Renting in East London?

craigthfc_2

Hi I'm fresh out of uni and just started my first ever job.

Currently live in Margate which is a 2.5 hour door to door commute and is also expensive at 500+ a month just for the train.

I work on Brick Lane so am looking to rent a flat fairly near there. I have been looking on gumtree, but would like some advice on where else to look online?


Also, I'm fairly good at managing my money, but I'm not sure how much of my income (21k before tax) I should spend on rent - I've read that it should be 1/3 but this doesn't seem particularly feasible in this part of London - however, if I live in this area I can walk/bike to work and therefore transportation costs should be fairly low.

Any advice would be welcome!!

BitterAndTwisted

Renting anywhere on your own within walking distance of Brick Lane I think is going to be beyond your means. Actually, in my opinion, fantasising about being able to rent somewhere on your own when you're straight out of Uni is ambitious, to say the least.

Why not have a look for flat or house-sharing in the Mile End/Bow neck of the woods? Then, you'll have minimal fares to pay on the tube or bus to get to Brick Lane.

You might have read that your rent should be around 1/3 of your take-home pay but for a lot of Londoners this can be close to half with utility bills etcetera on top.

craigthfc_2

Sorry, I didn't communicate clearly enough. I understand that I will not be able to rent a flat by myself and am looking at flatshares.
Thanks for clearing up the cost of living in London and suggesting those areas.

Edit: Also when I say walking distance - I do not mind a decent walk of 30 -40 minutes if I save some more money

robin_banks

I'd suggest a shared house in Bethnal Green tbh. Somewhere not too far from the Approach pub, after you've had a few in the Pride of Spitalfields or the Carpenters Arms off Brick Lane.

jozbo

bethnal green would be nice but if you want to spend less go for a house share near Hackney road or Bow/Mile End as suggested. There are also plenty of ex-council properties off Kingsland rd near Hoxton street market that will get you bang where you want to be but paying less.

mostlycheerful

“I have been looking on gumtree, but would like some advice on where else to look online?”

Moveflat dot com is a good site for flat share and rentals, loot dot com and also available as a newspaper can be quite good

louby_lou

i found my old Bow flat on Gumtree - look in shops and windows and on rightmove - ask around, people are always moving - see if you can get any recommendations. you should be able to get a decent share for about £400/month in that area, just keep looking! oh and dont hand over any money upfront!

craigthfc_2

louby_lou wrote: »

i found my old Bow flat on Gumtree - look in shops and windows and on rightmove - ask around, people are always moving - see if you can get any recommendations. you should be able to get a decent share for about £400/month in that area, just keep looking! oh and dont hand over any money upfront!

Hi I'm a bit worried about this one.

I've seen a large amount of landlords saying they require one months rent and deposit up front - should you just pay on the day you receive the keys and move in?

Does a landlord not expect any money upfront at all, especially if you aren't due to move in for a few weeks?

mostlycheerful

What louby_lou might be referring to is that there are a lot of con artists who pretend to be landlords and simply rip you off and disappear with your money so be careful to check that it actually is a real landlord that you’re handing your cash over to.

How to guard against it? Hmm, tricky.

Well, there are some ways of doing at least a bit of due diligence but probably not really any way to actually pin it down.

One that comes to mind is that for £4 you can look up the land registry to see if they are registered as owning the property and if they are then that would tend to suggest that it’s probably ok unless it’s an impostor posing as being the true owner. Also a lot of properties are not registered so if the name is not registered then this doesn’t necessarily prove anything either way.

Paying by cheque or bank transfer means that at least you’ve got a paper trail showing where the money went but that doesn’t particularly help much as it’s generally easy for crims to open bank accounts with ripped off IDs.

A supposed landlord or agent who appears to be a rough or criminal or dodgy or foreign or flash or shifty sort is a clue. However a lot of con artists are smooth and slick and convincing and charming and relaxed and also conversely some normal decent people can come across as rough so just the person's manner and appearance doesn't necessarily tell you anything useful at all.

A landlord who hurries you up and isn’t bothered about references is also another possible sign of a con artist. A landlord who tries to get you to pay a deposit without even seeing the place is another likely warning sign.

However just getting into the place before handing over your cash is not much difference either as a lot of con artists doing this scam have the keys and so will continue to pose as being the landlord until they get your cash and disappear.

Possibly a solution or partial solution could be to pay from a credit card in which case you might be able to do a charge back or claim it off the card providers if you get ripped off. This is true for most goods or services but whether it would be the case in the event of rent rip offs is not something I’ve previously researched so it might be worth your while looking this up elsewhere and in the terms and conditions of your card - or perhaps if someone reads this here then they may be able to shed some light on it.

Yes, it’s a common and easy to do scam and happens all the time everywhere. As usual in UK there’s little or no rule of law or law enforcement and courts rarely imprison fraudsters and on the few occasions that they do it’s generally only for short non deterrent sentences so everywhere in UK is awash with hundreds of thousands of crims making big money and getting away with it. So yes, watch out, be careful, it’s rough out there and you’re vulnerable. Good luck.

VfM4meplse

craigthfc wrote: »

Hi I'm a bit worried about this one.

I've seen a large amount of landlords saying they require one months rent and deposit up front - should you just pay on the day you receive the keys and move in?

Does a landlord not expect any money upfront at all, especially if you aren't due to move in for a few weeks?

It's worth noting the Deposit Protection Scheme - whilst you will have to find the money, it's not at your landlord's disposal.