REVIEW: STUDENT HOUSING AND THE LAW

Student Housing and the Law
Martin Davis and Graham Robson (2009)
Shelter
Hardback ISBN 978-1903595770

With almost 2 million students involved in full time higher education this guide to student housing has a ready audience, many members of which will know precious little about their rights and obligations under the law.

This guide aims to provide a comprehensive overview of student housing for both students, advisers and, although unstated, landlords. It stresses that the relationships it covers are essentially legal but reminds the reader that many of the issues that might arise can be dealt with by good communication between the parties involved.

The book is structured in a straightforward way, using a number of important themes to then illustrate the main legal issues. The coverage it provides is good, ranging as it does from types of accommodation, providers, both educational institutions and other landlords, to matters to do with setting up tenancies, rents, rights and responsibilities, management issues, conditions and ending lettings. There is also a useful section that identifies some prominent issues to do with deposits, co-housing conditions and HMOs, with a brief overview and discussion of each.

The content of each of the sections provides very helpful information whatever the reader’s perspective. For example, there is a section covering the relationship between university disciplinary regulations and students living in halls of residence. Furthermore, reference is made to the voluntary standards to which universities and colleges can conform by signing up to the accreditation schemes run by Universities UK or the Accreditation Network UK.

This is also a handy list of contacts towards the end of the book; a glossary of terms would be useful as would a detailed list of references.

Whilst the content is good I can’t help feeling that the guide would benefit from more of the good illustrative cases to help those coming cold to the topic to understand this complex subject. By relating some of the intricate issues to real life instances would be of immense benefit to lay readers and to university accommodation staff, some of whom I have experience of teaching. One way of doing this might have been to use more of the many references to legal cases and to convert them into accessible illustrative cases.

In spite of my praise for the guide’s utility I find myself wondering about other things that it ought to have covered. Among the issues that have been overlooked is any detailed consideration of equalities, in particular the requirements placed on housing providers by the Disability Discrimination Acts. This strikes me as a significant omission because universities and colleges are obliged to provide support to disabled students, especially opportunities to support their learning. A cursory glance at some university websites confirms support is also provided in terms of living needs. There has been a missed opportunity to set out duties placed on landlords, especially in the private rented sector, by the law and Equality and Human Rights Commission Codes of Practice in this book.

Similarly, it would have been of benefit to have seen some discussion of other forms of discrimination that may occur in student housing, both provided by institutions and private landlords. It needs more guidance about what not to do when allocating and letting properties, or how to be sensitive to different cultural needs, or when housing students from overseas.

Last gripe: it would add to the guide if there were some consideration of what should happen when students are on the receiving end of bullying, harassment or anti-social behaviour as opposed to being assumed perpetrators of the latter. What role does the university have in dealing with these; what are landlord duties; what can other agencies do to help? What happens if a student becomes homeless as result of actions against them of this sort?

All things considered this is a very good guide that I would expect to be an essential tool to be used by university accommodation officers and student union welfare officers alike. From a teaching and learning perspective I also anticipate it being a core text to use when teaching university accommodation officers; in fact it will be the only text other than the now dated Student Rights Guide, also published by Shelter, to which I guess this must be the successor.

In closing, I’d like to refer back to the authors’ observation noted in the opening to this review that everything to do with student housing and the law is essentially relational; it involves interaction between landlord and tenant. Managing those relationships, whether you are a landlord or a tenant is quite a skill, so perhaps some advice about how to do this would have been valuable with again some examples that would help both parties avoid ending up dealing with the complex and expensive world of the law.

Steve McCann
Senior Lecturer in Housing Studies & HE Programme Manager
Centre for Housing and Support