom facilities. It is more economical than living in halls, and may include cleaning and access to a laundry and other facilities. Often such accommodation is amenable to short term lets (for example if you only want it for six months) and you won’t have the hassle of trying to find a replacement tenant if you decide to leave before the end of the lease.

The following website might help your search: http://www.studentpad.co.uk/

Privately rented accommodation

Because of the high demand for university-owned accommodation, most students from Second Year onwards live in privately-owned furnished accommodation. This can be either

• a self-contained flat on your own
• a room within your landlord's or landlady's own home (where the owner of the house lives on the premises)
• a flat shared on a joint tenancy basis with other tenants, either friends or people you don't know
• a bedsit in a house where the residents have separate tenancy contracts.

The owner of the premises should give you a written tenancy agreement setting out the responsibilities of landlord and tenant with regard to such matters as repairs and ending the tenancy. You should read the tenancy agreement carefully.

Is it a joint tenancy (covering all the tenants of the flat together) or are there separate tenancy agreements with each tenant? If you have a joint tenancy then if one tenant leaves before the end of the lease the others are still responsible for meeting the whole rent of the flat. On the other hand you only need one TV licence for the household.

Nowadays most private landlords expect you to take out a lease for a fixed term. Some may ask you to sign a lease for a whole calendar year, that is, twelve months. Others will ask you to sign only for the academic year so that you will be expected to move back home during the summer vacation. If you want to move out before the lease ends the landlord may still charge you rent for the rest of the period, or else you may be responsible for finding a replacement tenant who is acceptable to both the landlord and your flatmates.

You may have to pay two months rent as a down payment. The second month’s rent is held over as security to be returned to you at the end of the lease, provided you stay until the end of the lease and have caused no damage to the flat. You should get a written receipt for this deposit, and a written statement as to when it will be returned to you.

Some tenants in the past have experienced difficulties in reclaiming the deposit from the landlord. The Shelter Scotland website has useful information which can help you. As well as helping you reclaim your deposit the website gives you useful information about renting.

It is best if the landlord gives you a written tenancy agreement, but even if nothing exists in writing, you still have a legal contract with the landlord, giving you certain rights. There are special rules about houses of multiple occupancy (HMOs). For more information on the legal side of things, see the Shelter Scotland website http://scotland.shelter.org.uk/.

Watch out for landlords attempting to rent out accommodation which may be below the legal standard. A rented room has to be above a certain size and should have access to natural light, for example a window or a skylight. A broom-cupboard is not acceptable accommodation!

Provided you and all your flatmates are students the flat is exempt from council tax. If any of the tenants are non-students then you will have to pay. The landlord may ask you each to show proof of your status as a student in order to claim this exemption.

Buying

Depending on your family’s financial circumstances you may decide the most economical way in the long run is to buy a flat on a mortgage. You can then advertise for flatmates whose rent will help to cover the running cost of the mortgage. Of course this is feasible only if you or your family can afford to pay the deposit on the flat. In cities such as Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh or Glasgow traditional tenement flats are usually less expensive than new-build property.

Where to find your student pad

You first port of call should be the accommodation department of your university or college. They will be able to provide a list of university-owned or university approved flats. If you are in university-approved accommodation you have extra protection against exploitative landlords.

Otherwise you can check out ads in local papers and magazines, or pinned up in shop windows, and on notice-boards in supermarkets and community centres. You can put a notice up yourself saying that you're looking for accommodation.

There are several useful websites; for example:

http://www.accommodationforstudents.com/

http://www.letting-in-scotland.co.uk/

http://www.roomsforlet.co.uk/twp/results.asp?area=1

If you have found suitable accommodation and are looking for flatmates you could try http://uk.easyroommate.com/. When advertising for flatmates don’t be afraid to mention any personal qualities you particularly want or don’t want, for example smoking, early (or late) rising, vegetarianism or delight in constant loud music.

Take along a friend when you go to view a flat, both for the sake of getting a second opinion and for reasons of personal safety.

Bills

When living independently you will be responsible for household bills. Some bills, for example heating, are cheaper if there are a lot of people sharing the flat. However, if common ground-rules are not firmly established at the start this can be a cause of friction amongst the tenants. For example, what happens about the heating bill if some of the tenants are away during the vacations? How is the phone bill to be divided out if some tenants use it more than others? An itemised phone bill can help here.

As a rough guide, you might have paid the following in the academic session 2007-8:

Rent                                          £280-£400 per month per person

Heating and electricity                  £30 per week (shared amongst flat-mates)