For Students' Unions And Universities
Student renting is where the private rented sector behaves worst, and where tenants know least about their rights. Houses get signed eleven months early under manufactured pressure, guarantors sign forms nobody reads, and the same handful of landlords take the same deposits off a fresh intake every September.
We work with students' unions and universities to break that cycle. It is free, and there is no contract.
What students get
A free platform to review landlords, letting agents, properties and neighbourhoods, and to read what previous tenants said before signing anything.
- Transparency. Read and leave reviews of landlords, agents and specific addresses.
- Protection. We work with local authorities to flag unlicensed properties that have been reviewed, which matters enormously in student areas where HMO licensing is the norm.
- Knowledge. Free workshops and guides on tenancy rights, deposits, repairs and what to do when a landlord will not act.
- Recognition for the good ones. Student landlords who do the job properly get separated from the ones who do not.
The guides most relevant to student renters: moving into student accommodation, your rights in a shared house, and getting your deposit back.
What your students' union gets
- Rental data for your city. What students in your area are actually reporting about repairs, deposits, agents and specific streets.
- Problem landlords identified by the students who rented from them, not by anecdote.
- Support for your advice centre. Resources your advisers can hand to a student who has walked in with a damp problem or a deposit dispute.
- Promotion for your own housing schemes. Accredited landlord lists and SU letting services carry more weight when they sit alongside independent rankings.
- Marketing assets you can put your own branding on.
- Workshops, run by us, for your students.
There is no cost and no contractual obligation. We are a social enterprise and this is part of the mission rather than a sales funnel. How we are structured.
Why it matters more from 2026
The Renters' Rights Act changed student renting on 1 May 2026, and a lot of student housing advice online has not caught up.
- Fixed terms are gone. Tenancies are periodic, and students can leave on two months' notice rather than being locked into a twelve-month agreement signed the previous autumn.
- Rent in advance is capped at one month, which ends the routine demand for six or twelve months up front from students with no UK income.
- Bidding above the advertised rent is illegal.
- Section 21 is abolished, so complaining about a repair no longer risks a two-month notice.
That last point is the one that changes advice centre work most. Students can now report disrepair without the retaliation risk that made most of them stay quiet.
Who we have worked with
St Andrews Students' Association, Cambridge SU, University of Birmingham Guild of Students, University of Nottingham SU and Undeb Bangor, among others. Our partners.
Getting started
Tell us which university or union you are with and what your students are struggling with, and we will suggest what is worth doing first. Most partnerships start with a workshop and a look at the data for your city.