You can arrange a private student house in Stoke-on-Trent before you arrive in the UK. You do not have to land first, stay in a hotel, and start looking. The best-value houses near Staffordshire University are taken months in advance, so waiting until you arrive usually means paying more for something further out.
This guide covers renting from abroad: how to view a house you cannot walk into, what all bills included removes from your first month, the guarantor problem and its solutions, the checks a UK landlord has to make on you, council tax, and getting from a Shelton house to campus.
Renting before you arrive
The part that feels risky is committing to a house you have not stood in. It is a fair worry, and it is manageable. What to insist on:
- A live video walkthrough, not just a photo gallery. Ask them to walk the whole house on camera, including the room you would have, the kitchen, and every bathroom. Ask them to open cupboards and look out of the windows.
- The actual address, so you can check it yourself on a map and measure the real walk to campus rather than trusting a phrase like 'close to the university'.
- Photographs with dates, or a walkthrough recorded while you watch. Old photographs of a house that has had four years of students in it are not the same house.
- A named person to talk to. Renting direct from the landlord means the person answering your messages is the person responsible for the property, and can answer in your time zone over WhatsApp or email.
About holding deposits
Elsewhere in the market you will be asked for a holding deposit to reserve a room. In England this is capped at one week's rent under the Tenant Fees Act 2019, and it must be refunded or put towards your rent within fifteen days unless you withdraw or gave false information. If somebody asks for more than a week's rent to hold a room, that is not lawful.
We do not take a holding deposit or any advance fee at all. A room is held on the agreement, not on your money.
What all bills included actually removes
All bills included means gas, electricity, water and wifi are inside one weekly price per person. For a UK student that is a convenience. For an international student it removes a genuine obstacle.
Setting up UK utility accounts normally needs a UK bank account, and often some UK credit history, which you will not have in your first weeks. Broadband in particular can take two or three weeks to install and usually wants a direct debit from a UK account. Arriving to a house where the heating, the hot water and the internet already work, with nothing in your name to arrange, is worth more than it sounds when you are also registering with a doctor, enrolling, and finding out where anything is.
Our guide to student bills in Stoke sets out exactly what a genuine all-inclusive price should cover and what it never does.
The guarantor problem
Most UK landlords ask for a UK-based guarantor: somebody resident here who agrees to pay your rent if you do not. Most international students have nobody to ask. This is the single most common obstacle, and it has standard solutions:
- Paying rent in advance, often a term or the full year, in place of a guarantee. This is the most common arrangement and many landlords will accept it.
- A paid guarantor service, a company that stands as your guarantor for a fee, usually a percentage of the annual rent. Check the fee and the terms carefully.
- A UK-resident relative who meets the landlord's criteria.
Raise it in your first message rather than at signing. A landlord who lets their own houses can discuss it; an agency following a policy often cannot. Our guarantor guide explains what a guarantor is actually signing, which is useful if you do have somebody to ask.
Checks the landlord has to make on you
Every landlord in England is legally required to check that their tenants have the right to rent, so being asked for immigration documents is normal and is not aimed at you specifically. You will typically need to provide a share code or your immigration documents so the landlord can confirm your status, and the check has to happen before the tenancy starts.
Two things worth knowing. The check can usually be done online and remotely, so it does not require you to be in the country. And a landlord who does not ask for anything at all is not doing you a favour; they are skipping something the law requires, which tells you how they run the rest of the property.
Council tax: you are exempt, but tell the council
Full-time students are exempt from council tax, and this applies to international students exactly as it does to UK ones. The exemption is not automatic: the council does not know who lives in the house until somebody tells it.
- Get a council tax exemption certificate from Staffordshire University student services once you have enrolled.
- Send it to Stoke-on-Trent City Council with the address and the names of everyone in the house.
- Tell your landlord it has been done.
The government page on student council tax sets out the rule. If a bill arrives addressed to The Occupier in your first weeks, it is a formality rather than a problem.
Is the house safe and licensed?
A shared house rented to five or more people who are not one family must have an HMO licence from the council, which means somebody official has checked the fire safety, the electrics, the gas, the room sizes and the number of bathrooms for the number of people living there.
Ask to see the licence and the gas safety record. You are entitled to both, and asking is completely normal. Our HMO guide explains what a licence requires and how to check one from anywhere in the world.
Getting to Staffordshire University, and around
Houses in Shelton sit within a four to eight minute walk of the Staffordshire University campus, so you can get to lectures on foot without a bus pass. That saves money every week and matters more than it sounds when you arrive in a British winter.
Stoke-on-Trent station has direct trains to Manchester, Birmingham and London, so weekend travel is straightforward. Manchester Airport is roughly an hour away by train and is the usual arrival point. Our guide to living in Shelton covers the area itself, including what shops are nearby and what the streets are like.
A first-week checklist
- Enrol, and get your council tax exemption certificate at the same time.
- Open a UK bank account. Your enrolment letter is usually what you need.
- Register with a local GP surgery.
- Check whether you need a TV licence: you do if you watch live television or use BBC iPlayer, even on a laptop.
- Find your nearest supermarket and the walking route to your first lecture, before the first lecture.
How we work
We are a family-run business, we own or manage every house we let, and we have been letting to students in Stoke-on-Trent for eighteen years. No admin fees and no advance deposit. Every house is a licensed HMO with gas, electricity, water and wifi in one weekly price per person.
The Staffordshire University page shows what is free within walking distance of campus. If you are arriving for a later intake, join the waitlist and we will message you when a room that fits comes up.