Hello everyone, it’s the time of the year again! Yes, when we are all suffering with our finals🤪But here I am! Still need to finish this series that I promised before! Last time we have talked about the guarantor for international students and today I will be writing about it with more details.

嗨大家，又到了一年一度大家水深火熱的期末了🤪但是我還是上來把跟大家約定的系列文寫完(兼賺微薄薪水哈哈) 上次我們說到找保證人這件事，今天我就來繼續把這部分寫完還有給大家更多詳細的補充～

As an international student myself, I had to find a guarantor to rent a new house, or I will have to pay my rent in advanced. At first, I have went to the student service on campus to see if there is any supports for the international students and I found out that Surrey provide an “International Guarantor Scheme”.  The guarantor scheme is simply that university will become your guarantor and you can get away with the upfront rent payments for 6-8 months. However, there are several conditional that you have to reached before you apply to this scheme, which includes:

• Successful applicants will be required to pay a £60 + VAT administration fee
• Their rent must be a maximum amount of £585 per calendar month
• This scheme is only for continuing students. First year UGs cannot apply.
• UK and EU students can apply

Once you have entitled with these conditions, you can go ahead to apply for this scheme.

Here’s the more detailed information listed on the university website where everyone can reference from
這裡有更多詳細資訊可以給大家參考
https://blogs.surrey.ac.uk/studentsupport/2016/08/19/international-guarantor-scheme/

身為一個國際生，我也是必須要找一個保證人，否則我就需要預付房租了。所以一開始拿到房租合約的時候，我的第一步就是去Student Service學生服務中心去詢問學校有沒有提供任何對國際生的幫助，然後我就得到了學校有提供一個國際生保證人方案(International Guarantor Scheme) 簡單來說就是學校會成為你的保證人，如此一來你就可以避免災簽合約的時候預付6-8個月的房租。不過前提是你必須要符合下列幾項條件：

• 成功申請的學生必須支付£60+稅金的代辦費
• 房租合約必須為月租費上限£585
• 這個方案只提供給續讀的學生，大一學士新生不包含
• 英國和歐盟學生也可以申請

如果你符合這些條件的話，你就可以申請這項方案了。

Although I have entitled with all the conditions above, I still didn’t get into the scheme. The reason is not because the scheme is full (but it could be), it is because my landlord doesn’t agree with university as my guarantor. Therefore, I didn’t even apply to this scheme which is such a shame. However, as your agency or landlord agree with it, I think it is a very useful support for the international students who need to get a guarantor. In the end, I will have to pay my rent 6 months in advanced but I will not forget to pay my rent at least👻

雖然我都有符合上述的條件，我依舊沒有成功申請到這個方案。不是因為他已經滿了(雖然這機率也蠻高的)而是我的房東還有仲介不同意學校作為我的保證人，所以我在我還沒申請之前我就放棄了還真的蠻可惜的。不過只要你的房東或仲介同意，我覺得這是一個對正在簽合約的國際生來說非常好的方案。最後我還是預付了六個月的房租，不過至少我不會忘記付房租👻

Apart from the guarantor, there are some few parts that you always need to double check when you sign the contract. Deposit is a thing you need to be aware of, first thing is obviously ask for refund. Since deposit is just the fee that ensure you didn’t break anything, you will always need to ask it back. Another thing is check if there is are any extra charge, if the property is managed by an agency, there is possibly to have an admission fee. You will need to be aware of if this is a reasonable amount and check every details that related to money on your contract.

除了保證人之外，在簽合約之前還有幾點必須注意。大部分的合約都會收取押金來保護房屋避免任何的破壞，而第一件事當然是詢問退還的細項。另一件事就是要仔細看合約內有沒有任何額外的收費，如果房子是透過仲介租借的話，很有可能都會收取仲介代辦費，這時候就要看看他們是否收取合理的金額，還有合約上任何跟錢有關的細節都要仔細多次確認。

After moving in, living outside university is not as easy as before when living on campus. When things broke, there is no any maintenance team who will come straight away after you report. In my personal experience, it usually takes even longer than a month for the landlord and agency to decide if they are gonna replace or get someone to repair it, which is quite a pain. As for the electricity and gas etc. we mostly try to fix it by ourselves first, if we can’t we will call directly to the provider like British Gas or Thames Water and wait for them to repair. The maintenance on utilities usually doesn’t cost any extra fee of it is just an easy repair and maintenance. But I will still have to say, use very carefully while you are living out cause it is not easy ha!😎

搬進去新租的房子之後，住外面就沒有像住在學校依樣那麼簡單了。當東西壞了並沒有任何跟在學校一樣有的維修隊，會在你申請報修的時候隨時趕來。以我個人的經驗，有時候跟房仲還有房東反應之後，最長還可以拖到一個月等他們來決定是要維修還是換新，真的是蠻煩的。至於像是水電瓦斯這一類的報修，我們都會直接聯絡供應商，像是 British Gas 或 Thames Water。只要是這一類簡單的維修處理，通常都不會收取任何費用。不過我還是要呼籲大家小心使用租屋處的各項設施，因為事情真的沒那麼簡單處理拉哈哈，住了一年現在都自備水電工技能了😎

I think that is pretty much everything that I want to share with everyone, finally finish my first series on housing. Lastly I would want to wish everyone luck on their exams and assignments. Next week’s spoiler ahead – placement update! I’ll catch you guys up next time!

這些差不多就是我想要提醒跟分享給大家的內容了，終於寫完第一個系列文了～最後在這裡我想要祝大家考試all-pass還有報告穩穩過啦！下禮拜的內容會是實習的近況更新喔，那我們就下禮拜見吧～

Mandy
xx