Documents

Please click on the right hand menu to see specimen documents relating to the tenancy.

Please note that whilst these are specimen documents copied from actual current documents they are for background information and illustration purposes only.  Final versions as given to potential tenants may be worded slightly differently to allow for the variations in the different property types and variations of rent charged depending on size of room and other facilities.

Gas , electricity and other bills are included in the rent. You will notice there is a cap on the consumption that is included. This cap is set at a figure that represents a full 52 week year's average usage based on data accumulated over several years with different groups of tenants at the property concerned. In practice there is little variation from year to year.

As the term of the Tenancy Agreement is for the shorter 40 - odd weeks of the academic year, there is approximately 25% slack built into the cap for tenants to exceed the average annual usage before it starts to cause concern.

This is simply to encourage tenants to have an eye on wastage and not leave lights on when the premises are unoccupied or have the heating on full blast with all the windows open, for example. All inclusive is not a blank cheque although it is highly unlikely tenants will incur any surcharge through more than normal use and, to date, none have.

This seems a fairer system than putting a cash limit on bills in order to keep them inclusive. Tenants would still be at the mercy of energy price rises. Under our consumption system any energy price increases are borne by the landlord.

In general, all our agreements are on an individual basis such that an individual tenant is only responsible for their own rent and their own room. General areas are on a joint and several liability basis.

In other words if a particular tenant can't pay their rent it is not up to the other tenants to make up the shortfall.

If a particular tenant has damage in their own room it is down to them only.

If the common areas experience damage, any resulting bills are shared amongst all tenants on an equal share basis.

There may appear to be a lot of Do's and Don'ts in the 'Agreements which are really there to ensure that the landlord has grounds to take action on behalf of the other tenants against a particular tenant if they prove inconsiderate or antisocial. In practice tenants will enjoy the property on a largely uninterrupted basis. In an ideal world the landlord will only see the tenants at the start and end of the tenancy.