‘Rat-infested and unregulated’: Scottish students demand rental reform

Student representatives throughout Scotland have united to push for tighter landlord oversight and improved housing rights for students.

The campaign, spearheaded by activists from the National Union of Students (NUS), claims that students are being forced into dangerous or degrading living conditions, with some remaining in abusive relationships or squalid accommodation to avoid homelessness.

Campaigners are now urging the Scottish Government to take decisive action via housing law reforms to prevent these conditions.

Justine Pédussel, President of Stirling University Students’ Union, is one of the key figures behind the initiative.

She told The Herald: “A group of different sabbatical officers across Scotland who were really passionate about housing came together to deal with the crisis collectively. We identified some of the key problems and how to then fix those.”

Ms Pédussel said that a lack of regulation is allowing students who rent to be exploited. She explained that students are excluded from key legal protections under current housing law.

“When the 2016 Tenancy Act was passed at Holyrood, student tenancies were explicitly excluded within the definition and scope of the bill,” she said, referencing paragraph five of Schedule One of the Act,” she said.

In less than a weeks time this government is scrapping measures that allow tenants to see any rent increase reduced to 12%.

No one can afford market rent. This government needs to support tenants and recommit to proper protections for tenants – now! pic.twitter.com/onc9Ztj1kt

— Living Rent (@Living_Rent) March 26, 2025

Most Read

The five huge details Amy Bradley Is Missing on Netflix missed out about the case

Jenny Han explains why the show’s ending of The Summer I Turned Pretty is different from the books

This is what ChatGPT thinks is the most reasonable theory of what happened to Amy Bradley

Adding: “And so we thought, if we can change that, then a lot of the things that are happening to students regarding their deposits and how long they can stay and the conditions that they live in would all change, because there would suddenly be many more rules and regulations that student accommodation providers would have to follow,” she told the paper.

Ms Pédussel also highlighted stark figures that point to the scale of the crisis, noting that the price for some accommodation has increased by 34 per cent.

“Furthermore, 93 per cent of student renters reported issues with housing, 42 per cent had mould or mildew, 41 per cent had issues with heating or cooling, and the flats of 22 per cent were infested with mice and rats,” she explained.

The SU president further noted that financial barriers, particularly the UK guarantor system, are pushing many students into crisis.

“The guarantor system is a bit of a vicious cycle because in order to rent privately, you have to have a UK-based guarantor or pay up to six months up front,” she said.

“If you can’t afford to do that because you don’t have a UK based guarantor, for example, if you are a low-income student or an international student, then essentially you have no choice but to apply to student accommodation,” she continued. “If you can’t access that because it’s really expensive, that’s how we end up with a lot of homeless students. In order to avoid that situation, students will stay in really horrible housing without heating or infested with mice and rats.”

Oluwatomisin Osinubi, President of Glasgow Caledonian University’s Students’ Association has been actively involved in the campaign.

“A common theme for students across Scotland is the fact that students don’t really have a place in terms of renting rights. The government doesn’t have the right view; they just assume that students are people that live with their families or have the money to pay for purpose-built student accommodation. But that’s not true for everyone,” she said.

From 1 April, the government scrapped the last remaining protections for tenants.

Now landlords are able to increase rents as much as they like, and already we are hearing stories of landlords hiking up rents, driving their tenants deep into financial insecurity. pic.twitter.com/tSN72REbys

— Living Rent (@Living_Rent) April 2, 2025

Figures from NUS Scotland show that international and estranged students are especially vulnerable to homelessness due to a lack of support and unaffordable rent.

Ms Osinubi described the current rental system as unsustainable: “The rental options available to students are just ridiculously difficult.

“You’re either paying extreme prices for student accommodation, or you’re having to sign contracts that are also very difficult. If you’re going to private rent from landlords, they ask you for guarantors and they treat students poorly, generally.”

She also raised the issue of “hidden homelessness”, where students are technically homeless but not visibly so.

“If you are sofa surfing, if you’re having to sleep on anybody’s couch or stay with a friend because your landlord has evicted you, then you are homeless,” she explained.

Adding: “One particularly big problem that we are always seeing is landlords who take advantage of students. You know, a new student comes to Glasgow who doesn’t know anything about Glasgow, and they pay money to a strange person who just disappears with the money.”

Some students, Ms Osinubi noted, have no choice but to remain in unsafe or abusive homes.

“We’ve had cases where students were living with family members that were abusive, or with people that ‘took them in’”. She also claimed that some students say they’ve been locked out of their flats and given certain times when they must return to the properties.

The Scottish Housing Bill must be stronger to tackle the housing crisis and help students and all renters. @living_rent is gathering evidence on tenants’ experiences in a survey to ensure the bill is as strong as possible.

Follow the link in the post below to take the survey. pic.twitter.com/swcUWByDTL

— NUS Scotland (@NUSScotland) February 11, 2025

As the Scottish Government’s Housing Bill moves through Holyrood, campaigners are lobbying MSPs to support amendments that would extend protections to student renters. However, Ms Pédussel said the response from political parties has been mixed.

“We’re trying to give students a voice and highlight a lot of these issues,” she explained.

“Some of the political parties have been really interested in engaging with us and listening to what we have to say and have recognised that there’s a lot of issues that students are facing. And then there are others who have refused to meet with us and are consistently against the idea that students need to be protected. The narrative seems to be very focused on how protecting students will be bad for landlords.”

The Housing Bill, introduced in March 2024, has progressed slowly through Parliament. However, campaigners won a major victory in May when MSPs from across the political spectrum backed an amendment extending rent control and tenancy protections to students in halls and purpose-built accommodation, despite objections from the then-Housing Minister Paul McLennan.

Scottish Greens MSP Ross Greer said at the time: “Far too many students pay sky high rents for halls and other purpose-built accommodation. They deserve the same rights as other renters, and I am glad that MSPs have backed plans to crack down on the accommodation operators ripping off students.”

Featured image via NUS Scotland on X