Tenant - Useful Information
Viewing arrangements
Please take a look through our website to see if any properties or rooms suit what you are looking for. To book viewings please contact us through the website, email or call us confirming when you would be free for viewings and which house or houses you would be interested in viewing.
We will then contact you to arrange the viewing at a mutually convenient time. We cannot stress enough the importance of having your whole group available for viewings. Many times groups lose houses to others whilst waiting for the remainder of their group to view the property.
To Take a Property
Following your house viewing/s, if you see a property with us that you are interested in, you will need to pay a £100 per person non-refundable holding deposit (this will become part of your bond upon signing the contract). This £100 secures the property for you and your group for a couple of days whilst you sort out signing the contract. The £100.00 must be paid by cash or by card (2% fee for credit cards)
If you would like to see a copy of our tenancy agreement at any point, please let us know. We can either email this over to you or we have some printed out that you can collect or we can post to you.
Appointment Time to Sign the Contract
You will need to come to the office to sign the contract; we are located at 22 High Petergate, York, YO1 7EH. If you get lost, head to the Minster, from there head down the street with Reeds Cafe on the corner, we are half way down on your right hand side (opposite The Three Legged Mare pub).
We recommend that you contact your accommodation office at University to arrange an appointment with them to have a copy of our tenancy agreement checked through. Please call or email us to let us know what your appointment time is.
Once you have had the contract checked through, you need to call us to arrange a time to come into the office to sign the contract. The normal days for an appointment will be Monday to Friday, the first appointment at 9am, the last at 3pm.
If you have any questions, please ask us these over the phone, or email us prior to the appointment so we can clear up any issues you may have.
You will all be expected to be present (unless otherwise agreed). If you cannot come to the appointment, you must send your bond with the rest of the group ensuring that they have your full name, and the name and address if someone else has paid your bond (your parents for example)
Appointments normally last between 45 minutes and 1 hour.
Contracts
All contracts will be for 12 months, unless otherwise agreed (due to renovation works or similar).
All contracts are legally binding once you sign them. Should you not be able to move in, it will be your responsibility to find a replacement. You will be responsible for the rental payments until a replacement tenant is found and has signed the agreement.
You will be signing for joint and several liability (i.e. you are signing for the house and the rent as a whole, and between you, you are responsible for ensuring that all tenant obligations are met)
If you do not understand something in the contract, you must ask someone before signing it. It is in your best interests to ensure that you are clear what you are signing for. We will be more than willing to help you out with anything that is unclear
Guarantors
You will each need to have someone UK based who is happy to guarantee that the rent will be paid on your behalf should you not pay it - this is usually your parents, a close relative or similar.
You should bring address, telephone and email details for them to the appointment in order for a guarantor form to be sent to them.
This person must be working, or getting an income from a pension.
You must get permission from this person before you complete their details on the tenancy agreement.
Bond Payments
Upon signing the tenancy agreement, you must each provide us with the remainder of your bond payment. This needs to be paid by cash or by card (2% fee for credit cards). The £100 per person that you have already paid as a non-refundable holding deposit will be put towards your bond once you sign the contract.
If someone else is paying your bond on your behalf, please ensure you bring in their name and address to the appointment.
This payment will be held for the length of the tenancy, and will be returned to you at the end subject to the property being in the same condition (except for wear and tear)
All payments must be made together due to the new tenancy deposit legislation. If someone is not able to pay, we will ask you to sign the contract as normal, however we will only be able to take the bond payments when all members of the group can pay. We can take payments over the phone if this is easier for you.
In order for us to protect this deposit with the relevant scheme, we require someone to be nominated as Lead Tenant. Please could you have chosen this person before coming into the office.
General Info
If some of your group did not view the property when the initial viewing took place, we confirm that you all take the property on the advice from your housemates, and you will not be allowed to pull out at a later date because you do not like the property that has been chosen.
There are some properties that we let on a Tenant Find Only basis, and therefore we do not manage the property during your tenancy. You will be provided with contact details for your landlord once all guarantor forms are received.
Your rent for the summer period will be paid monthly, the remainder will coincide with your loan payments. The payment structure will be detailed on your tenancy agreement so please ensure that you read this thoroughly.
After you move into the property (Managed Properties Only)
Rubbish: You need to put rubbish out after 7pm the day before collection, or before 7am on the day of collection. If you have a wheelie bin it will be a fortnightly collection for household rubbish and recycling will be collected on the alternate weeks. (Any households without a wheelie bin will have their rubbish collected weekly)
Fire Extinguishers: The fire extinguishers located in your property are there for your own safety, therefore please ensure you know where they are. Please only use these if there is a fire (you will be charged for improper use!). They are provided to facilitate your safe exit from the property, we do not expect you to fight the fire unless safe to do so.
Smoke Alarms: Smoke alarms have been fitted on all floors of the property, we check these when you move in and at our quarterly house checks, however, it is recommended that you get into a habit of checking these weekly yourselves. If they beep continuously at any point and they have not just been checked, it probably needs a replacement battery, which you are responsible for.
Emergency Exits: You will all be provided with keys to open the doors. Please make sure that you know where yours are at all times in case you need to get out in an emergency. We advise that you keep external doors locked at all times, and you do not leave keys in the locks.
Routine House Checks: We will call to the house every three months to check that everything is ok. We will always give you at least 24 hours notice so you can ensure that the property has been cleaned.
Post for old tenants/Landlord: Post will probably come through for previous occupants of the property. Please could you drop this into our office, or send it to us when this does come to you so that we can forward it to the relevant people. If there is anything that is obviously just rubbish, please put it back in the post box with "return to sender" written on it.
Gas, Electricity & Water: We will take meter readings on the day you move in, and will notify the utility providers of these readings and that you have moved into the property. They may contact you in the meantime, in which case, please feel free to give them your details.
Council Tax: We notify the Council Tax Office that you have moved into the property, and it is your responsibility to ensure that you register your exemption. You can apply for these online by going to www.york.gov.uk and typing "student exemption" into the search box, or by using the link on our Useful Links page. If you do not send these over to them, a bill will be issued in your name.
Contacting I G Property
Should you need to speak to us or if you have any maintenance issues that need to be addressed, please contact us on:
01904 629929
Or email admin@igproperty.co.uk
The office phone will be manned between 9am and 4.30pm Monday to Friday. If you are calling after 4.30pm or on a weekend, please leave a message (clearly stating your name, telephone number and the property you are calling about).
For important issues (such as maintenance issues within the house, or rent payments etc) we advise that you call back to speak to someone during office hours if we have not called you back to confirm we have the message, rather than relying on leaving a message on the answer phone, as they are not 100% reliable and we would not want anything to be missed.
If you have an EMERGENCY, please call the office number in the first instance. It will be set on an answer phone; however it will give you an emergency number to call. Please only call this number in an emergency.
Please do not leave urgent messages on any numbers other than the emergency number for that occasion (please note that this number can change so it is not reliable to assume you know what the number will be).
Contact I G Property today on 01904 629929 your first choice for Student Accommodation and Private Rental Properties in York
I G Property - 22 High Petergate - York - YO1 7EH - T: 01904 629929 - E: admin@igproperty.co.uk