soon to be first time tenant in need of help and advice!

obseen16

hi all. me and the girlfriend are planning on moving out in the next month or so, we had a viewing of a nice little flat that we both liked. so we got some application forms from the letting agents, trouble is were having problems figuring out which bits were supposed to fill in, me more so, im self employed but there is a part of the application that wants employer details, being as im self employed should i fill this in with my own company details? or do i put my last employers details in? only been self employed for about 8 months so far to.

also the more relevant part is we have worked out a sort of budget/allowance for bills etc. like (all per month)
council tax - £105
Electric & Gas - £80
Water - £40
Rent - £400
food - £200

does this seem like a good estimate for 2 people?

Drea

obseen16 wrote: »

hi all. me and the girlfriend are planning on moving out in the next month or so, we had a viewing of a nice little flat that we both liked. so we got some application forms from the letting agents, trouble is were having problems figuring out which bits were supposed to fill in, me more so, im self employed but there is a part of the application that wants employer details, being as im self employed should i fill this in with my own company details? or do i put my last employers details in? only been self employed for about 8 months so far to.

also the more relevant part is we have worked out a sort of budget/allowance for bills etc. like (all per month)
council tax - £105
Electric & Gas - £80
Water - £40
Rent - £400
food - £200

does this seem like a good estimate for 2 people?

I used to live with my ex for a year or so, this is what we spent on average:

Rent - £550
Council tax/water - £80 each
Electricity - Around £90 (we had a pre pay meter)
TV License - £11
TV/phone/broadband - £36

Not really sure about food as one of us tended to pick something up on the way home so it would depend how rich we were feeling :rotfl: and I'm probably missing things out too...

Remember to add in any bills you currently pay (loans, credit cards, etc)

chugalongzoe

Hi I would say thats about right if anything you have probably estimated more than me on all of them but that is good because if you find it is less than what you've estimated its a bonus for you thats the way I look at it. Good luck.

obseen16

cheers for the advice guys, i managed to sort out the application stuff today, ended up phoning the estate agents.


BTW is there a way of not paying application fees? our estate agent wants us to hand over £160 just to apply for tenancy this price includes a credit check but is this normal or can it be done for free?

chugalongzoe

I dont think there is I'm afraid when I was looking into renting private all the estate agents was asking for admin fee. Why they charge so much I don't know why.

LittleMissAspie

obseen16 wrote: »

BTW is there a way of not paying application fees? our estate agent wants us to hand over £160 just to apply for tenancy this price includes a credit check but is this normal or can it be done for free?

That is normal and looks about average.

You can check the council tax on your local council's website, and the letting agent should be able to tell you the banding of the flat. Just remember that they take the payments over 10 months. So our council tax is £1200, so it costs us £120 per month (then 2 months with nothing to pay).