Registration Process for Student Accommodation
Smart Move Sheffield register new properties for students between October and June each academic year, for the upcoming academic year. Each new property from October 2016 onwards must be registered with Sheffield City Council's student accommodation scheme, Snug, before it can be registered with Smart Move Sheffield. Sheffield City Council will inspect the property to ensure that it meets the required standard, and will carry out a fit and proper check on the landlord which will take approximately two weeks.
Sheffield City Council will make a small charge to come out to inspect your properties which is currently £50 per property, rising to £100 for properties of 11+ bedrooms.
For the larger purpose built blocks of student accommodation, the prices are as follows:
- Up to 200 bedrooms - £150
- 201 - 999 bedrooms - £250
- 1000+ bedrooms - £500
If the property is a licensed HMO, Sheffield City Council will not charge you to inspect the property. If the property has recently been inspected for its licence and meets the Snug standards, it can be passported into Snug. If your property is due an inspection soon, please ask the council to also inspect it to the Snug standard. If your licensed HMO has not recently had an inspection and is not due one soon, please contact Sheffield City Council and arrange for your property to be inspected for Snug at no cost to you.
To register with Smart Move Sheffield, we will require a copy of your Snug certification, copies of valid certificates and the relevant registration fee. We may also ask for a copy of your tenancy agreement. Landlords can either register online using our Studentpad system, or can contact us for paper forms to complete.
Landlords must subsequently confirm to us, on an annual basis, that their registered properties are maintained to the required standards, and all properties registered with Smart Move Sheffield must be Snug approved by October 2018. Snug approval lasts for 2 years, at which time Sheffield City Council will need to re-inspect the property to provide approval for a further two years.
Please be aware that we register specific properties rather than the landlord. This may mean that a landlord or agent who has some properties registered with us, and advertises through us, may also have other properties which are not registered. If you wish to check the registration status of a specific property, please feel free to visit us or give us a call.
For further information about our registration standards, HMO Licensing and property accreditations, please take a look at the other pages in this section.
Which Areas do We Register Properties In?
We register properties in the areas most popular with students. This includes parts of Sheffield 10, 11, 6, 3 and 1. These properties are normally within about 30 minutes of the University by foot, but many are much closer than this. A map of the area within which we register properties can be viewed here. We may consider properties outside of this area for families.
Price List
Please click here to find out the registration fees for 2025/2026.