Second Year in Aberdeen: Flat Share or Student Building?

By second year most people want more independence, and most want to live with the friends they made in first year. In Aberdeen that usually comes down to two options: rent a private flat together, or move into a student building.

Both work. They are governed by different law, though, and that is the part nobody explains before you sign something.

The legal difference, in one paragraph

A private flat is normally a private residential tenancy. It is open-ended, it has statutory rules behind it, and you can leave on at least 28 days' notice in writing.

A student building is not. Halls and purpose-built student accommodation are excluded from the private residential tenancy regime by paragraph 5 of schedule 1 to the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016, so what you have is a common law tenancy and your contract is the thing that decides your rights. Fixed term, usually the academic year, and usually no right to hand in notice part way through.

That cuts both ways, and it is worth being straight about it: a student building gives you less flexibility to leave and more certainty about everything else.

If you take a private flat, check these before you sign

The deposit. It can be no more than two months' rent, and it must be placed in one of Scotland's three approved schemes — SafeDeposits Scotland, mydeposits Scotland or Letting Protection Service Scotland — within 30 working days of the tenancy starting. Your landlord must also tell you in writing which scheme holds it. That deadline is law, not custom: see mygov.scot on tenant deposits. If it is not protected, you can apply to the First-tier Tribunal.

Fees are illegal. In Scotland a landlord or agent may not charge you anything for starting or renewing a tenancy. That includes administration fees, credit-check fees, key money and non-refundable holding deposits. If you have paid one, you can ask for it back.

Ask about the HMO licence. A property occupied by three or more people from three or more families, as their main home, is a house in multiple occupation under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2006 and needs a licence from the council. Most three-bedroom student flats are in scope. Ask to see it.

Council tax is not automatic. A household where every adult is a full-time student is exempt, but somebody has to apply, and you may need to apply again each year. Aberdeen City Council's council tax pages set out what they need.

Ask how the tenancy is written. Is it one agreement for the group, or one each? It is the question that matters most if somebody drops out in March, and the answer is in the paperwork rather than in anybody's intentions.

Ask what the heating cost last winter. Not what it costs on average. What the previous tenants actually paid, in Aberdeen, in January.

What a student building gives you instead

One payment that covers the rent, every utility bill, the internet and contents insurance, so nothing lands in February that you did not plan for. A maintenance team in the building rather than a letting agent who will get back to you. Your own room and your own contract, so a flatmate changing their mind is their business and not your bill.

Here that also means a gym, a common room with a pool table, a laundry, secure bike storage and a garden, and a direct bus to RGU from the end of the road.

You can ask to be placed near people you already know. Put their names on the enquiry and the team will do what they can with what is free.