Furnishing a First Student House on a Budget

You signed for a place you saw for nine minutes in February, and someone has already claimed the big bedroom on a technicality. Then you open the door in September and find no bins, no lampshades and one saucepan. Here’s what your landlord owes you, what you can get free, and the short list worth paying for.

What does your landlord have to provide?

Less than you’d hope. No law in England says a rented home must contain furniture, and “furnished” has no legal definition. It’s a marketing word. What binds your landlord is the inventory attached to your tenancy agreement, not the listing. What they are legally on the hook for is safety:

• Smoke alarms on every storey used as living accommodation, working the day your tenancy starts, plus a carbon monoxide alarm in any room with a fixed combustion appliance such as a boiler. Gas cookers are excluded.
• An annual gas safety check by a Gas Safe registered engineer, with a copy of the certificate for you.
• An HMO licence, usually. Three or more people who aren’t one household sharing a kitchen or bathroom makes a house in multiple occupation. A licence is mandatory at five or more from more than one household, many councils licence smaller houses too, and an unlicensed HMO carries an unlimited fine.
• Repairs to the structure, heating, hot water and sanitary fittings.

Since 1 May 2026 most private tenancies in England roll on periodically rather than running fixed twelve-month terms, tenants give two months’ notice to leave, and no landlord can ask for more than one month’s rent in advance.

Why check the inventory before you unpack anything?

Because it decides who pays for the burn mark on the worktop, and it’s your only chance to say “that was already like that”. Do it on day one, before a box is opened.

1. Walk the house with the inventory in hand. Tick what’s there, write down what isn’t. Four chairs listed and two present goes in writing now, not in June.
2. Photograph everything, including the boring bits. Carpets, skirting, inside the oven, the shower seal. Photos carry a date, which is the entire point.
3. Test the smoke alarms. Landlords are advised to have tenants sign the inventory confirming they work, so you may be asked anyway.
4. Email it all to the landlord or agent within the deadline in your agreement, usually seven days.

Where is your deposit, and is it protected?

It must be registered with a government-backed scheme within 30 days, and the landlord must send you written details of which one. England and Wales have three: the Deposit Protection Service, MyDeposits and the Tenancy Deposit Scheme. Nothing by day 31, start chasing.

Two more numbers. A deposit can’t exceed five weeks’ rent where the rent is under £4,167 a month. And once you agree how much comes back, it must be returned within 10 days. Disagree, and the scheme runs a free dispute service where your photos are the evidence.

What should you share, and what should you keep your own?

The rule that saves friendships: anything you’d want to take with you next June should be yours alone. Anything that lives downstairs is cheaper shared, and nobody then has to work out who owns the toaster.

Bought and never used: a spice rack, a slow cooker, crockery for eight, a bread bin. Buy the thing when you miss it, not in case you might.

Where can you get student house furniture for free?

• Your university’s reuse scheme. Sheffield runs a Free Shop each September stocked entirely by departing students. Since 2013 the wider scheme has reused more than 32,000 items and raised over £1 million for the British Heart Foundation. Manchester runs Furniture4Reuse. Ask your union first.
• British Heart Foundation shops. Their Pack for Good scheme collects from student areas at the end of term, so the furniture shops are well stocked over summer, and they collect large items free.
• Freecycle, Olio and local Facebook groups. Free, but you need a car or a friend with one, and you need to reply fast.
• Departing students in late June. Tenancies end, everyone panics, and good desks, drawers and lamps go for a fiver or nothing. If you can store things over summer, buy then rather than September, when prices in student cities quietly climb.

How do you check a second-hand sofa is safe?

Look for the permanent fire label. Upholstered furniture sold in the UK should carry a stitched-in label headed CARELESSNESS CAUSES FIRE, usually under a seat cushion or behind a loose cover, confirming the cover and filling passed the required fire tests. Mattresses should reference British Standard BS 7177.

Stitched-in beats stapled, since staples can be added later. Furniture made before 1 January 1950 is exempt, which is lovely for antiques and irrelevant here. The separate swing-ticket label was dropped in October 2025, so the permanent one is what counts. No label, no sofa. Then check for damp, sagging springs, and whether it fits through the front door.

What’s worth buying new?

Bedding, pillows and a mattress topper, above everything else. Student mattresses have had a life, and a topper makes a tired one bearable for less than the sleep you’d otherwise lose. It’s the part of the house I’d never buy used.

After that, fill real gaps only. No bed frame in the room, and our beds and mattresses range covers the basics. Nowhere to eat together, and a compact set from dining furniture suits a small kitchen. A lamp or mirror from accessories costs little and makes a rented room yours. The first flat furniture checklist covers a whole property.

What about spreading the cost?

Honestly, for most students I wouldn’t. If you’re living on a maintenance loan your income is termly, uneven and already spoken for, and borrowing against it is rarely a good idea. Free and borrowed first, second-hand next, new only where it matters.

We do offer pay weekly and pay monthly options through Snap Finance, explained on our how it works page, but be clear-eyed. Credit is subject to status and affordability checks, you must be 18 or over and a UK resident, and paying over time usually costs more overall than paying once. Plenty of students won’t pass those checks. That isn’t unfair, it’s the check doing its job, and being turned down beats being signed up for something you can’t keep up with. Indoor Living Ltd is a credit broker, not a lender.

If money is already tight, talk to someone free before you borrow: StepChange, Citizens Advice or MoneyHelper. Your university will have a hardship fund and a money adviser, and neither will judge you.

What do you do with it all in June?

• Leave the house as the inventory describes it. Filler and a scrubbed oven return more deposit per hour than anything else.
• Donate the shared stuff. BHF collect, and the reuse scheme sends kitchenware straight back out to next year’s first years.
• Sell the desk and drawers to the incoming tenants. They want them, you want rid, nobody hires a van.
• Take your own things. Bedding, topper, towels, cutlery. That’s why they were yours.

Get the first week right and the rest of the year is mostly remembering to buy bin bags. If you’re setting up a first proper place rather than a house share, furnishing a home on a budget and the rest of Where there’s a will, there’s a way take it from here.

Common questions