Don’t Rush!
Signing a house contract is a big deal no matter how old or what year you are in.
Last year over 64% of people said they were pressured to sign a house due to letting agencies, one comment from the Vent about your Rent survey declared “They said all the good houses will be gone after Christmas! How ridiculous” and we in SUSU agree!
This year we are urging you to wait until after Christmas, at least until SASSH (the University self accreditation scheme) opens on January 8th before even looking for a house.
SUSU’s very own Letting Agency will also be starting up early next year, so there really is no reason to hurry into a house!
As well as being ripped off and getting poor quality housing it is really important to make sure you know who you want to live with isn’t necessarily the people you were randomly assigned into halls with, or the people you already live with this year.
After January exams SUSU will be running Housing Information Day a day for everyone to find out everything the need to know about looking around a house – key questions to ask when looking round, what a good contract looks like and even some key things to think about with your prospective housemates!
Remember we have the Advice Centre located above the Stags in building 40 who are open 9-5 and will check over contracts, chat through problems and generally be able to give you advice.
The state of your house can affect your whole year! Post below with any experiences/ advice you want to pass on!
30/10/2013 at 9:53 pm Permalink
Very good bit of advice. (Advice Centre is building 40) 🙂
31/10/2013 at 3:53 pm Permalink
Ah thank you! I got carried away with the blogging, all edited now 🙂
Glad you think it is useful!
Claire
31/10/2013 at 4:03 pm Permalink
This is really useful! I had no idea when to start thinking about housing for next year, and I was worried it would be too rushed. Thanks for clearing all that up for me!
31/10/2013 at 10:21 pm Permalink
For a lot of people I know who signed contracts at an early stage, they just weren’t that great of friends by the time the summer came round! And then they were stuck with them for another year.
Campaign Points that need to be 100% clear:
Make people aware that they are choosing to live with people they only met a few weeks ago and a lot changes over the course of the year.
Convince people that is it a good idea to waiting till housing week in February, so they can have more time to work out what kind of living situation they want in second year and which group of friends is going to provide that.
Extensively advertise the help and support the university provides when looking for property and signing contracts so people know how to avoid or get help with difficult housing situations.
06/11/2013 at 11:58 am Permalink
There are a couple of articles that I have seen going around on Facebook etc that are relevant to this:
Dont Rush:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/10425478/Student-housing-why-you-should-wait-to-sign.html?fb
What to look for when choosing housemates:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/universityeducation/student-life/10409180/Questions-students-should-ask-when-choosing-housemates.html
19/11/2013 at 9:02 pm Permalink
Sasshed is a great website, but when I used it to look for my house there wasn’t a lot of choice by February. If if is difficult to expand the property list each year then it might be worthwhile sending a uni-wide email asking people to provide details of their landlord if they have found the landlord has forfilled the requirements for sassh. Not everyone will respond but I think it will expand the list significantly.