COVID19 Guidance 

Are the buildings still open?

Yes, all our buildings are still open for current residents.

Our priority at Xenia Students is to ensure the health, safety, and wellbeing of our residents. We therefore are providing onsite support for all residents still residing our buildings.

Although interaction may be reduced, we wanted to assure you that at present the on-site teams remain working daily:

• We have reduced our reception hours, but they do remain open every day. We would advise in the first instance calling or emailing your accommodation manager.
• Please respect staff and other residents wishes in keeping a safe distance from each other should you come in to contact, the government guidance is 2 meters.
• We ask that you minimize the number of parcels that you have delivered to the building, this will minimize the amount of contact that you need to have with anyone unnecessarily.
• Housekeeping will continue to concentrate on high traffic areas of the buildings.
• Please continue to keep the accommodation team updated if you are self-isolating and if you need anything from us.
• Only emergency maintenance will be carried out within your rooms.

Emergency maintenance is as follows:

• No heating
• No hot water
• No provisions to cook
• No sanitary facilities
• Anything that could be deemed a health and safety risk

We do hope that you are all taking care of yourselves during this uncertain time, if there is anything that we can do please do not hesitate to get in touch.

Can I leave my room?

Under current government guidelines you should only leave for necessary reasons which are below, please note that if you do need to do these activities you should be minimising the time spent outside of your home and ensure that you are 2 metres apart from anyone outside your household:

• shopping for basic necessities, for example food and medicine, which must be as infrequent as possible
• one form of exercise a day, for example a run, walk, or cycle – alone or with members of your household
• any medical need, including to donate blood, avoid or escape risk of injury or harm, or to provide care or to help a vulnerable person
• travelling for work purposes, but only where you cannot work from home

Please ensure that you only read reputable sources of information for any guidance, such as the NHS website or Government website.

What if I can’t pay my rent?

Most students are in receipt of student finance which is still being paid, Student Finance England have confirmed that “students will receive their scheduled or next instalment of their maintenance loan at the planned start of their summer term, regardless of whether their university or provider has made alternative arrangements for teaching.”

There is more information on Student Finance here

SAAS payments in Scotland are still to continue but please see click here for more information.

If you are not in receipt of student finance payments then we are encouraging tenants to speak with us so that we can communicate with your landlord to work out the best way possible to deal with any arrears to ensure that all parties are kept up to date. Each room within our buildings are owned by different landlords so each case has to be dealt with individually. Please contact your accommodation team in the first instance to discuss any concerns you may have about not paying your rent.

Can I end my tenancy early?

At Xenia Students each room is owed individually so we are not like other Accommodation providers or Universities where a blanket decision can be made across all buildings and all rooms.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government has provided additional advice to Landlords and Tenants to respond to the Covid-19 outbreak. This advice includes the need for Tenants to continue paying their rent and for all landlords to make reasonable adjustments where they can. If you do wish to seek authorisation from your landlord to either leave early or set up a payment plan for any rent owing, then please contact your accommodation team who can liaise with them to discuss this.

Please see the advice provided by The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government by clicking here

Can I still book for September and what if my University delays the start of term?

Yes! Bookings for the 2020/2021 academic year are open!

Please click here for our availability and contact us on 0330 9957 987 if you have any questions.

If your university delays the term start time due to Covid-19, we are offering a rental reduction for the time of the delay (upon proof being provided by the University). This ensures that your room is secure for when the University term time starts again.

If the university adopts either an online or blended approach to learning having a mixture of online and face to face lectures the contract that has been entered into will start at the commencement date in September.

What if I have already booked to stay from September onwards?

If you have already booked for September 2020 and you can provide proof that your University term start date has been postponed due to Covid-19 you will be offered a rental reduction for the time of the delay.

If you are unable to travel or should be unfortunate enough to contract Covid-19 then please see our Covid-19 cancellation policy which will apply.