Second Year Accomodation

[bevelino]

Anyone’s dc looking for accommodation for second year? I have 2 dds in first year at Bristol university and they are already seriously looking at houses for second year. An email from the university accommodation office has been sent to all parents/guardians advising the search for second year housing starts early and be supportive etc.

It seems really early for dds to be worrying about next year’s housing as they are unsure friendships. Anyone else had this?

If not, get him to do a bit more delving into their financial backgrounds! Hopefully you are just responsible for him! Can he email or text you the paperwork he has received. Usually the deposit and details of the agreement go together. Or is it just a holding deposit?

nokids, I think you cannot be a guarantor in law until you the guarantor sign the piece of paper which is the guarantor or emailed signature otherwise people could make others guarantor for everything. So probably something will come via email. to you or your child that you will need to sign on paper or email back. Probably they sign first and then agree to get the guarantors to sign and it will be likely to be some kind of email method.

Thank you Xenia for the ballpark figure. I will know approximately what to budget for now.
I do agree with you Bubbles that that you need to know the other students before renting with them. And if they come from a similar background it’s better too. Dd had 3 or 4 offers for house sharing but picked the one where she likes and knows everyone. Rather than some being an unknown quantity. Dd also thought it was important to have some doing the same — vet. Medicine as her. As they will be working longer days than the majority.

I think the vets do live together in the end because of Langford. Y2 not necessarily. DD lived with a medic in Y2. Differing hours but they got along well. DD helped her revise!

Thanks @Xenia

I'm placated after speaking to the agents who were really nice and assured me that they walk them through it all when it's their first time. Each parent is only guarantor for their own child and it's clearly stated in the contract apparantly so that's good news.

Given that his maintenance grant doesn't even cover his rent I'm thinking that instead of being guarantor for him I might pay his rent up front and then he can use his maintenance grant to live on, instead of sending him dribs and drabs of money as we have been doing. That way the rent is paid and he can just get on with it in terms of learning how to budget his student loan for living and bills without me having to be further involved.

Has anyone done it that way?

Yes kids that’s what we’ve done with Dd. That way we know she’s safely housed and then she learns how to budget within reason.

We did it that way too for second year onwards. There is no rule that says maintenance has to be for rent. Very often rent is above the minimum loan so we just paid and the loan was to live on and pay bills. Some parents won’t let them have this amount of money though! The ones with DC who live on a farthing a week!!!