Looking for living space?
The housing headache has well and truly begun. Friends must be vetted, property details sifted, and houses inspected. First-years will be starting to grasp the size of the task ahead of them, forging alliances and breaking friendships as they tentatively suggest housing combinations in covert conversations behind closed doors. Older students will be weighing up the idea of having to re-enter the York property chaos against staying with people they can no longer stand. To make the next few months easier, Nouse have provided you with a step-by-step guide to the housing process. Good luck…
Step 1 - Choosing your housemates
This can be the hardest bit of the whole process. Before you even begin to search for the perfect student house, you must first find the perfect housemates. Living in shared accommodation takes tolerance and, unlike in halls, you can’t just walk down the corridor to get away from whoever is irritating you. Most houses do not come with cleaners (although some do), and attitudes towards tidiness and hygiene tend to be the biggest points of contention. Try to assess your friends objectively. Smell of smoke make you wretch? Check whether any of your new friends nurture secretive night-time habits. That disorganized girl who is sweet at the moment will be much less endearing when her late bill payments incur extra charges. If your day doesn’t really start until the afternoon and goes on well into the early hours of the morning, it is advisable to live with similarly nocturnal animals. Finally, avoid couples. Seriously. Whether getting on (sometimes too well) or breaking up, they spell stress and sleepless nights.
Step 2 - Letting agents and landlords
Now you know who you’ll be living with, you must decide whether to go through a private landlord or a letting agency. Renting with a private landlord avoids the intermediary of the letting agency and so cuts your costs. Most privately let properties charge cheaper rent as the proprietor won’t charge administration or referencing fees. They also are usually more flexible than letting agents and you may be able to negotiate concerns such as smoking, keeping pets and reduced summer rents. Even better, you are often allowed to paint your own rooms, a definite perk considering the drab interior of many student houses. This may all sound idyllic, but be warned, the rented accommodation industry is largely unregulated. As landlords are not compelled to belong to a professional body or trade association they have no reputation to uphold. This not only means that it is easier for them to swindle you, but also gives you very little to go on if anything problematic does happen. If you do choose to use this route make sure you know your rights (see box for useful websites).
Consequentially the oft-favoured option is to use a letting agent. This should ensure certain levels of service as letting agencies have a reputation to uphold, as well as a greater range of properties. Your pocket will have to pay for this privilege, however, and there can be a degree of inflexibility regarding house rules and regulations. You should also expect to put in a fair amount of legwork to find a property. Expect to leave details with several agencies, but don’t be surprised if you are not inundated with calls. If they have nothing suitable for you at the time, usually they simply won’t contact you, so make sure you keep in contact with them. According to the Accommodation Agencies Act of 1963, it is illegal for letting agencies to ask for payment for property viewings and details. If this does happen, walk swiftly away and call the local council. Agencies are often able to sneak in other additional charges, however, from referencing charges to fees for drawing up tenancy agreements.
Step 3 - The house
Whichever route you choose to go through, you will quickly be in a position to start looking at properties online. Think about local amenities, transport options - which almost always means buses - then distance from campus and town, general area safety, and, of course, rent.
Avoid living with couples. Seriously. Whether getting on (often too well) or breaking up, they spell sleepless nights.
Choosing a base rent price can be tricky to negotiate amongst friends, particularly if there is a massive disparity between housemates’ accommodation budgets. The average price of student accommodation in York is around £65 per week, but if you can stretch to £70 per week, you should be pretty cushy. At the moment prices are being raised across York, so keep that in mind. It is also worth remembering you could be asked for three month blocks of rent in advance and that you will be always be asked to pay a deposit, normally of around £250. Bills aren’t usually included in the rent – so leave money in your budget for that, roughly an extra £7 per week.
Once you have found a few properties that fit your criteria, organise viewings with the appropriate letting agent or landlord. If possible, all housemates should attend the first viewing as there is no guarantee of a second, and you don’t want people to be signing for a house they have never seen. For your own personal safety, never view a property on your own.
When looking round a house, you should take the following into consideration on top of the more obvious things like room size: Security, smoke detectors and fire alarms, proof of servicing of the gas and electricity, power sockets, furniture that stays with the house, storage space, signs of damp, mould or infestations, plumbing, cooking and washing facilities, communal space, parking (if applicable), and double glazing . That’s a lot to think about, and the more eyes the better. Remember, if using a private landlord be extra vigilant when viewing the property as they are less likely to stick to health and safety regulations.
Step 4 - What to expect next
So you’ve found your perfect house. Now get a move on and snap it up! You will have to sign a contract, and arrange a guarantor for your rent, normally a parent. Remember that a contract is a binding agreement, so any negotiations that you wish to make over rent, etc. must be done before you sign. Check for a clause that enables you to give leave notice during the contract, otherwise, if you have to change accommodation before the contract has terminated, you may still be liable to continue paying rent until your lease is finished. Take your contract along to the accommodation office who will check over it for you, and keep a hard copy of it. Don’t take this too lightly, as you will all be responsible for each other’s damages and debts. If you are with a letting agency you may have to give over post-dated cheques (cheques banked at pre-specified dates throughout the year), and don’t forget that most leases will be 12 months long and will start in early July. This effectively means you will have to pay for those few months over summer when no-one will be in your house. Irritating, but unavoidable.
Finally, remember to take pictures of every room in the house before you move in; those can be used as proof of carpet stains, etc. not caused by you, and will prevent problems getting back your deposit when you move out again. All that’s left is to pick rooms, and decide who gets stuck in the cupboard under the stairs…
The Official Line
As people are manically booking house viewings, the University is recommending that its students hold off, and take care before signing on the dotted line. Student Welfare Adviser, Mo Onyett warns that “people don’t leave it long enough before they start looking for houses in their first year. You don’t have enough time to know the people you’re moving in with.”
She advises students to wait at least until the University Code of Practice on Private Sector Accommodation is published on the Feburary 1. It comprises a list of private landlords and their properties that have been regulated by the university set guidelines. Onyett continues, “there is a plentiful supply of student accommodation in the York private sector and the properties that advertise first tend to be more expensive.” In fact, Onyett believes that a student can delay property-hunting to as far as the summer term and that “the latest you should have it sorted by is the beginning of June”.
Phillipa Clare, creator of the ‘Finding a House in York’ Facebook group, deems this information “really misleading”. She feels so strongly about this that she is refusing to add the information to her helpful house-hunting guide, despite being asked to do so by a University official. Clare believes that there is a “real difference between what the Uni is saying and what the landlords actually want”. She adds that she thinks “it is important to get it done sooner than later, but it’s a real catch-22 for first years”.
Onyett, however, stands strong. She firmly believes that “there is a lot of scaremongering, and there is really not any need to panic. Landlords and letting agents will sometimes put on the pressure… but there is no rush to finding a property”. She was taken aback when an unnamed letting agent littered Alcuin college with flyers in December, alarming the students to property shortages which quite simply didn’t exist.
The University does indeed have a valid point; there is an abundance of student property in York. However, the vast majority of students have begun to view houses. Whilst the University’s principles work in theory, they don’t take into account the fact that hordes of students will be searching for houses and are all fully aware that they are in direct competition with each other for the best houses. Inevitably, good houses go quickly. Clare laughed at the notion of waiting until summer term to start looking for a property “you’ll end up living in a shed!”
www.direct.gov.uk - follow the links to university and higher education and then click on student housing. Also contains advice on legal rights and contracts.
YUSU - Although there is nothing on their website at the moment, there is a housing fair in the pipeline for later this term. Students are also advised to pop into the YUSU building for advice and help.
‘Finding a house in York; information to make life easier’ Facebook group - Set up by Phillipa Clare, this group includes lists of letting agencies, and provides a forum for students to discuss areas and housing issues.
Worst Case Scenario
I was one of the unluckiest first years I know. My corridor, if not my whole block, was full of idiots. And not even the kind of idiots you can have a bit of fun with, idiots that I didn’t even want to waste energy trying to put up with. Maybe I’m a little intolerant, perhaps even a little strange. I certainly don’t get excited about getting dressed up in a ridiculous costume and plying myself with drink in order to enjoy a night.
Last spring I found myself in the awkward position of being greeted by hurried silences and forced greetings everytime I walked into my kitchen. I didn’t particularly care, I definitely wasn’t planning to share so much as a postcode with any of my blockmates come second year, but the tension in the air did mean that cooking lost much of its previous enjoyment for me.
To be fair, I didn’t hate them, they just weren’t my kind of people. They didn’t get me, my sense of humour, my idea of fun, or the way I dressed, and consequentially I had to face the prospect of finding some people who did, or else apply to live on campus again on the grounds of having no friends.
My next step was to attend a college social for students looking for housemates, and also, contrary to my pride, start asking if anyone knew of a house looking for a room filler. Alas, I missed the social, and out of laziness and an unwillingness to confront the idea of being homeless, I ignored the issue for the rest of that year. It was only over summer, after a particularly worried inquiry from my parents, that I realised I had to do something. A friend of mine (I did make some) put me in contact with a group of complete strangers who were rumoured to have a spare room in a large house in Osbaldwick. I called them, explained my situation, and agreed then and there to move in.
So far my year has been OK. It hasn’t been as much fun as I would have hoped, but my new housemates are bearable, if a little noisy. At least this way I have a roof over my head. So if you still don’t have a house for next year, don’t worry, it can’t get worse than this.
