University life starts by your need to find student accommodation. somewhere to live during your time there. Your room is your home so make yourself comfortable and feel at home. Utilise the space you have if you use a shared kitchen claim a cupboard and part of fridge.
You may want to find a student flat to rent or rent a house with a group of friends with a student tenancy. Finding flatmates will help you share and reduce budget costs.
I recommend you start looking early, your university will be able to help and provide a list of student housing. Look at a selection of properties before making a decision. We found a range of properties in price and size so don’t grab the first one you see.
When looking for student accommodation four to six bedrooms should be fine depending on how many want to move in together. When you find a place make sure everyone in the group views the house to make sure everyone is happy and will like living there. It needs to be a joint decision.
I recommend you go for fully-furnished with a washing machine or laundrette close by. Also it helps if the house is close to the uni so you can roll-out of bed and get there on time. It’s also useful if your student accommodation is close to town or local shops (so you grab some food and can top-up on booze at the off-licence).
The biggest feature you need to look for with your student accommodation is a large living room and communal living space, a fair size kitchen is also an advantage.
Read and check the letting contract before signing it. Make sure you understand the bond, monthly heating/water bills, the rent to pay and any how the deposit works.
When you move in have a house warming party. A student house means parties, alcohol, noise and wild sex. However, be nice and considerate to your new neighbours. I recommend calling around and introducing yourselves and invite your new neighbours to your gatherings. If you are planning a party let them know beforehand. So your neighbours will already not be too pleased. Should your parties go overboard your neighbours will complain to the council.
As a student group you’ll need to agree on sharing the joint responsibilities of running a household. Sharing the rent is easy however water, heating, lighting, TV license and other bills and expenses will be due.
Shopping and cleaning are other issues. You may notice your food supplies and nibbles disappearing and no one will admit responsibility for taking them. I suggest you keep your precious Jaffa Cakes and snacks hidden somewhere safe beside your allocated cupboard. A good tip is to buy a small beer fridge, which can also store a back up milk supply.
Your student house doesn’t come with a cleaner. Rubbish piles up and bins will be overflowing if you don’t empty them. You will need to stock up on cleaning products and may need to invest in a vacuum cleaner. After numerous parties and slob like attitudes your student accommodation will look like a landfill site.
There will usually be a disgusting member of your student group, the one that doesn’t pull they weight on cleaning duties and has a tendency to let mould and fungus grow on cups and watch food turn nasty. They’ll never recycle empty cans or bottles, they’ll leave pizza and kebab boxes around, they’ll never buy cleaning materials, wipe up spillages, attempt to clean out the fridge or use bleach down the puke ridden toilet.
It’s important to keep on top of the mess, filth and dust that accumulates and that you all “muck” in as a family unit to keep it clean and tidy. It’s not easy dealing with the messy lazy bones types. I suggest you mention and drop hints it’s unlikely that a member of the opposite sex will want to stay over with them if they’ll have a smelly room with dirty laundry on the floor and live like unclean beast.
It’s useful to have a student friendly landlord and one that will respond to faults and fix them quickly like a broken boiler in midwinter or a leaking water pipe.
Make sure you get some content insurance to protect your laptop, TV, game consoles and porn stash. You may be covered on your parents home insurance but double check first. You probably won’t not have much content to insure so consider gadget only policies and take out accidental cover. When you go out make sure you lock doors and windows and keep valuables out of sight.
Don’t let these warning put you off. Living with friends in a student house is awesome fun, even if you have the odd argument about the cleaning rota. Enjoy your new home and freedom.
