This is part of a series of guidance about finding accommodation provided for students.
Things to Look out for
Not all properties are of the same standards, so take time to be a discerning house hunter…
Checklist
You may find it useful to print out a checklist of points to take round to properties with you. Print out a copy for each house you are planning to look at – if you are looking at several it will help you to remember to check everything at each property, and you can compare the properties afterwards.
Download our Property Viewing Checklist (PDF).
Safety and Security
Whilst it’s fairly easy to tell whether a house is being kept in good decorative order, it can take a little more thought to see whether it’s safe and secure. When you take a house, you’re likely to be living in it for the better part of a year, so you’ll want to minimise your chances of a break-in, and you definitely want to be doing all you can to avoid coming to physical harm.
We’ve dedicated a whole section of the site to Safety and Security, including information on Household Security, Fire Safety, Gas Safety, and Electrical Safety.
Obviously it’s a big area, and there’s a lot to take in. To make it a lot easier, we recommend looking for an Accredited property. The Accreditation Scheme checks that properties meet a large number of safety and security aspects, taking a lot of the leg work out of it for you – after all, you’re here to study, not to become an expert on what makes a shared house safe!
We strongly recommend that you take an Accredited property, but if you choose not to, it’s particularly important that you take care to look in detail at the security and safety features of the house.
Suitability
Does the house meet your needs? Is there the right number and sizes of bedrooms? Is there enough communal space? Is the price right?
Smaller bedrooms are generally less popular, so if a property has a smaller room it can often act to keep the price down. If one of a group is prepared to take a smaller room (perhaps if you agree to split the rent unequally between you), then the rest of you needn’t worry about it. But make sure you clearly agree this at the start – don’t all assume that it will be OK, and that “someone else” will be happy with the small room.
Deposit
It’s sad to say, but before you even look for a house you should start thinking about whether you are going to get your deposit back at the end of the tenancy. Unfortunately a few bad landlords don’t play fair with deposits. If you can avoid these landlords when taking a house, you’ll save yourself an argument at the end.
We have a series of guidance on deposits which gives details of some important schemes like Accreditation and the TDSRA which are good indicators that a landlord is willing to play fair over deposits.
Summary
- Keep a close eye on safety and security features. Picking an Accredited house will help with this no end.
- See our guidance on Deposits to see why you should be thinking about this before you sign on a house.
- Take a checklist with you to each house to help you check it thoroughly. This will also help you to compare them afterwards.