Room Allocation & Deposit
Provisional allocation / Security deposit payment / Tenancy deposit / Met all conditions / Final allocation / The waiting list
Provisional allocation
If you are offered accommodation, we will provide you with an indication of which room band you will be allocated to at this point. Please note you do not need to have fulfilled the conditions associated with your College and University offers, or to have paid your £200 security deposit to the College, to be provisionally allocated accommodation. Accommodation will be allocated by preference as far as possible except when it is determined that we should do otherwise due to specific requirements (e.g. reasonable adjustments) until all spaces at all sites have been filled (at which point we will open a waiting-list; see more information below).
Security deposit payment
If you are offered accommodation, you will be asked to pay a refundable security deposit payment of £200 within 2 weeks of being sent the confirmation email. The deposit will be held by the College and will offset part of your Tenancy Deposit (see below). Details of how you may pay the deposit will be provided to you at that time.
Please note, if you choose not to take up the accommodation or the graduate place you have been offered at Reuben College, the security deposit payment will be refunded to you in full if you withdraw before 31 July. The deposit is non-refundable if you withdraw after 31 July. In exceptional circumstances, the College Bursar can consider a request for refund. Please make an application to the Admissions Administrator at admissions@reuben.ox.ac.uk.
Tenancy deposit
Once we have confirmed your final allocation, you will be sent a tenancy agreement to sign and asked to pay a tenancy deposit equal to a month’s rent (minus the £200 security deposit you paid earlier). The deposit will be held by the College and returned within 4 weeks of the end of your tenancy (minus any charges for cleaning or damages).
We may use the deposit to cover:
- Any damages to the property or its contents;
- Cleaning;
- Disposing of the tenant’s belongings if left in the property at the end of the tenancy;
- Any outstanding payments due, including rent, council tax and any other service charges;
- Any legal or professional fees incurred as a result of the tenant breaching the tenancy agreement.
You can find further details on the deposit in your Tenancy Agreement.
‘Met all conditions’
In order to take up an offer of accommodation you must have met the academic and financial conditions of your University offer. You will have ‘met all conditions’ when you have:
- Replied to your formal offer letter to accept your College offer, and applied for accommodation
- Met all of the conditions stipulated in your University and College offer letters (this includes any academic, language and financial conditions).
If any of these points are not completed by 31st July you will lose entitlement to any accommodation you have provisionally been offered and be placed on the waiting list for accommodation. Please contact the Graduate and Admissions Administrator in advance of this date with full details if you feel you will have trouble fulfilling your conditions by the deadline.
Final allocation (after the 31st July deadline)
The College is responsible for the final allocation of accommodation to graduate freshers. In order to make the allocation process as fair as possible, the same policy is applied to all graduate freshers who have been offered accommodation.
In late August, the college will confirm via email the (until then provisional) accommodation allocation with those graduate freshers who have paid their £200 deposit by the 31st July deadline and met all the conditions of their University offer, including meeting their financial conditions with the College. Students will have five working days to confirm that they accept the offer. If you do not reply by the deadline in the email, it will be assumed that you do not wish to accept the accommodation offer. If you do not accept the accommodation offer there is no guarantee that a further offer can be made at a later date. Please note you may not be informed of your room number until your arrival.
NB: It is important that you continue to check your emails regularly during the summer in case we have to contact you regarding your offer and/or accommodation. If your current contact email is expiring during the summer, please ensure that you let us have an alternative email address where we can contact you.
An electronic copy of your contract (‘the tenancy agreement’) will be sent to you by the College. You will be asked to review it and accept the terms and conditions. A sample tenancy agreement is available for you to view.
The waiting list
As there are not currently enough rooms to provide accommodation for all of the incoming freshers, we may have a waiting list. If you are placed on the waiting list for accommodation it is possible that between that time and the first week of August you may be offered accommodation by the Graduate and Admissions Administrator if/when space becomes available due to other students withdrawing or failing to meet the conditions of their offers.
In late August, if after allocating rooms the Accommodation Officer has any rooms left, they will be offered to those on the waiting list. We advise you not to rely on being allocated a room if you are on the waiting list as we have no way of anticipating the likelihood of rooms becoming available at this late stage.
