Need help! Moving to Bath from Ireland

Emerald_Gal

Hi Everyone,

I am currently living in Ireland and have just got offered a job in Trowbridge.

I have been told it is around 30 minutes outside Bath so I have decided that I would probably prefer to live in Bath and commute.

I am in my mid-20s so want to be in an area that is safe, not too long a commute to work but that is near the City Centre and the nightlife for the evenings and weekends.

I have absolutely no idea where to start when it comes to renting in the UK. What is a typical rent for a 1 bed in Bath? How much is a deposit usually? Are their things like water charges, council fees etc?

I would be either renting a 1 bed or would be really open to sharing with others. What are reputable websites to find roommates in the UK?

I will have a car so don't necessary need to be near a train etc. However, I will be going to and from Bristol airport a lot so need to keep that in mind as well. I would really appreciate some advise on areas in Bath that might be good to live in, apartment complexs that are good etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much in advance!!!

Mr_Moo_2

http://rightmove.co.uk - for rentals

http://www.bathnes.gov.uk/services/council-tax-benefits-and-grants/council-tax - for council tax

http://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/avon/bath?&aff=677&ag=flatshare&KW=flat+share+bathEXACT&gclid=CMPIof7F5LoCFfSWtAodFAwA2g

- for flatshares. Also try Gumtree.

Good luck, lovely place.

dimbo61

You can also look at " easyroommate"
Why do you want to live in bath? If you work in Trowbridge!
Any chance other staff at your new company might rent a room to you for a couple of weeks while you research the area?
If you sign a 6 months tenancy and hate the place or new neighbour you are stuck for 6 months.
I would guess Trowbridge will be cheaper than Bath and you can always book a hotel in bath for a night out!!!!

paddyrg

Bath is not cheap. It's lovely, generally safe in all areas, but not cheap.

A 2-bed flat on the outskirts (25 min walk) is £825+/month, closer to the centre you could easily pay a grand a month for a single bedroom place. If you drive, you can't park for toffee in the city centre and need to be in an outskirt for realistic residential parking. There are regular rush-hour traffic snarls thanks to the fact it's an old Roman city never designed for the traffic, so limited ways in and out.

If you're working in Trowbridge, it is much cheaper to live there and save yourself the commute. Plenty of people who work in Bath live in Trowbridge and commute in, so you'd be going against the usual flow!

Zoology_Dragon

I live in Bath, it's a lot more expensive to live here than in Trowbridge.

If you decide to go for Bath anyway pretty mucheverywhere is good though I would probably avoid Twerton. Oldfield Park is cheap (for Bath) but full of students (may not be an issue for you). City centre proper is expensive, noisy and damp (listed buildings).

Jim_Jupiter

Emerald_Gal wrote: »

Hi Everyone,

I am currently living in Ireland and have just got offered a job in Trowbridge.

I have been told it is around 30 minutes outside Bath so I have decided that I would probably prefer to live in Bath and commute.

I am in my mid-20s so want to be in an area that is safe, not too long a commute to work but that is near the City Centre and the nightlife for the evenings and weekends.

I have absolutely no idea where to start when it comes to renting in the UK. What is a typical rent for a 1 bed in Bath? How much is a deposit usually? Are their things like water charges, council fees etc?

I would be either renting a 1 bed or would be really open to sharing with others. What are reputable websites to find roommates in the UK?

I will have a car so don't necessary need to be near a train etc. However, I will be going to and from Bristol airport a lot so need to keep that in mind as well. I would really appreciate some advise on areas in Bath that might be good to live in, apartment complexs that are good etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all so much in advance!!!

Hi, I recently moved to Bath in August.

Myself and my girlfriend share a 1 bedroom flat that is 5 minute walk from the city centre, not a million miles away from the Royal Crescent which you may have heard of (which for reference sake is about £8000 a month to rent on that road).
Our rent is slightly more modest at £750 a month. Which is still expensive we know. Deposit was one month's rent + agency fees of a couple of hundred.
It is an incredibly nice flat however, the rooms are huge and we have a stunning view over the entire city.
Where we are is certainly not noisy in the slightest (although we're up a bit of a hill, the students and drunks probably don't make it up here) and it's not damp in the slightest (but yes it's a listed building).

The city is beautiful, expensive and mostly safe with a decent police presence (on horses no less) during the wee hours of the night.

The nightlife is decent, but I wouldn't expect it to be quite like London. There's always some event, or festival, or fair going on around town though - not always aimed at younger people I should add.

As for other bills, Wessex water set our monthly bill to £41 based on their estimates for 1 bedroom, 2 people use. I'm hoping that'll drop once we give them more readings.
Energy faired better for us, EDF (on their blue price promise tariff) wanting £60ish (i forget the exact amount now) for both gas/elec a month. I imagine that will rise.
Council tax was, I believe, £115 a month where we are (we're both full time students here and I can't remember the figure having not needing to pay it).

Parking in the city centre will require a permit at £100 a year. Parking can sometimes be difficult, and practice parallel parking; it will be needed. As mentioned rush hour is a nightmare to get into and out of the city.

As a resident though you'd be eligible for a free resident's card! This gives you free admission, or massively reduced rates, at museums and touristy stuff around the city.

PasturesNew

I found a great hotel room/rate by using airbnb.com - it's a site for short-term room rentals and house-shares, but includes some small/private hotels out of season.

If you can rent a room/houseshare for a month, that'll give you chance to really look around while living in the area.

If I couldn't find anything on there, I'd then look here for cheap hotels: http://www.smoothhound.co.uk/

TBagpuss

Bath is very expensive - it may be worth considering renting in Trowbridge initially - it's only about 20 minutes by train to get into Bath when you want to, and you'll then be able to take some time to find your way around.

You could also consider Bradford on Avon - it's between Bath and Trowbridge, on the same rail line, and it has more of the 'feel' of Bath than Trowbridge does, while being cheaper than Bath.

Will you be driving to work? Getting in or out of Bath can be a nightmare by road, so if you do plan to rent in Bath, I would strongly recommend that you visit and and do a 'trial run' to give yourself an idea of what the commute will be like - your travel time can almost double if you are doing the trip at busy times, so do check it out at the time of day you will be commuting.(30 minutes is about right if you're doing it at 1 a.m. when there is no traffic. At 8.30a.m. 45 mins to an hour is more realistic.)

When you rent, you will typically have to pay a deposit of 1 months rent. You will have to pay council tax on top of that, in addition to the usual utilities (gas, electricity, water etc).

Out of interest, what appeals to you about being in Bath rather than Trowbridge?

Getting to Bristol Airport from Trowbridge will take about an hour, which is around 20 minutes longer than getting there from Bath in (again, getting out of Bath will add to that because of the traffic)

easilydistracted

Bath is definitely expensive to live. I'm not sure I'd consider it a nightlife city but depends what your used to. There are a lot of commuters on the roads into and out of Bath. You are probably better getting the trains which are frequent. I commute from Bristol and work out of Trowbridge a lot. I'd prefer to get trains if I could, I take a bit of a crazy detour to avoid Bath gridlock. There is a station at Oldfield Park in Bath, which is quite a reasonably priced area without being not so great to live.

Trowbridge is nicer than I expected in places but not a big nightlife place. More down to earth than Bath though.

originator

another vote for Bradford on Avon from me,best of both worlds really,would be really handy for your work in Trowbridge and a quick hop on the train to Bath.

JoeA81

I went to Univeristy in Bath, and also stayed on and worked there for a few years after graduation, 8 years in total.

I was similar to you, in that I was living in Bath and communting out by car to Frome (a town a little further south than Trowbridge).

As others have said Bath is expensive and traffic can be crazy at times. My solution to mitigate these factors was to live outside of the centre in the "unfashionable" (i.e. cheaper) non-Georgian houses, and also to make sure that I was living on the south side of the city - making it easy for me to avoid the traffic jams and travel to work via the Wellsway A367, and head towards the A36 via the country lanes. It took me about 30 minutes to drive to Frome, and I passed the road to Trowbridge road every day (although I had to get to work for 8am - which may have helped with traffic).

I lived in the Bear Flat area, around the Wellsway road, but most places south of the river outside of the Georgian centre should be more reasonably priced than renting in the centre. You are also more likely to get easy and cheaper parking! Bath is quite a small place so wherever you live it shouldn't be more than a 15 minute walk to get to the centre. The only advantage of living in the centre is that you will get to live in a flat in a beautiful Georgain building - but you will pay a premium for this and get worse parking, more traffic, shared front doors and hallways, and drafty sash windows! Prety much all the housing in central Bath is Georgian buildings converted into flats.

There are many many pubs, a few clubs, and lots and lots of "cultural" things happening all the time. Bath also has a big student population, so there is always something going on. Others have mentioned the Oldfield park area which is also another cheaper place to live south of the river, and also heavily populated with students. Avoid Twerton if you can, not as nice, and a little too far out.

Bath is a great city, Trowbridge and Frome and the like...yes they are cheaper but also there is a lot less going on - so if that is important to you then Bath is the right choice.