Costs of renting/living?

embarrassed_about_my_debt

I know this is probably the wrong place for this but DFW is my "home" on the boards.

Im thinking of renting a house and want to try and get an idea of ALL the costs involved.

Agents Fees
Credit Checks
Deposits
Etc

then costs for renting. Looking at a 3 bed around £650 a month but need to know other costs. So if anyone could post up their experiences of renting for the first part and anyone with a house for the rest (down to grocieries,insurances etc) there would be two of us.

Just want to make sure i can properly "afford it" before i look into it properly.

Many thanks

happy_chick_3

Using the SOA format will let you know the costs to anticipate - it lists all the categories and bills you are liekly to incur

embarrassed_about_my_debt

Many thanks Happy chick but that wont actually give me any amounts to budget for, just the catogories IYSWIM

Hawthorn

Hiya

Can't give any info on renting, because in my experience landlords differ greatly.

Last time I rented privately however, the credit check was free, we had no agency fees to pay, but we had to put a bond down, and one months rent in advance. The bond is generally the same as a months rent, as a pointer.

Bills.

Council tax - find out what it is for the place you are going to be renting.
Water - is this included in the rent? Is it on a meter?
Gas/electric - are they pre pay meters? These work out expensive. Shop around for the best deal.
House insurance - you should need contents only. Shop around for this.
Groceries.
Laundry costs - will you have a washer, or is there a launderette nearby?
Get a clothes airer rather than a dryer.
If you have to buy a cooker, seriously consider looking at a remoska - if there's only the two of you, this should do nicely, and cuts right down on fuel costs.
Travel to/from supermarkets/shops.
will you have increased travel costs to and from work? factor this in.
Your car insurance, if you have one, may change if mileage goes up, or you have a garage/lose a garage/change living area, so do look into this.

If there are only two of you (are you living together as married?) it might be worth looking into a smaller place. A three bed house will cost generally more to run, than a smaller property.

Is this your first place? It might be worth popping over to the old style boards for tips on cleaning/cooking on a budget - it's much cheaper to make your own cleaners, and they do the job just as well, for example.

Um, I think that's it?

HTH.

Silverbird

I have rented a very small 1-bed granny flat/bungalow with my husband since April 2006.

I pay £450 per month rent. £10 extra for laundry services (in next door's pantry - therefore using their electric). £20 - 30 for electric (we have a '50p meter' installed and we have to keep it topped up in order for electricity to run - the landlord collects this regularly to pay for their electricity bill, as the electric we use is put on their electricity meter). £91 Council tax for 10 months of year. No gas. No water (we are on special land that doesn't have to pay for water).

Deposit was a months' rent in advance as well as the same again (£900).

No insurance, as we have nothing of value other than a laptop and PC and flat came mostly fully furnished.

Don't forget to budget for phone line and internet connection.

We didn't think we'd still be renting 2 years down the line, but it really isn't as bad as people make out and in the current financial climate it's perfect for us. We don't have to pay for repairs or replacements. It's nice to know that if anything goes wrong it won't be us forking out for it. Although, other than a damp problem, we've not had anything else go wrong as yet. Of course we have the added bonus of having a lovely landlord and landlady who live next door to us and are lovely people.

We are very careful with electricity costs and we don't have central heating. I reduced our groceries down to about £80 to £90 per month thanks to some of the cheaply made meals found on these forums (Old-style thread), although I would imagine this is at least half of what most non-MSE people spend.

Hawthorn

embarrassed_about_my_debt wrote: »

Many thanks Happy chick but that wont actually give me any amounts to budget for, just the catogories IYSWIM

that is difficult to say really - a lot depends on your area/house price etc. Council tax differs greatly. Your landlord should have info on what price band the house falls into, for council tax, then you can find out roughly how much it will be.
Groceries? If you're frugal, you can get by quite well on £30 a week for the two of you. There are six of us, and we do well on under £60 a week, most weeks.
Insurance - get the details of the property, then look for online quotes. That should give you an idea. This will vary on where the property is/does it have an approved alarm system etc etc.
Gas/electric/water....again, depends on how big the house is, how many radiators, is it electric/gas, what will you be cooking on? How many toilets does it have, and so on. And that's without even the meters involved.
You will need to work out how much you're going to spend on travel, from the area you're going to be in to wherever you're going to go, on a weekly basis.

It's really difficult for someone to tell you what your budget is going to be, to be honest. I could give a rough idea of what you shouldn't really go over, on some things, but others would be a wild stab in the dark, which won't help you at all.

embarrassed_about_my_debt

Well my thoughts were if i could get an idea of various 3 beds then i would at least have a guide to amounts. Council tax i will look into.

Petrol etc wont be a problem as will still live in same place i work so know that amount already. Car insurance should be the same as it is the same village i currently live in and house will have a drive, which is where the car is kept curently.

Groceries i was budgeting £200 between us each month, i know this can come down but to start with i think it will take a while getting used to shopping for myself so would rather have extra and have surplus than not enough.

Gas/Electric/Water were the main ones i wanted to know so i can get an idea.

Contents insurance i was looking around the £20 a month.

At the end of the day i would rather budget high and KNOW i have enough to cover everything than move in and not have enough if that makes sense!

embarrassed_about_my_debt

shameless bump!:p

Hawthorn

Gas/Electric/water - ours is a three bedroomed house, with one toilet. Our water is about £55 a month (but we pay this for 8 months of the year) and I gather water prices are quite high in this area. Our gas and electric is £160 a month (we are with British gas - avoid avoid avoid LOL) A more reasonable amount I would say would be about £120 a month, especially if you're not going to be there during the day.

edinburgher

Re. rental prices - only you can find these out! Look at both websites and local lettings agents for indicative prices.

Fees and references - this depends whether you let privately or through an agent. Can vary from £0-roughly £200 in a worse case scenario

Deposit - again, private or agency will make a big difference. Private landlords and likely to let you away with a deposit equal to one month's rent, whereas agencies will doubtless charge six weeks rent.

Council tax - bands can be checked online, or with the agent/landlord when you declare interest. It's a simple matter to check these against Council websites.

Food - £200/each for a couple without kids and pets seems expensive. My gf and I make do with £150/each and we eat a lot!

embarrassed_about_my_debt

Sorry im obviously not making myself very clear. We would looking at renting a 3 bed house around the £650 mark. So dont need any info on rent, i know that is down to the house. And have already decided this, the reason i said size was so people with similar sized houses could give indications of their bills for running a similar size house.

Food i said £200 BETWEEN the two of us not each.

The 4-6 would make quite a difference so will save the 6 weeks worth before hand as well as first months rent.