How to Find a House for the Second Year of University

Letting agents are known to charge extortionate amounts, supposedly to cover the cost of handling paperwork and showing you around the houses that are available. Yes, they can be quite helpful and charming, but if you’re smart then you might find somewhere you really love without their help. Some towns or cities will have listings which are posted directly by the landlord, rather than an agent, while many universities offer an accommodation service which puts students directly in contact with landlords.

If you do have to rely on a letting agent, don’t let their sales patter fool you. When looking around a house, I noticed some damp on the wall and brought it up with the agent. I asked if it would be fixed and was told it would be painted over, which is something which doesn’t actually get rid of the problem. This was enough to convince us the agent didn’t know enough about the property he was offering or how to best look after it, so we decided to try elsewhere. So, be smart with your questions and if there are any problems you see, press the estate agent for an answer.

If you’re living in London or another expensive city, the temptation will be to move to the cheapest place you can because rent is so expensive. However, I would say it's actually more beneficial to pay a little more and be a lot closer to uni, especially as being further out might mean you’ll spend the money you save on rent is cancelled out by the costs of travel.

Also, check out what the area is like when you go to look around. Does it have a supermarket close by? Is it near a club, which will be noisy every night? These little considerations make a difference and it's important to realize paying more may work out as better value for money than somewhere really cheap.

This is something one of my lecturers told me and, at first, I thought it was mad to suggest we should turn the shower on while we look around. However, he could not have been more spot on. It is so important to check because if you don't, you'll have a weak, awkward shower for the next year.

There are a few ways to share out the bill responsibilities. A lot of flats, including mine, choose one person to be in charge of them all. This can mean one person being responsible for the gas, electric, water and internet, which is a big responsibility but does mean everyone only has to pay money towards bills to one person.

Alternatively, take responsibility for one bill each, which avoids the situation where one person is a couple of hundred quid down because everyone else has been slow to pay.

However you do it, choose your utility providers carefully. Internet access is particularly important for students and we were unlucky with the location of our second-year house as only a few companies provided internet to our address. This meant we had to go with a very mediocre provider, which made life harder. When looking at houses, it’s worth asking who the current tenants have contracts with and how they’ve found the service.