27 Apr A “warm welcome” by London’s estate agencies
Source: Google/ Labeled for reuse
International Students are felt left alone, overwhelmed and scammed. The “warm welcome by London”s estate agencies scares international students off and Universities do not provide enough help. Students tell their story of renting a flat in London and what hurdles they had to take.
When first moving to a different country, many people don’t know what the process is. How do I rent a flat, what are the fees and requirements in order to move in? Are there hidden fees or even scams? People who moved around for the millionth time maybe know how to handle the system in London with greedy agencies who only care for the money rather than their clients. But what about students? Students who come to London from aboard, it’s the first time moving out of their family home, and they don’t even know how to set up their account for British gas or what council tax is, or a UK guarantor? And they are supposed to do it all by themselves without any support.
Real estate agencies in London have had a bad reputation for many years. Only a hand full of people have made good experiences with their Agencies. The Landlords most of the times, live far abroad and don’t even know what is happening to their flat in London.
What help is there for international students from their university? How are they being approached by agencies, and why do so many international students feel left alone?
Katja Trbara is a Media and communication student at Goldsmith University. She is originally from Zagreb in Croatia, and when she first came to London, the process was a nightmare for her. There was no space in student halls, or the ones free were too expensive.
The UK Guarantor Scheme: A guarantor is someone who comes into action when the tenant is usually a student or a tenant with a bad credit score. However, there is also such a thing as the minimum salary. This comes in place when you are not making enough money a year in order to rent a flat. This is calculated with your salary and how much the flat is.
This is the rent affordability calculator by Eltze Estates. It calculates how much you or your guarantor has to ear in order to rent a flat.
The Uk guarantor scheme only allows someone to guarantee for you who lives in the UK and carries a UK Passport. The guarantors have to be full time employed, and he needs to be a homeowner. That is many criteria’s for a guarantor. But what happens when you don’t know anyone in the UK who can guarantee for you? That is the problem, so many International students are facing.
And so did Katja Trbara. She never heard of the guarantor scheme before and nor did many other international students, likewise Jonathan Haver. So the next step from the agencies was to request the rent in advance. Katja stated: “Paying six months in advance was the best deal I got, some agencies said we’d have to pay a year in advance without hesitation as if it’s the most normal thing in the world.”
Many International Students face this hurdle when moving to London. Some Students are able to pay this, but most aren’t. That is a fact, but when contacting London estate agents and agencies, no one would provide me with information or even a comment.
The UK Council for international student affairs (UKCISA) is the only thing online where international students can gather help. Many Universities are member fo this council, and the board can provide guarantors to students. The student has to follow specific criteria as well, but if hurdled them, the council can provide a guarantor. But Universities don’t offer or advertise help enough. I found this out when I spoke to many International students, and most of them said they felt left alone in their situation. Universities don’t advertise that they are a member of the UKCISA and so many students could have had their life made so much simpler if they knew.
Jonathan Haver is an international student from Germany. His story of first coming to London is crazy. He went through the whole process of finding a flat, transferring the money and providing legal information from Germany. He had to give the agency six months rent in advance and a bank statement of his parents, and he told me that he found this very personal and unnecessary since he already paid 6 months rent upfront.
The agency did not get back to Jonathan 2 days before the moving in date, and he was meant to fly from Germany to the UK not knowing whether he had to book a hotel or not.
Many people and Jonathan said that was one of the most significant issues was the lack of communication. The agency would take weeks to get back to them or wouldn’t get back at all. Especially the property management is something not just students struggle with. Broken thing, mould and water patches and agencies won’t fix them, even though the contract says they are responsible for this. In Jonathan’s case, the water patch which was there when he moved in was still there when he moved out six months later.
And then as a student, you have no money to take legal actions and “you have to let it happen over you.” This is what Jonathan told me, and he also said: “I often felt helpless, they wouldn’t respond to me and ignore me for months.”
So for International students studying abroad is meant to be the greatest experiences and they are being frauded and used by agencies, not provided enough information by their universities.
Universities provide basically no information online. Some Universities, like UCL and King’s college which have a high percentage of international students, do provide information, but this includes how to apply, what to bring, and how to find your way around London. But nothing about private housing. Some Universities offer their information in their Student `Union, but students who come to London like Jonathan and Katja can not access this information yet. Some universities may even have a private accommodations service, but this feels advertised to little by students.
9/10 students said that they did not know their university-provided information on private housing. 8/10 Universities did not provide information. All felt this was advertised to little.
For British students, this might also be finding a flat for the first time, but they can rely upon their families who have gone through this process. Thomas White told me that when finding an apartment in London, his parents helped him sort out all the paperwork and where there when the talks with agency happened.
Many international students don’t have this support. Their parents might not speak English, they are too far away, or they simply don’t understand the system of agencies and guarantors.
So many students felt very overwhelmed during the process of looking at flats, deciding what to out for and which one to choose. After that, the process with agencies was a totally new experience said Katja. Agencies are not very common in other countries and cities.
“The moving in the process then, it was the most exciting thing”, Katja added. “The whole stress and anxiety just went, but then the nightmare started again.” The agency would not fix broken things which were a breach of her contract, being ignored for weeks “it was frustrating.”
And in the end, after moving out, Katja had to hunt after her deposit which the agency refused to give her back although the flat was in precisely the same condition as when she moved in.
Katja said last what she would do differently: “I would move to a different city next time.”
2014 NUS research found that 76% of students had problems with the condition of their accommodation (usually mould, damp or condensation), 53% had experienced delays in getting issues fixed, and 43% had part of their deposit withheld at the end of their tenancy (75% of this group felt that this was unjustified). All of this, while many students pay extortionate sums in rent.
Source: NUS.org.UK/Student housing: a look beyound private renting
These numbers are extraordinarily high, and they shouldn’t be. While there is so much student support out there covering so many different things, this is something uncovered by nearly all universities.
But as long as Universities don’t change the way they provide and advertise information and real estate agencies don’t change their way of acting toward their clients. The experience by International students will stay as bad as they are right now.
