As students prepare for a new year at university, NI Direct have outlined advice and rights for any students seeking rental accommodation.
The new year at Queen's University begins on September 19, while teaching at Ulster University begins on September 26. Ahead of this, students may be looking for rental accommodation for the year, whether alone or with friends.
At this time, it's important for students to be aware of their rights and responsibilities, including the laws in place to protect them as they look for accommodation.
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Advice from NI Direct focuses on a number of areas including deposits, letting agent fees, sharing a house, and how to deal with problems with your landlord.
Deposits
Landlords will normally ask for a deposit, which will be protected under a scheme which ensures if you're entitled to get it back, you can be assured this will happen.
Within 28 days of receiving the deposit, landlords must tell the tenant of how the deposit has been protected. After 28 days, if the tenant hasn't received information on how it has been protected, they should report this immediately to the local council's environmental health department.
A landlord who doesn't protect a tenant's deposit may face a fixed penalty of three times the amount of the deposit or a court fine of up to £20,000. You can find out more about the deposit scheme here.
Letting agent fees
A letting agent may charge you certain fees if you're using them to find and rent a property.
Where the fees cover work done by the letting agent as part of their service to your landlord, you may be able to have these fees refunded to you by the letting agent.
If you have paid fees to a letting agent in the last six years and have evidence of the amount you paid and what you paid for, you can ask the letting agent to refund these payments. You can find more information here.
Problems with your landlord
Most students will rent accommodation from private landlords and most private landlords obey the law. All landlords are required to register on the Land Registration Scheme, and students can check if their landlord is on the register by clicking here.
A landlord who does not register may face a fixed penalty of £500 or a court fine of up to £2,500.
The council can prosecute a private landlord who doesn't give a tenant a rent book and a statement of tenancy terms. The council can also prosecute a landlord who doesn't protect a tenant's deposit, doesn't register as a landlord, or rents a property to multiple tenants but doesn't license it as a house in multiple occupation.
Tenants can find further advice and information here.
Leaving a property
Before leaving a property which you have been renting there are a number of things you should do to make it go smoothly:
- contact service suppliers (like electricity, gas) to advise that you are leaving
- record any meter readings, if possible along with the landlord
- arrange for mail to be redirected
- clean the property
- contact the landlord to arrange for an inspection and return of your deposit
- secure the property when leaving
- return all sets of keys
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