Whether you pay a deposit with us will depend on which Student Roost property you have chosen to live at.
For anyone making a new booking with us, all you need to know is you will need to pay a deposit if you make a booking at one of our Scottish properties. Not booking in Scotland? You won’t pay a deposit, but we’ll prompt you to make an Advance Rent Payment at the point of booking instead.
Rebooking in Scotland for another year? Your deposit will roll over into the next academic year.
Find out more information below.
For 2024/25 academic year tenancies
Your deposit, if you paid one, is still valid and will remain in the relevant protection scheme until the end of your tenancy.
For 2025/26 academic year bookings (Scottish properties only)
- When you make a booking with us at one of our Scottish properties for the 2025/26 academic year, you may be asked to pay a deposit to secure your room and ensure it is returned in good condition at the end of your tenancy. This is your damages deposit. The deposit will be returned in full at the end of your tenancy unless we have a reason to make deductions, for example, for unpaid rent, damages and broken/missing inventory items.
- Our finance department will upload your deposit to a government approved tenancy deposit protection scheme, MyDeposits Scotland, who hold the deposit securely during your tenancy. Once the deposit has been uploaded to the Protection Scheme, you will be emailed prescribed information confirming that your deposit has been protected and details of the Protection Scheme where the deposit is held. The prescribed information will also be uploaded to your Student Roost account. You will also receive an email directly from the Protection Scheme, informing you that your deposit has been protected and providing you with log-in details for your account with them. You will be able to use your account with the Protection Scheme to review and reclaim your deposit at the end of your tenancy. It’s important to make sure that you’ve given us your correct email address and mobile number, so the Protection Scheme can contact you.
- It is recommended that you activate your account with MyDeposits Scotland as soon as you receive their email with your account details. We recommend registering with an email that is not your university email address, so the Protection Scheme doesn’t experience any problems contacting you at the end of your tenancy if you’ve left university and can no longer access your university email address. You’ll be asked to nominate a bank account upon registration. This will enable your deposit to be refunded quickly and securely when the time comes to check out.
When will I get my deposit back?
- When it’s time to leave us, you’ll be asked to complete a Departure Envelope. This will give the property team an idea of your check out date and time and allow us to start processing your deposit refund.
- The property team will conduct an inspection of your room to determine if there are any cleaning costs or damage charges that should be deducted from your deposit.
- Once the inspection is completed, the property team will contact MyDeposit Scotland and action the release of your deposit. We will inform them how much of the deposit should be returned to you and how much (if any) should go to us to cover the cost of any unpaid rent, repairs, or cleaning work to be done. You will receive an email from MyDeposit Scotland asking if you agree with the amount of the deposit to be returned, and you will need to log into your account to confirm this. The email will also ask you to view any charges (if there are any) and either accept or reject these. You can also start the deposit return process yourself by logging into your MyDeposit Scotland account at the end of your tenancy and submitting a request for repayment.
- Once you have accepted the amount of your deposit to be returned, MyDeposit Scotland will refund the deposit into your nominated bank account. They normally do this within 5 days. If you don’t agree with the amount of any deductions we want to make from the deposit, you can refer the matter to MyDeposit Scotland’s dispute resolution team (free of charge) and an impartial adjudicator will examine the case and decide how the deposit is to be divided between you and Student Roost. If you don’t respond to the request to confirm release of your deposit, the deposit will remain in the scheme.
Please note: deposits must be held within the relevant Protection Scheme for at least 30 days before they can be released due to anti-money laundering regulations, so it may take a little while for the refund to be completed. Once the deposit has been held for at least 30 days and both we and you have agreed the refund amount, the Protection Scheme will normally refund deposits within 5 days.