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Original poster

Anyone rent property to students?

14 replies

ja9 · 06/08/2005 21:08

Am wanting to pick your brains...

we rent a house out to students. We have had the same students in the last house for 3 years and have had no problems with them. They moved out last week and left the house in an absolute state: permanent dye on lino, tyre marks from bicycle on wall paper, cupboards with mucky food still in them (eg. split choc sauce), grass not cut for months (we had to hire an industrial strimmer)etc.

am considering how much of their deposit to give back. any advice?

tia

OP posts:
bubblerock · 06/08/2005 21:13

Have you not had to spend anything on the house in the 3 years or has it been kept up together and been trashed recently? Because if it's 3 years of general wear and tear then I wouldn't take any of their deposit, I presume the house would have been cleaned ready for new tennents anyway, I agree that they should have mowed the lawn - did they have a lawn mower and was it in the contract to keep the garden up together?

gigglinggoblin · 06/08/2005 21:14

i dont rent a house out or anything but have been in some student houses and that doesnt sound so awful for three years. is it in their contract to mow the lawn? if so i would consider keeping what it cost you to hire the strimmer but the rest sounds like fairly normal wear and tear considering they have been in there so long

Original poster
ja9 · 06/08/2005 21:18

it does say in their contract about mowing the lawn, and all necessary equipment was provided.

so you think we should give the full deposit back then?

when they entered the house it was immaculate and quite a bit of redecorating had been done.

surely this is not an acceptable way to leave a rented property?

OP posts:
Original poster
ja9 · 06/08/2005 21:21

also, my mum is a bit nervous, because they are moving out of my house, into a smaller flat that she owns... she wouldnt put up with that kind of mess left. if we take some of their deposit now, then it means that they are more likely to look after her place.

we have spoken to them on the phone today and they were very apologetic...

OP posts:
Chandra · 06/08/2005 21:30

If it was in the contract to take care of the lawn maybe I would keep just the cost of getting it in order though TBH I wouldn't expect students to take care of a lawn, they are far to busy and the little time left they have they won't spend it mowing the garden . It seems to me like normal wear and tear(at least from what you listed in the first post), and considering they are students I think they have done great, it could have been far far worse

gigglinggoblin · 06/08/2005 21:36

as i said im not a landlord, but imo you are brave to rent to students! you are basically renting to a load of drunk teenagers who are away from home for the first time and probably dont have a clue about how to look after a house ( i know thats a generalisation but its true in a lot of cases).

if they wrecked the house on purpose, i would keep the deposit, but you cant expect the house to be exactly as it was and the lino and walls sound accidental. i would consider charging for the strimmer. however you dont want them to think you ae a bad landlord as the likelyhood is that they wont pay the last months rent on your mums flat cos they will expect her to keep hold of their deposit if there is wear and tear there (which there probably will be, thats what happens)

jenkel · 06/08/2005 21:44

Perhaps I'm a bit of a prude here, I used to rent property and when ever we left it, it was as clean as when we moved in. I was 20 at the time, not a student but working full time and having a great time. Sounds like it was left in a mess, I would keep back the cost of hiring the strimmer and I dont know if its too late but I would have got cleaners in to clean it and kept the cost back from that. If there is any damage that you can prove the cost of I would also hold that back.

In my book, it makes no difference if you are a student or not, a contract is a contract and you have to abide by it. But I do think that generally you could get more problems in renting to students.

Janh · 06/08/2005 22:26

From the other end of this - my DD has shared the same student house for 3 years and in that time (£14,000 pa rent from 6 people) all the landlord has done is replace a few windows and change clapped out single beds (hers was resting on a brick in one corner) for doubles. He's had £42,000 in that time. (There was no grass to cut!)

ja9, how much rent have your students paid in the last 3 years and how much has the house cost you?

Original poster
ja9 · 07/08/2005 09:52

janh, i'm not really sure that that is relevant. we provided a beautiful, well equipped house at a cost that is slightly below the average for that area. If ever there was a problem in the house then we arranged to fix it asap, and so fulfilled our side of the contract.

The ironic bit is that the students werent happy with the first lease we gave them, so went and looked out one themselves and asked if we would be happy to use their lease. We were. They included in their lease a whole paragraph on looking after the garden which wasnt in the original!!

Anyway, i'm grateful for all your comments.

I would still be interested to hear from any landlords....

OP posts:
lemonice · 07/08/2005 10:48

I think it sounds like fair wear and tear after three years, don't forget you would have normally had to redecorate/replace worn items in that time for new tenants if the tenancy had changed. And you can claim your expenses against tax.

It sounds like you did pretty well to me...

Tanzie · 07/08/2005 10:58

I'd deduct money for cleaning the place and for doing the garden. But that's all.

PeachyClair · 07/08/2005 11:03

Have been a landlord in the past, if that helps?

Deffo take money for strimmer hire, that's fair, and I would take a portion for the permanent mark, but after TBH it would be only a little, as these things DO tend to need replacing after three years- I would consider enough to buy a rug from Argos- but other than that, after three years, with the due wear and tear they are entitled to- you could have had it a lot worse! Our tenants ripped out the entire kitchen! (Fortunately we persuaded them to buy house from us, but it was awful at the time).

babysteffee · 07/08/2005 12:10

I don't rent property but have been a tenant and a student and wouldn't dream of leaving a house in that condition. I know they are are students but they are also adults and have lived on their own for three years, so should be able to tidy up after themselves by now. If they rented the house from an estate agent they would probably lose all their deposit due to this.

I think you should keep some of their deposit, firstly because they left the house in a state which not according to the agreement and they need to learn (eventually) to look after property, and secondly, because students generally have a bad reputation which makes it harder for them to secure rented property in the first place, and an unsatisfied landlord will only encourage that reputation.

Sorry if I sound a bit harsh - I know landlords renting property to students can make a lot of money but in this case it sounds as though you haven't tried to get as much as you can, so it would be fair to everyone if you kept a little to cover your costs.

tassis · 07/08/2005 14:20

(man, I had no idea that people who rented to students had this reputation for money-grabbing...)

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