Student rights – what you need to know before you sign your contract

 Here’s an overview of some of the key things to be aware of or look out for.

In uni accommodation, e.g. student halls or shared townhouses, you’ll have external door locks and a lock on your bedroom door. You might have residential assistants who can support you – as well as CCTV and on-site security guards. There’s also usually a maintenance team you can get in touch with if there’s any wear and tear.

Uni halls of accommodation have to adhere to government-approved codes to ensure safe, good-quality places to live. These include university-owned halls and privately-owned halls.

The codes include standards for:

• security
• maintenance/repairs
• fire/gas/electrics

Shared houses with private landlords are often located in residential neighbourhoods – so you could explore the area and see if you’d feel at home there. You may or may not have a lock on your bedroom door, and for any maintenance issues you’d contact your landlord.

Whether you’re in uni halls of residence or accommodation with a private landlord, as a tenant you’ll have a contract you should read in detail.

Check the details of your contract for two things

1. A list of rights your landlord can’t legally overrule – for instance, that you can’t be evicted unless you break the rules.
2. A list of responsibilities you need to follow – to make sure you don’t breach your contract.

In particular it’s worth making sure your deposit is protected in a tenancy deposit protection scheme.

You also legally have to be given 24-hours’ notice before your landlord can enter the property. They may want to have inspections to make sure you’re keeping the place in good condition – so it’s a good idea to keep on top of your cleaning/tidying to make sure you don’t have to rush last minute!

Student halls and house contracts vary and this is a key consideration when you’re choosing your accommodation.

• Some contracts match the standard academic year, e.g. September to June.
• Some could be 1 September to 31 August.
• Some are term-time only.

If you’re planning to go home to live with your family outside of term-time, then you could go for a shorter contract. Or if you’re planning to stay in your university town over summer, you might want a longer one.

If you’re moving into a shared house with a private landlord, that’s likely to be a full year contract – as it could be difficult for the landlord to find tenants for just a few weeks or months over summer.

Make sure you check the dates for the accommodation you’re interested in – to make sure it’s right for you.

If you’re living in university halls it’s normally a fixed-term contract – so you’ll have a start date and an end date, and you won’t need to provide notice. And as long as you abide by the terms of your tenancy agreement, you should be able to live there until the end of your contract.

If you’re living in private accommodation, you may have to give a month’s notice. But typical student contracts – even if they’re with private landlords – are still fixed term, like university halls.

If you’re in student halls there might be an online portal, email address or phone service for logging maintenance issues. Or if you have a private landlord, you’d probably just let them know if there’s an issue that needs fixing.

Possibly, but only if you earn above the ‘personal allowance’. This is an annual amount you can earn tax-free within the tax year (6 April to 5 April). Anything you earn above the personal allowance will be taxed at the normal rates of income tax. Though if you have a part-time job while you study you might not exceed the personal allowance anyway.

There are some types of income that are totally non-taxable – these include student loans, grants, bursaries, scholarships, Child Tax Credits and Disability Living Allowance. So these won’t count towards your personal allowance or be eligible for tax.