Landlords specialising in properties for students will now have the opportunity to gain special accreditation under a new national student landlord scheme set up by the Accommodation for Students (AFS) and Unipol.
The accreditation scheme will set a minimum benchmark of quality for student accommodation and will cover all student properties with a maximum of 14 occupants. It is designed to help students make a more informed choice about the accommodation they are looking at, plus it should help to remove the sub-standard properties sometimes offered to students.
Student landlords who apply for accreditation must pass a short online training course, after which their properties will be verified by a trained inspector and a report issued. Once any action points have been addressed, an accreditation certificate will be issued to successful landlords, who will then be allowed to show a “thumbs up” logo against their properties on the Accommodation for Students website.
How will the scheme help student landlords?
Any landlord who takes pride in their properties and the services they are offering will welcome the new accreditation scheme with open arms. The scheme will allow landlords to apply for accreditation based on the quality of their accommodation, which will make their properties stand out to potential student tenants. Other practical benefits offered by the accreditation scheme include template tenancy agreements and discounts.
Personally I think this scheme is a great idea. I can still recall the awful student accommodation I was forced to live in during my university days many moons ago, so anything that removes bad landlords from the accommodation process is a good thing for the rest of us.
