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Terms-Policy

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Deposits

A security deposit of £350 - £500 per tenant (between 1.2 and 1.5 months rent) will be held for the duration of the tenancy against damage and non payment of rent or any other agreed costs. This will be payable on signing of a contract and returned at the agreed end of the tenancy subject to the property being returned clean and a satisfactory inventory and damage check.

From 6th April 2007 the security deposit on any new tenancy must be held under a government backed Tenancy Deposit Scheme. Under these schemes, disputes over any retained deposit will be decided by an independent organisation. The schemes are a compulsory requirement of new legislation and seek to protect tenants from unfairly withheld deposits. We will become members of the scheme operated be Tenancy Deposit Solutions Ltd (TDSL), you can find more detail on their website

Guarantor and References

All students will be required to complete a Tenant Particulars Form and provide a guarantor; who will be asked to sign a Letter of Guarantee, promising to underwrite any liabilities for which you do not pay. This would normally be a parent or relative living in the UK. For each Tenant, the Guarantor will become liable for any of that Tenants unpaid debts. We will normally handle debts in accordance with how we have been told that rent payments are to be split. However as the Tenancy is Joint and Several everybody is ultimately equally liable for the debt of a defaulting tenant. (see Late Payments / Arrears )

Information on the Tenant Particulars form will be used to take references from past landlords and/or credit reference agencies. When all checks and guarantees are complete the tenancy will be setup. This process may take 1 or 2 weeks

Tenancy Admin Fee

A Non-Refundable Tenancy Admin fee, of £50 per person on a joint tenancy or £75 for a single person tenancy, will be made to Reserve your house and cover the administrative costs of taking up references and other checks, creating the Agreement, informing utility companies and the local council of the tenancy, preparing the Inventory and checking you In and eventually Out of the property. (After reserving a house and paying the Fee, if you change your mind this charge will not be refunded. Similarly, if we decide not to let to you because of false or misleading information on application forms, bad references or uncompleted guarantees it will not be refunded. For other reasons, then at our discretion, up to 50% of it may be refunded once the house has been re-let). This charge will be made only once for the duration of your tenancy and is not payable if you are extending a tenancy for a further year.

Tenancy

Our property is normally only let to groups of students on a joint tenancy agreement for at least a full 10-month year Sept-June inclusive. ( possibilities to start earlier than Sept or to remain after June through some or all of the summer by agreement ). If anyone needs to move out before the end of the tenancy it would be their responsibility to find a replacement or continue to pay rent. Also all tenants are jointly responsible for each others rent or other liabilities if not paid. This is the standard form of tenancy for shared houses. View Agreement

From June onwards any property that is not already let or that is newly available can also be let on a room by room basis for 1 or both semesters to satisfy the demand from Erasmus students or late entry students for the following academic year. This option will be detailed in the property listing.

Retainer

If you want to secure a house for next year as a new tenancy, then you will need to pay a retainer of half rent during the summer (usually July and August) while the house is unoccupied. This will be from the time the house becomes free ( or 1st July at earliest) until you move in ( or August 31st at latest). The maximum retainer period will be for 2 months (at half rent) but this can be less when the previous tenants remain during the summer. See individual houses for details.

As most of our houses are contracted into tenancies for the following academic year during January - March, this means in practice that most tenancy agreements are for a full 12 month period 1 July to 30 June with July and August being at half rent.

If you want to continue a tenancy from one year to the next, A retainer of half rent can be paid during a period of up to two months when the property will be unoccupied and available for maintenance work. You may be required to return your keys during the retainer period and we will do an inventory and condition check. Any damage that is recoverable against the "deposit" will be assessed, charged for and corrected during the retainer period.

During the retainer period, you can store property in the house and stay by arrangement as long as any necessary maintenance work can still be carried out.

Variable Rent

The Rents for 2008-09 have been set to take account of a Bank of England Base interest rate of 5.25% . For 2008-09 it is likely that interest rate may vary more than of late, so for full year contracts on most properties we will include a term in the rental agreement which provides for an "Interest Rate Adjustment" in case the rates rise by more than 0.5% above the 5.25% baseline. This will be added to the monthly rent for each 0.25% that the Base rate exceeds 5.75% .

The adjustment for each change on the rent FOR THE WHOLE HOUSE will be
£30 - Excelsior, Haycombe and East Way,
£40 - Blagdon and Ferry and
£50 - Eastbourne and Alexandra (A),
other properties are not subject to change

They will be in effect from the next rent due date after a BoE Base Rate change is announced. To assist with your budgeting we can consider requests to defer the increased part of your payments to your next loan cheque or the end of the tenancy. WHY??

Payment of Rent

Rent is payable monthly in advance on the first of each month. First payment due at the start of the tenancy will be adjusted, if necessary, up or down by 1/30th of a months rent per day to bring it to the nearest start of a month.

The agreed monthly rental is for the whole house and we leave it to you decide how to apportion it between each tenant. You should advise us how much each person will pay of the rent, or we will assume an equal split. Payment options are :-

	Monthly Standing Order on 1st of every month,
	Monthly bank transfer using Internet banking,
	Termly or by Semester by a single Cheque at beginning of each term/semester,
	Monthly by 3 or 4 post dated Cheques collected at start of each term.
	In case of exceptional banking complications Monthly Cash payment is also acceptable.

Late Payment / Arrears

It is important that rent is paid on time and that you make sure that your housemates paid also. Rent is always due on the first day of the month.

Standing Orders and Internet banking should happen 2-3 days before to allow for transaction time. Cheques posted should arrive by the first. A series of cheques can be provided and they will be presented on the dates written on the cheques. If we have agreed cash payment we will arrange a time to collect the rent within the first few days of the month.

We will remind you by phone, text and/or email if your rent is not received by the 5^th of the month. If your rent has not arrived by the 12^th we will write to you and to your guarantor about the late payment, (we have agreed to inform your guarantor of any breaches of your agreement whereby we might ask them to underwrite your liabilities). If we have to write to your Guarantor we will also make a £10 charge.

If your payment still does not arrive by 19th we have agreed (as part of the Guarantee) to write to your housemates and ALL the Guarantors to alert them to a breach in the contract, before taking further steps to recover the debt. For this there will be a charge of £20 and on each subsequent occasion that we have to write to all tenants and guarantors.

It may seem harsh to operate like this, but you are joint tenants and jointly liable for the whole rent. Although you may have decided a rent split and told us, you should be aware of each others payments. We keep a record of agreed shares every payment made and can provide copies as required. If anyone does not pay their rent, you are all liable for the shortfall and for this reason we have to inform everyone of a potential problem and make a charge for the cost of doing so.

We realise that student finances are not always straight-forward and we can sometimes agree to some flexability but it is important that you agree this first with us. If there are reasons why you cannot make you rent payment on time you MUST tell us and we will consider your situation.

You should also make sure that there is sufficient money in your account to cover cheques. If you bank will not honour a cheque, they will charge you and our bank will also charge us (about £10) which we will then have to charge to your account.

Insurance

The houses are all insured for the buildings themselves and the furnishings and equipment supplied by us. You are strongly advised to obtain insurance for your own personal property against fire, theft and other losses. In some cases your parents contents insurance may cover you whilst you are away from home as a student, please check carefully. Most bedrooms are fitted with secure locks and you will be asked to agree to us holding duplicates of all house and room keys. You should also inform us of any period when the house will be left unoccupied for more than 2 weeks, as our insurance policy requires us to check empty houses on a regular basis.

Gas, Electric and Water

The accounts for these services will be transferred to the tenants. Normally the utility companies take each persons name for the account and the tenancy agreement holds you all liable to pay for fuel used.

Digital TV box, Broadband, Wireless Router, Telephone, TV License, TV set

Some of these services are included in some of our properties. See individual House details. I cases where there are inclusive services you will always be responsible for Pay TV events "Films or Sport etc", Phone calls outside any inclusive package, charges for Higher Broadband speeds or Download limits.

Council Tax

Students are exempt from payment of Council Tax and the Council will write and ask for copies of your student registration details. Be aware that if there are any non students on the tenancy, the council will charge 75% of the full tax on the house when there is one non student and the full tax if there are 2 or more. Also the council can hold all tenants jointly liable for payment ( not just the non-students )

If you see a suitable house but cant fill it. Visit www.accomodationforstudents.com where you can search or advertise for housemates. Our vacant houses appear there from May.

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