YUSU

Student Housing: Private sector accomodation

Created: 10/12/2009. Updated: 18/06/2010.

Private Sector accommodation

There is a lot of Advice and Guidance that goes out each year about looking for private sector accomodation in York and we warmly encourage to take advantage of it - be it the checklist we create for students to help you look for houses, our regular "find a housemate" events or the talks we co host with the university there is a lot of information which will be pushed out to you each year. There are some key things to remember though:

1) Don't look too early: It is a (fading) but perpetual myth that it is crucially important to get houses very early on, even in the first term! This is completely baseless, we would in fact strongly advise students not to start looking until February. Landlords will tell you that it is absolutely vital to search now (as may some of their tenants hoping to get a kick back for renting the house out) but both YUSU and the University (and we only have your interests at heart!) strongly advise against going in to early - it can get you into all kinds of difficulties!

2) Use the private sector accommodation list: you can find it here and information about the accreditation process here . The process is undergoing constant review and improvement, but with a system which has some guaranteed checks and, crucially, some recourse if your landlord were to breach some key part of the list it is by far the safest (and, without any agents, often bet value for money) place to search for property in York!

There is a lot of information to take in when you're looking for a house so please please please please do have a look at this site on which the university has spelled out a lot of key points, particularly including some information on the new rules regarding deposit protection to ensure that landlords can't just walk away with your money!