Moving In
 

Once you’ve collected your keys and are settling into your new home, there are still a few things you may need to do. We’ve compiled a helpful list of things to familiarise yourself with and consider. 

 

 

Bin collections

Your black bin is for your general waste, blue bins are for paper and card, and brown bins are for glass, cans and plastic bottles. 

 

In Sheffield the bins are collected on a four weekly basis, i.e. black one week then blue the next week. The date yours is collected might be different to your friends in the same area, so if you aren’t sure when your bin day is you can check on Veolia's website here

 

 

Contents Insurance

You aren’t required to have contents insurance but it may be advisable to get some, particularly if you won’t be covered by your parents’ home insurance. It provides cover for your personal belongings if anything was to happen to them, and may also cover accidental damage. Make sure you check your policy carefully so you know what is included. For more expensive items, such as a laptop or bike, you may need to top up your cover or even take out a separate insurance.

 

Although Sheffield is a safe city, burglaries do happen but you can rest easier knowing your personal items are protected.

 

 

Council Tax

Council tax is a charge paid to your local council, in this case Sheffield City Council, for things like your bin collections and emergency services and only applies if you are not living in University owned accommodation. Full time students are exempt from paying council tax. 

 

Full details can be found here.

 

 

Fuse Box and Water Stopcock

Knowing how to turn off the water supply or how to turn the electricity back on are important, particularly in an emergency. Make sure to ask your landlord where the stopcock and fuse box are located.

 

 

Introduce Yourself to Your Neighbours

It's always a good idea to go and introduce yourself to your neighbours, whether they are students or not - and you might even make some new friends! If you build a positive relationship with your neighbours, they might help you out by keeping an eye on your home if you’re all going away at the same time, like over Christmas vacation.

 

Inventory

One of the first things you should do is complete a thorough inventory. It is a record of the condition of the property when you moved in and can then be used for comparison when you move out to work out any charges for damage, so it is important to get it right!

 

Good inventories clearly display the property address and date of the inventory, and have a thorough list of the furniture (e.g. bed, sofa, desk), furnishings (e.g. light fittings, curtains, carpet) and condition of the room (e.g. paintwork, windows) for each room in the property. It is beneficial to have space for both the check in condition and check out condition to provide a clear comparison of the items. 

 

Make sure you document any damages with photographs. When taking photos, make sure you can see these in the context of the rest of the room - if you zoom in too close it might not be obvious where the damage is located. Send everything to your landlord, but also make sure you keep a copy for yourself.

 

 

Meter Reading & Bills

If your rent doesn’t include your bills you will need to take meter readings to provide to your utility companies so that they know where to start billing from once you’ve set up your account. They should already have readings from the previous tenants, so it should just be a case of setting up an account and confirming the current readings. More information about meters and bills can be found here.