Practical tips from residents

This collection brings together experience that residents have found useful in everyday life. It does not replace contractual rules and may differ between residences; binding guidance is linked separately on the relevant detail pages.

• Photograph the visible condition of your room at the handover and keep the handover record. This makes later queries easier.
• Keep letters, agreement documents and important local contacts somewhere easy to find.
• Check your contact details in the tenant portal so that official messages reach you.

The moving-in-day process explains the binding deadline for visible defects.

• Agree concrete expectations for the kitchen, bathroom, noise and cleaning; people can understand “clean” or “quiet” differently.
• Discuss shared times early if your daily schedules are very different.
• Address small irritations before frustration builds up, provided that doing so is safe and reasonable for you.

• Leave a little space between furniture and very cold external walls where the room allows it.
• Ventilate and heat appropriately for the situation, without assuming that visible damp is caused solely by your behaviour.
• Document mould, wet patches or recurring damp early and report it, as structural causes are also possible.

Understand damp and mould

• Note the location, time, machine number or error message before reporting a fault.
• Refer to an existing ticket when following up instead of opening several unrelated reports.
• Do not open electrical, water-carrying or safety-related equipment yourself.

Check the official reporting route and urgency

• Work backwards from the end of your agreement when planning cleaning, handover and any unresolved points.
• Keep the handover record and photographs; they supplement the handover but do not replace it.
• Provide an accessible bank account and your current contact address in good time.

Binding steps when moving out