Renting Student Accommodation in Brighton

Renting a student property in Brighton couldn’t be easier through Q Estate Agents. Once you and your friends have found your perfect student house, you will be asked to put down a holding deposit (equal to one weeks’ worth of the rent at the property) and to sign the tenant guide. The holding deposit becomes due and is payable on the day of reserving a property and signing the tenant guide. This payment should be paid by your chosen lead tenant. Once the payment has been made and all tenants have signed the guide the property will be market as ‘Let Agreed’ on the market and all upcoming viewings will be cancelled.

All student tenants will need to have someone who can stand as guarantor for them on the joint tenancy agreement. Those unable to provide a guarantor will be required to pay for the term of the tenancy in advance. There may also be an option for a tenant to opt for a paid for guarantor service subject to the landlord’s approval.

You will then need to be referenced by our out of house referencing agency ‘Goodlord’.  All students must meet the following criteria to pass referencing:

• Have a clean credit history.
• Provide Student ID and acceptable right to rent documentation
• Must have positive previous Landlord Reference. (This would only be required if the tenant has previously privately rented)
• Must have Proof of funds (This would only be required if the tenant is planning to pay more than a month’s rent in advance)

All guarantors must meet the following criteria:

• Must be a UK resident
• Must have Clean Credit History
• Must have an income of or savings of 3 x one tenants rent share. (Income from employment is counted as gross income i.e. before tax.  If self-employed, you must have at least one years’ worth of accounts in the form of an SA302 form from HMRC or be able to have an accountant provide a reference.  If the income is from a Pension a P60 will be required.  If savings, the account must be in your name only and be an instant access account.)

 

Please note:

1. Employment references will need to corroborate either that the employment is permanent or for a contract length greater than the proposed tenancy term.
2. We do take working tax credits into account.
3. If you are on a zero-hours contract you will need to show consistent income meeting the required affordability requirement over the past 6 months.

Paperwork

• All students and their guarantors will have to complete an online reference form emailed to them by Goodlord.
• Students and Guarantors will have to complete all required information and upload all required/requested documents within seven days of receiving the Goodlord referencing email.
• Guarantors will be asked to sign the guarantor agreement and will be supplied with a draft tenancy agreement prior to references being sent to Goodlord.
• After the initial 7 day referencing deadline, you will then have eight days to pass the referencing before the deadline for agreement is reached.  If all tenants and guarantors have not passed the referencing by this point you risk losing the property and your holding deposit.
• When all tenants and guarantors have passed the referencing all students will then have to sign the tenancy agreement by e-signature via Goodlord. As all our tenancy agreements are joint and several assured shorthold tenancy agreements, every tenant must sign the tenancy agreement before anyone can move in.

The Move In

Once all students have signed the tenancy agreement, you will then receive a move in email. This will outline your move in payments in advance of the tenancy start date. You will need to arrange for your lead tenant to pay the Rent and Deposit by bank transfer to our client account. We recommend making these payments at least three working days in advance of your tenancy start date.

Once the damage deposit is paid, it will be registered with the chosen Deposit Scheme.

If the property is managed by us, we will also provide you with a certificate of this.

We will need to carry out right to rent checks on all tenants prior to the tenancy start date.

The lead tenant will be responsible for arranging a time on or after the tenancy start date to come into the office and collect the keys for the property (if the property has six bedrooms we will give the lead tenant six sets of keys) they are then responsible for giving out the keys to the remaining respective tenants.

If we are supplying a inventory/schedule of conditions for the property then you will have seven days to amend and sign the document. If the seven day limit passes, it will be considered that the inventory/schedule of conditions is a fair and correct assessment of the condition of the property, it’s fixtures and fittings at the start of the tenancy.

 

Future rent payments should be paid by standing order to the following account, unless we provide alternative instructions in your move in email.

Natwest | Q Estate Agents| 29895022| 500000 | SWIFT code: NWBKGB2L

Please reference all payments as: DMK~ (you will receive a unique property reference for your tenancy at the point that you sign a tenant guide)

 

Standing orders can be set up online or at your bank.

 

Right to Rent Criteria

In order to meet our responsibilities under the Immigration Act 2015, we must collect and hold evidence that you can legally reside in the UK.  In order for us to do this you must come to the office in person(unless otherwise informed) to provide either ONE document from list A or TWO documents from list B.

List A: UK Passport, EEA/Swiss National Passport/Identity Card, Registration Certificate or Document certifying permanent residence, EEA/Swiss family member permanent residence card, Biometric Residence Permit with unlimited leave, Passport endorsed with unlimited leave, UK Immigration status doc endorsed with unlimited leave, A certificate of naturalisation of registration as a British citizen.

List B: UK Birth or adoption certificate, Full or provisional driving license, A letter from HM Prison Service, A letter from a UK Government Department or Local Authority, A letter from National Offender Management service, Evidence of current of previous service in armed forces, A letter from the police force confirming that certain documents have been stolen, A letter from a private rented sector access scheme, A letter of testimony from Employer, A letter from a UK further or higher education institution, A letter of Testimony from a UK passport holder, Benefits Paperwork or Criminal Record Check.

The following list C, are documents that can be provided to show a time-limited right to rent and depending on the length of the tenancy you are applying for you may be asked to provide proof of your right to rent when the existing documents expire.

List C: A valid passport endorsed with a time limited period, Biometric Immigration document with permission to stay for a time limited period, Non EEA national residence card, UK immigration status document with a time limited endorsement from the Home Office.