Terms and Conditions for Student Residence accommodation

Important note - The terms and conditions set below are for accommodation booked in a self-contained room in a Student Residence and not with a homestay or host family.

Governing law and jurisdiction
These Terms and Conditions are governed by and construed in accordance with the laws of England and Wales. You agree to submit to the non-exclusive jurisdiction of the English courts, as do we.

Your commitments to us:
By accepting the Terms and Conditions you:

• agree to notify us of any changes to your personal circumstances (including change of e-mail address, correspondence address or phone number). You acknowledge that we will not be liable to you if you do not receive a communication from us because you have failed to inform us of changes to your contact details;
• agree to receive communications from us electronically and that electronic communications will satisfy any legal requirement for communications to be in writing;
• acknowledge that if we do not receive the Initial Payment from you within 5 days of the Booking Acceptance Email, we may cancel your booking and end our Agreement with you and you will have no claim against us as a result.
• acknowledge that if we do not receive the Required Documentation prior to your Check In Date then we may cancel your booking and end our Agreement with you and you will have no claim against us as a result;
• acknowledge that upon arrival at the residence you will be asked to sign the Occupancy Contract and that you will agree to adhere to the rules of the residence.

Booking

• To book, please complete the online booking form. When we receive your booking we will email you to tell you if we can or cannot meet the requirements specified. This will normally happen within 2 working days.
• If you have not received an answer within 3 working days there is a chance that we have not received your booking, so please email us at info@londonhomestays.com (Working days exclude Saturdays, Sundays & Public Holidays)
• All payments are invoiced in UK pound sterling and must be paid in UK pound sterling. All bank charges that are incurred must be paid for by the guest. The receiving banks charges are much higher and if not paid these would have to be charged to your outstanding total. Paypal payments are subject to a 4.5% surcharge to cover the costs we have to pay.
• All payments must be received a minimum of 7 days prior to your arrival date.
• All bookings are subject to a non-refundable booking fee (as stated in our rates)

Booking Confirmation

• Bookings can only be guaranteed after payment has reached our bank account. We reserve the right to cancel any booking for any reason with a full refund. We will also cancel any reservations for which we have not received payment by the due date.
• We can only confirm the period of stay that we have received payment for.

Arrival Time
Arrivals must be between 15:00 and 21:00. When booking accommodation, you must inform Home from Home if your arrival time is due to be outside of these hours. This is to enable us to endeavour to have a member of staff available to allow you to enter the residence. Failure to do this may result in you not being able to enter the residence until 15:00 the following day. Home from Home will not be held responsible for students not being able to check in, if students fail to advise Home from Home (when booking) of their arrival time, nor will we pay for any expenses incurred by students as a result.

Check in
When you check in you will be required to sign the Occupancy Contract and make any Payments due (including a deposit for damage, which is usually but not always £250). The terms of the Occupancy Contract are then legally binding on you and us and will remain in force from that date until expiry or (if earlier) termination of your Occupancy Contract.

Extensions of Stay
If a student wishes to extend their stay beyond the booked leaving date, they should contact Home from Home as soon as possible to request an extension. Extensions are subject to availability. If an extension is not possible, Home from Home will endeavour to find you a similar alternative.

Visa Students

We are pleased to assist visa applications by issuing a letter, which can be submitted to the British Consulate in your country. This letter will confirm that you have booked and paid for accommodation/home tuition with Home from Home Student Services Ltd.

Visa letters are only issued after accommodation has been paid for and only for the dates confirmed and paid for. We are unable to issue letters for unconfirmed/unpaid for lengths of stay.

To ensure that you do not incur cancellation charges (detailed below in Cancellation Policy), you are advised to allow sufficient time between your visa application, your interview date and your arrival date in the UK . This will allow us sufficient notice of your cancellation/change or arrival date and for you to avoid cancellation charges.

If you wish to change or postpone your arrival date as you have been asked by the British Consulate to return for a further interview, we will re-book your accommodation, subject to our cancellation charges (detailed below in Cancellation Policy). All changes are subject to a £50 administration fee.

More information is available on our Visa Guidelines page. 

Cancellation Policy

• Cancellations received less than 4 weeks prior to arrival will incur a cancellation charge of 4 weeks accommodation plus booking fee.
• Cancelations received more than 4 weeks prior to arrival will incur a charge of 1 weeks accommodation plus booking fee. There is no refund for curtailment of stay.
• Change of dates – if you wish to change your arrival dates a minimum of 4 weeks’ notice is needed. Changes in dates will carry a 50GBP administration fee and are strictly subject to availability and are only made at the discretion of management.
• If you have to cut short your stay, accommodation charges, once paid for are not refundable. In the case of your accommodation being unsuitable, Home from Home will make every effort to supply you with a suitable alternative.
  
  YOU ARE STRONGLY ADVISED TO PURCHASE TRAVEL INSURANCE (WHICH WILL COVER YOU FOR LOSS OF STUDY COURSE, ACCOMMODATION & TRANSPORTATION CHARGES AS WELL AS INJURY)

Cancellation requests must be received during Home from Home office hours, which are from 09.30 – 18.00 (London time) Monday through Friday. Saturdays, Sundays and national holidays (including the days between Christmas and New Year) are excluded.

Refunds

• In the unlikely event of a student being dissatisfied with their accommodation, complaints must be made during the stay, at the time either of the problem becoming known, by the student directly, or through their agent. We cannot accept any retrospective claim or complaint from a student or their agent.
• Refunds are made through the same means by which they are received (this is in line with UK money laundering laws). Fees paid by bank transfer from overseas will be refunded by bank transfer to the bank account in the country from which they were received. Credit card payments will be refunded to the card from which payment was taken and only cash payments can be refunded in cash. Home From Home will refund fees only and cannot refund bank charges or the surcharge added to credit card payments. Any bank charges levied by the UK and/or foreign bank when refunding fees will be deducted from the refund by the banks in question and not paid for by Home from Home.

Curtailment
If you have to cut short your stay, accommodation charges, once paid for are not refundable. In the case of your accommodation being unsuitable, we will make every effort to supply you with an alternative.

Liability

• Our liability is no more than the money we have received from you.
• We do not accept liability for any loss, damage or misadventure you may suffer in the accommodation, or elsewhere. Home from Home acts in good faith and will not be held responsible for acts or defaults caused by third parties (including student residences).
• Students should also take out their own insurance policies on their personal property, i.e. laptops, jewellery and other expensive items.
• All damages and breakages caused by the student must be paid for by the student directly.
• Students must not pay the residence directly, this breaks the terms and conditions set out for the residence, and stops any confusion that may arise at a later date
• Reasonable behavior is expected at all times during your stay. Home from Home reserves the right to remove any guest whose conduct is unsatisfactory. Refunds or alternate accommodation will be offered at the discretion of Home from Home.
• We believe the information provided to you regarding the residence at the time of booking is correct and is provided in good faith. However, we are not responsible for any inaccuracies that may result in any change of circumstances of the residence or their environment that have not been relayed to us.

Events beyond our reasonable control
We will not be responsible to you for any delay or failure to comply with our obligations under this Agreement if the delay or failure arises from any cause beyond our reasonable control (including failure of telecommunication links).

Alterations to the Website and Terms and Conditions
We reserve the right at any time to make changes to the Website, the Terms and Conditions, our Privacy Policy and other terms, conditions and policies we may notify you of from.  You will be subject to the terms, conditions and policies in force at the time you submit a booking request.  Changes which we are required to make by law could apply to booking requests which you have already submitted.  If any of the Terms and Conditions are deemed invalid, void or unenforceable for any reason, they will be deemed severable and will not affect the validity or enforceability of the remaining Terms and Conditions.

Waiver
If you breach the Terms and Conditions and we take no action we will still be entitled to use our rights and remedies in other situations where you are in breach.