Your Rent pays for your accommodation which is your bedroom and bathroom (where there is an en-suite) which have access to all shared/common areas including shared bathrooms, kitchens and halls within your designated apartment for 7 days per week for the full academic year (or term of your Licence). Your Utilities & Services Fee pays for utilities (e.g. Gas, Oil, Electricity, Water) and services that are provided to on-campus residents such as WiFi, Apartments Reception Service, Post Service (parcels are separate), and Security etc.
The Rent can be paid in a number of ways as described in the paragraph above and the dates and the amount owing at each instalment will be advised to you in your email letter of room Booking Confirmation. In general, Continuing Students are able to book their rooms in the Spring and are usually asked to pay the first instalment of the annual Rent by end of July each year and First Years and International Students are usually asked to pay their first installment by end of August each year - however this may change from year to year. The second installment will fall due in accordance with the Booking Confirmation Email. You will be given an online Campus Accommodation Account (your rent book) via the accommodation portal with a Username and Password so that you can pay on-line, view your account throughout the year, check on payment due amounts and dates and print off receipts. Your License to Reside is also found using this portal.
Your rent does not include utility charges such as electricity, gas, WiFi, water, waste services etc. These charges have been standardised and an annual charge is set each year. For 2021-2022 the charge is €500 non refundable per student paid at the booking stage. We collect these charges by retaining your initial booking fee together with any balance required to make up the total amount before you move in (fair usage appies).
Apartments are self-catering and there are no cleaning services provided within the apartments. Janitorial services will maintain the access routes to apartments such as stairs and entrance halls daily.It is advisable to have your own insurance on your belongings as the university policy does not cover contents.
If you want to insure your belongings you will need to do so separately - the university does not provide contents insurance
If you need to arrive earlier than the semester start date for any reason for example if your course starts earlier or if you need to quarantine there will be a separate cost for those weeks - email residence.office@mu.ie for a quote and availability.
To make your payment for your accommodation login to your accommodation account via the Student Portal. You will have recieved the Username and Password and URL in your email Confirmation of Booking which you will have recieved within 24hrs of completing your booking (usually with a few hours). Choose "Pay Now" and using a bank card / charge card to complete the payment screen. Payment into your accommodation account can be made at any time and at any amount by ticking the payment box (or boxes) that you want to pay and then changing the "Total Amount" before you ask the system to proces. Late and missed payments are considered to be a breach of your Licence.
The prescribed method of payment is also the most convenient and safest way to pay. This is by bank card online via the Student Portal directly to your secure accommodation account (Your Rent Book). The log-in details will be sent to your email address when you book a room. When booking you will need a bank card (debit/credit) to pay your booking fee/utilities charges. You can check your Accommodation Account (this is your Rent Book) online at any time to see what payments are made and which are due. Most bank cards are accepted including Visa & Mastercard. However, if your bank card has transaction limits or other restrictions you may find that the amount cannot be paid in one transaction. You need to check this with your bank. If, due to bank card restrictions, you need to pay rent over a number of transactions our payment system will allow you to amend the amount to pay. Please ensure that all payments are made
in full before the due date.
Up to date fee details are available here and the fees applicable to your specific room are on your Accommodation Account (Your Rent Book).
We do not accept payment using any other method such as cash, cheque, bank to bank transfer, wire transfer etc. Please use the presribed method of payment to ensure that your payment is safe and on time to secure your booking and residency.
For the Academic Year 2020-2021 - Utilities costs are standard across all room types on campus at €500 non refundable for the full year. As booking will be very late in the season this year due to the later date of the Leaving Certificate and the CAO round 1 offers New Students may book a room the day after CAO Round 1 offers by paying the booking fee of €500 plus the first instalment (€2935/€2200 - depending on room type booked). Booking may not be made in expectation for a Round 2 offer.
All students will pay a non-refundable €500 booking fee at time of booking which doubles as the utility charge for the year.
Where a student does not have an academic place for the academic year in question this fee will be refunded (this refers mainly to students who bookin in early Spring and fail exams or leave the university before they can use the room) . All booking fees are non-refundable and also used to pay your utility and service bills for the year.
Refunds to Current Students who have failed exams or for whatever reason are not returning to university will be considered on application by the student to the residence.office@mu.ie at which time evidence from your academic department or academic advisory will be requested.
There are two types of Cancellation.
Cancellation before the commencement date of your Licence: This is a booking cancellation. If you decide before you check-in that you no longer want your room you may cancel the booking my completing the CANCEL MY BOOKING . The booking fee will be forfeit in full unless you no longer have an academic place ( no CAO offer / failed to progress) and in those circumstances we will give a full refund.
Cancellation during the term of your Licence: This is a termination of your Licence to Reside. Once the Licence has commenced (whether you have checked in or not) all cancellations will require 28 days notice during which time rent is payable in full. To give notice of your cancellation please complete the NOTICE OF EARLY DEPARTURE form. The booking fee is forfeit.
Debts and Refunds: If there is rent or any other items owing when you leave you will be expected to settle your account in full before you depart. If you have paid more rent than your occupancy term (including notice) would indicate then a refund will automatically be calculated and posted to your accommodation account. You can view the details on your accommodation account by logging in (access details will have been provided at time of booking) and viewing your financial statement. Please allow up to two weeks settlement of any refunds posted. Where a room is re-sold to another student during the notice period the refund will reflect the higher amount from the date the new resident commences payment of rent.
Banking and payments online have been made more secure by banks in recent times. There are a number of newly introduced hurdles that can slow down or stop your online payments going through that you need to be aware of before you try to make your payment.
Once you enter the payment system part of the booking form, or the payment part of your Accommodation Account via the Portal, your Bank is now being contacted by our payment system and it is YOUR BANK which will make all the decisions from this point forward about whether your payment will be processed or not. Our system is simply asking your bank a question and has no control over the Bank's decision. So when you experience issues with payments call your Bank first not the Residence Office because it is likely we will not be able to assist you.
Here are some of the payment issues that our students have encountered and some tips around resolving them:
1) There may be a "transaction limit" on the amount your bank card is allowed to pay online for each transaction - if you are not aware of how much this limit is you may try to make a payment that is higher than the limit allows and find that your payment is blocked by your bank. To get around this problem make sure you know if there is a transaction limit on your card and how much it is. You can make a payment which is smaller than the limit and make the balance payment of rent later until all the due amount is paid. This means that you may need to start making your rent paymenta earlier than on the due date to have it completed on time. Of course this does not work when you are trying to book a room and pay the €500 as that has to be paid in full at the time of booking to have completed the booking successfully.
2) Some cards have a "daily limit" on their bank card - this allows you to make payments up to a limited amount in any one day. So if you have paid for other items the same day as you want to make your rent payment and they all add up to more than your card's "daily limit" the bank will stop all subsequent payments attempted that day. Make sure that if you have a "daily" limit you do not use it all up before you try to pay your rent or booking fee.
3) The newly introduced 3D Security system introduced by banks across Europe means that when you make a payment your personal details being entered into the payment system must be the same as those held by your bank - this includes your phone number (including the country code), your address, your name, and your email address. If any of these do not match what the bank is holding for your card/account the payment will be stopped. Make sure that when entering the "Billing Details" that the data you enter matches the owner of the bank card being used to make the payment not the student necessarily who is booking the room as it may be a parent who owns the card!
4) Some banks have introduced a system whereby you are asked to "Approve" your own payments. For this to work you have to download your Bank's App onto a smart phone that you have registered with your bank so that you can see that the approval is requested and so that you can go into your bank App and "approve" the payment. They send you a code on your phone and you need to have that to confirm your approval. If you are using a bank card belonging to a parent you will need to have access to THEIR PHONE also to approve the transaction.
5) If your account has been drawn up to or past your credit limit or where your account is not in funds for the full payment the payment will be rejected by your bank. Make sure you leave enough time for any funds you lodge to your bank account for rent to "clear" (banking term meaning it can take about three days to make sure that the finds lodged to your bank account are available and will not bounce) and become available.
6) Some banks will randomly reject a payment if the amount or the payee seems to be "out of course" for that account - to put this right you need to call your bank's Fraud Section to have the payment released or make the payment again - the Fraud Section will give you instructions as to how to proceed once your id has been verified with them. Fraud Sections in Banks will only talk with the owner of the card so if you are using a parent's bank card the parent (not you) needs to call their bank.
Vacancies which arise due to a cancellation by a resident during the course of the academic year are offered on the BOOKING LINKS page on a first come first served basis. A booking event will be published and on the date and time published any available rooms will be offered. The booking fee will reflect the shorter occupancy term of such a booking on a pro rata basis as will the rent. Each vacancy will have its specific costs published on the booking form on the day of booking.
For example a booking made, for occupancy of a single ensuite room, in late November 2021 will cost €4171 rent (full year €5870) and €355 booking fee (Full year €500).
The payment schedule will be set out in the Confirmation of Booking email once the room is booked. If you choose to pay by semester, the remainder of the current semester will be payable before check-in and you will have a normal semester 2 schedule which will be the same as everyone else. If you choose to pay monthly the normal monthly payment will be set up from the following month (usually) and the equivalent of two months rent will be payable before check-in. Any balance will be collected on the last month payments are due (usually April annually).
