Student housing advice

[vdbfamily]

My youngest DD has asked me to do a MN thread for advice.
She lives on a Uni campus in first year and in Dec, she and 5 of her current halls cohort went looking for a house to share from September this year. They found somewhere they liked via a third party estate agent.
There was a portal they had to sign up to which gave 5 stages of committing to this house. The last stage was a signed tenancy agreement.
The portal shows they are currently at stage 3 where they are doing background checks/ seeking guarantors etc.
However, a week after seeing the house, they were sent documentation to view and sign and return to the company which she did.
Over Christmas she decided she wanted to move to Germany and study from this September. She contacted the Landlord to say she no longer wanted to live in the house and he said that unless she finds someone else she will have to pay as she had signed a tenancy agreement. She found the document she signed and it clearly states it is a tenancy agreement so she cannot contest that.
Does she have any legal ground to argue that she was misled as she was told that signing would be final stage and she had not understood what she was being asked to sign.
I will try and share screenshot of portal as it reads currently.

This is her words which I should have started with as I got some details incorrect

When applying for the flat, I was taken to a portal, which stated that the steps were:

1. Application form
2. Reference checks
3. Signing the tenancy agreement
4. Pay the move-in money
5. Move in

Since I had only completed steps 1 and 2, I had assumed that I could still pull out of the contract, as I hadn't yet completed the step of signing the tenancy agreement. However, it turns out that in step 1, I had actually completed the tenancy agreement. It did state that it was a tenancy agreement on the form, but as the step just called it an 'application form', I didn't think much of it and signed it. I have not paid the deposit and no guarantor forms have yet been signed; I was under the impression that I was just applying for the flat. I understand that such a form is legally binding, but I feel I was misled by the process, especially given that I am a first-year student with no experience in such things. Given this, do I have any grounds to challenge the agreement, or was the process misleading? Any guidance would be greatly appreciated. I am considering seeking help from a lawyer, but as this is costly I would like to know if I would have any chance of winning the case or if it would just be a waste of money. If you need any extra information about the tenancy, then please let me know. I have attached the tenancy agreement form that I signed and a screenshot of the portal layout.

I'm not legally inclined, but even to a layman it seems very unlikely that she will be able to get out of it. The tenancy agreement would have set out that it is a legally binding contract which your daughter voluntarily signed. The housing portal isn't a legal process, just an organisational one, and therefore doesn't trump the contract (which she voluntarily signed). Really hope your daughter is able to adjust. I personally would be putting my energies into finding who might be able to take over the tenancy. Good luck

Can she not just find someone to take over her room? Surely a much better solution than trying to get herself out of it on a technicality. Given it sounds as if she was planning to be flaky on this anyway what was her plan for her poor housemates if she did successfully drag out the process until she’d decided what she wanted to do and then walked away?!? They’d have had to have found someone to replace her anyway, so she needs to learn a life lesson and step up and sort out a replacement herself.

If she doesn't find someone she's leaving her five mates in the lurch so morally too she should do the right thing

I think you are probably right and she has advertised the vacancy everywhere she can think of. Landlord and friendship group seem very disinclined to help at all which is causing tension with friendship group too currently. Daughter is quite anxious and awaiting assessment for ASD which does not help. Am just going to share screenshot of portal currently to show confusion

Here

It doesn’t matter what the portal says it matters what the document she signed says.

I didn’t think I needed to read it , is not a defence.

Her uni should have a private housing team in Student Services who will come across this daily. If there's a way out they will know, equally they may have a means of advertising the vacancy. There's always students wanting to change their plans, so there will be likewise others who have decided against their placement year etc.

The student private housing regime is rotten in this country, DS luckily decided to stay in Halls for his entire degree but DD won't and I'm dreading it

She is fully stepping up and currently applying for full time jobs in her University town so that if she cannot find replacement, she will live there and work until able to find a replacement.
However, to say you are sending someone an application form and that form actually being a tenancy agreement is a bit sneaky in my opinion. It did clearly state Tenancy agreement on it so not disputing that but in her head she was not committed until further along in the process.

Sorry but the blame is totally being misapplied to the agency process when her behaviour was totally out of order. She’s used her “friends” for her own purposes as it suits her. She’s lead them on that she wants to live with them next year, pretended she wanted to go through with the rental when all along she knew she may ditch them. And she expected no consequences and for everyone to just accept it and sort her mess? No wonder they don’t want to help her!

She had mentioned this actually but obviously they are closed for a few weeks now and she is panicking and talking about paying £350 for a lawyer to send a letter to landlord. I will try and get her to hold fire until she had spoken to the Uni as you say, she won't be first student in this situation.

They shouldn't be closed for a few weeks! I work in a uni and staff are off today-Tuesday inclusive and that's pretty standard. Students are off until May, staff work as normal.

??????
At the time of looking for housing it was fully her plan. They was no misleading anyone. She discovered during Christmas holidays that having recently acquired a German passport, she could study for free in Germany. She had always been extremely worried about finances and debt and also was studying German at Uni as she wanted to be a fluent speaker. She discovered this was not the focus of a German degree and that she would achieve that better in Germany, so returned to Uni hoping she could resign from the course and that the landlord or friendship group could find a replacement for her in the house. Neither group seen interested to help as know she will have to pay whatever. She is trying not to let the group down and add I say, is currently applying for jobs locally but just annoyed that she was misled and is tied in before any guarantors agreed or deposit paid.

That's extraordinarily harsh . Starting with sorry doesn't mitigate! This young person is probably 19 years old. The world of student lets is pressurised, hard sell and intimidating.

OP, students must do this all the time as I constantly see advertising of rooms on Facebook. I assume DD has tried all the student Facebook sites.
I agree she won't be able to get out of it, but I also agree with her that this is harsh before she has actually paid anything and that the wording is obfuscatory. What happens in step 3 that is so different then??

I think her friends should also be trying . It's they who will have to live with a new person.

Thanks, it was harsh! She will not be 19 until end of Aug so literally as young as possible with likely ASD so finding whole thing very stressful!! But as everyone says, it must happen a lot so I suspect it will all be okay.
One of the issues is that it is quite expensive room for the area. £150 week when you can get rooms for £120. Not sure what she was thinking of! As a group they are currently in expensive halls with en suite. DD got that subsidized for medical reasons but I think the others are not so worried about the finances and she got swept along with them all. Historically she had struggled to make friends and I think she was just delighted they all wanted her to live with them🙁

That sounds quite similar to my DS wo ended up in quite an expensive house because his friends were all form very privileged backgrounds. They even put him in the 'pauper's room' and offered to pay him money ...

These things are very stressful to manage and few adults beyond uni age really has to navigate this kind of house share. Letting agents can take advantage of ignorance and naivete. It actually sounds like your DD is being really independent and brave with all this Germany stuff.

£150 a week is quite a lot but if there are en suites, someone will want it. Do DS's friends know that if they don't help out with the search they may end up living with someone very different from themselves?

And, I'll just ask again - has she tried all the Facebook sites? My DS just turned up a room in a nice house via one of those within a week, so people are hunting.

I agree with getting advice from the university accommodation people. I wouldn't blame the flatmates and landlord for being annoyed she changed her mind. That's the whole point of signed documents. To protect landlords and other renters from this. If they can be wriggled out of there's no point in the documents.

She needs to see her unis housing department they will help her - that’s what they are therefore

The flatmates are annoyed as now they are going to be living with some random person rather than with their friend. Living there and working means that all of them, and not just your dd, will be liable for council tax and she won’t be a student. My own dd was in a similar situation in her second year and it was problematic.

As a parent of one of the left behind flatmates I was unhappy as we had been pushed into being a guarantor for the whole flat (I know…) so we were in a bad position and were pissed off at being pit in that situation.

Letting agents dealing with students will try it on in all sorts of ways. One agent tried to get my dd and her friends to pay a hefty deposit before they would even let them have sight of the tenancy agreement. Luckily, dd and I had had plenty of conversations up front about the importance of understanding what you're committing to before signing any documents or paying any money, so she told the agents that they would find another property.

Unfortunately, it looks like this will be an expensive lesson to your dd in the importance of reading stuff before signing it. The university housing advice people shouldn't be off for weeks, so get her to contact them for advice. They will have seen students in this position many times before.

If she is thinking about living in the house while working, she needs to be aware of the council tax implications for the property - it will be exempt if they are all students but not if she is working. I assume that the others would expect her to cover the whole bill, so she needs to factor this into her planning.

Could try Citizens Advice but they are also closed over the weekend.
An application is not the same as signing a tenancy agreement. From the information you have posted the process does look misleading but you haven't shown what your daughter did actually sign so it's hard to tell.

Agree if she leaves and works she will have ct liability be it with single discount if she is the only non student in the household. Have the others signed the lease(even electronically). Can they really not find someone to take her room instead? Groups tend to be fluid and fall outs quite common especially after the pressure to buddy up and commit to second year accommodation early. Have they advertised it yet? Worth speaking ti the Housing Officer at the su for advice.

My DD was in exactly the same position, she had to find a replacement, which she did.
I'd go to the agency & ask if they have any referrals from single people wanting a house share & then also put a notice up to try to find someone who wants a room. It would help if the other people in the house also looked because in the end they'll have to live with replacement person.
Definitely go to housing people at the uni. She should be ok she's got time to find someone.
I wouldn't worry about the tenancy agreement these people have it all sewn up. Waste of energy trying to argue with them.

And is the flat let as a student household or on individual leases?

Her friends have been put in quite the predicament here - Not only will they now end up living with a stranger (which can cause all kind of issues), but if your daughter is living there while not a student, the whole property becomes liable for council tax. Is your daughter aware of this? Presumably she will be willing to foot this bill, otherwise I expect it will cause a serious issue.

As PP have said, what that housing portal says isn't relevant. It would be difficult to claim that you'd been 'misled' into signing a tenancy agreement if the contract you've signed is clearly marked as such.

However...

Have you read the agreement? Is it contingent on her having a guarantor? Many (I believe most) student rentals insist upon one in their agreements. This might be a way out for her (as you will no longer be willing to guarantee her rent, therefore she would fail the credit check part of the process)...however there are also companies that provide this service for a fee, so they may go down that route with her.

If your daughter is no longer a student in the UK, they would effectively be faced with taking an unemployed teenager with (presumably) no assets to court. Usually they would go after the guarantor in these circumstances but she doesn't have one.

Be aware though - it is extremely common for the tenants of a student let to be jointly liable for rent. So were your daughter to refuse to pay/not move in, her friends (and their guarantors) would likely be liable for her share.