Renting in the UK

Are you new to the UK or new to renting in the UK)?  Perhaps you’re coming to study in one of the UK’s universities, coming to do an internship with a British company during your undergrad programme, or sent by your company to work here.

Here are three of the common things our tenants ask us.

1. UK Council tax exemption

Council tax is charged per household.  Full-time students on qualifying courses would normally be fully exempt from this if your course is on the list of approved full-time courses that the City Council receives from your University AND if they rent a house where every tenant qualifies for full-exemption.  Interns e.g. students on gap year but who are considered full-time students in their Universities can still qualify for exemption.

If the whole house you are renting is rented to both students and professionals, depending on who you rent with, your landlord may ask you to pay a share of the council tax.

We keep this simple for our tenants.  We organise for our student tenants to get full-exemption.  To do this, we ask you for a copy of your certificate of student status and student ID card for submission to the Council.  If there are professionals in the house, we will let you know upfront what your council tax is.  We normally subsidise this for our working tenants.  If you are an intern and we are not sure about your tax status, we would normally help you by calling the Council to find out before you begin to contract with us.

Note that Council tax exemption only applies to the end of your course.  The day after you finish your course is the day that you will be charged Council tax by the Council (not your landlord), so do factor this into your tenancy bills.

2. Length of tenancy

Some people approach landlords wanting to rent rooms for a few days while you do your search or wait for your booked accommodation to be available.  Your best bet would be hotels, B&Bs or airBnB.

We don’t normally do such short lets as it is disruptive to our tenants and has implications about security, sorry!

3. Anti-social behaviour

Non-British students sometimes opt for halls of residence, or student blocks close to the University.  This can feel easier, more secure, closer to the University.  Have a look at student reviews at the halls of residence and decide carefully if this option would suit you.  Some things to consider:  space in your bedroom, lifestyle fit, noise levels particularly during critical periods during your studies.

Our accommodation or house-shares are aimed at people who value peace, normal levels of socialising.  This means that having frequent parties, playing music at odd hours of the morning or night will probably jar with the lifestyles of your housemates or neighbours.