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,Inward Post Service (parcels are separate), and Security etc.
Rent is paid on scheduled due dates and the amount owing at each instalment will be advised to you in your email Booking Confirmation. Your Rent Book is your accommodation account online which is accessible via the accommodation portal with your 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 2023-2024 the charge is €600 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.
Rent payments are made online directly to your accommodation accout either via the Booking Form (if you are booking) and thereafter, in the normal course, via your saved card details on your account. Advance or out-of-course payments can always be made by logging into your accommodation account at any time and you may use any bank card for such payments as that process will not affect your saved card details unless of course you wish it to, by re doing the save card details with a new card.
A saved card can be changed at any time by logging into your account and by making a small payment against rent (€1 is the minimum) and when completing that payment by checking the "save Card Details" for the new card being used. Any payment made in this way reduces your rent and as such is not a fee.
https://youtu.be/pCvCxUycWrw View this video to get more help with how to make a small payment and save bank card details.
The prescribed method of payment is a condition of booking and your Licence to Reside and also the most convenient and safest way to pay. 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 on or before the due date.
https://youtu.be/9-u25ypZtYA View this video to get help with how to make a part payment or when you want to pay advance payments.
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 prescribed method of payment to ensure that your payment is safe and on time to secure your booking and residency.
Utilities costs are standard across all room types on campus at €600 non refundable for the full year (The amount may change from year to year).
All students will pay a non-refundable €600 booking fee at time of booking which doubles as the utility charge for the year - please note this is not a deposit and will not be refunded at the end of the occupancy as it will have been spent on utillities.
The Licence is a fixed contract for the term of occupation booked. In effect there is no cancellation available. However if you cannot perform your contract you can advise us as follows:
You cannot take up the room booked and will not be arriving at all (before the commencement date of your Licence): This is a booking cancellation. If you decide before you check-in (or before 17th September ) that you no longer can honor your room booking you may advise us by completing the CANCEL MY BOOKING form. This form can be found (using your login username and password) on your accommodation account in the Help Section. The booking fee will be forfeit in full.
You need to make an Early Departure during the term of your Licence: This is a termination of your Licence to Reside by you. 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. Your Licence confers the liability for the rent for the FULL TERM of your Licence however once you give notice of your intended early departure we will attempt to re-licence the room. To give notice of your intention to end your licence to reside please complete the NOTICE OF EARLY DEPARTURE form.
This form can be found (using your login username and password) on your accommodation account in the Help Section. The booking fee is forfeit in total, however we will do our best to re-licence your room once you have vacated and you will get credit against the full rent for the term of the new Licence of another student when they accept the room offer and take up the liability for rent.
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. Plesae note that any debts left unpaid will affect your standing with the university and may prevent you from receiving your academic scripts or exam results.
If you are due a refund (very limited circumstances) then a refund will automatically be calculated and posted to your accommodation account once the room has been sold on to another student. 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 one month settlement of any refund expected.
A minimum of €50 will be charged if a room needs to be re-licenced depending on the circumstances - this will be considered on a case by case review . Cleaning charges may also apply.
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 payment 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. Payment schedules will usually have the equivalent of two instalments at then start and the "monthly" amount is set up from the following month. Any small balance will be collected in May annually.
