We understand that due to the pandemic, students have found themselves without casual weekend or evening employment. We know that this has had a dramatic effect on some students’ term time finances, and that many of you may now be worried about how you’ll fund yourselves over summer without these job opportunities.
SU’s have called for the Private Rental Sector (PRS) to forgo the final rent instalment, however landlords across the country have indicated that they appreciate the position that students are in, but that they rely on their rental income to pay their own bills and feed their own families. As such, landlords in the PRS have been unable to offer rent discounts to students.
At Student Housing we understand the concerns of both the landlords and the tenants in this situation. With this in consideration, as of today, we’ve been able to get your landlords to agree to return your deposits early (months ahead of schedule), once we’ve received your final rent payment. Giving students up to £300 back, months before it was due to be returned. We sincerely hope that by returning the deposits to you during your tenancy, you’ll be able to use this money to fund yourselves over the uncertain summer period.
We currently house a number of students who decided to remain within their accommodation. This scheme is automatically offered to all tenants, those who have retuned home and those who remain in situ. You do not need to apply, deposits will be processed for return within 24hrs of receiving your last payment of rent.
Returning this number of security deposits is a significant administration undertaking, we’re hopeful that we’ll be able to process the return of these deposits within 24hrs of receiving the final instalment of rent. You’ll need to login to your DPS account to provide details of where you wish to receive your deposit back to.
Student Housing – Deposit Return Scheme:
Our scheme is open to everyone in receipt of a student loan. There is no need to apply and your deposit will be returned as soon as long as you meet the below criteria.1. All rent under the tenancy has now been paid
This includes your housemates (if under the same tenancy)2. You understand that you are still liable for cleaning & damages
We still expect tenants to ensure keys are returned, properties are left clean, tidy and without damage.3. Guarantors are aware they they are also still liable for cleaning or damage charges at the end of the tenancy.
You need to make your guarantor aware that they will remain liable for damages or cleaning charges. As no deposit is held, if your property is left unclean or damaged we’ll be asking your guarantor to cover these costs.———————————————————————————————————————–
FAQ’s
Q: What if we have a 2 year tenancy? We understand that you will also need financial help over the summer. We’ll refund the deposit to you once you’ve made your semester 3 payment. You will need to re-pay the deposit for the start of next year.
Q: How quickly will I get my deposit? Once we receive your semester 3 rent, we’ll process the deposit return within 72hrs. You’ll need to login to your DPS account to facilitate the return.
Q: Will we be getting any other kind of refund? We’re working closely with landlords. The vast majority of landlords have indicated that they’re unable to offer a discount or refund at this time. If government advice changes this may change.
Q: Why can’t you refund the utilities we’ve not used? This too was our initial thought, however utilities are actually included free of charge, we offer a maximum cap which most students do not reach.
Internet, TV Licence, Water and Sewage are fixed costs (the more or less you use does not affect the price the landlords pay).
Gas + Water carry a daily charge known as a standing charge, this is typically around 50p (ish) per day. This is not able to be refunded to landlords and will continue throughout the tenancy regardless of occupancy.
In terms of the energy used: the coldest and darkest months are Oct, Nov, Dec, Jan and Feb and this is when most students were in their respective accommodation. As such, we expect most of your allowance for the year to be used during these months. As such the saving to landlords is marginal to none. Making a utility refund is not viable at present. (This is not the case for all properties, where a significant reduction has been spotted, landlords will refund the saving, we estimate only 6% of properties to benefit from this further discount).
Q: What if we’re still in lockdown and unable to come back to clean the property and remove our possessions? Currently, we’re unable to advise when lockdown will end. We will send updates as often as we can and when information from the government changes.
Q: I’ve returned my keys, am I able to come back to clean? We’re happy to re-issue your keys to you at any point (pending lockdown restrictions). We’ll do our best to help you as much as possible!
Q: Can we use the deposit to pay the last bit of rent? Unfortunately not, due to how the government deposit return process works we’re unable to facilitate this. We’ve launched a page on our website to help tenants whom are struggling financially. We may be able to offer you a payment plan to help if you loan does not cover the full rent. Read More here: https://student-housing.co.uk/tenants/financial-help/
We hope that by offering a financial cash injection by way of early deposit return, it will help those who are concerned about finances over summer.
We understand that for some tenants this simply won’t be enough, whilst landlords are unable to offer discounts or rent free periods at this time we’ve launched a page on our website offering financial help and support to those of your concerned about your finances.
Read More: https://student-housing.co.uk/tenants/financial-help/
Using this page you’ll be able to view and apply for university Loans, grants and bursaries. We’ll also be offering all students with concerns the ability to apply for a payment plan. A payment plan will spread the payments due over a longer period and provide assistance to those who need it most.
We hope that you will use the above page and seek help that is avaible too you during this period of time.