FAQs: Student

A landlord must give a valid legal reason, known as a ground for possession. These can include:

• The landlord or a close family member needs to move into the property.
• The landlord intends to sell the property.
• A student HMO is needed for a new group of students under Ground 4A.
• Rent has not been paid or has repeatedly been paid late.
• The tenancy agreement has been breached.
• The property or its furniture has been damaged.
• There has been antisocial behaviour, nuisance or illegal activity.
• False information was provided to secure the tenancy.
• The property needs significant redevelopment or must be recovered to comply with legal action.

Ground 4A allows a landlord of a qualifying student HMO to regain possession at the end of the academic year so it can be rented to a new group of full-time students.

Assured periodic tenancies do not have a fixed end date, so your tenancy will usually continue until you give notice or your landlord follows the correct legal process to regain possession.

Student landlords may still be able to use Ground 4A at the end of the academic year.

If you have a separate tenancy agreement for your bedroom, your notice will normally end only your tenancy. The other tenants’ individual agreements will continue.

If everyone is named on one tenancy agreement, one tenant can usually serve notice that ends the tenancy for the whole group.

If only one person wants to leave and the others want to stay, please contact Coapt before serving notice. A replacement tenant or new agreement may be possible, but this must be agreed by the landlord and tenants.

Under the new rules you must give at least two months’ notice.

Notice must be given in writing and should end on the day your rent is due or the day before. You must continue paying rent until the tenancy ends unless an earlier date is agreed in writing.

You must continue paying rent until your notice period ends, even if you move out earlier, unless an earlier end date is agreed in writing.

Your notice should include:

Your full name;
The property address;
A clear statement that you are giving notice to end the tenancy;
The date you want the tenancy to end; and
The date the notice is being sent.

Please keep a copy of your notice. It must be sent to belong@coapt.co.uk

The main tenancy changes came into effect in England on 1 May 2026. Most private tenancies are now rolling assured periodic tenancies rather than fixed-term tenancies.

The differences in outgoing costs between traditional deposits and zero-deposit schemes are actually very little! For Reposit you pay one week’s rent to Reposit who act to insure your deposit. This is non-refundable. You then pay the first months’ rent within 15 days as security for the landlord leading up to the tenancy. This is the case with all zero-deposit schemes. For a traditional deposit, you would pay a holding deposit. You then pay 5 weeks’ rent within 15 days for the rest of the deposit, minus the holding deposit you’d already paid. The first month’s rent would then be paid 7 days before the beginning of the tenancy. After this, the differences are minimal until the end of the tenancy. With a traditional deposit, we will send you a breakdown of any deductions within a month of your tenancy end date and then once agreed, will return the balance of the funds to you. With Reposit, we will submit any end of tenancy charges onto their platform with 24 days of the end of your tenancy, you will be notified of these by Reposit and once agreed, you will pay this money to Reposit.

All keys should be left together inside the property. Please do not hand-deliver or post keys back to our office, as this will mean they are not listed on the check-out report and you may be charged.

If your front door requires a key to lock when closed, please pop the rest of the keys inside, lock the front door and push the last set through the letterbox.

If you are on a bills included package, nothing! Prior to the last day of your tenancy, contact your gas, electricity and water suppliers to let them know you are moving out. On the last day take meter readings and provide them to supplier. (Tip: take photos of all the readings, they can come in handy!). If you have top-up meters for any utilities, you must ensure these have the same amount of credit as when you moved in. You can find this information on your inventory. Don’t forget about broadband / telephone providers, your TV license and to re-direct any post. We will not be able to collect any post for you once you have moved out.

The best way is to use your inventory and go around the house room by room making sure the property is returned to the same condition as when you moved in. Don’t worry, we will of course allow for fair wear and tear. Pay special attention to cleanliness, this is the most common deposit deduction. We would recommend sourcing the inventory sent to you at the beginning of your tenancy to refer back to, just to be safe!

After the check out has been completed on the last day of your tenancy, we will have a breakdown of any deductions to you within one month at the latest, but we will aim for sooner. Once agreed, your deposit will be returned within 48 hours to your nominated bank account.

No, we ask you are not present for the checkout. If you are still at the property you will be asked to wait outside while our independent inventory company compiles the report. This is for two reasons; firstly because they want to be able to complete the report independently without distraction and need peace and quiet in order to record it, and secondly to make sure there is no bias affecting the report. The same rules will also apply to your landlord.

Bills included packages are available so you can enjoy your home without the stress of managing your bills. Our packages include Electricity, Gas, Water and Superfast Broadband; no unexpected bills on your doormat, no worrying about price increases with the ever changing price caps, and no reason to chase your housemates for money. Just easy living!

If you are renting a Coapt managed property we’ll add your bills package in to your rent for one easy payment every month. See prices below. If you are renting a landlord managed property you’ll get a quote from The Student Energy Group to set up your bills directly.

House size	Price per person per week
2	£39.50
3	£28.50
4	£24.00
5	£21.50
6	£20.00
7	£19.00
8	£18.00
9	£17.00

Simply select the bills included option on your application form. Tada! ????

If you have signed up for bills included with a minimum of 2 weeks before you tenancy starts then your water, gas and electricity should all be sorted when you move in. We aim to have your WIFI set up when you move in too but please note that this can take up to two weeks after your tenancy starts as a third party company deals with the organisation of this.

Check out our easy to follow guide to completing your paperwork here.

To find out who your current utility suppliers are call 0870 6081524 for gas, 0845 6015467 for electricity and 0330 303 1263 for water.

Full-time students are exempt from Council Tax during term time (phew!). In order to claim your discount you must register online with the City Council.  Alternatively you can call Brighton & Hove City Council on 01273 291291 for further advice.

Don’t panic, we will be as flexible as possible to facilitate a swap over. Please contact the Property Admin team ASAP to let us know so that we can work together to fill the empty room. It is up to the exiting tenant to find a replacement and once you have we’ll help them through the contract part as quickly as possible. The tenant that has withdrawn will lose their holding deposit.

We always hope that we will be able to find a middle ground, where you are happy. However, if you do not agree with the deductions you have the right to dispute your deposit through MyDeposits. MyDeposits do ask that you have attempted to resolve the disagreement (e.g. you have told us you are not happy and asked us to clarify anything) before taking it to dispute. Please note the dispute process is the first step and will be judged by an independent claims official. Small claims courts will direct you to MyDeposits dispute service in the first instance. If you would like to raise a dispute, you can do so on the MyDeposits website www.mydeposits.co.uk.

Yes of course! If you are happy with the breakdown, please feel free to email us straight back to let us know and we can return this to you at the next available opportunity.

We will give you 48 hours to initially respond to the breakdown. Please note, we will not return the deposit before this time period has passed. Once the 48 hours have passed, if we have not heard from you regarding this, we will return the deposit to you as soon as we can providing all tenants have completed the ‘Deposit return form.’ Please contact us if the deposit is not in your account after this time period and we will look into why this is.

Most tenancy agreements are joint and severally liable. This means the deposit is one payment and all deductions will be made from the deposit as a whole. We will send a breakdown of deductions detailing any charges on a room by room basis where we can, to help you divide up the balance. If one tenants ‘share’ of damages is more than their portion of deposit, it will be up to yourselves as tenants to reclaim the money off them if you wish.

Please do bear with us, this is an incredibly busy time. We have nearly 500 properties moving in and out in a very short space of time. The deposits are handled in order of move out date and we will respond to each of you. We aim to respond within 3 working days to each email, however please do bear with us, this could take longer depending on the number of queries you have.