Renting - A few questions

mikebrown70

Hi All,

This is the first post so I hope its in the right place. I am looking at renting for a year with 2 mates hopefully moving in January. Im looking for any general advice on the rental process & also some guidance on what bills will cost etc (im currently living at home). I have done a list below of what I think are all the bills but am unsure if I have missed any & the ammounts of some of them. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. We are looking at a 3 bedroomed house, probably semi detached or a town house in Lincoln.

All PCM
Rent £600
Council Tax £100
Sky £35
Broadband £25
Tv Licence £11.50
Gas ???
Electricity ???
Water ???
House Insurance £12.50
Landline Line Rental ???

pcwilkins

mikebrown70 wrote: »

This is the first post so I hope its in the right place. I am looking at renting for a year with 2 mates hopefully moving in January.

Make sure you trust them, cos if they do a runner you could be saddled with paying the entire rent. You may arrange to pay 1/3rd each between yourselves, but such an agreement is not recognised by law. Unless, of course, you are renting rooms and paying rent seperately.

Im looking for any general advice on the rental process

1) Read the contract carefully.
2) Check the inventory carefully.
3) Read up about your rights, especially TDS --- google it.

All PCM
Rent £600
Council Tax £100
Sky £35
Broadband £25
Tv Licence £11.50
Gas £20
Electricity £15
Water £10(?)
House Insurance £12.50*
Landline Line Rental £10ish

*You don't need house insurance. You might like to have contents insurance if you have anything that's worth anything.

You seem to have thought of everything. Just a note --- I'm sure you can get combined Sky/broadband/phone for less than £70pcm. Might be worth looking at.

Peter

SquatNow

Sky will throw your basic broadband in for free.

SquatNow

pcwilkins wrote: »

You may arrange to pay 1/3rd each between yourselves, but such an agreement is not recognised by law. Unless, of course, you are renting rooms and paying rent seperately.

Not so, if you get a shared tennancy you all go on the rental agreement. Bad news is that you'll probably pay 3 LA fees and you can still get left paying the rent if one of your mates legs it as you will all be jointly and equally liable for the rent and for any damages.

But at least you'll have it on paper and can then take you mate to court.

moneysaver12

i pay £20 pounds a month for electric, and 40 pounds for gas, 20 pounds for water, and sky with sky plus and broadband is 43 pounds a month

pcwilkins

SquatNow wrote: »

Not so, if you get a shared tennancy you all go on the rental agreement.

Agreed. I didn't mean to imply that that wouldn't be the case.

Bad news is that you'll probably pay 3 LA fees

Agreed

and you can still get left paying the rent if one of your mates legs it as you will all be jointly and equally liable for the rent and for any damages.

Which is exactly what I said, isn't it?

But at least you'll have it on paper and can then take you mate to court.

All the TA says is that persons A, B, and C agree to rent property X from landlord Y. It will not say that A, B, and C will pay 1/3rd each. How the rent is divided between the three persons is a matter for them to decided.

In legal terms, there is only one "tenant" --- persons A, B, and C. They are "the tenant" and the rent has to come from them somehow.

Unless there is a separate, signed agreement between persons A, B, and C (an agreement which is nothing to do with the landlord or their agent), A cannot sue C for not paying their part of the rent.

Peter

mlz1413

I would allow £40 gas
and £40 elec
plus £35 for water pcm.

Best to get all the bills on a monthly DD though one bank account, the above may look high but if all of you cook seperately, shower twice a day having heating on 24 hrs a day etc the bills soon mount up. If you don't use that much at the end of the tenancy or once a year you can always split the build up out.

timberflake

When I lived with my gf, our elect was £100 a month! There was no gas and we worked mon-fri so I think it was the sotrage heaters (it was Oct-Feb)
we had so you may want gas central heating

mikebrown70

Thanks for all the advice.

guppy

mikebrown70 wrote: »

Thanks for all the advice.

In addition to the advice above, have a look at Martin's pages on gas/electric, phone/broadband etc.

You should be able to minimise all those things. TalkTalk for example is £18 for landline and broadband, and mine is working fine despite the horror stories of last year

Enjoy your new found freedom!