It is very important to ensure you’re making the right decisions about your housing and accommodation for next year. The University and Students’ Union are advising students not to rush into signing up for accommodation, for a number of reasons:

• Give yourself a bit of time to let friendships develop, which may lead to housemate groups for the following year. Making a commitment to live with some during the next academic year after a few weeks of knowing them might not be in your best interests.
• Private-rented contracts aren’t anything to do with the University, so changes to your teaching and learning, including study abroad, placements away from Nottingham and interruption of study have no bearing on tenancy agreements.
• Some housing providers start advertising accommodation for the following academic year as early as November. However, we would encourage you not to feel pressured into signing up, or re-signing, for accommodation too early.

This depends on where you want to live next year. Students find accommodation through a variety of ways, often through seeing lettings boards on houses, word of mouth or via the internet - have a look at our Finding Accommodation page for places to look online.

You can also go through the University's Accommodation Services webpages to view your options about staying in catered/self-catered halls, purpose built student accommodation or private-rented accommodation.

The first thing to do is to check to see if the property is accredited through the Nottingham Standard, if you are looking in the Nottingham City area. The Nottingham Standard helps tenants identify properties that meet a minimum quality standard.

Most properties in Nottingham City require a licence, which helps to maintain quality and safety standards in private rented sector accommodation. More information about the Nottingham City Council’s schemes can be found here. In other areas (e.g. Broxtowe, NW Leicestershire, Rushcliffe) some larger shared properties may require a House of Multiple Occupation licence – check with the local council if you are in another area.

Marks Out Of Tenancy (MOOT) – It’s worth looking to see if any of the reviews are relevant to any potential properties you are looking at. Google reviews are another good source of information.

Students’ Union Advice can check your contract for you to help you understand what your rights and responsibilities are and to highlight any clauses that you may want to discuss further with your landlord/agent. Your landlord should give you 24 hours so you can take the proposed contract away and read it through properly.

Email it to advice@su.ntu.ac.uk and an Adviser will go through it for you and answer any questions you have.

Many landlords and estate agents request a holding deposit to reserve a property. A holding deposit should be no more than one week's rent. If you go ahead with the tenancy, the holding deposit will usually form part of your tenancy (damage) deposit. This should be protected in a tenancy deposit scheme within 30 days of handing it over. You may also be asked to pay some rent in advance. You should ensure that all tenants are able to pay the required advance payments and future liabilities.