Lawyer Destroyer Short answer No. A landlord or letting agent cannot lawfully invite students to bid above the advertised rent, encourage higher offers, or accept an offer above the advertised figure. This is the practice known as rental bidding, and it has been prohibited under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. What the law now requires The Renters’ … Read more
Short answer In almost all cases, no. Section 21 “no fault” notices have now been abolished in England under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. For most private tenancies, including a typical student house rented from a private landlord, your landlord can no longer use a section 21 notice to evict you. They can only seek … Read more
Short answer It depends on what kind of tenancy you have and on when you are trying to leave. A blanket “two months’ notice” right for tenants is a feature of the new system introduced by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, and it applies once your tenancy is an assured periodic tenancy under that Act. … Read more
The key distinction Whether a minor first offence should be treated as poor academic practice rather than academic misconduct depends on one central question: was there an intention to gain an unfair advantage or to deceive the marker? This is the dividing line that most university academic integrity regulations in England and Wales use to … Read more
This depends entirely on your own university’s academic regulations, and the rules genuinely differ between institutions. There is no single national rule in England and Wales that governs which mark counts, because assessment regulations are set by each university under its own academic autonomy. That said, there are some common patterns worth understanding so you … Read more
Short answer Yes. Students at a university in England and Wales can complain as a group about the same teaching or course-delivery problem, and universities are expected to allow this. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education (OIA), the ombudsman that reviews unresolved complaints against most higher education providers in England and Wales, … Read more
Legal and regulatory framework Late return of coursework feedback is primarily a matter of the university’s own regulations and its obligations to you as a student, rather than a standalone breach of general law in most cases. Three overlapping frameworks are relevant in England and Wales. First, your relationship with the university is contractual. The … Read more
Short answer No. In England, a landlord or letting agent generally cannot refuse to rent to you, refuse you a viewing, or withhold information about a property simply because you receive benefits or because you have children. This kind of treatment is now specifically prohibited and is commonly referred to as “rental discrimination” or “DSS … Read more
Whether your landlord can do this depends heavily on the type of tenancy you have, when it started, and the specific ground the landlord wants to rely on. The law in this area has changed significantly under the Renters’ Rights Act 2025, so the position now is different from the old rules that many tenancy … Read more
The general principle Where you have a live academic appeal that has not yet been decided, and a resit, reassessment or progression deadline is approaching, the university should not allow that deadline to prejudice your appeal or leave you worse off simply because it has taken time to reach a decision. This is a core … Read more
The short answer is that it depends entirely on your own university’s academic regulations, because compensation and condonement are governed by each institution’s own rules rather than by any general law. At some universities you have a right to reject a compensated pass and resit; at others a compensated pass is applied automatically and cannot … Read more
Short answer Not necessarily. Whether you must repeat every assessment component in a module, or only the one you failed, is not a matter of general law. It is governed entirely by the academic regulations of your particular university, and these differ significantly from one institution to another. The default position at most universities in … Read more
Short answer Yes, a 17-year-old can be bound by a student accommodation agreement, but the position is more complicated than for an adult, and there are important qualifications. The general rule is that most contracts with a person under 18 (a minor) are not enforceable against the minor, but there is a long-established exception for … Read more
Short answer Generally no. A student landlord (or their agent) in England cannot simply require you to pay for a non-refundable zero-deposit or deposit-replacement product as a condition of getting or keeping the tenancy. Under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, any payment a landlord or agent requires you to make in connection with a tenancy … Read more
Short answer No. A landlord or accommodation provider who buys gas or electricity from a supplier and then resells it to you generally cannot add a mark-up or make a profit on the energy itself. This is governed by the Maximum Resale Price (MRP) rules, made under section 37 of the Gas Act 1986 and … Read more
Short answer Yes, but usually only at the penalty stage rather than in deciding whether misconduct occurred. In England and Wales, academic misconduct is dealt with under each institution’s own regulations rather than by general legislation, so the precise rules vary. However, the almost universal position across UK universities is that illness, stress or difficult … Read more
Short answer Yes. In both school and college exams governed by the exam boards and in university assessments, the mere act of receiving, seeing, holding, or passing on leaked exam questions or answers can amount to academic misconduct or exam malpractice. You do not have to actually use the material, gain higher marks, or even … Read more
The key point about accommodation guarantees Most accommodation guarantees offered by universities only apply to students who firmly accept their place by a certain date, usually those who put the university as their firm choice by the main UCAS deadline. Students who arrive through Clearing are very often excluded from the accommodation guarantee, or are … Read more
Short answer In almost all cases, no. If you are a tenant, your landlord cannot lawfully lock you out, change the locks, physically remove you, or take your belongings to force you out without following the proper legal process. Doing so is generally both a criminal offence and a civil wrong. There is a limited … Read more
What Ground 4A is Ground 4A is a possession ground introduced by the Renters’ Rights Act 2025 and set out in Schedule 1 to that Act (which amends Schedule 2 to the Housing Act 1988). It is designed specifically to let landlords of student houses recover possession in time to re-let to a fresh group … Read more
