Common housing mistakes Durham students make (and how to avoid them!)

Student housing can be tricky, especially if it’s your first time renting. From rushing into leases to overlooking hidden costs, small mistakes can quickly add up. Here’s the most common mistakes – and how to avoid them, making your move as smooth as possible.

1. Panicking

Despite what you might have heard about Durham’s student housing crisis, overnight queuing and tenancy signings during the first week of Michaelmas are largely a thing of the past. The University has made a concerted effort to reduce the pressure on students to search for housing immediately since the great estate agent queues of 2022 broke national news.

A new code of practice for student lettings, intending to ensure that Durham landlords are “putting student welfare at the heart of their practices”, was signed by twenty of Durham’s most prolific estate agents, while the Universities’ admissions department has committed to remaining “mindful” of previous strain on the city’s housing market going forwards.

Although student rent in Durham remains disappointingly high, you no longer have to worry about time pressure. These reforms force landlords to space out their releasing of available properties, as well as giving you the breathing room to take your time looking over potential contracts before committing. There’s no longer any need to room with the first person you sit next to in a lecture, or sign for that semi-detached which probably doesn’t have black mould before even viewing it!

2. Not Setting Clear Goals

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Even with the new reforms, it’s still important to have a clear idea of what you want in a house from fairly early in the year. Aimlessly scrolling through Rightmove and drifting from housing group to housing group is a surefire way to lose out on the best deals and prime locations.

Consider what you want to prioritise going into second year: Is Gilesgate’s cheaper rent worth the long commute? Do you want to be in the centre of it all in Viaduct, or do you prefer the classic Durham aesthetics of Elvet? Is the peace and quiet of Neville’s Cross a benefit, or a bore?

Compromise remains at the centre of both communal living and house hunting in a limited market, but if you’ve already got your housing priorities in order from early Michaelmas, then your non-negotiables should stay non-negotiable.

3. Not Communicating

Setting your own priorities is important, but finding a house in Durham is a fundamentally democratic process. Before committing to anything – even booking viewings or checking out estate agents – having an open conversation with your potential housemates is essential.

Your housemates aren’t mind readers: hunting the bargain bin of Gilesgate for the cheapest rent could be the obvious approach to you, but your mate from Hatfield whose garden back home is the size of maiden castle might have very different priorities. That super-convenient location just five minutes away from the science site might seem a less appealing morning commute for your three housemates studying business in Waterside.

Agreeing on a budget and rough location before starting to house-hunt ensures that you’re all on the same page. Even if you disagree on the details, there shouldn’t be any major arguments or inconveniences later on, when it’s too late to back out.

4. Picking the Wrong Housemates

On the other hand, all the communication and compromise in the world can’t fix a mismatched or poorly chosen housing group.

Simply being friends with someone doesn’t mean you have to share a house with them, and that goes double if you’ve known the friend in question for exactly one night out during freshers.

If you’re having second thoughts about a housing group for any reason, it’s better to back out respectfully and leave on good terms than sign for a house and allow resentment to fester and annoyances to grate for a whole year. Unless you plan on living in Shincliffe, you’ll easily be able to stay in touch without them being a wall away from you.

Speaking of hasty housing decisions, do not sign for a house with your Michaelmas situationship. Seriously, just don’t. If you absolutely must live together in domestic bliss, at least make sure you have separate rooms. Preferably with a (un?)comfortable buffer of three or four other unfortunate souls. You laugh, but people need to be told. You really really don’t want to be that person.

5. Not Researching Thoroughly

Having the knowledge to really read through and analyse your tenancy contract is so important. As a first-time renter, it’s crucial that you take responsibility for researching some of the basic legal terminology and tenancy rights surrounding student housing, so if something in your contract doesn’t look right, you can call your landlord out on it right away.

The Durham Housing Hub is a very good start, and provides guidance on both searching and signing for properties. Sometimes the most useful information isn’t aimed directly at student renters though, so its important to know what to look for when searching for more general legal advice.

This article would be far too long if I went over all the legalistics here, but the TDLR is: “student tenancies” aren’t actually a thing (legally). This trips a lot of students up, as it can be a struggle to figure out which laws and regulations apply to students specifically.

If you want detailed legal advice to check over contracts and deal with any serious issues, the term to search for is “Periodic Tenancy”. The vast majority of student tenancies are periodic tenancies, and any laws which apply to them apply to you as well. Tagging “Periodic Tenancy” on the end of your housing searches will usually bring up more targeted information, rather than forcing you to shift through multiple articles and sites to figure out what actually applies to you.

For a thorough check through your tenancy contract, I strongly recommend looking at guides on specialised legal websites like GovUK, Shelter or Property Genius (other websites are available). It’s advisable to have your parents go over your any documents before you sign them as well. Plus, this is Durham, so you’ll almost certainly know someone whose parents are lawyers!

6. Being Intimidated by Your Landlord

Perhaps the most important piece of advice here is not to be afraid of contacting your landlord. If you don’t like a clause in your tenancy contract, or the wording is looks ambiguous, you can ask them to change it before you sign. If there’s an issue with the house, you can ask for written assurance that they’ll fix it before you move in. If you think they’re acting in a way that violates your rights as a tenant, you can absolutely call them out on it, and ask for change.

As a student renter in Durham, sometimes finding a house can feel overwhelming. It’s so easy to get lost in all the information out there, and all the factors to consider, both legal and social. Hopefully this guide helps you feel a bit more confident in your housing choices for next year.

Good luck, and happy house-hunting!

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