Are all the BTL's selling up?? Where do I look for a 3 bed house to rent?

blue_monkey_2

I am looking for a 3 bedroom house and there is nothing at all in the immediate and adjoining areas available. Are all the BTL with 'basic' let's selling up or am I looking in the wrong place? The only thing around are studio/one bedroom flats or HUGE houses that cost about 2k a month. I think we might qualify for some housing benefit towards the rent but some have stated no DSS so I did not bother looking for those. It seems my husbands whole salary is going to be needed just for the rent which is kind of scary.

Can you let me know where I should be looking, I have exhausted all the estate agents and letting agents in the area and I am just tired of looking now and I am exhausted. Are there any specific sites I can look at that 'insiders' might know about? I am getting desperate now and just want to see if there is anything in the area.

I am off to see the council on Wednesday, do they have landlords who only rent out to council/HA tenants at all that would not be advertised on ES websites. Help!!

Gorgeous_George

I'd recommend sticking ads in the local Post Office, newsagent, takeaway.

Highlight any plus points such as 'No Pets', 'Non-smokers', 'References', 'x month rent in advance' , 'Serious MoneySaving Fan' and ' Save on LA fees' (anyone spot the odd one out?).

Other than that, mention it to the landlord of the local pub - word soon spreads.

There'll be more mainstream polans along anytime soon if the above doesn't help.

GG

blue_monkey_2

That's a great idea, thanks, never thought of that. We are non-smokers but we have kids and pets, sadly the pets are going to have to go to another home I guess

I know from past experience some people quote on no kids which I appreciate it just makes looking even harder.

michaels

There are 3 bed newbuilds on my road in St Albans for about 1000 pcm - sounds a lot but a lot cheaper than the mortgage the LLs are paying

Nenen

what part of Herts are you? Have you tried www.gumtree.co.uk ? and then put in your location to get your local ads?

blue_monkey_2

We are East Herts, new builds here are all 4 bedrooms or 'luxury apartments' for commuters. I'll have a look on Gumtree tomorrow as I did not think of that, also Loot and Free Ads, might come up with something. TBH I am strugling to find anything that is not at least 10 miles from the school that is a basic 3 bed unfirnished, that is why i asked. I'll have a scoot around tomorrow and see what else I can find, it's late and bedtime calls. Thanks though, i did not know about Gumtree.

blue_monkey_2

michaels wrote: »

There are 3 bed newbuilds on my road in St Albans for about 1000 pcm - sounds a lot but a lot cheaper than the mortgage the LLs are paying

Hmmm, my husband's basic wage is just under £1200 a month. Grim right. I guess this means we are officially poor. We survive on this money so it is not too bad but once you star looking for somewhere to live you have to kind of wonder what sort of money you have to earn to get somewhere.

Fingers crossed for the council then I guess else we'll be living in that tent we bought for the summer!! We don;t even have anyone with a garden to put us up. :eek:

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

There are 3 bed newbuilds on my road in St Albans for about 1000 pcm - sounds a lot but a lot cheaper than the mortgage the LLs are paying

It would especially sound a lot for somebody taking home £980-1050/month.


Which is why landlords are stuck with them (empty). There aren't enough people earning a great deal to rent all the available stock.

PasturesNew

You might be disappointed at the council.
It might be that in that area the waiting list is 20 years.
It has certainly been 20 years for me in both the places I've lived.

You don't say which area you are looking in, except "east herts" which is something not easy to pin down. I presume you are limited by your OH's travel to work range or route or mode of transport?

The more information that's provided in these postings, the more help people feel able to give.

Edit: Ah, some school criteria I just spotted too.

blue_monkey_2

PasturesNew wrote: »

You might be disappointed at the council.
It might be that in that area the waiting list is 20 years.
It has certainly been 20 years for me in both the places I've lived.

You don't say which area you are looking in, except "east herts" which is something not easy to pin down. I presume you are limited by your OH's travel to work range or route or mode of transport?

The more information that's provided in these postings, the more help people feel able to give.

Edit: Ah, some school criteria I just spotted too.

Well, it's my last hope in all honesty. We are in East Herts, anywhere will do in that region, the council covers all the housing in this area, I am quite prepared for going into a hostel and have accepted that, I've even started digging around for storage prices as we have a full 3 bedroomed house full of furniture I'll need to store. The upside is that the low rent/bills of the hostela means the money we save on paying the mortgage/CT/bills here will offset the price we have to pay for storing everything. It's just a daunting experience. Neither me or hubby come from families that can help us out financially or with somewhere for us to say. I've lived in a hostel before and am quite happy to do the same again, the only thing I want to do is stay somewhere that means I can get the kids to and from the same school they are at now because of all the problems I have had with getting them into school and the school itself have been really helpful and fantastic in this respect. OH is in field service so we can move anywhere as far as he is concerned, if you look back on my previous posts you'll find the problems I have been having with both my son and daughter in school - changing schools and a house is going to be really traumatic for them so I will get them too and from the school they are at now, I've no problem in this and that is why I am a stay at home mum.

So, if the council won't house me I'll be renting that 5 bedroom house that is the only thing available in the next village and putting in for housing benefit - not something that I want to do, but when you physically have nowhere else to go and you have no money to do it and the council won't help then what do you do?? I guess it is hard to beleive that there are people that have nothing and no-one to help them in this day and age. But, I don't want to think about that bit, life is what it is.

I guess I will find out tomorrow. The wait for us has been long because we have not had any 'need' to be housed before. I was just saying that having already been on the waiting list for 8 years that this might come in useful when we are actually homeless rather than turning up and expecting the council to give me somewhere (like some peole do). I guess we can just cross our fingers and hope for the best.

Sammy85_2

You'll be lucky if you get housing benefits when your husband works (even though it isnt enough to pay the rent)

Its a sad fact in this country, the only way you'll get help from the government is if you're a lazy layabout content to scrounge and make no effort to help yourself out of a bad situation (grr!!!) or if you purposefully give up work to get help from them!

I saw an article the other week about a young single mum with 3 kids, she was working all the hours she could (and struggling to make ends meet) rather than take handouts from the council. Eventually she had to ask for a little bit of help but the council refused because she earned just over their threshold, so she quit her job to get the benefits. It was that or homelessness for her family. Its a sorry state of affairs when the government will only help people who dont work or make no effort to!

If you can move elsewhere go further north, you can get a nice 3 bed semi in a good area for 500pcm up here.