Having a baby in rented accommodation

KarrieBee

I'll try to keep this brief:
DH and I currently live in rented accommodation as we have moved around for his job. We are relatively settled but as we both work in Higher Education our jobs are not as secure as they were.

We wanted to start a family next year but don't necessarily want to buy a house before doing so, which we had originally planned to do.

We have been saving a deposit (living off his salary and saving mine) but are worried that if he had to look for work elsewhere then money spent on buying would be down the drain.

What experiences of renting with a young family do people have, are there any pitfalls and benefits that we may not have thought of?

Any advice would be very welcome!

izzybusy23

KarrieBee wrote: »

I'll try to keep this brief:
DH and I currently live in rented accommodation as we have moved around for his job. We are relatively settled but as we both work in Higher Education our jobs are not as secure as they were.

We wanted to start a family next year but don't necessarily want to buy a house before doing so, which we had originally planned to do.

We have been saving a deposit (living off his salary and saving mine) but are worried that if he had to look for work elsewhere then money spent on buying would be down the drain.

What experiences of renting with a young family do people have, are there any pitfalls and benefits that we may not have thought of?

Any advice would be very welcome!

I have rented with my 'baby' who is now 5 years old and have never had any problems regarding pitfalls. The upside of renting is that should you or OH lose your job, you will probably be more entitled to housing / council tax benefit than if you had a mortgage.

A baby doesn't care where it lives as long as its warm and safe.. so make sure you let longterm, as I imagine being turfed out every six months with a young child is a headache. I've rented for nearly 6 years and had two long rentals in that time.

Pee

I don't see any problem with renting with a baby and it seems to make practical sense when you expect to move and may require more room in future.

Apricot

The only problem I can think of (but would still occur if you were buying) is to be aware of the neighbours. You don't want to be living in a ground floor flat below a young person who has saturday night parties etc.

Oldernotwiser

izzybusy23 wrote: »

A baby doesn't care where it lives as long as its warm and safe.. so make sure you let longterm, as I imagine being turfed out every six months with a young child is a headache. I've rented for nearly 6 years and had two long rentals in that time.

That's easier said than done; you have to accept that lets may be short term, whatever the LL says at the time.

Gingham_Ribbon

The only problem I have seen my friends experience is with a landlord that had no respect for the law or the people in his flats. They were left without heating or hot water with a new baby in winter. Their next landlady was wonderful though.

Fly_Baby

It is not very relevant to you right now - but I find that renting with a baby gives you more choice when it comes to schools.

Good catchment areas usually go hand in hand with high house prices. And while buying in the area might not be affordable then renting there is most likely to be within anyone's means. So it could be an option of renting in an expensive area, securing a place in a good school and then you can buy elsewhere (if you don't mind a bit of a walk/drive) at a lower price.

We live in the very expensive SE London and it was certainly a very valid consideration for us.

KarrieBee

Thanks for all your responses.
I think my main concern is with finding a long term let. We currently let with an agency and live in a lovely area with a great landlord but only 1 bedroom and the living area is open plan so not ideal when we both sometimes have to work from home.

Does anyone have any suggestions of the best way to find a long term let? i.e. through an agency or private landlord?

many thanks again

mummyofboys

I have been living in my rented house for nearly 4 years, I think its great - were in a brilliant area for schools, lovely private road. Also if anything goes wrong eg) boiler breaking and roof leaking two things that have happened its the landords responsibility.
Also we have decorated the house with the landlords permission and he has layed a new wooden floor and carpets for us ( the other ones werent very modern) and he went halfs with us!

ticklepenny_2

I prefer private landlords to letting agencies as they tend to be more flexible. This is based on needing to put in gates, fire guards etc some letting agencies may say no to additional fixtures.

I have a 1 year old and am happy renting my little 2 bed house that is near a park, but as we are planning for a 2nd we are looking to move to a larger house with at least 1 more bedroom. Also I like having my kitchen seperate to my living room so Little one can have all her toys in there and so that we can put up a baby gate, then I dont have to safeguard all the kitchen cupboards, cat litter, cat food etc.

HTH

Britwife

I would just ask questions to the leasing agent. Ask if the landlord owns other properties and see if you can find out where they are and ask if the landlord is good and responsible.

We've been very fortunate with our landlord. There were a few issues with our 3 bedroom house. The second bedroom had built in cabinets and wardrobes and the third was the size of a shoe box. We had 2 boys and were expecting a baby girl. So we put the boys together and worked around the builtins, however, my youngest was just a year away from growing out of his toddler bed and there was no way they would fit. There was also a huge pond in our small garden which was beautiful but we could really use the space for the kids to play.

We decided to look elsewhere and got approved to rent a house down the road with a better layout. That fell through and when we told the landlord that we would be staying we also brought up what wasn't working. In the end, they let us fill in the pond (they helped) and let us take out the cabinets in the boys room. They are in storage and will be put back when we move. The house is now perfect for us and we wont' be moving.

So, my point is, look at the property long term as well. Such as, will you be planning a second baby? Are all the bedrooms good for more than one child? Is the garden suited for your growing family? You might not care if you have a garden now but little ones love playing outside.

best wishes