Mumsnet Talk

Bit of a dilemma, DS is in his second year, and sharing a private rented house. He's been let down by the people he was supposed to share with next year, and the rest of his friends are all sorted.
Has anyone else been in the same position? And any suggestions on what he can do. He's asking round at lectures and labs, and has put a message on the local soc Facebook page. What else can he do?

Can he go back to Halls? Some Universities have a place in the block reserved for 2nd/3rd years to be a 'buddy' to the freshers - they even get paid for it or have reduced rent.

He's got several options
- returning to uni halls
- moving to privately owned halls
- renting a bedsit / one bed flat by himself
- seeing if his university's private sector rented accommodation service has any adverts for people wanting 'buddy ups'
- advertise on this website for others to share with www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=576

He should be keeping his ear to the ground for friends of friends who want an extra flatmate, and asking his friends to keep their ears peeled on his behalf. It's quite common for people to fall in love with a house that has an extra bedroom, or for someone to drop out of uni and need a replacement tenant.

He could also try advertising on this forum www.thestudentroom.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=576

Note to self: don't start writing a post, then come back to it later and fail to proofread it. It will invariably lead to you repeating yourself.

Don't despair. Obviously it depends on circumstances in your DS' University city but I (in my lmited experience) have known:
students fail 1st year exams, so their house-mates had to fill a space at short notice
students fail 2nd year exams, ditto
students suddenly finish in 3rd year when expecting another year (BSc that didn't go on to MSc, also Scottish system)
students taking a break for medical reasons
student arriving through clearing, so having to find something short notice in August

i.e. it will be nice to sort it now but even if he is still in limbo in the summer then it won't be the end of the world. I have even known love-birds breaking up mid-year: she found somewhere else to go and the house filled her vacated room.

Has he spoken to PG as well as UG?

Thinking about it, there have been all sorts of reports about applications being way down this year - that must have a (beneficial to your DS) knock-on effect on accomodation.

Oh also: what about year-out students (languages, work experience, Erasmus, etc) who are coming back next Autumn but who are out of step with their old network?

you are all fab, going to sit down with DS and go through the thread, and related websites with him.

NewFerry, also might be an idea to try rightmove.co.uk the rentals and see what comes up, may be bedsitters or studio flats. I heard there is also a small number of shared rooms in the student Halls which might be an urgent solution.

There are always adverts all year round for rooms near unis, they used to be on notice boards, but now tend to be on websites.

Does his uni and/or student union have a housing office? Most will and will keep lists of available accommodation.

Update - DS signed a contract on a house for next year yesterday.

From the advice here, we searched TSR, which led us to a website called studentpad.co.uk
This company seems to work with lots of the unis and is a password protected site, you get the password from you own uni.
From there he linked up with 3 others looking for a 4th, they spent time looking round and chose a house yesterday.

Such a relief!
I hope the info might be useful for others.

Good news!
That will be a weight off his mind.