Where to look for non-renovated / unfurnished flats in London?

bitsandpieces

I guess it depends what you want. Finding an unfurnished place shouldn't be a great problem. If you find a place that needs painting etc. a landlord might give a small amount of money off your rent (though this is often based on the tenant redecorating to a good standard). As you say - if a place just needs a lick of paint to make it aesthetically OK this doesn't cost much, so a sensible landlord would likely do it themselves in preference to giving a big discount on rent. You may find landlords who are not sensible enough to do basic maintenance on their properties, but would you want to rent off them? :eek:

I wouldn't to touch bigger repairs to things like plumbing unless you have the skills to do it well - I'm not talking about things like changing a washer, but with big jobs there's a risk of causing damage if you get it wrong/bodge it. Things like work on a gas boiler will need a qualified person for legal/safety reasons.

Have you thought about things like property guardian schemes? Can be a good deal if you're happy to live in an unconventional setting on relatively insecure tenure, in order to save significantly on rent.

Errata

Property guardian might fit your needs http://www.newbouldguardians.co.uk/

66z

Yes, property guardians is amazing scheme, unfortunately the ones I enquired (Camelot, Ad Hoc and Dot Dot Dot) won't allow for pets.. Which is such a shame.

I didn't know about Newbould though, so thank you, will have a look.

Update: yes, no pets.