Information on housing allocation

When accepted for a study place at one of the partner universities, you will receive the form "Wohnraum für Austauschstudierende von Partnerhochschulen der UPB" (see Mobility Online). It is necessary that you submit it to the student services immediately after admission by our partner university, but no later than the 15^th of May of each year (for a stay abroad during the winter semester) or the 15th November of each year (for a stay during the summer semester). If you cannot offer your room in exceptional cases, the procedure for that will be explained by point 11.

The student services will make every effort to organise a subtenant as soon as possible or to give you feedback if the room cannot be rented for various reasons (e.g. large distance to campus, rental too high, etc.). For this purpose, the student services solemnly focuses on receiving the requests of incoming students - the rooms cannot be planned beforehand. Experience has shown that you can expect feedback from the student services in most cases about 2 - 3 months before the official start of the exchange program for exchange students at the Paderborn University. You will find more detailed information on the period of rental under point 5.

Ms Judith Schroedder from our Student Services (see right column) is your contact person for the mediation. She will send your offer to the exchange student by email and inform you whether the offer is accepted or rejected. Afterwards, the exchange student will then receive your contact details in order to coordinate everything else directly with you (e.g. deposit, see point 6). Please note that for reasons of time and organisation, it is not possible for you or your flatmates to select the exchange students yourselves or your preferences regarding the countries of origin to be taken into account during the selection procedure.

You will keep your regular contract and continue to transfer your rent to your landlord. Please conclude a sublease or similar binding agreement with the exchange student in order to be insured against any problems or rent loss.

Landlord's certificate: According to the Federal Registration Act (Bundesmeldegesetz), a landlord's certificate ("Wohnungsgeberbescheinigung") must be filled in as a landlord and the signed form must then be handed over to the subtenant (in this case to the exchange students). This is necessary so that the exchange student can register at the residents’ registration office (“Einwohnermeldeamt”) within the first two weeks after arriving in Germany. Please make sure that the signed document is available when the student arrives. You will find further information on this subject as well as the form to download on the website of the Paderborn residents' office: https://www.paderborn.de/vv/oe/109010100000037123.php.

The rental period may differ slightly from the period of your own stay abroad. Usually, exchange students come to Paderborn for one or two semesters and complete a 4-week language course with us before beginning their studies. Accordingly, we usually need rooms from the beginning of September, the beginning of October or from the beginning of March or the beginning of April. In some cases, students plan to arrive a little earlier. In addition to the period during which you are effectively studying abroad, please also state the basic total period during which you can make your room available so that we know whether a room would be available earlier than the usual periods which are mentioned above.

Important: Please note, however, that our program and language courses will only officially start at the beginning of September or March. The International Office will not cover any loss of rent that will occur if the exchange students arrive earlier - see point 7 - until the beginning of September or March. Until then, the exchange students will not be in Paderborn for the purpose of their studies, so that no costs can be covered here.

We recommend that you take a deposit of one month's rent from your subtenant and pay it back when he or she moves out, if everything has been properly left behind (in cash, if necessary). Please make sure that the room has been checked before the deposit is paid back.

For the rent and additional costs, please always set a lump sum in advance, which covers the costs that normally occur and which will be charged to the exchange student on a monthly basis. Experience has shown that it is rather difficult to split up an additional cost invoice afterwards and have the amount paid if the student is already back in his or her home country.

Should it be difficult for the student services to rent your accommodation for various reasons, or should the exchange student cancel his studies in Paderborn for various reasons - e.g. due to illness - Mr. Schmelter will first try to find a substitute lessee. If no one can be found here, he will approach you again and ask whether you can name a new tenant yourself at short notice.

In urgent unavoidable emergencies, the International Office will cover the costs of a rental outage. This assumes that you have provided the necessary forms for a potential rental in time for the deadlines mentioned in point 1. In this case, you will receive a refund of the rent, possibly including any ancillary costs such as electricity, water and gas (exception: telephone bill), for the rental period actually agreed with the exchange student. In an emergency, a maximum of six months can be refunded. See also point 5.

It is important that you designate a contact for the period of your absence, who will hand over the key, show off the apartment, conclude the sublease, hand over the certificate of accommodation, receive the agreed deposit and be able to check the rental payments. The contact person should also be available in case of possible problems with the apartment (heating fails, etc.) and should be able to negotiate with the property owner. In case of any problems with the exchange student, the contact person should contact the “Studierendenwerk” immediately. It is important that he*she is available during the student's arrival in Paderborn. Normally, the exchange students will be accompanied and supported by a Paderborn student ("Buddy") upon their arrival. In most cases, the buddies will pick up the key in advance.

An exemption from the provision of your accommodation may be granted in certain justified cases, e.g.

if your room is in your parents' apartment,

if it is a shared apartment with a shared bedroom with your partner,

in the event of non-acceptance by the property owner,

if the rental costs are comparatively high,

if the room is too far outside, so that it is hard to get to by bus.

Should you not be able to offer your accommodation for the reasons mentioned above or similar reasons, you still must fill in the form for the readiness to live with your contact details - but without more specific information about your accommodation - and send a brief written justification/request for exemption to Mr. Schmelter. He will check the justification and will normally exempt you from providing accommodation. Accordingly, you would then have to find someone yourself to rent the room or cancel it while you are abroad.

The accommodation service for exchange students has been running successfully for many years and is usually uncomplicated. If there are any problems with renting, we will try to find a solution. In such case, please contact Mr. Schmelter first.

Please also bear in mind that cultural norms and rules - e.g. what everyone understands in terms of politeness, communication and cleanliness - often differ greatly from country to country. In our experience, misunderstandings can be cleared up very easily by talking before disappointment and unwillingness are established!