Purpose built student accommodation: notice to leave tenancy: student survey

Overview

We want to know about students' experiences of living in purpose built student accommodation (PBSA), including halls of residence, and whether you wanted to, or had to, leave your accommodation part way through your tenancy.

This includes college or university halls of residence and similar accommodation managed by an external organisation (such as UNITE or Student Roost).  It does not include private lets, typically where a student stays either alone or with other students in a privately owned house or flat.

Students in PBSA currently do not have the same rights to ask to leave your tenancy as tenants in the private rented sector. To establish whether there is need for similar rights within the PBSA sector, we are looking to find out if students had to leave or wanted to leave PBSA during the tenancy and, if so, how easy or difficult this was. We also want to know whether there were any penalties associated with an earlier termination of your tenancy agreement. We are specifically interested in students experiences of leaving or wanting to leave their accommodation before or after the COVID-19 pandemic, as emergency provisions around accommodation were in place during the pandemic that allowed students to end their tenancy early.

If you currently stay in PBSA, or have previously stayed in PBSA at any point since 2016, other than during the period between academic years 2019.20 - 2021/22 when emergency provisions allowing students to end tenancy agreements were in place, we would be grateful if you would complete the following questionnaire.

A similar questionnaire has been developed for completion by providers of PBSA, if you are a PBSA provider please instead complete the Purpose built student accommodation: notice to leave tenancy: PBSA survey. 

The analysis of the questionnaire responses will be published on the Scottish Government website. Individual responses to this questionnaire will not be published.

Information sessions

Join us to hear more about this consultation and other Scottish Government lifelong learning and skills consultations currently open on Citizen Space.

Information sessions will be run on the following dates:

26 August – Sign up here:  Information Session registration, Mon 26 Aug 2024 at 14:00

2 September – Sign up here: Information Session Registration Mon, Sep 2, 2024 at 2:30 PM

3 September – Sign up here: Information Session Registration, Tue, Sep 3, 2024 at 3:00 PM

Please note that these sessions are for information only and views or responses intended for inclusion as part of any consultations should be submitted through Citizen Space.

Why your views matter

Tenancy or accommodation agreements in private tenancies and purpose built student accommodation (PBSA) are different, especially in respect of the ability to end the tenancy early. While tenancy agreements in the private rented sector are governed by legislation and allow a tenant to give notice to end the tenancy, those in PBSA are based on contracts between the accommodation provider and the student and do not currently allow early termination by giving notice.

In order to establish whether there is a need to change the nature of notice periods in student accommodation, we are looking for information about how often a notice to end the tenancy early has been requested, for what reason and whether or not this has been granted without financial penalty.

To ensure we obtain as much information as possible, we are also asking providers of student accommodation about the number of requests they have received, how they were dealt with and any impact of such requests.

Once all responses are analysed a decision on whether a change is necessary and proportionate can be made.

What happens next

Responses to the questionnaires will be analysed and used to inform decisions on whether changes to the notice periods in purpose built student accommodation are necessary and proportionate.

Individual responses will not be published but the analysis of the questionnaire responses will be published on the Scottish Government website.