Renting Advice

lucy_w86

I am planning our wedding for May 2009 and both my fiance and I are currently living with our parents. We are looking into moving out around the wedding so it all comes together nicely - she says...! We are going to have to rent because we can not afford to buy. We also dont think we are ready to buy a place yet, especially as I am unsettled career wise.

Can anyone give any advice about doing this? Sites to use? Rent privately or through a lettings agency etc etc...?

Thanks!

olly300

If anyone you know rents and they have a good landlord see if they have any available properties.

It makes not much difference if you rent from a letting agency or privately as good landlords are good landlords. However if a letting agency manages the property in any way, you may have problems getting repairs done quickly as normally they tell the landlord (and in my experience can take their time doing this) who then approves the repair.

Depending where you are in the country you can use the gumtree.com to find properties.

Also before you go looking read up on your rights, the shelter.org website has useful advice.

catkins

I have been renting privately for a few years now because I have pets and could not find an agency that would accept them. In that time I have had 3 landlords and whilst I know there are obviously good and bad landlords, I have had the misfortune to have 3 bad ones.

I am not going to go into all the details here but I would say if you decide to rent privately be careful. All my landlords wanted the rent in cash, not one of them provided a rent book and even after I bought one, they would not sign it. None of them would do any repairs to the houses and the first one used to let himself in whilst myself and OH were out at work. When we changed the locks he made threats and we moved out.

bones61

We have rented privately, similar to catkins experience although we got the town hall housing dept onto landlord when he got heavy with us, now rent through agency, repairs not done and rubbish not removed blah blah blah. As olly300 says a bad landlord is a bad landlord.
Try and find friends, relatives or other contacts who rent and ask their advice. If only we could ask landlords for references.
One bit of advice is dont have any pets yet, many places wont allow them and it also restricts your options.

bap98189

Renting privately can be very easy or very difficult, it all depends on the landlord. Some are excellent, personable people, but equally there are others who you wouldn't want to give the time of day to.

I would suggest you go through an agency, particularly the first time. A good agency will deal with everything professionally, and make the whole process a lot easier. Google for your town name and letting agency and you should find sites with a list of those in your area. Ask your friends if they know of any in the area and how they found them to deal with.

However, if you are not looking for somewhere until 2009, I wouldn't worry about it at the moment. There is no point contacting agencies until a couple of months before you want to move.