You failed the year at uni, so what do you do with your room?

What do you do if you’ve already signed for a place with your pals, paid your deposit – then life gets in the way and you don’t make the grades to go back to uni? Well, we Googled it and no one was really talking about it (probably because it’s major scary) so here’s some words of advice on how to go about sorting everything out, from team Rentinc.

We know this is major awks and literally a nightmare sitch but we think it’s important for you to know your options in case it ever happens to you…

Should I stay or should I go?

First off (in the spirit of The Clash obvs) you’ll need to decide if you’re going to stay living in your student gaff or if you’re going to go home for the year. It’s cool if you wanna get a job and live as a professional in your Rentinc pad, we’re fine with that. Keep us in the loop at this point – we know big decisions can take a while and it’ll be easier for us to help if you let us know what’s going on.

Option 1: Stay put and get a job

If you decide to stick with it and get a job for the year, while you do a few re-sits, it’s all pretty straightforward. Once you’ve found a job you just need to let us know that you’re now working and show us some paperwork for us to double check.

Then, no matter whether you’ve opted all-inc or non-inc, you’ll still need to let the council know that you’re no longer a full-time student. Remember you’ll need to budget for paying council tax but make sure to let the council know that you’re living with students to score yourself a discount.

Option 2: Find a replacement and move home

If you think moving back home for the year would be easier then you’re best to find someone to take your room and replace your part on the contract. Here’s how to do it:

1. Let your housemates know that you’re planning to leave. You never know, one of them might even know someone who’s still looking for a room.
2. Let us know in writing that you’d like to leave so we can give you some advice on how to get your room let. There’s always students looking for last minute rooms, you just need to get the word out in the right places.
3. When you find a replacement tenant, check that your housemates are happy to live with them. They’ll need to let us know in writing that everything’s fine before we can get all the paperwork sorted.

Important stuff about your contract

Sorry, but you’ll still need to keep paying your rent while all of this is going on. You’ll be responsible for payments, even if you’re not living in the house, while you’re finding a job or until you’ve found a replacement and all the paperwork is done. Have a chat with your guarantor if you think you might struggle to cover your rent at any point.

Here’s a reminder about our assignment process if you’re thinking of finding a replacement. You’ll be responsible for the rent until a new tenant has paid a deposit, found a UK guarantor and signed a joint and several contract with the other tenants. You’ll also need to pay an assignment fee which covers the whole tenant transfer process, including preparing and organising the new documents.

We promise it gets better

It might feel like the end of the world right now, and we know it really sucks, but trust us, you can totally turn this around. To cheer you up, here’s some of our favourite entrepreneurs and celebrities who did it their way:

• The one and only Steven Spielberg (yep – Jurassic Park, ET, Back to the Future!) got rejected from film school not one but three times! He did get into a different college but dropped out to make short films instead, and now he’s one of the biggest filmmakers in the world.

Steven Spielberg Oscars GIF by The Academy Awards – Find & Share on GIPHY

Welcome to the official Oscars Giphy page.

• Lady Gaga, aka Mother Monster, dropped out of university after a year to focus on her music. She made it into the club scene in New York and the rest is history! Ask her how she did it and she’ll tell you ‘hard work’ instead of studying hard.

Lady Gaga Oscars GIF by The Academy Awards – Find & Share on GIPHY

Welcome to the official Oscars Giphy page.

• JK Rowling failed Oxford University’s entry exams…so she went to Exeter instead to study French (random). Anyway, none of that stopped her from writing the best book series in the history of the world, Harry Potter – thanks JK!

Alan Rickman Clap GIF – Find & Share on GIPHY

Discover & share this Clap GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

• Scarlett Moffatt had to take maths three times to finally get a place at University. And in the end she didn’t need a degree at all, she just needed to say some witty stuff on TV to find success.

Good luck for results day, we’re sure you won’t need to worry about all this but our advice is here if you need it. And if things don’t go your way, you’re not alone, we’ve helped loads of students sort out tricky situations in the past so get in touch.