TENANTS ADVICE NOTES

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Student accommodation tenants advice and notes

Thank you for considering renting one of our properties. This document is designed to give you as much information as possible to guide tenants through the letting process in a hassle free and informative manner.

Viewing prospective property

Viewings are strictly by appointment only and must be arranged through our office, as we have to give regard to existing tenants to ensure any disruption is kept to a minimum. In addition to this 24 hours notice must be given to existing tenants when booking a viewing unless we are already pre-booked into view that property with other groups. The majority of our viewings during the busy periods are carried out as block viewings. A full list of our properties, including full details and photographs, can be found on our website.
All tenancies are for a 12 month period from 1st July.

Securing a property

In order to secure your chosen your property you will be required to complete the tenant applicant forms, complete the assured shorthold tenancy agreement and pay the full tenancy deposit. The deposit can be paid by bank transfer.  The deposit is then protected within The Tenancy Deposit Scheme. Further details of the scheme can be found at www.tenancydepositscheme.com. Once the full deposit is received and the tenancy agreement is signed we can take the property off the market. Before you are able to move into the property at the start of the tenancy, all relevant paperwork must be completed by all the tenants in your property. This includes proof of standing order set up to pay rent, and completed parental guarantor forms, and the first month's rent must be paid.

Rent payment and parental guarantees

A UK parental guarantee is required for all student tenants which is a guarantee for the rent payments for the duration of your tenancy period. The guarantee form will be sent out by email (unless informed by you that your guarantor requires this by post) and needs to be signed online before the start of your tenancy.  You will not be allowed to move into the property until all forms are returned and signed from all tenants and all of the first month’s rent has been paid by all tenants. This will affect all tenants who are joint and severally liable. Please note that if there is not a suitable UK guarantor provided the full rent for the fixed term of the tenancy will be payable in advance in full prior to 1st June.


Rent is payable monthly/quarterly in advance and is due either on the 1st of each month or 1st July, 1st October, 1st January and 1st April. The rent is payable monthly/quarterly by standing order. We must receive proof of the standing order set up prior to the start of the tenancy, either by standing order form or in the form of a screenshot of online banking. Please note, it is your responsibility to cancel the standing order at the end of the tenancy. As this is a standing order and not a direct debit, it is you instructing your bank to make the payments, it is not us taking the money from your bank account.


You are responsible to make rent payments on time. The office will write to you if your rent is late, and may charge in line with the tenant fee ban and your tenancy agreement until payment is received.

Utility Charges

We rent properties both with gas and electricity included in the rental price, and rent others rented exclusive of all utilities. When properties are rented exclusive of utilities, we will advise you how the utility payments work prior to the start of your tenancy. It may be that you are to pay the supplier directly for your usage, or in a few cases we may bill you according to your usage confirmed by check meters within the property. If you have any queries about how your utility bills are calculated please just let us know. All our properties are rented exclusive of water, and again we will be able to advise you whether you make payments to welsh water directly, or whether we will invoice you.


All of our properties are rented exclusive of wifi, and the main reason for this is that in the past, students have been able to get a better deal for broadband than a landlord can. Most of the properties in the Brynmill area are wired up with Virgin internet, and Virgin can usually set you up very quickly. In some converted houses, tenants have found that one router covers the whole building, and have therefore chosen to split the bill between them all to make it cheaper. Again we will be able to advise you of this.

Council tax

Full time students are currently exempt from council tax; however any working tenants will be responsible for making their own council tax payment. We do not allow students and professional working tenants to start a tenancy together. It is the students responsibility to provide us with their student details (student number; and certificate if requested by the council), and we will provide the council with your tenancy information.

Inventory and moving in arrangements

We endeavor to ensure that all properties are handed over in a professionally cleaned condition at the start of the tenancy. However, please be aware that in most cases previous tenants may only have vacated on 30th June, hence we offer an appointment only system for tenants to move into properties. We are unable to make appointments until all paperwork and the first month's rent has been received, and have a limited number of appointments available on the 1st of July, appointed on a first come first serve basis. You will be sent numerous reminders in the months leading up to your tenancy of our moving in process, and we will be unable to move in any tenants who turn up on the 1st of July without an appointment booked. This is to ensure that the property has been cleaned and the inventory has been completed prior to your arrival.


On arrival at your moving in appointment you will be let into the property, provided with all keys, and asked to sign the check in inventory report. this will be sent to you, and any amendments you think should be made should be sent back to us within 7 days. Of course, if any of these are maintenance issues we will endeavor to get them fixed for you as soon as possible. Please note that you pay half rent over the summer as we are aware that maintenance works will need to be completed over this time. We will always give you as much notice as possible of any works going ahead, and if you feel that there are any urgent works required please let us know as soon as possible. We appreciate your patience whilst waiting for any minor works to be completed. If any major refurbishment works are to be completed, we will try to advise you prior to the tenancy where possible.

Refuse / Cleaning

Swansea council have a very strict refuse collection policy, and they will not collect rubbish if it is incorrectly sorted. It is your responsibility to ensure you put your correctly sorted rubbish and recycling out correctly the night before collection. You can view the collection timetable on the Swansea council website, and can also order more recycling bags free of charge. If the council refuse collection, or bins start to pile up, we will in the first instance try to provide you with the phone number of a company to come and remove the bags for you. If we have to instruct a maintenance contractor to sort the bins, the invoice will be sent to you for payment. We encourage you to let us know as soon as you move in if you are unsure how the bin system works, and we will happily assist you.

Maintenance

We have our own maintenance team, and therefore always endeavour to resolve maintenance issues as quickly as possible. We pride ourselves on regularly refurbishing our properties, and hope that you enjoy living in some of the most modern student flats in Swansea. We encourage you to report all maintenance via the Arthur property management app, and we will then inform you through the app when we can attend. You will also be provided with a tenant help sheet at the start of the tenancy to help you resolve many of the common queries we get from tenants. If you are ever unsure, you are welcome to contact us through Arthur, and we will be able to advise you if it is something you can resolve yourselves, such as condensation mould or the shower being clogged with hair, or we can instruct maintenance if required.


Quarterly inspections are carried out on all our properties to ensure that general maintenance standards are maintained and to ensure that the property is being looked after by the tenants, but we encourage you to report any maintenance issues throughout the year through the app.


You are also provided with an emergency call out phone number for maintenance. Please note, this is for genuine emergencies only, such as big leaks, electrical faults or fire alarms. If when the contractor attends, the fire alarm has been set off due to tenant fault, you will be invoiced for the call out charge.


Please note we cannot attend if tenants have locked themselves out of properties out of hours, or lost keys. We encourage you to stay at friends, and contact us within working hours where we will be able to assist.

Door Locks

A replacement key is charged at £25.00, as they are on a secure suited system. This includes the cost of the key and a small administration charge for us to locate the key number, order and collect your key.

Moving out

It is anticipated that the property will be returned to us in the same professionally cleaned condition that it was in at the start of your tenancy, with an allowance for fair wear and tear. A cleaning guideline sheet will be sent out to all tenants to make sure that we are all clear on what needs to be cleaned and to what standard. If the property has been left clean and maintenance free your deposit will be returned to you quicker and without deductions.


If cleaning and/or maintenance is required to fix or replace broken items and return the property to the expected standard, deposit deductions will be proposed after the check in inventory and check out report have been assessed. Fair wear and tear will always be taken into consideration.

Tenants Insurance

Please note that the landlord's insurance does not cover any of the tenant's belongings. There are numerous specialist contents insurers for people in student rented accommodation. We strongly recommend that you take out this insurance prior to the start of your tenancy.

Information for Tenants requesting to break or not proceed with a Tenancy

If you decide that you do not wish to proceed with a reservation or if you wish to break a current tenancy agreement please find below guidelines and information on how to proceed and what your options are:

 

  • The tenancy agreement you have signed is a legal document that is binding.
  • Having signed the tenancy agreement you and your guarantor are legally responsible to pay the agreed rent in full and on time until the end of the fixed period of the tenancy agreement.
  • Your options are to continue with the tenancy or try to find a suitable replacement tenant to take your place (We may be able to assist you in this if requested). If a new tenant is found and consequently signs a new agreement with the other tenants at the property, the landlord may then be in a position to formally release you from your responsibilities, as long as all rent payments are paid in full right up to the date of release.
  • If you or the landlord find a replacement tenant then your liability would be limited to the £150 charge for the administration required in making an amendment to the tenancy, and of course the rent in full until the date when new tenant moves in.
  • Please note that the landlord is under no obligation to release you from the terms and conditions of your tenancy agreement.
  • The deposit will have been protected in the tenancy deposit scheme, and we therefore ask that the replacement tenant provides you with your share of the deposit during the changeover period. We would then  require confirmation that you have received your share, so we can re-protect the deposit with the updated tenant names.
  • Before signing the tenancy agreement, the new tenant will be required to provide us in writing with their confirmation that they accept the property in the condition that it was at the start of the tenancy, as per the check in inventory.
  • If you wish us to re-market the property in an attempt to find a suitable replacement tenant then we will do so, but please be aware that this does not mean that you have been released from your responsibilities and does not alter the fact that the rent must be paid in full and on time.

 

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