Idiot's Guide to Renting?

BrunoM

I do and have read the site and forums a lot - naturally the majority of the property-related guidance is around mortgages rather than renting and I've not found quite the summary-for-idiots level of info I was hoping for yet

Can anyone point me to something which will cover areas like

"pro's and cons of agency vs private", "good agencies, bad agencies, private resources", "benchmark figures", "questions to ask on viewing", "hidden costs", etc...?

Thanks!

olly300

The problem is in the rental market one size doesn't fit all due to there being different types of rentals entire property, shared property or room only with different types of contracts and different laws in different parts of the UK.

So you need to ask specific questions and someone will give you the answers to the best of their knowledge.

Shelter will give legal information and do separate sites for England & Wales,Scotland and NI - http://england.shelter.org.uk/home/index.cfm

BrunoM

OK, seems fair let me try some specifics that I am sure I should know more about.

(in London) What is the salary % range generally accepted to be normal and "affordable"? 30-40% of take-home is the lower end?

What advantages (in the opinion of the reader, I realise this might be subjective!) do you get going through an agency vs private? Does the advantage to private just boil down to "no-one skimming a percentage off the top"?

Can viewings often/usually/never be arranged for weekend days? Evenings?

What online resources would you recommend, or criticise (for London)? Gumtree.com (would these all be private lettings?), rightmove.co.uk (would these all be agencies?), ...

What's usually/never included in the rent, in terms of utility bills, council tax, grounds fees, etc?

--

Basically, I think-and-feel like I can afford c.£900-1000/month even if OH doesn't work or only works part-time (wants to be a writer!), I work in Central London, and I seem to be getting a huge range of options and having trouble weeding some out, prioritising, etc etc.

Dithering at the moment even between basic questions like "2 bedrooms in an Ok area vs 1 bed in a great one", and all that stuff. So I hope that immersing myself in thinking about all the little areas might help me crystallise my thinking some

jaype

Things to remember: Take photos of everything just as you move in, just in case the landlord tries to withold the deposit later. Make sure you check the inventory thoroughly and point out anything that isn't right. Check if the landlord is going to be in the country and if not, make sure someone else can sign off major repairs or you may be left with a broken boiler and a managing agent desperately scouring the Australian outback for then missing owner...(I had to do this briefly when I worked as a lettings agent after leaving uni). If the landlord is private, check he or she lives where they say they do by using the electoral roll (once had one run off with my deposit and had sold both my rental place and their previous home with no forwarding address). As for price - are you saving to buy? If so, choose a cheap place. HTH

littlesaint

BrunoM wrote:

OK, seems fair let me try some specifics that I am sure I should know more about.

(in London) What is the salary % range generally accepted to be normal and "affordable"? 30-40% of take-home is the lower end?

I've paid anything from 30% of my salary to 40%. Obviously depends on your salary to some extent.

BrunoM wrote:

What advantages (in the opinion of the reader, I realise this might be subjective!) do you get going through an agency vs private? Does the advantage to private just boil down to "no-one skimming a percentage off the top"?

Go private every time. I've been in seven different houses in London and only rented directly from a landlady once. However in a couple of others, the landlords only used an agency to find tenants and managed it themselves. I had an easier time as a tenant in all three properties and pretty much got all of my deposit back in all three cases. With letting agents you may also have to pay extra fees.

BrunoM wrote:

Can viewings often/usually/never be arranged for weekend days? Evenings?

There are growing numbers of letting agents who will organise viewings for Saturday morning and early evening. Many close at about seven, though. Private landlords are also quite flexible.

BrunoM wrote:

What online resources would you recommend, or criticise (for London)? Gumtree.com (would these all be private lettings?), rightmove.co.uk (would these all be agencies?),

Gumtree is good, though too many lettings agencies use it. Moveflat is good, though it tends to be better for flatshares than self containted. Moveflat, Propertyfind and findaproperty are all portals for agents, though they are quite user friendly (maps and lots of photos). Whenever i used loot I got grumpy people saying the flat was let and slamming down the phone - this was despite the fact that the ad was in that day's paper.

BrunoM wrote:

What's usually/never included in the rent, in terms of utility bills, council tax, grounds fees, etc?

Only one of my flats has been all inclusive. The rest have had no utilities included. Telephone is rarely included in any case. No idea what ground fees are...

BrunoM

OK, thanks; all useful thoughts, and hadn't heard of some of those sites