For thousands studying at Scottish universities each year, the vital task of safely securing a place to live for the next academic year treads a well-worn path; one that’s about to be an unintended casualty of new legislation that’s current going through the Scottish Parliament.Take the average first year student.

Most take up a place in university-owned halls of residence or privately-run Purpose Built Student Accommodation (PBSA) on 9 or 10 month leases. By December, they’re encouraged to start thinking about next year’s accommodation, making way for the next intake of freshers in September.

In parallel, early in the New Year, Private Rented Sector landlords will issue formal ‘Notice to Leave’ or ‘Renew’ to sitting tenants, so that they can work out which flats and houses will be available to market for the next academic year.

By February those properties are advertised at large ‘accommodation fairs’ and on the internet portals like Citylets and Lettingweb, giving students a chance to secure a property well ahead of the busy exam period in April and May.

The result is that a large proportion will move out of residential accommodation for the summer, saving money on the cost of rent while they go on holiday, travel, professional work placement or return home to live with parents and take summer jobs.

Unfortunately, new regulations that form part of the Private Housing (Tenancies) Scotland Bill, threaten to break the system altogether. Under the terms of the Bill, landlords will have to offer all tenants a single, open-ended Private Residential Tenancy, which means, at a stroke, they’ll no longer be able to offer a fixed term 9 or 10 month lease.

Neither will landlords have a means to require students to vacate their property in the summer or even learn at a reasonably early stage whether students want to move on.

We’re told that the changes are intended to protect tenants, but there is little evidence that real tenants were ever consulted in significant numbers, so PRS 4 Scotland commissioned leading independent market research agency Why Research to survey more than 1,500 current tenants in December to gauge their opinions and understand their tenancy needs.

Over half (54%) of students who responded would prefer to keep the current fixed term tenancies (with possible option to renew in discussion with landlord), while 89 per cent agree that there should be an option for a flexible or short term tenancy agreed between landlord and tenant at the outset, underscoring the point that different students need different options. 64 per cent felt keeping rental costs down by vacating a property during the summer months was important.

Over nine tenths (92%) said that being able to secure accommodation for the next academic year as early as possible was important, despite the fact that the open-ended tenancies proposed in the Bill would make this very difficult as the new system precludes landlords from advertising properties until a tenant has agreed to leave.

The Scottish Government suggests the market will simply ‘adjust’ to these and other issues raised during parliamentary hearings on the draft Bill late last year. Its business impact assessment acknowledges that the consequences will be bad for landlords, but this is clear evidence that some tenant groups, like students, will struggle with the changes too.

PRS 4 Scotland is urging the Government to make available their assessments of the adjustments that are likely to occur, including estimates of increases or decreases in supply and rental costs.

The risks to students are clear: fewer available properties, more rent to pay and a huge surge in rental market activity in the summer months, when most would rather be enjoying time away from student lodgings.

Fortunately there is still time to improve the Bill, which will come before MSPs again in February.

They must now consider proposals for a ‘student tenancy’ that gives students what they want: all of the same rights as other PRS tenants under the Bill while retaining the flexibility needed to make the student housing market work effectively.

Dan Cookson is head of research for the campaigning group PRS 4 Scotland which is made up of agents, landlords and portals