Student living - don't get mugged off

When you're a student one of the most exciting things you get to experience is moving into a house of your very own. After a year of living in halls with some truly grotty characters (there is always at least one), waiting for the opportune moment to dash into the mildew encrusted communal shower and scraping someone else's week-old dinner off your crockery, the prospect of a new beginning is heaven. However, as with all things in life having your own house aint no bed of roses. Compiling my own experience with both student letting companies and private landlords I've put together a few tips which I hope will help any students making the jump from halls to home.

1. Shop Around

As tempting as it is to put a deposit down on the first house you see because you've fallen in love with it, don't be afraid to look around at a number of properties. Believe me, I know the house with the massive living room looks amazing for house parties and the offer of inclusive internet sounds tempting but you want to make sure you're getting the best deal. Be vigilant. Look for any faults, how good the security is and nasty things like mould. N.B

Out of principle, I think that anyone who pays over £75 per week for a house is  getting ripped off - regardless if bills are included or not. With a little searching you can find a property that's just as nice for substantially less. We've all heard stories of students being ripped off with their rent but those stories exist for a reason.

Not for me, thanks

There's an invisible cloud of fear that forms over first years when the time comes to start house-hunting; people start to panic and imagine worst case scenarios, my personal favourite was the vision of living in a crack-shack, drinking cold soup because I didn't sign for a house quick enough. What I'm saying is don't rush things. All the houses aren't going to suddenly disappear. Wherever you sign, you're stuck there for the next 9 months so make sure you like it.

N.B. Mould is the worst. It is the Cher Lloyd of the housing world - you think its finally gone but a few months later it crops back up again, singing inane verses about jagging swag or whatever.

2. Actually read your contract.

I know this sounds like ridiculous advice but the amount of people who just sign the dotted line without properly reading through the terms is unbelieveable. Make sure there aren't any hidden clauses there to trap you, or any small print which results in your forking out more of your student loan.

 What I'm talking about here is admin fees. After not properly going through my second year contract, I felt the financial sting to the tune of £68 in admin fees, which was deducted from my deposit at the end of my tenancy. Most student housing companies will charge you admin up front, usually around £70, but be wary of the ones who don't - you might not have escaped unscathed.

Also, many universities provide a contract checking service to make sure there's noting dodgy going on - all you have to do is take them a copy of the document before you sign it.



3. Make sure everything works

This one is fairly simple. When you move into your new house check all your appliances; the oven, the boiler, the washing machine, light switches...everything! You don't want to be without hot water or gas on the first day in your new home and sometimes these things happen. Make the effort to check, it only takes a few minutes and means there won't be any nasty surprises later.

4. Take evidence of any damage

I really cannot stress this point enough. If something is damaged when you move into your new property, contact the landlord/letting agent and tell them straight away. Make a record of contacting them - if it's by phone a copy of your bill, if it's email make sure you keep a copy of that saved and dated. Also, and I know this may seem a bit too precautionary, but take photographs of any damage and date them.

 You'd be surprised just how easy it is to be mugged off and charged for something you didn't do. Last year one of my friends moved into our 7 bedroom house to find her bed was broken and filthy with dust and grime, really really disgusting. When she complained the letting agents said that she must have done it herself...seriously. She ended up going to their offices with her mother in tow to give them a bollocking about it.

5. Keep an eye on your bills.

 Ahh, bills. After the fear over deadlines, bills are the second worst thing a student has to deal with. A lot of landlords offer tenancy with bills included but its often cheaper to just deal with them yourself - as long as you're careful. This isn't halls where you can leave your laptop on all night and stick the heating on whenever you please and this is easy to forget. It's surprising how much things like electricity and especially gas can add up if you're frivolous. Just using basic common sense and making sure everyone in your house is too will help you keep your costs down

6. Stand your ground

Perhaps the most valuable advice of all is to stand your ground. In my experience some landlords will tell you anything to cover their back and get out of doing anything that constitutes help. It's important that you keep contacting the landlord about a fault until he fixes it. It's important not to get rinsed on your deposit. And its important not to be treated like an idiot.

One of my friends reported a problem with his drains last year and the landlord dismissed his complaints three times, saying it was probably his house mates flushing sanitary towels down the toilet. After weeks of constant berating a plumber was called round to do an inspection. Turned out there were a couple of dead rats lodged in a pipe, slowly rotting in a pool of sewage.


So you see there are a number of things you need to be aware of when living as a student in rented housing. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put a downer on the experience of having your own place where you can do as you please. For the most part living under your own rules in your own property is fantastic, there are just some things we all need to be aware of to avoid being taken for a ride. Good luck!

Life beyond "The Fear"

If you, like me, are a university student, you too are possibly a proficient procrastinator. A master of time-wasting. A virtuoso of doing precisely bugger all. Anything is more interesting than doing work as yet another assignment finds squalid residence on your desk underneath overdue library books and a plethora of take-away menus.

 All thoughts of doing anything constructive are pushed to the back of your brain, possibly behind that part which allows you to remember all the lyrics to "Baby Got Back," but doesn't retain useful information such as when the (extortionate) rent is due. I'm serious. Though that essay on the merits of media regulators is essential to passing your degree, nearly anything is more appealing than putting pen to paper...or fingers to keyboard, this is 2012 after all.  To demonstrate this point I shall prepare you a short list of things I did instead of working:

• Painted my nails (a lovely shade of whore-red in case you were wondering).
• Cleaned my room, even the nasty crevice where the spiders live behind my bed. During this cleanse the Queen of all spiders scuttled out of her lair and across my bare foot. I immediately had to make myself a cup of tea, acquire some smelling salts and have a sit down.
• Did the mountain of washing up which had been gathering for well over a week.
• Counted all my change. (£7.24)
• Organised the bottles on my shelf from smallest to largest.
• Practised facial expressions in the mirror.
• Made tiny men out of blu-tac.
• Deleted over 3000 emails from my inbox. Most of them were from Facebook or Groupon. My existence is a sad one.
• Trolled friends who like current awful music such as Lana Del Rey, Gotye, Carly Rey Jepsen and Rizzel Kicks. I bet if I asked these friends in six months they'd have no clue who these people are. Probably.
• Made a chain of paper-clips.
• Wrote this blog.

Is any of this sounding familiar? If it isn't I'm afraid you aren't doing university right. Please leave, hand your student card over to the main desk on your way out and never drink another jagerbomb again.

Wouldn't you rather be doing this?

Than this...

Anyway, mid-procrastination something terrible happened. Usually this is where I'd introduce The Fear. That feeling of utter panic you experience when you realise there are mere hours till your 3000 word deadline and you've produced a distinctly average paragraph masquerading as academic writing. The Fear will trigger mass paranoia and whisper nasty things in your ear, promises of a career at McDonalds wearing that funny little hat, or even worse, a cashier at Heron Foods. Yet lo and behold I have encountered something more sinister than The Fear. 

It's the future. It's grim, it's inevitable and it's looking right at you with grubby little eyes. Doc Brown had the right idea when he shoved Marty McFly into that modified DeLorean. As third year comes to an end in less than three weeks I'm sure many like myself want to hit that magical 88mph and go back to a better time.

Let me clarify that by the future, I mean growing up, getting a real job and trying to be a functioning member of society rather than someone who lies in bed until 4pm watching reruns of 90s TV shows. For three years I have been living under the fallacious assumption that I could live the student dream forever. But I suppose reality had to happen at some point.

Why am I so afraid? Because not even the mountains of essays, all nighters at the library and basic (read limited) knowledge of adobe premier can prepare you for what lies beyond university. The real world, where there are no more student loans or grants to help you. In the real world you have to get up at an appropriate hour, wear office clothes and work the 9-5. In the real world you start discussing spreadsheets and bitching about how Tracey at the office never washes her coffee mug. Before you know it you'll be fantasising over a stationary catalogue.

Sorry world, but I'm just not ready for that sort of excitement in my life. Which is exactly why I have opted to take a year out, do the absolute minimum to get by and continue to live like I'm still 18.

So in anyone else in a similar position? What will you do after university, if anything at all?