► Housing

Where to live is one of the most important decisions you’ll make whilst at BU. The area you live in and who you live with are two obvious decisions. But once you’ve sorted those factors out you’ve still got to decide how to split bills, how to approach your landlord/letting agent when you have a problem and how to make sure you get 100% of your deposit back at the end of your tenancy.

No-one can tell you which house to choose. Only you will know what’s right for you. What SUBU Advice can do, however, is check over any tenancy agreement before you sign it – we’ll do our best to make sure that you make your decision in full possession of the facts.

The three most common housing problems we handle are:

1 – “I want to move out.”

This can happen for any number of reasons – disputes, withdrawal from BU, financial reasons and more. The first thing to do is always to ask your landlord/letting agent what your options are – they may be happy for you to move out, or may agree on condition that you find a replacement, or may refuse altogether. If you need to find a replacement, we recommend Studentpad, Gumtree, Facebook and notices around the BU campus(es).  Always, always, always think twice before you sign any tenancy agreement – they are legally binding and it may well not be as simple as you think to make any changes subsequently.

2 – “My landlord’s not returning my full deposit.”

Again, there could be a million reasons for this. If, like 99% of students, your tenancy is what’s called an Assured Shorthold Tenancy (we can help you work this out) then your landlord should have ‘protected’ your deposit (see here for more details); this means that you have a ready-made dispute mechanism if you can’t agree a compromise, or if you don’t believe that any deductions at all are appropriate.

3 – “My room has got mould.”

The causes of mould can be divided between the structural and the behavioural. Simply: if it’s structural it may be your landlord’s problem; if it’s behavioural then it may be yours. Don’t dry clothes indoors and make sure you heat and ventilate the property appropriately (it’s always a good idea to ask your landlord for their advice on this!) Your council’s Environmental Health team (Bournemouth / Poole) may be able to conduct a free assessment but, again, it’s always best to make your landlord aware of the problem as early as possible.

The main thing to remember is that, like your fingerprint, your situation is absolutely unique to you – contact us if you have any questions about your accommodation, and we’ll do all that we can to help you.

House Hustler is an independent service which allows students to find quality accommodation in Bournemouth. As well as the website, House Hustler has touch screens located just outside Dylan's.  Instead of running around all of the letting agents, you can simply pop into SUBU to start searching through available housing and quickly reserve a viewing on properties that match your needs.

UniShack is an independent service which allows students to rate their property.  It's easy to use, and was recently developed by BU students.