Education Private accomodation Uni next year

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I'd say the best way to proceed is get down to the accommodation office at your uni - ours is full of people who know all manner of helpful stuff like contract advice, rental rates etc.

For tenants, I'd say a mix of guys and girls, or whoever wants to join you, would work, as long as you and your brother aren't so blokish that girls couldn't possibly live with you!

One thing to be careful of is to make sure that you have a sit-down with everyone at the start of their rental term and let them know that although you might be friends, you have to be their landlord too. So no favourites.

 

Don't make it a party flat, you very quickly realise how much hassle parties are, and how nice it is to live in a nice flat

Dunno what to do about the landlord thing, I would hate to be a landlord of my freinds. I would definatele get in other people other than you and your brother - family is great but friends you meet at uni add so much to what you currently know, its always good to meet people with differant points of view

 

On the close tab front if you right click the area next to an open tab in firefox there is an undo close tab option, it's saved me many's a retype before(if you only have one page open just open another tab then do the right click thing).

 

Don't live with girls...that's my only advice. Every single bad experience (bar one but he looked like a girl anyway), in student accomodation I have had has been down to a girl being insanely irrational. Even my current landlady told me it was a shame it wasn't a house full of boys...!

And yeah I reckon you will have a hard time being landlord if you have a good friend or two living with you, it'd be difficult to keep it fair I'd reckon.

And with regard to sorting the house out to renting standards, there is probably alot more to do than you think, like Kitchens need a minimum of 2 doors between it and any living area or something stupid like that.....there's LOADS of stuff you have to do, and to do it properly it can be quite expensive...

 

If you do it, don't get even remotely attached to the place because it'll get abused big time

 

Plus side to living with crazy girls - you have a clean house.

 

loving living with girls, makes life interesting. And in the morning what would you rather see 'by accident' walking around in there underwear?!

My expierence has been an odd one at uni, i lived in halls for two years, didn't pick my flat mates, just signed up and went with the flow and both years ended up sharing with 5 other girls, odd eh?

All through this i have been with my girlfriend who i now share a house with, so i am use to the crazy lady logic.


I vote for renting out your own place for now, however what with house prices tumbling there could be a bargin to be had, for a future student house even after you both finish.

House prices havent hit there all time low just yet, i expect about another 1/4 of the average value to drop off with in the next 6 month to a year.

 

I live with 2 girls, and while one is slightly crazy its not in a massively annoying kind of way. The other is awesome, as are all the girls I have lived with before

If you do move in with girls though I think moving in with girls who are your friends is the best bet- everybody I know who had a bad "living with girls" experience was down to them being entirely random girls. In the end though living with peers is sometimes tricky and you really have to be diplomatic sometimes.

 

Rather than end up with you and bro being the landlord where you'll have to deal with everything. If your parents want to buy you a house let them be the landlords it will save you a hassle of dealing with peeps skipping rent.
There are some basic things you need to do as landlord

• 
  Fully fitted fire alarm must be installed.
  Gas safety certificates every year.
  Council registered
  All deposits must be put into a government approved bond

For rent wise insist on setting up an standing order for the rent and insist on having proof they have set it up. Rent amount for a reasonable student house I would say between £50-£65 not including bills about £70-£80 including bills. This from my experiences but personal I would make the contract so your parents are landlords. But as others have said contact both you Su housing office and your local council.

its best to get some you already know to be reliable.

 

Girls are the worst flatmates, in my 5 years of renting with others they all ways took the biscuit.
They're just... mental. Wait till you're in a proper relationship/married, before living with one, than at least you get to bump ugly's.

And being the landlord would be hard wouldn't you gas safety certificates and some sort of inspection by the council?

EDIT: as Freedom said! i should refresh more!

 

Disagree.

Double disagree!

To be fair my female housemate could have been an exceptional case, but she was both an absolute slob, and an absolute pleasure to live with.

 

I lived in Cotham in the first year of uni in a 7 bedroom house. Great location right between uni and town. Plenty of students around that area. I lived just up the road last year in Westbury park (which was abit nicer) in a 10 bedroom house. I enjoyed living with loads of people both years, although I totally agree with ArtificialHero - don't count on the girls being the tidy ones!

 

I'll refine and say don't live with random girls..that's probably a bit more true to my experience.

Some are nutters and clean freaks (as one of my housemates is this year; but trust me, not a good thing in this case.), and other girls are total slobs, worse than blokes I know (as one of my housemates from last year was, and one this year but not so bad). Really varies. But if you are going to have any women, make sure you know them and then it'll probably be OK.

I would expect rent to be a little higher than what freedom suggested, although I'm in guildford which is one of the more expensive uni's for living costs outside of london. I'd be looking at 320pcm excl. bills, for a decent house that would be pretty good value in guildford anyway, especially for 3 beds.

 

We pay 300pcm each, really nice house in one of the nicer parts of Southampton, 5 minutes from Avenue and 10 minutes from Highfield campus, I'd say Bristol is probably comparable, but obviously the easiest thing to do is look at rents for student houses on your road of a similar type.

AH

 

Ahh nice to know some other people do it...

I am a student landlord, and a student. It's my dads house but I act as the middleman so to speak. There is a lot of work required to get a house up to the legal standard, and it's deffinately worth talking to your accomodation office. As they usually check out houses before they will advertise them (or ours did) they know what needs doing and what needs to be looked at. As for living with friends, expect to fall out a bit if they get stupid / awkward. One of my tennants decided to move out a month into this uni year, leaving me pretty stuck, though luckily two friends from first year needed a place and we had a spare room. One of them is a girl, and although i know her, she has deffinately improved the house!

Overall I'd say it's deffinately worth doing. Make sure you budget to fix things, and try and have the conract checked over by someone who knows about, well, contracts. It might well be easier as people have said to act as the landlord, but officially have your parents name on the contract. This does give the impression to your friends that it isn't you who is demanding money, which can help a lot!

RwD

 

I can't comment about the UK, but the best flat I EVAR moved into was with a girl. She didn't like my Hell's Angel lifestyle and I didn't like her lace lifestyle. After 6 years I married her. Still with her since 1975. Be flexible. Your place. Make some reasonable rules. No puking on the carpets, agreed upon pets, the biggie I found was agree upon hours. No party all night with a 7 AM class call. Privacy is to be discussed up front. Use of kitchen and cooking. All common sense.

I had many enjoyable years in several colleges and universities.

John