Pinnacle MC Global discuss the important aspects of student housing legislation and how best to understand it.

1. What you should know
about student housing laws

2. Introduction
• The law surrounding landlords and tenants has long been regarded as complicated and subject to
frequent change.
• Whilst much of the legislation involved in student lettings is simply the application of landlord and
tenant law to a specific situation, there are particular issues that affect student lets.
• The Landlord and Tenant Act 1985 covers a variety of important issues and it is a very useful
document to understand as a student tenant.
• Something that often catches students out are the implied terms. An implied term is a term that
can be read into a tenancy agreement even though it hasn't been stated. Section 11 of the act
implies a term into the tenancy agreement. This regards the landlord's obligation to carry out
basic repairs. The implied term applies whether your tenancy agreement is in writing or has been
agreed orally.

3. Private landlord or lettings company?
• Student tenants take greater risk when they rent from private landlords. Problems arising often
relate to money or the state of the accommodation.
• A major problem can be the difficulty of getting a deposit back from a landlord at the end of a
tenancy.
• Poor maintenance and housing conditions are also frequently an issue with private landlords as
there is less accountability.

4. Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme
• The Tenancy Deposit Protection Scheme, introduced in 1997, now provides a
mechanism that involves an independent person deciding whether the deposit
should be returned, rather leaving it up to the landlord.
• It involves either the deposit being held by an independent person rather than
the landlord, or the landlord taking out an insurance policy which guarantees to
repay the tenant in appropriate cases. This scheme gives much-needed
protection to both landlord and tenant.