Looking to rent in August. What should I be wary of?

crispsandwich

I'm looking to rent a flat in Sheffield for me and my girlfriend in August. 1 or 2 beds (I wouldn't mind a guitar room ), hopefully around £400 a month or less rent. Anyhow, what should I be mindful of? Thanks to this excellent forum and my experiences of my current house I've deduced that I should be looking at the following things:

Double Glazing - an absolute MUST - my current room is single glazed and freezing.
Protected deposit.
Some furniture as I haven't got any.
Corgi inspected gas boiler.
Correctly functioning central heating.
Surrounding area (i.e. potentially noisy neighbours).

What else should I be mindful of? Are letting agents no good? I've read some horror stories about LAs on this forum. When is the best time to start seriously looking?

Thanks for reading

Lavendyr

Well, I know you mention "Corgi inspected gas boiler" but I would obviously add to that to check that there *is* GCH as electric heating is quite common in flats and can be quite expensive.

WRT letting agencies, some are good, some are bad. Book a few viewings and see how they treat you - that should give you a general impression at least. See if you can get any recommendations locally. Find out how much they want to charge you as an administration fee (this can vary from the reasonable to the outright ridiculous). We rent through a letting agency who are really good for us and get all our problems sorted promptly, but from the stories I've read we do seem to be very lucky in that regard.

Some other things to think about off the top of my head:
- do you need parking guaranteed?
- Furnished/unfurnished/part-furnished? White goods included?
- Landlord's plans (are they letting long-term/short-term/mid-term?)
- Ground/first/second/higher floor flat desired?
- Contents insurance - check which postcodes are cheaper
- Proximity to shops/garage/other amenities that are important to you?
- Check there is a phone socket and that it is connected
- Check location of TV aerial if you want a TV
- Are there enough plug sockets & in convenient places in rooms?
- If current tenant is in situ when you view, what is their attitude towards LA/LL and vice versa? Can tell you a lot about how things would be for you!
- Small things like picture hooks - can you put them up, are there some already, etc