FAQs

We are specialists — Oxford student HMOs are the only properties we let and manage. We don’t do family homes, single lets, commercial, holiday lets, or general residential. That narrow focus is how we know the licensing zones, the Article 4 history on specific streets, the planning quirks, and the rent that lets when the market tightens.

Oxford city — specifically the areas where Oxford University and Oxford Brookes students live. HMOs in OX1, OX2, OX3, OX4 and the immediate surrounding postcodes. We don’t operate outside Oxford because doing so would dilute the specialism that’s the entire reason the agency exists.

No — we only manage student HMOs let to full-time students at Oxford University or Oxford Brookes. It’s a deliberately narrow focus and the thing that makes the specialism real.

We offer three packages:

• Tenant Find: 50% of one month’s rent — minimum £850 per let
• Rent Collection: 9% of rent collected — minimum £125 per calendar month
• Fully Managed: 11% of rent collected — minimum £160 per calendar month

A one-off set-up fee of £500 applies when you instruct us, covering onboarding, a full compliance audit, professional photography, and landlord portal setup. Oxford Student Homes is not VAT-registered, so no VAT is added to any management fee. The fee on your agreement is the total you pay us — third-party costs, like a contractor’s invoice or a council licence fee, are always passed through at cost.

Because we do real work before your first tenant moves in — and we’d rather price that transparently than hide it inside the ongoing fee. The £500 covers a complete on-file compliance audit of your property (gas, EICR, EPC, HMO licence, deposit protection, right-to-rent, tenancy documentation review), professional photography suited to Oxford student listings, landlord-portal setup including document migration of any inherited tenancy paperwork, and an initial rent-review benchmark. The £500 is one-off, payable on signature (within 14 days) — before the work begins, because that’s when the work happens. If you proceed on Fully Managed, it’s deductible against your first month’s management fee.

If we arrange them, these are the all-in, per-tenancy prices — the assessor’s own charge is included, and we never mark suppliers up: EPC £99 · Gas Safety (CP12) £120 · EICR £215 · PAT £90 · Legionella risk assessment £99. Three things most agents don’t say: these fees are avoidable — provide current, valid certificates or arrange the work directly and you don’t pay them; where a supplier charges VAT, it’s already inside the figure shown; and everything else contractors do is passed through at cost, zero mark-up — you see the actual invoice in your portal. What the fee buys when we do arrange it: the right assessor booked, access coordinated with a house full of tenants, the certificate chased, filed in your portal, and its expiry tracked so it renews before it lapses.

No tie-in: you can end ongoing management with one month’s written notice at any time, and there is no exit fee for doing so. One honest distinction, because both figures are published: withdrawing a property after instructing us — once marketing, referencing and set-up work has happened — is different from ending management by notice. Withdrawal costs £400 while no holding deposit has been paid and no tenants have been accepted; after that point it is £500 (Rent Collection) or £750 (Fully Managed) within the first 12 months, and £0 thereafter. We think you should stay because we earn it every month — not because you’re locked in.

Yes. Client money is held in a designated client account protected by Client Money Protection through Propertymark CMP (membership C0142401), covering up to £50,000 per individual claim — our CMP certificate, the statutory proof of that cover, is published on this website. On top of the money protection, we’re members of The Property Ombudsman, the government-approved redress scheme, so if you ever feel we’ve fallen short you have a free, independent route beyond us — and our TPO membership is searchable on TPO’s own public register.

Live rent status and statements. Voids. Maintenance tickets with photos at every stage. Compliance status and downloadable certificates. Tenancy documents. Inspection reports. Contact logs. It updates live — when we log a job or renew a certificate, it appears on your portal within minutes.

Every property is loaded onto our compliance tracker on day one of instruction. Gas Safety, EICR, EPC, HMO licence, Fire Risk Assessment, smoke and CO alarms, deposit protection, prescribed information, the “How to Rent” guide, right-to-rent checks — we log every expiry date, start chasing renewals 90 days ahead, and on Rent Collection and Fully Managed we arrange them before the clock runs out. Tenant Find landlords get the same full audit at set-up, then manage renewals themselves from move-in. Certificates sit in your landlord portal for instant access.

Our standard is triage the same day — usually within a few hours. Genuine emergencies — no heat, no hot water, leaks, security — are acted on immediately, day or night. Urgent repairs are typically resolved within 48 hours, routine jobs within five working days — and where a part or a specialist must be ordered, you’ll know the same day, with a date attached. You receive photo updates as the work progresses, the contractor quote before we commit above the Maintenance Authority Limit (£300 by default), and the invoice passed through at cost.

No. Contractor invoices are passed through to you at cost. We earn our management fee, not a spread on a plumber. The one related fee that does exist is published: project works over £500 carry a project-management fee of 12% of the net invoice — full project management, at least two competitive quotes, written specification, supervision and final inspection — but the contractor’s own invoice is still passed through at cost, unmarked.

Rent is tracked daily. If a tenant misses a payment, we contact them the same day to resolve it. If it escalates, we follow a documented arrears process — courtesy reminder on day 1, formal arrears letter on day 7, guarantor notification on day 14, recommendation to you on day 30. You see every step on the portal. Tenants on a joint tenancy are jointly and severally liable, so we pursue the household as a whole — and each guarantor is pursued under their deed of guarantee. Where necessary we serve Section 8 notices (£150 per notice) and coordinate court proceedings if you authorise them (£500/day plus costs).

We run a full photographic inventory and accompanied check-in at the start, and a documented check-out against that inventory at the end. Damage is documented with photos and costed against the deposit, which is protected with an approved government scheme (DPS). Disputed amounts are resolved through the scheme’s free adjudication service. The whole process is visible in your portal.

One phone number. One email. The same person who signs your Terms of Business, tracks your compliance, chases your rent, and calls your plumber. No rotating account managers. No call centre. No handovers.

The Oxford student market moves on the Michaelmas cycle. We begin marketing from October for the following academic year, which is when the best student households commit. Early commitment on the June-to-June cycle shortens voids and stabilises rent — and we time the signing itself inside the window that keeps the Ground 4A student-possession route valid, because a tenancy signed too far ahead of move-in loses it. Marketing late in the cycle is the single biggest driver of poor lettings outcomes in Oxford — our timing is designed to avoid both mistakes.

All new tenancies are periodic from day one. Section 21 is gone. Rent increases are limited to once a year via Section 13 notice. For student HMOs, the Ground 4A repossession route remains — it lets qualifying student HMOs recover possession at the end of the academic cycle, but only where the tenancy was set up correctly from the start: written Ground 4A notice before anyone signs, every occupant a full-time student, and the tenancy entered into less than six months before move-in. We structure every tenancy for that framework and explain the exposure in plain English before you sign anything.

In Oxford, almost certainly — the city licenses HMOs from three or more occupants forming more than one household, stricter than the national threshold of five, under an Additional Licensing Scheme renewed citywide to 2031. Getting it wrong is the most expensive mistake in Oxford lettings: an unlicensed licensable HMO risks a civil penalty of up to £40,000 or prosecution, plus a Rent Repayment Order of up to 24 months’ rent — which your tenants can claim back from you. Both ceilings were raised by the Renters’ Rights Act. We check the licensing position of every property we take on, handle applications and renewals (£120 plus the council’s fee at cost), and track expiry so a licence never quietly lapses.

Yes. We handle Mandatory HMO, Additional HMO (Oxford City Council), and Selective Licensing applications — including renewals, condition compliance, and responses to council audits. If an Article 4 or Certificate of Lawfulness (CLEUD) clarification is needed, we’ll flag it before you buy or re-let, not after.

Yes. We offer a pre-purchase acquisition advice service (£350) on properties you’re considering. We check the licensing status, the planning position, the rent achievable, any refurbishment required, and the yield net of realistic running costs — so you buy with the numbers in front of you, not three months after completion. And if you go on to instruct us on that property, the £350 is credited in full against your set-up fee — the homework pays for itself. This is an advice report from a lettings specialist, not a formal valuation or survey — for those you’d instruct a chartered surveyor, and we’ll say so if your situation needs one.

No. Moving from self-management to us is straightforward: we onboard the property in 7–14 days, audit your compliance position, migrate your tenancy documentation into the landlord portal, and take over communication with the current tenants in a single written handover. Most landlords who come to us have been self-managing, and the first thing they notice is how much of the week they get back.

This is the current letting agent text:

Switching to Oxford Student Homes is straightforward and far less hassle than most landlords expect.

We handle the entire transition process for you. Once you decide to move, we’ll:

• Contact your current agent to arrange a smooth handover
• Ensure all compliance documents, tenancy agreements and deposit protections are transferred correctly
• Update utilities and tenant communications where needed
• Take over maintenance requests and rent collection seamlessly

Most landlords are fully transferred within 2–4 weeks, often with no gap in service. The difference in communication and transparency is usually noticeable within the first month. We’ll guide you through every step — there’s no pressure and no obligation until you’re completely comfortable.

It’s a free 30-minute phone or video call. Before the call, you fill in a short Pre-Consultation Questionnaire so we can do our homework properly on your property, licensing zone and current tenancy paperwork. On the call we work through compliance, rent, yield and your Renters’ Rights Act position. Within 48 hours, you receive a written consultation report summarising everything — your property, your numbers, our recommendation — which is yours to keep whether you instruct us or not.

Book a free 30-minute consultation. You’ll fill in a short Pre-Consultation Questionnaire so we can prepare properly. You’ll receive a written report within 48 hours of the call. You decide whether to proceed. No pressure, no sales pitch.