Canterbury Student Accommodation |
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Last updated: 4th November 2011 |
Guide To Renting a Student House in Canterbury |
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Email canterbury@amherst.co.uk to arrange to see any of our houses on that date
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IntroductionWe have
a selection of fully-furnished houses for rent to students in Canterbury. We
have houses for rent ranging from 1 to 10 bedrooms. All of our properties for
rent are within walking distance of the centre of Canterbury. We rent our houses out to groups of friends, on a single Tenancy Agreement. Occasionally we rent the houses on a "room by room" basis, but we prefer not to do this. Finding People to Share a House WithWe prefer that a group of friends who have chosen to share a house together come to us and rent a whole house. We prefer this way of renting, as opposed to us renting each room separately, because it is important that the people sharing the house will get on well with each other. If people have been friends for a while and know their mates' bad habits etc, and STILL want to live with them, then it makes for less trouble for us, because we don't want to deal with house-mates falling out with each other during the tenancy. Try to choose housemates who have the same lifestyle as you do! Coming to Viewings - What to Do and BringThe most important thing to bring is ALL OF YOUR GROUP OF
PROSPECTIVE HOUSEMATES. We often do "group viewings" where several
groups interested in a particular house are looking around at the same
time. You may need to make a quick decision, if you want to rent the
house before someone else does, and you won't be able to do this if you
are not all present. Also, we will give preference to groups saying
they want to rent a house when they have all seen it, over incomplete
groups. Also, be prepared to sign the Tenancy Agreement (you can read
it on this web site before-hand) and pay your £50 administration fee
and at least some of the summer advance rent. If we are to commit to you and say "it's gone" to everyone
else, we would like you to "put your money where yuor mouth is" by
paying at least £100 cash per person on the day of the viewing. Please
print off and read our "Viewing Guide" before the viewing and bring it with you. You can also view and print off our "Information For Tenants" guide. Sample Tenancy Agreement and Other DocumentsThese documents (listed on the left) are the ones that we usually ask our tenants to sign. They are in Rich Text Format (.RTF) which will open in most Word Processor programs, including Microsoft Word. Frequently Asked Questions - Please ReadAre the utility bills (gas, electricity, water etc.) included in the rent?No, not usually. You will have to pay the gas, water and electricity bills between you.
You will also have to pay phone bills if you have a phone line connected, and for broadband, and
probably a TV licence as well if anyone uses any TV to watch broadcast programmes. Generally, many landlords do not include gas and electricity bills in the rent because they have no control over how much these bills are. Who pays the Council Tax?You are also responsible for paying the Council Tax, although in practice, if everyone in the house is a full-time student, the household is exempt from the Council Tax. It is still your job to get documents from your University or College to show that you are students, and to send these to the council. We cannot do this for you. You can view or print Canterbury City council's exemption form by CLICKING HERE. Why do you prefer to rent whole houses to a group, rather than rent the rooms separately?We prefer that a group of friends, who have chosen to share a house together, come to us and rent a whole house. We prefer this way of renting, as opposed to us renting each room separately, because it is important that the people sharing the house will get on well with each other. If people have been friends for a while and know their mates' bad habits etc, and STILL want to live with them, then it makes for less trouble for us, because we don't want to deal with house-mates falling out with each other part way through the year. We will generally only rent a place "room by room" if we can't find a group of friends to take the house together. Can I have partners / friends to stay in the house?We don't mind people having boyfriends / girlfriends / mates to stay once in a while, but you must be considerate to your housemates. It's not fair to effectively have an extra person staying all the time unless you agree it with all the people that you share with. What about smoking in the house?We
do not allow smoking in our houses. Please go into the garden if you
want to smoke. We have found that if people smoke a lot inside, the
house and its furniture end up smelling of smoke, which is not fair on
the next tenants, especially if they do not smoke. What happens if someone leaves the house during the year?If this happens, then it is up to everyone to find a suitable person to replace the person who wants to leave. We will be happy with your choice of replacement person provided that they pay their rent and treat the house correctly. Remember, though, that all the tenants in a house are jointly responsible for paying all of the rent, so one person cannot simply leave and then say that it is no longer anything to do with them. It is also the responsibility of the person moving out to pay their share of gas / electricity bills etc. The Tenancy Agreement makes all of the occupants jointly responsible for all of the rent, so if a room remains empty, the others still have to make up the full rent due. Why do you ask for parental guarantees from student tenants?To increase the chances of us getting paid, and to reduce the risk of the houses being damaged, to put it bluntly. The parental guarantee would only be used in the event that rent is not paid or if the house and its contents are damaged and / or left excessively dirty. Do you offer discounts if all of the rent for a year is paid in advance?Yes we do, as follows: If all of the rent for the year is paid by 1st February in the year of
moving in, 7% discount. If all of the rent for the year is paid by 1st July, then 5% discount. If one person in a house pays their share of the rent in advance, we will discount their proportion of the rent for the year. Contacting UsWe are always willing to discuss your needs for houses in Canterbury. We would prefer to be contacted by email, but you can phone or fax us on the numbers below if needed. We can usually arrange viewings fairly quickly, but please bear in mind we have to arrange a convenient time with the students already living in each house. Email: canterbury@amherst.co.uk Phone: 07973 147257 or 020 7328 9792. Fax: 020 7209 2704 Post: Canterbury Student Accommodation, c/o 70 Kingsgate Road, London NW6 4TE |
