The Landlord Law Student Tenancy Agreements

In the spring students (if they are staying on for a further year) flock to their college accommodation office to find a new home for the next academic year.

Almost all of them will be signed up with a landlord before the end of the summer term – many of them before the end of the spring term.

Which means that student tenancies are invariably signed before the existing tenants have moved out. Mostly this will be fine but it can occasionally cause big problems (along the lines described in the Real Life Story here) so be careful.

Another problem with student lets is what to do about the Long Vacation over the summer when most students will want to be at ‘home’ or perhaps travelling.

There are three main solutions to this:

• Make them sign up and pay for a year anyway – on the basis that if they want the property they will have to put up with it
• If the  property is in a tourist area it could be rented out for holiday accommodation over the summer, or
• Give the tenants a low rent period for a couple of months over the summer.

The third option is fairly common – the risk being that the students will take advantage of this and move in early without paying the full rent.

The Landlord Law Student Tenancy Agreements

To help with these issues we have special ‘student’ tenancy agreements on Landlord Law.

They are drafted with these two issues in mind:

• They provide for a substantially higher rent if the students stay on after the end of the fixed term  (where they have not signed up for a further year) and
• They have an option for an initial, cheaper ‘non-residential license period’ which the students can end early if they want to move in early – after which the full rent will fall due

The agreements have proved popular with many student landlords although if you prefer you can still use the ‘normal’ tenancy agreement for a straightforward AST.

We can also provide a similar student tenancy agreement where the property is to be used for a holiday let over the summer if required.

Student landlords should also read our long article looking at student accommodation here.

Students leaving early

Another problem experienced by student landlords is that of students dropping out of college and wanting to leave early.

This can be a big problem, particularly if they are one of joint tenants.  This is something we look at in our Changing Tenants Kit.