Renting as a student isn’t always an easy process and can come with its fair share of difficulties.
This can be a stressful experience on top of studying for a degree and with the current climate during the cost of living crisis, things can become even more challenging.
Student landlords don’t particularly have the best reputation nowadays, with more and more people using social media to name and shame their housing providers.
Did you know that 1 in 3 students wait up to a month for maintenance issues to be resolved once they have reported them?
Research suggests that the two most common issues that students face with student homes is having no water or heating (30%) and having damp (26%).
If you know this story all too well and you’re having a bit of a nightmare experience with your housing provider, then take a read of our top tips on how to deal with a difficult landlord.
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This means you won’t have any landlord issues to worry about, plus our contracts and t&Cs are always transparent.
We also work closely with universities and student unions to ensure that you have the best student experience possible.
So, if you’re looking for a hassle-free student home with all inclusive bills, take a look at our properties in locations across the UK today.
Tips For Dealing With A Difficult Landlord
Dealing with a difficult landlord is hard especially at university as you’re in full time education, and chances are this may be your first renting experience.
If you’re stuck in a bit of a rut and not sure how to go about things with your landlord then take a read of our top tips below.
1. Try To Remain Calm
Renting at university isn’t always a walk in the park, and if you’re facing issues with a nightmare landlord then this can no doubt impact your stress levels and your mental health.
If you are frustrated then you absolutely are in your right to feel this way as after all this is your home and your university experience, but try your best to remain calm and composed.
Unfortunately kicking off at your landlord probably won’t help the situation or get issues resolved any faster.
If your landlord is lashing out at you or communicating in a disrespectful way, try to be the bigger person, as this will only look bad on their part.
You can still get your point across and explain your frustration, just try to keep calm when communicating with your landlord and others, as this can show that you’re a good and respectful tenant.
Although, if you’ve tried communicating with your landlord and remained calm about things and the issues still aren’t being resolved, then of course take other steps.
2. Speak To Your Housemates
It’s important that you communicate with the other people that live within your student home about issues with your landlord or maintenance problems so that everyone’s on the same page.
This way, you won’t have everyone sending out the same maintenance issue request to your landlord and you can all stay clued up about the problems that are happening.
Such as, your landlord might not have replied to your email about fixing the bathroom sink, but they sent a response back to your housemate, before you know it you’ve sent them a snotty email.
So, make sure everyone’s within the loop of what’s going on with your student home and communicating with your housing provider.
This is especially important if you’re living in a student home with people you’re not too close with.
If you’re all in agreement about the issues you’re having with your landlord and student home then you can stand a better chance of filing a complaint or taking things further as a group.
Remember, you all have responsibility to pay rent to your landlord so you need to ensure that you and the rest of the tenants are all in the same agreement.
3. Keep Evidence
We cannot stress this enough, when renting it is so important to keep evidence of everything from taking photos and videos of the property when you move in to after you move out, as well as communication between you and your landlord.
We’d also suggest keeping track of your communication with your landlord, no matter if you’re encountering problems or not.
When requesting maintenance issues with your landlord, try to send these over email or message so you have a record of this communication should you need it.
If you do have to communicate in person with your landlord, write down the time and date of when the request took place so you can refer back to it.
Hold on to all this evidence until you’ve got your deposit back at the end of your tenancy end date.
This way, you have solid proof of everything if you need to take it further and dispute issues with your student home or your landlord.
4. Ensure You Pay Your Rent
No matter the issues you’re having within your student home, or how difficult your landlord is, you should ensure that you still pay your rent on time.
If you stop paying your rent payments, this is a breach of tenancy and it could lead to grounds of an eviction.
Not to mention, the responsibility to pay payments will fall on your guarantor too (such as a parent) and missing payments can impact your credit score, which can cause more issues than it’s worth.
Plus, it could even impact your university place if you’re not paying for your accommodation and being a responsible tenant.
Of course, every situation is different so if your student home is unfit to live in for example there is a serious damp and mould issue, you should look into whether or not you should be paying rent.
5. Remember Your Rights
When renting a student home you should keep a copy of your tenancy agreement and keep it in a safe place so you can refer back to it if you need.
This contract sets out the legal terms and conditions of your tenancy between you and your landlord, or otherwise the rules that both parties need to follow.
Unfortunately, a lot of students get taken advantage of when it comes to renting a home due to being first-time renters, so it’s always good to brush up on your rights as a tenant and understand what’s outlined within your housing contract.
Some basic rights you have as a tenant are to live in a property that’s safe and in a good state as well as to live in a property undisturbed.
Such as, if your landlord keeps turning up at your home without letting you know, this is against your rights.
They must give 24 hours notice unless it’s an emergency and they need immediate access to the property.
Another right you have as a student is for your house deposit to be placed in a government protection scheme within 30 days and let you know where it is held.
Of course another right is that you can’t be evicted from the property without notice.
6. Find Support
If you’re not happy with the way your landlord is handling issues within your student home or you think they’re in breach of contract and breaking the law then you should take things further.
It can be confusing and daunting to know who to talk to about these things, but there are professional bodies that you can get in touch with to report a unreasonable landlord and file a complaint.
In some cases if your landlord is engaging in illegal activities when it comes to your housing arrangement, it could even escalate to court action.
You can contact your local council to report issues with your landlord if you’ve been unable to resolve things and come to an agreement with your housing provider.
As well as finding support for dealing with a difficult landlord, you should also find help for your mental health if your housing situation is impacting your wellbeing.
You can speak to your university welfare team or make an appointment with your GP if your mental health is becoming impacted.
This is especially important if the stress from your landlord is impacting your academic performance, as there are measures that can be put in place.
Remember, your education should come first.
How do you feel about dealing with your landlord and the difficulties you’re facing within your student home?
It’s not easy to know what to do in situations like these and every housing situation is different, but fingers crossed these top tips have been useful for you.
Are you feeling lonely at uni? Have a read or our post on 10 Tips And Tricks To Help You Out.