How Landlords Can Make Sure They Get Their Last Month's Rent

April 8, 2010 - PRLog -- Making sure a tenant pays the last month's rent before leaving is often a problem for landlords, so here are four tips from the experts at Student Landlord Magazine (http://www.studenthousing.co.uk) to help get that missing money.

1. Never match the tenant's deposit to the rent.

Deposits should never be the same as a month's rent or a multiple of weekly rent.

For example, if you have a shared house with four students in and you charge each £60 a week for rent, the deposit should never be £260 (£60 x 52  weeks divided by 12 months)

Rounding off the deposit like this lets the tenant make the mental leap that the rent equals the deposit.

Set your deposit as an odd number that is not divisible in any way by the rent, like £295 or £287.

2. Don't set the rent as 12 monthly payments

Students are paid loans and grants in instalments - at the start of the three academic year's terms. That's the time to take your rent - when they are flush with money.

This also gives you better cash flow and cuts administrative costs.

If you can't get three payments, use the 10 over 12 system like the council charges council tax. For our £60 a week student, that's £60 x 52 weeks divided by 10 = £312 per month.

3. Check your tenancies don't end over the summer

Most tenancy agreements run from July 1 until the end of the following June. Don't let your agreements expire over summer because students away on holiday have little incentive to pay.

4. Add a guarantor to the agreement

Reference guarantors so you have someone you can find, like a close relative, if the tenant skips without paying.

# # #

Paul Allison has run New Student (http://www.newstudent.co.uk/) , an independent student accommodation newspaper in Newcastle since 1999. In 2001, Sheffield and Liverpool papers were launched and in 2002 Leeds was added. The papers serve 250,000 students across 14 universities. Paul has an interest in all issues that affect student housing and HMOs.