Moving Into Student Accommodation: What To Check
Student housing is where renters get their worst introduction to renting: signed under time pressure, months in advance, usually with a guarantor and often without reading anything.
A few hours of care at the start prevents most of what goes wrong later, and several of the rules changed in your favour in 2026.
The short version
- Halls and private houses are different in law. Halls are usually licences; a private house is a tenancy with more protection.
- Joint tenancies mean joint liability. You're liable for all the rent, not your share.
- Don't sign in October for next September. The rush is manufactured.
- Photograph everything on day one. Student deposits get raided more than any others.
Halls versus a private house
They're not the same arrangement and it's worth knowing which you're in.
University halls are usually licences rather than tenancies, often with bills, wifi and contents cover included, and a code of conduct instead of a tenancy agreement. Deposit protection rules generally don't apply in the same way, though the university's own complaints process and the OIA do.
Private halls run by companies sit somewhere in between. Read the agreement, because the terms vary a lot and some are considerably worse than a house.
A private student house is an ordinary tenancy. Full protection: deposit protection, repair duties, safety obligations, and almost always an HMO with the extra fire safety rules that brings.
The joint tenancy thing nobody explains
The single most important thing on this page.
Most student houses are let on a joint tenancy, which carries joint and several liability. That means each of you is liable for the whole rent, not your share. If one housemate stops paying or leaves, the landlord can pursue any of you for the full amount, and so can the guarantors.
Before signing:
- Understand you're vouching for each other. That's what joint liability means.
- Check what your guarantor is signing. Many guarantor forms make the guarantor liable for the whole household's rent, not just yours. Parents frequently don't realise this.
- Ask whether individual agreements are available. Some landlords offer per-room tenancies, which remove the risk entirely.
- Agree a household plan for bills and what happens if someone leaves, in writing between yourselves.
Don't sign a year ahead
The pressure to sign for next September in October is created by agents, not by the market. It has never served students and it serves them even less now.
Since 1 May 2026 tenancies are periodic with no fixed terms, and rent in advance is capped at one month. There is far less to gain from committing eleven months early, and a great deal to lose: you may not want to live with those people by then, and you certainly can't tell in October what the house is like in February.
Take the time to view properly, check the paperwork and speak to the outgoing tenants.
Before you sign
- Check the HMO licence. Five or more people from two or more households almost always requires one. Look up the address on the council's public register. An unlicensed licensable property is an offence, and it supports a rent repayment order of up to twelve months' rent. Your rights in a shared house.
- Check the fire safety. In a student house this matters more than anything else. Interlinked alarms, fire doors that close, a clear escape route, and often emergency lighting. Ask to see the fire risk assessment.
- Gas safety certificate, dated within twelve months, and the electrical report within five years.
- The EPC, which tells you what heating a draughty Victorian terrace will actually cost eight of you.
- Which deposit scheme, and get the answer before you pay.
- Read the whole agreement, including anything handwritten, and the guarantor form.
- Take it to the students' union advice centre. Free, they read these all day, and they'll spot terms you won't.
What can't be charged
Student lets attract more banned fees than anywhere else, mostly because students don't know the rules.
Legitimate: a holding deposit of up to one week's rent, a deposit of up to five weeks' rent, and up to one month's rent in advance. That's it.
Banned: admin fees, referencing fees, inventory fees, check-out fees, guarantor referencing fees, renewal fees, and required professional cleaning. All prohibited payments, and recoverable if you've already paid them.
Also banned since May 2026: asking for or accepting offers above the advertised rent, and requiring more than one month's rent up front because you're a student with no income. What the Tenant Fees Act bans.
Move-in day
Student deposits are disputed more than any others, and it's almost always about what state the house was in when eight people arrived.
- Photograph everything before you unpack. Every room, every wall, every appliance, every existing stain, mark and burn. Close up. Timestamped. Include the oven, the fridge seals, the carpets and the garden.
- Do it as a household, so everyone has copies, and put them somewhere shared that survives a lost phone.
- Complete the inventory together, add everything they missed, and return it inside the deadline.
- Report all the snags in one email in the first fortnight, from one named person, copying everyone.
- Photograph the meters.
- Test every alarm.
- Find the stopcock and the fuse box.
The first fortnight admin
- Check the deposit is protected within 30 days, with prescribed information. Free to check with all three schemes.
- Council tax exemption. A house of all full-time students is exempt, but you have to apply and provide certificates. One non-student in the house changes it, so sort this early.
- Set up bills in more than one name, or use a shared bills service, so one person isn't carrying the credit risk for everyone.
- Contents insurance. Check whether the university block policy or your parents' home insurance already covers you before buying, and read the shared-house and forced-entry clauses. Renters' insurance.
- Register with a local GP, and on the electoral roll.
Living there
Two things that cause most student housing misery, both preventable.
Damp and mould. Student houses are often badly ventilated and heated as little as possible. Wipe window condensation, run the extractor fans, dry washing in one ventilated room, and don't block the vents. And know that government guidance is explicit that blaming damp on tenants' "lifestyle choices" is unreasonable, so report it in writing with photographs and don't accept that answer. Damp and mould.
Repairs going unreported. In a house of eight, everyone assumes someone else has said something. Nominate one person to handle repairs, report in writing, and copy everyone in so there's a record.
At the end
- Clean to the standard you found it, not better. You cannot be required to pay for professional cleaning.
- Photograph every room empty and clean, matching your day-one shots.
- Be present at check-out, or send someone who will be.
- Photograph the meters and return every key with a receipt.
- Challenge unfair deductions. Ask how old each item was and how the figure was adjusted for age, then use the scheme's free adjudication. Students get charged for fair wear and tear more than anyone, largely because they don't argue.
Where to get help
Your students' union advice centre first, always, because it's free, local and specialised. Then Shelter, Citizens Advice, and the council's environmental health team for anything unsafe.
The honest summary
Don't sign a year early, understand that a joint tenancy makes you liable for everyone's rent, and check the HMO licence and the fire safety before anything else.
Photograph the whole house before you unpack, apply for the council tax exemption, and report repairs in writing from one named person.
And when you leave, review the house and the landlord. Student housing runs on rumour, and next year's second years have nowhere to look. A review is the thing that would have helped you most in October.
This guide covers England and reflects the position at August 2026. Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland differ. General information rather than legal advice; your students' union advice centre is free and will read your agreement. Sources: GOV.UK, houses in multiple occupation, GOV.UK, council tax discounts for full-time students, GOV.UK, assured periodic tenancies: a guide for tenants.