Accommodation - Know your rights and wrongs

Right...so it's come to the time of the year when everyone's worried about exams; and on top of that, finding someplace to live next year; and on top of that, worrying about getting your deposit back.

Getting Deposits Back
Okay...let's level. If a window or door or wall has been damaged in your house, you can be fairly sure that you won't be seeing that portion of the deposit back, or if there's an electricity bill due, you may not get it back immediately as the remaining bill may be deducted from it. Anything that's been broken or damaged will be deducted from your deposit, so make sure you take photos of the shiny sparkly cleanliness of the house before you leave as there's nothing that can be done if it's trashed after you hand back your key and the landlord has no proof that you didn't do the damage.

If you have proof that you caused no damage and left no unpaid bills and your landlord is still not paying the deposit back, then it's time to call in the solicitor. In previous years Welfare Officers would have phoned landlords endlessly, but we have no way of enforcing anything on them, so now it's a simple matter of going straight to our solicitor. The details are available from SU Reception or the Welfare Office.

You are entitled to view the original bill for anthing taken as a deduction from your deposit



Looking to next year!!!

If you are panicking that you haven't sorted yourself yet...DON'T. There is plenty of accommodation out there. The Accommodation listing for next semester will be out in mid May. I will post it to the student portal (link works on campus only) when I have a copy.

Checkout the student portal(link works on campus only) for attachments of what to look out for. There's a checklist in there!

Do NOT sign contracts that are not clearly understandable. Our solicitors will look over anything that you reckon might be strange. This advise is contained in teh Accommodation Advice booklet on the student portal and available from me via email.