Uni accommodation

[pinkrose123]

Hi this is my first post and I just need a bit of advice please as throughly stressed out!

My son got his insurance choice uni, but unfortunately they only have accommodation in halls for 75% of first years. We were aware of this when he put it down and knew that as his insurance choice he would have to go into privately rented accommodation.

I am not too bothered that he can't go into halls and neither is he but we are having terrible problems in actually getting accommodation.

The advice from the uni was to join a Facebook page and meet others in the same position, form a group and apply for accommodation. Lovely, that's taken a week to achieve and he finally has a group of 3 (not ideal as really need 4 but hey ho). They have four accommodation meeting days, starting today. He applied on the day they were sent the email from the accommodation office and the first one was already full, he is working on Saturday which is the second one (has given in his notice to leave the following week so no chance of a day off), so he's booked into the third one a week today, 10 days before he's due to start.

The group of three decided to press ahead today and ring landlords of properties on the university list, only to find that most of the accommodation listed has already gone (due to the first accommodation meeting today no doubt). After they had rung about 20 landlords, I decided to ring around myself. Half of them either didn't have anything left, or didn't reply to voicemails or promised they would ring back and never did. It would have just been nice for them to ring back (unfortunately when you're 18/19 you tend to take people's word that they will ring back in 20 minutes, he didn't expect their phone to be switched off when he rang them after half an hour).

He's got a possible viewing for next Wednesday the landlord will text him on Tuesday (but I'm not holding my breath due to the fact that there's another accommodation meeting on Saturday).

Much to the annoyance of my son I rang the accommodation office and their advice was that it would be ok and maybe he should find someone else to join his group (??) or the group would have to split and they would have to all find available rooms in houses that may be have one room available.

I'm really disappointed that his last 2.5 weeks at home are being ruined having to find accommodation with no success.

Has anyone else had experience of this with first years and what happened? We've looked at letting agents but the university don't recommend this because of fees involved, however, there still doesn't seem to be much accommodation available. It's difficult being 2 hour drive away and you can't just pop over and do a viewing. What if he really can't find somewhere or has to take the worst room in the worst house that no one else wants?

Any advice or experiences would be greatly appreciated plesae.

No amazing advice but I would say find out if there's a waiting list on halls, so many students drop out within the first few weeks. Also is this jut he university approved halls? Usually in most cities there are privately owned ones, unite is a company I can think of off the top of my head...

Where is he going? Maybe someone on here could help.

#haveyou tried looking at spareroom.co.uk?

When I was at Uni and had a spare room unexpectedly that is where we found our new housemate

Thanks for the replies, he's going to Portsmouth. There are both uni halls and private but they are all full - but I hadn't thought of people dropping out. Will take a look at spareroom.co.uk thanks.

Trouble is now he's got in a group with the other two lads he feels guilty about ditching them, unless they really can't get anywhere together of course.

he is working on Saturday which is the second [accommodation meeting day] (has given in his notice to leave the following week so no chance of a day off)

Stuff that! Take the day off.
It would be preferable, and a kindness to the employer, to smooth things over by arranging cover, swapping shifts or whatever but he has to put himself first. Go and book the Saturday meeting now.

This is a very stressful situation for you both, I remember not having accommodation lined up for my 2nd year at Uni (long story) and it was awful. Things do shake down over Freshers' week and the first couple of weeks of term, not everybody turns up, students in older years don't progress etc but that isn't much comfort. If all else fails can you book him into a B&B or a travel lodge for a week so at least he knows he has somewhere to rest his head?
As to the two others he has joined up with I'm afraid at this stage it is every man for himself - I would look for a room for himself, I'm willing to bet that both the others will be doing the same. Would it be worth him going down there for a few days to look at rooms (too daunting by himself maybe?).

Possibly good news, has a group of 5 now so looking for a 5 bed house, two viewings arranged on Sunday, so fingers crossed. They've gone to private letting agents now, where although there are admin fees to pay, the monthly rent seems to be a lot cheaper than using the private accommodation advertised by the uni.

Good luck - hope it works out, I know how stressful it can be.

Good luck.

I can't imagine how worrying all of this is.

University accommodation offices are usually a bit naf. Most university cities have many private agents doing the same job and you can look on right move etc to see what is available. The university accommodation offices say all sorts of things. For example, there is no need to look for accommodation until the summer for your second year. My DD secured her second year accommodation in January!!! That was when the student housing market gets going. You have to pay over the summer, but you actually get somewhere decent to live. Student accommodation offices only look at the bottom line price and get concerned about students paying finders fees. You save this in transport and peace of mind. You might even get a decent flat with a landlord that puts things right. Only rubbish properties or those too far from the university will be left in August. They also say don't use agents. It is awful advice.

If there is a shortage of accommodation, make sure he gets second year accommodation sorted out immediately the houses start to come onto the market. In some cities this is early in the spring term. By the way, if the rent is cheap, it is probably a bit of dump. Everyone knows their market value with student houses and this might be why it still available. However, better something than nothing. I thought most universities offered hall accommodation to all first year students. 25% without accommodation seems high.

Thanks MillyMollyMama for the advice, I will certainly tell him to start looking in plenty of time for next year! We did know that they could only offer 75% in halls before he applied, it was the only one he looked at that couldn't offer 100% for first years, although there may well be others.

The good news is that it looks like they've found somewhere for the group of 5 via Rightmove Students. Which is a massive relief all round. They got together on the Facebook group the university organise and met up to view some properties. They missed out on a couple but got the third they viewed. It looks fine from the pictures, all double rooms expect one and even a dishwasher (bit different from student houses I remember).

To be honest I think they will be saving money living in a shared house because even though you have to make allowances for bills, etc., overall it will cost less than halls. The agent's fees were £125 each so not too horrendous.

Phew!!

Savings depend on if it is a 52 week contract for the house as opposed to 38/40 weeks for halls. It is going back a few years but DD paid £4400 pa for a catered hall but exactly the same for a room in a flat but with bills and food to find fir year 2. Her hall was cheap though. However, I am very glad your DS has somewhere to live and hope he has a great time. Just freshers' week to get through now!

Thanks MillyMollyMama, we're relieved here. It's a ten month contract September to June, which is good. As you say, just freshers' week to get through!

So my DS and his other first year housemates have a house but the letting agent seems particularly show and only sent out guarantor forms to parents yesterday. They are supposed to move in a week today.

Does anyone know what happens about gas/electric/water etc being connected in student houses?? I really haven't a clue? The only thing they actually checked when they were shown round was how to go about getting broadband connected, not a great deal of use if you haven't got any electricity!

We have two student houses. Our letting agent arranges for the utilities accounts to all be changed to the names of the tenants at the beginning if their tenancy. I think there are some landlords though who leave the tenants to organise this for themselves though.

Unless your son's monthly rent includes bills, they will need to arrange to pay the bills themselves. When I was at uni in a house of 6, all our bills were in one of my housemates names. We all paid her and then she would pay the whole bill if that makes sense. She was the most organised of us all!

Thanks for that Incacola, so he needs to check with the letting agent as soon as possible to see if they arrange it. No the rent doesn't include bills and I did advise him that they needed to sort out names on bills/paying of bills, etc. Being 18/19 they know it all (but actually know very little) so my words of wisdom and handy hints are falling on deaf ears at the moment. Many years ago my brother was in a shared house in his final year and his responsilibity was paying for the electricity bill. One of the housemates refused to pay his share of a particularly large bill. The house they were in was on the university accommodation list and in an attempt to encourage him to pay, my brother contacted the university, who threatened to withhold his degree until he'd paid up, which he then did!