is there a cooling off period in tenancy agreements

[eatyourveg]

ds signed a contract last wednesday for a student room in a private house, he has mh difficulties and has only spent 3 hours there on saturday night, he's been at home with us in the interim. The contract is for 12 months

the room is about 50 mins from uni requiring 2 busses and although there are 6 other students in the house they are at another uni much nearer the house, its a bog house with 2 kitchens and he has only seen one other tenant when he went to view the place - ds does not feel able at the moment to be in a place where he doesn't know anyone and I think would for the time being be better off at home

is it too late to do anything about getting the deposit/rent back?

No, but you might be able to appeal to the LL's conscience.

that's all you can do really, that's contracts for you.

call the LL ASAP tomorrow.

Thanks both

LL has said she will re advertise room and if there is a prospective tenant she will release him from the agreement - in the meantime though he has to keep paying the rent and she suggests he try to use his contacts (??? - he barely talks to anyone) to find someone to replace him. :(

as I said, that's contracts for you. The LL is running a business and also has to put food on the table. Many on mumsnet think renting out property for money is immoral of course, although we never hear bile directed at the mortgage company. Funny that.

Anyway, hopefully someone else will turn up - with the other uni nearby and students apparently struggling for places, it should all work out.

OP, consider advertising the room on spareroom.co.uk if the LL doesn't already. Or you can search for people looking for a room in your son's area and contact them to tell them about it.

Best wishes for your son's health x

There is definitely no cooling off period for tenancy agreements. However as said see if you can help him find someone else, perhaps at the university which is much closer. Also the other tenants in the place might well have friends who can find someone to replace him.

Afaik LL is only advertising on one website that covers various constituent universities. ds has decided to put a message on the fb accommodation site of the nearest uni, the second nearest uni isn't a member of the group but hopefully she would still consider someone from there.

Not sure if spareroom.co.uk allows you to stipulate students only. Will give it a go - thanks