Payments Timetable, Deposits, Summer Discount, Rent Calculation, Guarantors, Lead Tenant, & Miscellaneous Charges.

 
We don’t state current availability or rents on this website, if you have come here after seeing one of our adverts, that will have stated the rent. If you have arrived direct on the site, and it looks interesting to you, please just message us to confirm what’s currently still available and at what rent. Its all great-value! We price all our houses and rooms individually to reflect their slight differences. Rents are based on 52 week tenancy, irrespective of how long you actually occupy for, less any discount as below.

Actions & Payments Timetable

Here we set out the typical pattern of actions & all payments from seeing a house you want, through to moving in.

(Note this applies to UK citizens, If you are not a UK citizen then the process remains the same, but all rent must be paid upfront for the entire period of the tenancy, before keys are issued. Alternatively, you may be able to use a commercial Guarantor supplier such as HousingHand)

These infographics give a summary of the steps, please read on below for more detailed information.

Your group likes a house! Discuss & decide to apply. Complete our Book Now form. Pay £100 each as a Holding Deposit. Referencing & Guarantor process then begins. This is run for us by an independent Company called Tenancy360.
After the referencing process is successfully completed, you each either pay the Reposit fee (the equivalent of one weeks rent), or you choose the DPS traditional refundable-deposit option, that is the equivalent of five weeks rent. This choice must be made as a house-group, not individually.
The house’s joint Tenancy Agreement is signed by all parties, inc everyone’s Guarantors. Decide what your first-person move-in date will be (this is to be decided during May) & it will determine the value of any Summer Discount. To trigger the release of the house keys, pay the first rent payment (£400 each) 10 days in advance of when you first need the first key.
The remaining rent is then to be paid in 3 EQUAL instalments, in October, January & April (in line with Student Loan receipt dates). Don’t worry, it will be reduced by: your £100 Holding Deposit & the initial £400 rent paid & any Summer Discount due.

Now to explain some of the points in the above summary in more detail:

Holding Deposit

To secure a tenancy with us you will need to pay just £100 per person to act as a Holding Deposit. This sum paid converts to a full £100 credit against the rent due later, once papers are successfully finalised.

It is not refundable (unless we choose to decline your application) if you do not proceed.

So only apply for a house if you are serious. As soon as it is received the house will no longer be marketed to other students.

Tenancy Deposit

This is designed to offer landlords protection against the non-payment of rent and damage to the property etc. Traditionally it was a deposit sum paid to the landlord at the beginning of the tenancy and then refunded at the end of the tenancy, if all was well.

We have partnered with Reposit the modern alternative to traditional deposits. It is a basically a private sector insurance-based product replacing the need for tenants to find a hefty refundable deposit at an early stage. It has become the most popular method with our tenants. If you choose to use Reposit the cost is the equivalent of 1 week’s rent each. This is non-refundable. Please use the link to fully understand their offer.

We do still offer the traditional deposit approach using the government-backed Deposit Protection service (DPS) too. This is 5 x the weekly rent per person. It is refundable (subject to T&C’s). We collect it from your group via The Lead Tenant as soon as you have completed the Tenancy360 process and we have made you a formal offer of a tenancy, so typically in Nov/Dec time. We then pass on your funds to the independent DPS who retain it during your tenancy.

The DPS then hold your money throughout your stay.

When you all have left the house, we undertake a full inspection. Assuming all T&Cs have been complied with (basically, all rent has been paid, there is no damage to the house and all rubbish has been removed) we authorize DPS to refund your deposit within 7 days.

Important: the whole house must decide whether to use Reposit or DPS, unfortunately the schemes cannot be mixed within one house. The choice is entirely yours. You will be prompted to decide by our other partner organisation Tenancy360, as they handle your application & referencing process.

Summer Discount Scheme

This scheme is available to new groups of tenants (not for those who choose to stay on an extra year). All our rents are all quoted on a per week per person basis for our 52-week tenancy.

The tenancy agreement runs from 1 August, so normally that would be the move-in date.

BUT for every day your group delays it’s first-person-move-in date, everyone in the group will receive a rent rebate. You can delay by up to 7 weeks! Just choose your best move-in date. The rebate is calculated as follows:

Delay first-person-move-in until:

  • 2-5 August & ALL receive £12/day rebate for those days.
  • 6-20 August & ALL receive the above, plus £8/day rebate for these later days.
  • 21-31 August & ALL receive the above, plus £5/day rebate for these later days.
  • Any September date & ALL receive the above, plus £3/day rebate for the Sept days.

Remember under this scheme it’s the date that the first person from your group moves in that is important (as we need an empty house to work on), after that date the others are free to move in whenever suits without impact on the discount.

We aim to contact you in early May and give your group that month to make a decision as to your preferred first-person-move-in date. Once agreed it cannot normally be amended.

The discount/rebate will be fully reflected when we do the calculation of the rent that falls payable in Oct/Jan/April.

If you want to move just your possessions in from 1 Aug onwards that is fine and still take advantage of the scheme. See Storage of Possessions on our Tips for Tenants page.

Rent Calculation Details

Just to make sure everyone is “on the same page” when it comes to this important matter, we give here a worked example of how our rent is calculated in full detail.

So, let’s assume a typical student tenant, called Megan, has signed up for a room in a house with us at £150pw. She has gone through all the processes outlined above next to the infographics, and has now moved in, let’s say on 20 August. Let’s assume the first person to move into the house was her housemate Jack, on 10 August.

What rent must Megan pay & when?

So, for the whole period of the tenancy the rent due is 52 weeks @£150pw = £7800

Now let’s deduct what Megan has already paid:

  • Holding Deposit when she first applied for the house £100 +
  • Initial Rent to get keys in August £400.
  • Total £500.

7800-500 = £7300.

Now let’s calculate her Summer Discount amount:

The first person to move into the house was Jack and he arrived on 10 Aug, so that is the date to use. Now refer to the Summer Discount Scheme detailed above, and you will see she will get 4 days @ £12/day discount (=£48) + 5 days @ £8/day discount (=£40). Total £88.

Deduct this from the above:

7300 – 88 = £7212

Now we divide this £7212 figure by 3, to get the sum due each term:

7212/3 = £2404.

So, £2404 will be the amount for Megan to pay to us (via her Lead Tenant) on (or very shortly after) 6 October & 6 January & 6 April.

Guarantors

We require each student to ensure a parent (or equivalent) completes our Guarantor Section of the tenancy agreement. This covers us in the unlikely event of a student being unable to fulfil the full rental payment terms of the Tenancy Agreement.

This will be arranged by Tenancy360, our partner application-handling organisation. It has to be noted that Tenancy360 will require full financial details from each Guarantor, which can feel a little intrusive to some people. They use industry standard metrics & there is no other option if they are to truly ensure each Guarantor could meet the responsibility to pay if so required.

Try and select someone to be your Guarantor who is not self-employed if possible. The reason for this is that the time taken to verify accounts can be excessive. If the delay becomes too long, unfortunately we may have to ask you to use a commercial supplier like HousingHand (for a fee) instead, which we would rather avoid.

 What is a Lead Tenant?

The Lead Tenant will be the voice of your group.

In practice this essentially means:

  1. When all tenants pay their Holding Deposit it will be payed via the Lead Tenant to the land lord.
  2. When you are paying traditional Tenancy Deposits the money (equivalent of 5 weeks rent each) is to be sent firstly to the Lead Tenant. When they have all of it, they then send it in one lump sum to us. That acts as the trigger for us to acknowledge receipt of the money and lodge it with DPS within 30 days.
  3. For either deposit option, all of the four instalments of rent you pay (if you pay termly), will be similarly via the Lead Tenant. This consist of the first payment of £400 and then three equal payments to pay the balance. 
  4. At the end of the tenancy if you have paid a traditional deposit to us that will have been held by the DPS. On our instructions they will refund all the money authorised back to the lead tenant. It is then the lead tenant’s job to distribute the money onto all the other individuals in the group. So, choose someone honest! If DPS do need to communicate with your group (unlikely) it is the “lead tenant” they will speak to.
  5. During the tenancy where when we communicate with you, say by text or WhatsApp etc, any information we give to the lead tenant is deemed to be given to the whole group, so they must share the message with the group. Most commonly this might be what day and time we propose calling round to do a repair. We will set up a WhatsApp Group for this purpose just ahead of you moving in so it makes it easier, and everyone is kept fully up to date.
  6. When it comes to letting the house for the following year we will put prospective tenants in touch with the Lead Tenant so they can make arrangements to view.

Miscellaneous Charges

Hopefully none of the issues below will arise, but if they do this is our scale of charges so you know where you stand:

  • Lost set of keys/fob, £30 for full replacement
  • Locked out of house/room requiring landlords to let you in, £30
  • Lost key fob replacement, free of charge
  • Rubbish left at the end of the tenancy, £10/bag
  • Mattress Protector absent at end of tenancy, £15
  • Damage to wall emulsion (usually as a result of blu-tac usage), £25 small patch, £80 wall, £200 room
  • Leaving tenancy prematurely: you are still required to pay what is due for the entirety of the tenancy, but you can escape this cost if you find a replacement tenant acceptable to all. If you do there is a total fee of £80 comprising £50 admin fee to swap tenants + £30 fee (cost price) to advertise the property to help you find a replacement asap. If a new tenant is found the rent due for the whole year would be apportioned on a daily basis between you and the new tenant centered on the date the new tenant moves in, with you being responsible for all rent up to that date.