Are you looking to contact us in relation to an Emergency?

An emergency is any situation in which you, those around you or your home are at serious risk of immediate harm. This could be a fire, a flood, a loss of power, a loss of water or a break in.

• Yes, this is an Emergency2
• No, this is not an Emergency3

In the event of an emergency, don't forget that there are many services immediately available to support you. Please make sure that you and others are safe and call the Emergency Services by dialling 999.

Phew! We're glad that this isn't an emergency. To help us best direct you to the best support information, which of the following statement best describes you:

• I'm a Student5
• I'm a someone else4

Our team are working hard to get this self-help feature available to our landlords, contractors and wider community, but at the current time this feature cannot guide your enquiry. Please take a look at the shortcut links below. Otherwise, we thank you for your patience as a member of our team gets back to you.

As, you've indicated that you are a Student, are you already living in a GreenPad home?

• Yes, I'm current living in a GreenPad property6
• No, but I'm moving into one soon7
• No, I'm not living in a GreenPad property8

So, you're already living in one of our amazing GreenPad properties! How can we help you today?

• I need some help with maintainence9
• I have a query about my termly rent payment10
• I have a query about my deposit11
• I have a query about Council Tax12

Please note that GreenPad only manage the Key Collection for Fully Managed properties, if you are in a Let Only or Let Only with Rent Collection property you will need to contact your landlord for key collection. Please Ensure you include Move In / Key Collection in the subject of your email and that you are informing us of a date and time you are wishing to collect keys. You must try to inform us more that 3 days in advance so we can ensure your email is seen in time.

I'm moving into Poulson/Kiln/London House

Keys are to be collected from Poulson house, Spark Street, ST4 1NF between 10am and 4pm Mon-Fri  OR  10am and 2pm Sat and Sun

I'm moving into a private house/Infinity House/Victoria House

Keys are to be collected from the GreenPad Office, College Road, ST4 2DE between 10am and 4pm Mon-Fri. The office is shut on weekends, as such if you are looking to collect on a weekend you must inform us ASAP so we can ensure provision is in place

So, you are not yet living in one of our amazing GreenPad properties. How can we help you today?

• I'm looking for somewhere to live13
• What would GreenPad cost me as a tenant?14
• What is a pre-tenancy agreement?15
• What is a rent guarantor?16
• What is a tenancy agreement?17
• What deposit will I need to pay?18

Do you live in a fully-managed property?

Take a look at your tenancy agreement for more information.

• I'm in a fully managed property19
• I'm in a Let Only or Let Only with Rent Collection Property20

This is only relevant to students who are paying TERMLY this academic year. If you paid rent upfront or are paying monthly, this email will NOT apply to you and can be ignored.

As you may be aware Student Finance for this academic year have released the payment dates and these are later than the payment dates stated within your current tenancy agreement. This is because we had based the payment dates on previous years Student Finance payments which unfortunately, ended up being changed this year to accommodate the later term starts.

Your current payment dates are: 17th September, 14th January, 15th April.

This will change to: 27th September, 14th January, 25th April.

The actual dates of your tenancy will not change but we will NOT expect payment until the amended dates have passed and you will not be chased for rent until these dates have passed.

If your student finance will be later than the dates above please inform us as a matter of urgency so we may keep finance informed of any issues.

If you need to speak with anyone regarding issues with obtaining your student finance please book an appointment with the Student Advice Team and give them GDPR permission to discuss this with GreenPad so we can ensure that we are also kept updated and can manage the chasing of rent effectively."

GreenPad are aware that some of our tenants have, unfortunately, been waiting an extended time for a deposit return. We are actioning these as promptly as we can and cannot apologise enough for any delays faced.

The deposit return process consists of many steps, including confirmation from a range of people before anything can be actioned, as such they can sometimes face delays. This has been exasperated this academic year due to short staff numbers, something which has now been rectified.

The GreenPad team are working hard to action returns as fast as we can.

Before contacting us to chase for a return please double check that we have already actioned this, in these cases you will have received an email from ourselves and from DPS regarding your return. These email may have gone to Junk/Spam so please check these areas also.

If you have had your deposit return actioned but are having issues logging into DPS you will need to contact DPS directly as GreenPad can not assist in these matters: https://depositprotection.com/contact/

If you are a full time current student living with other full time students, then you will not be liable to pay Council Tax. Full time students living with non-students are also not liable for Council Tax but the house will still attract the tax which the non-student will have to pay. If there is only one adult non-student in the house, the Council Tax bill should be reduced by 25%. This has been the position since 6th April 2004.The University can provide a Council Tax exemption certificate which are available from the Information Points based at both Cadman building or Brindley Building. Alternatively, you can request this via email on: information-point@staffs.ac.uk It is then up to you to complete the council details on the form and send to the council. If you are studying on a part-time course, you are not eligible for a council tax certificate (unless you are repeating part-time in a full-time award). Alternatively you can complete the Council Tax exemption certificate online by following the link to the Council website below:

The form to complete can be found here: https://myaccount.stoke.gov.uk/myforms/fms-33906.aspgIf you require any further assistance, please call 01782 234234 or use the online enquiry form: https://myaccount.stoke.gov.uk/myforms/fms-33932.aspg

You can either browse the available properties online, or you can let us know the type of property, location and budget that you are looking for and we can make recommendations.

Some of the properties available can be rented as an individual room, but you may want to co-ordinate with other students to rent a property as a group sharing the property.

Once you have found property that meets your criteria, then we will arrange a viewing of the property at a suitable time. (please be aware that if the property has current tenants then the viewing also needs to be timed to be convenient for them).

The income for Greenpad to operate comes from its fees to landlords for finding responsible tenants, securing deposits, collecting rents, and, in the case of managed properties, carrying out inventories and inspections, arranging for maintenance and cleaning.

There have never been any charges to tenants for finding and arranging a tenancy with Greenpad since it was first established. But the Tenant Fees Act 2019 means you shouldn’t be paying other fees and charges.

What you should only be paying as a tenant is your security deposit, your rent and bills for services, where they aren’t included in the tenancy (i.e water, gas, electric, TV licence, telephone and broadband, council tax, etc as applicable).

However, if after drawing up a tenancy you request us to make changes or reassign the tenancy, then this may incur a charge up to £50.

We work with landlords to work up rent payment schedules around student loan dates, and to be as flexible as possible. Should rent payment arrears get beyond 4 weeks, landlords do have the right to charge interest (up to 3% above Bank of England base rate).

And please don’t lose your keys, as you may be charged at the cost of replacing them.

If you view a property that you confirm that you would like to rent, then we will draw up a pre-tenancy agreement. This is ensure that we have your correct details, and any other tenants you want to share the tenancy with, and also sets out the details of the tenancy in terms of its duration, rent, what bills are included, damage deposit and any additional information.

Whilst you are checking everything is correct, we will hold the property for a period of 48 hours. If the pre-tenancy is not returned, within this time, then the property will need to be released to further viewings and cannot be guaranteed to be available.

Once the pre-tenancy details are confirmed then we will prepare and issue the full Tenancy Agreement which includes the legal and contractual obligations for both the landlord and tenant, and the guarantor where applicable.

As students are usually considered to be unwaged, most Landlords require a UK guarantor, whose contacts are requested at this stage.

A guarantor is someone who is prepared to stand in should you default on your rent. If you don’t have a guarantor some landlords may request rent for a term or the whole rental periods in advance.

There are providers that will act as “guarantors” for a monthly fee. (examples being YourGuarantor and Housing Hand ).

Although these are legal contracts, we have prepared these Agreements to be in plain English and ensure the terms are clear and fair to students. You can find an example of what a Greenpad tenancy agreement looks like here

There is a helpful government publication called “How to Rent” that you should read alongside the contract.

Once we issue you with the Tenancy Agreement, you will have 7 days to arrange for it to be signed by yourself and the guarantor, and to provide the property deposit.

For speed and convenience we use the digital authorisation platform Signable.

You will be asked for a “Security Deposit” when you take out a tenancy (which will usually be between £200 and £400 (but never more than 5 weeks rent).  This will be placed in a custodial scheme with Deposit Protection Scheme, where the property is managed by Greenpad or transferred to the landlord to secure ,where the property is let only.

This deposit will be returned in full, provided there are no damages or cleaning issues and you have no rent arrears when you move out.

We strive to work with tenants and landlords to ensure deductions are not required, and in the event that they are unavoidable, then any deductions are evidenced, proportionate and fair.

Please ensure your email contains maintenance in the subject and that your clearly state the property and problem it is reference to.

If it is an urgent maintenance issue please ensure you refer to Section 12 of your tenancy agreement where the emergency details can be found, this will be GreenPad contact for office hours, and CBI Security for out of office hours.

Section 12 of your tenancy agreement will contain your landlords details for the logging of maintenance.