Can we rent a one bed flat for a while to save - or is this overcrowding?

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Ok, bit of a strange one i suppose - we are desperate to get a nest egg behind us - to the point of being able to pay a good 50% deposit on a mortgage.

Are there any laws against us renting a 1 bed flat as a family for about 2-3 yrs? It's not ideal as we have two children, one 4yrs old and one of 6months old and i'm expecting a third.

We are just thinking rather than ending up with £0 each month due to being in a larger house (with the ridiculous rent prices down South) if we could buckle down, work like crazy and live in a really tiny place in order to hopefully better ourselves in the future.

One estate agent told us the minimum we'd be able to rent off of them is 3beds, is this true or is he just trying to make the most £££ out of us?

Many thanks in advance!

BitterAndTwisted

The agent is flying a kite. You can rent any sized property you like but as a landlord I would be wary of letting to a family with three children in a place so small. DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE HOW STRESSFUL LIVING IN A ONE-BED FLAT WILL BE WITH TWO CHILDREN AND A BABY ON THE WAY! You do not want to risk destroying your relationship for the sake of a deposit. I would suggest that you could probably manage pretty well in a two-bed with the new-born in your bedroom for quite a while but sleeping in the reception room with a tiny baby sounds bonkers to me.

925dancer

I totally agree with the above.

You would be very lucky to find a landlord prepared to rent a one bed to you as well, the wear and tear on a small one bed with that many bodies, however young the children are, is going to be exacerbated hugely.

I know it seems like a great idea but I think you'd find the reality a totally different thing!

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Thank you B-A-T, I'm glad to hear that he is pulling our leg - i thought it sounded silly but you never know these days.

Ah even though i have a 2-3 bed house (third bed can't actually fit a bed in, lol) at the mo, the two kids tend to sleep in my bedroom anyway so i'm well aware of what it's like. I don't get stressed easily so i think i'd be ok. Me and hubby lived in a teeny tiny dingy room in a hostel for quite a while when we were young and our relationship survived that, lol.

At the moment we can't find any two bed properties withing walking range (up to 1hr walk each way - i do 45mins at mo) of my daughters school for less than £800...whereas there are a few 1 bed properties very close to her school that are between £550-£650. We currently pay £890 a month, but then being a bigger house we also pay a hell of a lot more in council tax and gas/electricity and water. All in all moving too a place with £550 rent would save us at around £500 a month on rent/bills alone.

At the moment it just feels like we are throwing money down the drain and could be doing something better with it. Both me and hubby are hardworkers and have lived in overcrowded flats growing up so have learnt to cope with everyone living in each others pockets It's almost norm to us, lol!

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

And LHA in our area for a 2 bed property is £650 - which seems ridiculous as you simply cannot find any 2beds for that price

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

You can in the nearby town, which might be why the LHA is set at that rate - it's 4 miles away though and buses don't run for school times (and it's an absolute dive of a town - eurghhhh, i'd rather live in a tiny place here where it's nice than a two bed there, lol)

BitterAndTwisted

The easiest way to secure a one-bed through an agent is just not to tell them that you've got any children BUT when they turn up to do their periodic inspections it's going to be a hard fact to hide. Then, you might be in receipt of a notice to quit once the truth is uncovered. Moving is stressful and I wouldn't want to be on the move possibly every six months with three kids in tow.

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Thanks - yeah i didn't really want to tell fibs (or just hold back info, lol). I will keep searching - at least i now know we CAN lawfully rent any size property and the estate agent was being an idiot. I was hoping more so to find a small estate agents rather than a big well known one (as well known ones seem to treat tenants worse in our own previous experiences) or a private Landlord who understands our situ. Everywhere we have lived we have taken a crappy place and decorated ourselves - always with a very happy LL who goes on to rent out to the next tenants at a higher price

It's tough stuff - i wish we could move up north but hubbys job has us tied down here in the ridiculously expensive East Sussex with prices in line with London, yet no London waiting equivilent...GRRRRRR!!!!!

skylight

The kids could have the bedroom and you and OH can get a sofa bed for the front room (check there is room for the cot!). Storage solutions will be the main concern but there are plenty of options - it will take a bit of a hard think about what to do with it.

You are not going to get all your current stuff in a smaller place; so a lot will have to go.

It is stressful sometimes living in a smaller place (I have 5 kids in a 2-bed house and will be moving to a sofa bed shortly to give them more space) but its not impossible. I, however, have grown the family in the small place rather than downsized so we are used to it - you may find it a lot harder.

my_gorgeous_ellie-belle

Thank you Skylight - That gives me hope!

Yes that is what i was thinking - the bedroom would have to be a large one so that the front room could still be a front room during the day, then just pulling out a sofa bed at night for us two.

I know - we are well up for the hard slog of it, it's actually hubbys idea (but one that had been in my mind for ages, i just didn't realise he'd be up for it) . Knowing what we want and how bad we want it makes us believe it's possible. Anyway, we both grew up in 2 bed flats, with the kids having to share beds - in hubbys house it was 4 boys in a bunk bed in a tiny room, and the girls in the other lol - wasn't quite THAT crowded for me though, haha!

We live as if we are skint as it is, would just be nice to create a nest egg finally and stop pouring the money we do have down the drain. And i'm an Ebay freak...so downsizing will prob be fun for me, lol - i'm forever saying ''We haven't used XYZ in ages, let me Ebay it!'' all excitedly LOL.

t0rt0ise

I'm surprised that you take the word of someone you don't know on a forum. There are laws about overcrowding and your landlord can be prosecuted for overcrowding. http://england.shelter.org.uk/get_advice/repairs_and_bad_conditions/overcrowding

In your case, a 2 bed property would probably be okay but that is dependent on the size of the rooms. The agent you talked to is obviously going to make sure they stay within the law by only offering 3 beds. That seems to me to be a reasonable approach.