How Reading Your Contract Will Save You Money

1 in 3 students do not read their accommodation contract, according to the National Student Accommodation Survey 2021. Even worse, for 1 in 10 students, no one in the house read the contract before signing. In this article we will discuss why you MUST read your contract and how it could leave you out of pocket or even worse lead to eviction.

What is in my contract?

The basic template for any AST must include the following:

• Property address
• Details of tenants and landlord
• Landlord’s service address – where you have to serve notices
• Amount of rent and when it is paid
• Deposit amount and the scheme it will be protected by
• Term of the tenancy
• Notice periods required to end the tenancy
• Rights and obligations of both parties
• A forfeiture clause to allow possession of the property where the tenant is at fault
• Any other arrangements

Whilst every student must read their contract in full, the areas of specific interest to students should be the rights and obligations of both parties and any other arrangements. The other details are fairly standard from contract to contract but these two sections can vary quite drastically.

Rights and Obligations

In a previous blog we covered the basic rights and obligations of both students and landlords. However, there are additional rights and obligations you may have depending on your contract. It is more likely that the contract you are presented with will have additional obligations rather than rights.

Not knowing your rights and obligations can lead to loss of deposit, eviction or abuse. There are many great landlords available where this would never happen but at the outset when you are signing your contract, you do not know what type of landlord you’re getting (fear not Untrapped is hard at work trying to resolve this for you ).

For example, did you know that it is possible to word a contract so that your landlord has access to communal areas at all times without having to ask. No student wants their landlord randomly appearing in their living room whenever they want. However, if you do not read your contract you may be signing up to just that.

Another more common example is students are required to maintain their garden. This clause is common and landlords will often provide the tools to do so, for example a lawn mower. However, some landlords will not and students may end up being forced to buy a lawn mower to maintain the garden.

We heard of one story where a group of students did not read their contract and ended up having to cut the grass at the end of tenancy in order not to lose their deposit. However, a lawn mower was not provided. None of the students had any money left and so they cut the grass with scissors!

Any Other Arrangements

Any other arrangements are similar to rights and obligations. These are specific non-standard terms that you or your landlord may want in your agreement. For instance, given recent times, you may want a break clause in your contract, especially if it is over 1 year. Although contracts beyond a year are rare for students.

Or your landlord would like to inspect the property every quarter. A good contract should also lay out the requirements for how the inspection will measured. Many contracts are ambiguous when it comes to this type of clause and could lead to the landlord deciding on the day as to what constitutes as passing an inspection. There should also be provisions on how and by when should the failure be resolved in order to avoid eviction. In worst cases this could be a back door for the landlord to arbitrarily evict you from the property and/or get you to pay to fix issues that are not yours to do so. It is best practice to clarify these terms and ensure they written into the contract or at the very least you have written confirmation.

How Could not Reading my Contract Lead to Eviction?

Although, evictions are rare in the student market as contracts generally last one year they are known to occur. We want to make sure you are not one of them.

There are two types of eviction, Section 8 and Section 21 (you can read more about them here). Students will rarely need to worry about Section 21 as this can only be enforced after a fixed term has ended and the students have not vacated the property on the agreed end date. Most students sign on for a fixed term and vacate the property on the last day. Conversely, some landlords will always serve a Section 21 notice as a precaution. This ensures that they already have the eviction process in place just in case the property is not vacated on the agreed date. This is good practice for all landlords to follow and students should not be alarmed if they receive this notice towards the end of their contract.

Section 8 is invoked when the tenant has broken their contract. This could be because of a failed inspection (if there was such a clause in your contract) or perhaps you brought your pet goldfish, not knowing that pets are not allowed.

Often your landlord will and should allow time to correct the issue, however, if you are committing a number of offences your landlord may choose to evict you.

You can see from the above examples why you must read your contract. Not being aware of inspections or that pets are not allowed (even if it is a small one) you will be in breach of your contract and may inadvertently give your landlord grounds to evict.

Admittedly this process is slow and rarely used and most eviction cases we see involve rent arrears. However, most issues students and landlords have stem from poor student-landlord relationships.

Understandably, your landlord is more likely to be ‘on your case’ if you are breaking the rules of the tenancy. For many students this can be stressful and a nuisance but can easily be avoided.

How could not reading my contract leave me out of pocket?

The largest liability you have when you do not read your contract is your loss of deposit. Landlords have no obligation to regularly inform you of your responsibilities. Although, at Untrapped we encourage landlords to be in regular contact with their students to help them on their way.

Most students have never rented before and are unaware of what needs to be done to constitute clean. This can often be a problem when it comes to end of tenancy cleaning.

A good contract, such as one from Untrapped, comes with a cleaning checklist attached to it so students know upfront what needs to be done. Some landlords, for example, may expect you to defrost your freezer. Without renting previously or reading your contract you probably will not think to do this.

This could lead to losing part or all of your deposit.

Final Thoughts

In this article we covered the importance of reading your rental contract. We hope we’ve convinced you to read the next one you sign and not to be afraid to ask questions or ask for changes in the contract if something should not be there or indeed has been missed. There are many great landlords who are willing to help. The manner in which a landlord is responsive to your early questions and willing to engage constructively is a strong indicator of a good landlord and that is what Untrapped is passionately working towards.