Spareroom/renting in London

lookstraightahead

Hi all
my daughter is just finishing uni and has been lucky enough to be offered a job in central London, starting in a couple of weeks. She's staying temporarily with a relative and can easily commute. This is her first permanent job.

Once she is settled she will move to central London and rent a room in a house share (typically made up of 2/3/4 "professionals"). 

has anyone been through this process, and can I ask what evidence she needs to collate? At the moment she had no evidence of income, never had a credit check etc.

the rent she is looking at is about half of her income, she has a deposit. Is this acceptable as a proportion, and also is she seen as a lodger, or a tenant? Will she need a guarantor (I did this all the way through uni but not happy about being a guarantor fir other random people in the house!)

what should she do first? She's found some locations, and went to an agency this morning who have advised they require £250 to put her on their books.

She needs to organise herself so she's ready to accept.

any thoughts would be appreciated.

trance_abbey

Tell her to steer clear of agencies who require £250 in the first instance. At the moment renting a room in a share house in London is a powerful position to be in as a renter. There are loads of rooms empty and people are desperate to find someone to move in with them. Some places will want a tenancy agreement and others will have her a lodger - it's not standardised, it depends on if the owner lives on site or not. This can have benefits and drawbacks and is something to consider carefully.

I moved to the UK 5 years ago and didn't even have a job when I got my first room - so she's already ahead of where I was! If she waits until she gets her first payslip and she's got evidence that she's got money in her account that's a good start.  If she's on facebook there's a fantastic group called 'girl gone international - London' which is full of women who have relocated to London from all over the world who can give tips, support and friendship while she's finding her way

lookstraightahead

Ahhhh thank you that is so helpful 😁

FreeBear

lookstraightahead said: She's found some locations, and went to an agency this morning who have advised they require £250 to put her on their books.

£250 just to "put her on the books".... They are taking the proverbial and she needs to steer well clear of them.

One good place to look is https://www.spareroom.co.uk/ - Loads of rooms available.

Avoid places like gumtree and craigslist - Some well dodgy adverts on those sites. Facebook isn't much better...

zagubov

Who's recommended she moves into central London? She'll pay a fortune to live in a rabbit hutch. Eating out and entertainment will cost a fortune due to the tourist trade while supermarkets and discount stores are non-existent.

I'd be advising her to stay with relatives further out as long as that's mutually convenient, while looking for somewhere commutable outside the centre. She could use her workplace/workmates to find accommodation. Public transport's excellent.

I'd also mention she needs to research South London which is where most of the best-value accommodation is likely to be found.

Cactus_Flowers

I spent years renting a room in London, both as a lodger and as a tenant, and here's a bit of a list of things that I'd have found helpful at the beginning:

- I used the SpareRoom website to find every room I lived in in London - with SpareRoom you can sign up to a 'priority access' level for about £20ish which meant you could see the absolute newest ads but it's otherwise free. As she doesn't need to desperately find a good room, I wouldn't think she needs to sign up to the payment level.

- Living with the owner would make her a lodger, a house-share without the owner would make her a tenant. Tenants have a lot more legal rights than lodgers (and I personally found being a tenant a lot more comfortable)

- So, so many adverts are for a room only, rather than a whole property, so she would only be responsible for her room and reasonable use of the common areas

- I tried to avoid agencies at all costs - on SpareRoom it's possible to filter the search to only show only non-agency adverts. I get that agencies provide a service to landlords, but I never found any benefit to dealing with an agency rather than a private landlord

- Once she starts getting paid and can show a payslip, that should be fine. If it's not a stable-sounding job (so the landlord might think it comes to an end after 3 months) she might need a guarantor - this would only be for her room contract, not for anyone else in the house

- The public transport in London is great, but I actually decided on where to live by putting my office location into Google maps and finding the nicest-looking area within walking distance. It'll depend exactly where her job is, but my last job (before I left London 3 months ago) was right by Waterloo station and I had a pleasant 40-minute walk to work (or the bus if it was raining).

- Contracts seemed to all be for 6 months before switching to month-to-month, so if the first place isn't perfect she won't have long to wait until she can look for a better place

You (and your daughter) might already know most of this, but hopefully it's helpful anyway! Let me know if you have any specific questions, I might as well get some value out of my 10 years of house-sharing in London

MaryNB

If I recall correctly, when I've rented a room through agencies before they've required that my annual salary is about 30x the monthly rent so spending half of her income on rent a month might bring her right to the limit. And I know given how expensive london is it might not be easy to achieve but it's generally advisable to keep your rent to approx 30% of your gross pay (but obviously that will depend massively on the other outgoings).

I've also been asked for a contact details for my employer, contact details for a previous landlord, bank statements, proof I have right to reside in the UK (Irish passport sufficed) and proof of id. Credit checks were mentioned as well.

Only once while renting as a professional was I asked for a guarantor.  It was just for me and I've always been good with money so my parents signed it no bother. 

I used spareroom a lot in the past, served me well. Don't take whatever is in the ad as fact, a lot of the times it's just an existing tenant who has written it and they don't always get everything right so she needs to check it against the terms of her tenancy agreement. She should never ever ever put any money down without seeing a place. If they ask for money without allowing a viewing that's a big sign it's a scam. 

Some general advice she may already be aware of, most are based on my own errors so at least someone else won't make the same mistake...

I would avoid being a lodger. I've had friends who have been lodgers and in some cases their landlords have made it uncomfortable for them. They were really made feel that they were in someone else's home. In a househsre everyone is on equal footing. 

She should avoid joint tenancies and look for a single tenancy for her room. Joint tenancies are a nightmare. I made that mistake twice, once with a friend and another time with strangers. Both times equally awful.

She should looked up the tenant fees act 2019 to make sure no dodgy letting agent or landlord tries to charge her illegal fees (that £250 is obviously from a scummy agency trying to circumvent that act).

She should spend some time reading up on her rights and responsibilities as a tenant. Plenty of letting agents and landlords will happily take advantage of a tenant's ignorance (I'll admit I've been there...) or sometimes just won't understand their rights to begin with. On the other side plenty of tenants don't realise their own responsibilities, e.g. keeping the garden tidy and paying the council tax (unless their tenancy agreement is just for a single room in a houseshare in which case the landlord pays).

Also when in a houseshare, if someone else is paying the bills she should ask regularly for copies. I had one housemate who had us on a tariff that was 20% more expensive than our supplier's cheapest tariff for well over a year. She worked in customer services for an energy company so of all people should have known better.... In another place I replaced a tenant who pocketed all the money for bills. By the time the remaining tenants found out she was well gone and they had to pay 6 month's worth of council tax again...
Always ask to see bills and make sure the account holder has looked for the best deal.

coffeehound

MaryNB said:

Also when in a houseshare, if someone else is paying the bills she should ask regularly for copies. I had one housemate who had us on a tariff that was 20% more expensive than our supplier's cheapest tariff for well over a year. She worked in customer services for an energy company so of all people should have known better.... In another place I replaced a tenant who pocketed all the money for bills. By the time the remaining tenants found out she was well gone and they had to pay 6 month's worth of council tax again...
Always ask to see bills and make sure the account holder has looked for the best deal.

 Good advice.  In that sort of house-share setup, it's a good idea to take the meter readings for gas, electric and water upon moving in to ensure that if a backlog has built up, with estimated readings on the bills, it's clear at what point you become liable.   Take photos of the meters and email the readings to landlord, letting agency, and other tenants as appropriate.

RAS

Long time since I worked in London but there are some general rules, modified by Covid.

Paying over one third of your income in rent makes budgeting a pain, and is an easy way to increase your overdraft. But in London is is frequently the case.

There is a trade-off between proximity to work and increased rents or commute and cheaper rent, often. It also pays just to check local government areas, as some have higher or lower Council Tax charges and a slightly lower rent may be negated by a higher Council Tax rate.  I'd suggest your daughter makes sure she knows how many times a week she has to be present at her workplace.

As said, there is a hierarchy of rights and obligations, often associated with increased cost. Read the sticky for tenants above and then suggest your daughter does so before she rents. It'll help her work out how legitimate her future landlord is

Lodgers have few rights but should be able to leave with one rental periods notice, and expect the same notice to leave. Anyone giving a lodger a six month contract is probably creating a tenancy, even if it says lodger.

Renting one room means that rent, council tax and often utilities are included and the landlord needs to be registered with the council. Cheaper ones won't be, often, as they've cut corners. Kitchens and bathrooms can be horrid and anything left in them may be purloined. Having said that, sometimes the tenants get on well and act as a household. Owning your own kettle and a sandwich toaster can make life easier. Read any meters for utilities for which you are responsible.

Neither of these should be hard to get with a work contract or payslip, bank account and ID.

Agencies charge the landlord a fee to vet tenants, and many check affordabilty plus bankruptcy and CCJ registers. If it's a house share, your daughter becomes jointly and severally liable for the rent, Council Tax and utility bills, so she needs to know they are up to date if she moves into an existing household; read all the meters and check the Council Tax. Even if she's moving into new tenancy, read all the meters. There are strict rules about how and when she can end a tenancy.  A monthly finance meeting is pretty vital to make sure those responsible for paying accounts have done so. This forum is full of horror stories of shared tenancies where people have discovered massive debts owed by one person, although my own worst were two people who couldn't afford their share so offered to collect the money and pay the bill as a way of delaying their payment and got caught out by reminder letters. 

And again, read the sticky at the top.

getmore4less

lookstraightahead said:

Hi all
my daughter is just finishing uni and has been lucky enough to be offered a job in central London, starting in a couple of weeks. She's staying temporarily with a relative and can easily commute. This is her first permanent job.

Once she is settled she will move to central London and rent a room in a house share (typically made up of 2/3/4 "professionals"). 

.........

any thoughts would be appreciated.

Network with the people at the new job.

Try to engage is social activities after work IME often a few drinks before everyone goes home.

Put the word out looking for something good chance someone will know of a place available and be able to recommend areas that are good for the transport.

Depending where in central London some routes/options will be a lot better, some tube changes are horrendous 

leypt1

There's lots of good advice which I won't repeat. Some other suggestions:

- I second using spare room, and whilst I don't know whether covid has drastically affected this, the nice house shares are often advertised by the house mates, who have relative freedom to pick on the basis of personality. It'll be obvious wheyher this is the case from the listing description. This makes it more likely that your daughter will find a house that feels like a home, but can also be a bit trying! 

-she should join the London Renters union!

-somewhere like Elephant and Castle is a good balance between being v central, cheap  (maybe £500 for a nice double room), and nice amenities