A Tenant's guide to renting

olly300

ioksane wrote: »

I just wondered how much all of the utility bills and council tax would come to for a single guy living on his own in the midlands in a typical flat or apartment with rent of between £300 and £400 per month. I am planning on moving out and just wondered exactly how much its going to cost me and is it possible to do so on £14,500 per anum.

Many Thanks Josh

Start a new thread.

This thread is for reference only and most of the useful material is in the first post.

rlc_2

I've got a small suggestion.

As soon as you move in, pack up any breakable ornaments and any un-needed crockery. Put it all in a box and put it at the bottom of the wardrobe. My experience has been that it is this sort of thing that gets damaged and costs you deposit money. It's better that it's completely out of harm's way.

Rlc

MissMoneypenny

CARE ALL RENTERS - well worth a read before you rent a house.

The following link is to a DASH (Decent and Safe Homes who are funded by the government) Choosing a Home to Rent - Private Rented Sector Tenant Information Guide..

It has a comprehensive guide to the internal. external and room by room inspection you should make when viewing a rental property to avoid finding problems with the house after you move in.

The guide is split into seven sections
1. Choosing your letting agent or landlord.
2. The viewing and what you should be looking at to avoid finding these problems after you move in.
3. The Tenancy Agreement
4. The inventory
5. Landlord duties and responsibilities.
6. Tenant responsibilities.
7. Useful web links.

http://66.102.9.104/search?q=cache:HwgiRaaGi8IJ:www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk/ppimageupload/Image40722.PDF+renting+shared+loft+firewall&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=uk&client=firefox-a

toni001

can anyone please give me some advice regarding my tennancy agreement?

firstly is my agreement legal??
my partner recently lost his job and we have had to apply for housing benefit. when we showed our tennancy agreement to the council they seemed to think it wasnt right. this is because, when we first began renting our house back in april 2005 we had different landlords, they sold the property with us in it with out anyone knowing. the first we knew of it was when we got a letter from our new landlords stating they are our new landlords and the old tennancy agreement still applys. they also put the rent up, the only document we have stating the new rent is another letter. so is an old tennancy agreement with our old landlords names address and the old rent legal in conjunction with 2 letters stating who our new landlords are and what our new rent is. the letters are only hand written letters from the landlords themselves.

second question is if our tennancy agreement is not legal what are our rights and our landlords rights if they want to evict us? the old tennancy agreement includes section 21 (they can evict with out notice) but how would that work if the agreement isnt legal?

third question, our landlords might have to get a new agreement drawn up so we can claim housing benefit, i am going to ask for it not to include section 21 (i did not know what this was when i signed) if it is on there. if they say tough section 21 is staying and i refuse to sign the new agreement because of this what would happen then? could they just tell us to leave? even with the old agreement being a bit dodgy?

please help someone, i have 3 kids under the age of 6, i dont want to wake up 1 morning and find myself homeless. im worrying as we have had to go on housing benefit and we wont get it in time to pay the rent (although it will be back dated) we are excellent tennants and have been for 3 1/2 years we have just run into some problems what with the economy the way it is.

MissMoneypenny

You need to start your own thread to get some replies toni001, as this thread is just a sticky.

scrummy_mummy_2

Check to see if the LL or agent has a clause which means that the current energy suppliers will be transferred over to Spark Energy when you take the tenancy agreement.
A LL or agent gets commission for every switch and whole chains of agents are now signed up to automatically switch all new tenants onto Spark when they take on a new property. The first the tenant knows is the letter confirming the switch in the post!
If you don't want to switch...check the T&C's!!!! and make sure your details are not sent to Spark!

quirky31

Hi Everyone

Now I am a newbie to this Forum so be gentle with me! :-)

I have a question for you all and wonder if you could shed some light or provide me with some answers please?

I don't have a particular good credit history - slightly chequered but have been good since my divorce a couple of years ago. In May of this year my ex-husband and I finally managed to sell our marital home which left us free and clear of over £210k worth of debt but nothing in our bank accounts from the sale. For the last 2.5 years I've lived with my Mum but am now desperate for my own space and want to rent. What I am quite concerned about is do all prospective letting agents/landlords do a credit check? I am concerned that I won't pass this check following my historic poor credit history. I work full time, earn a good salary, have a few hundred pounds in savings and pay my bills on time but wonder if my history will hinder me from getting a place of my own.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Many thanks.

Quirky31

inmypocketnottheirs

quirky31 wrote: »

Hi Everyone

Now I am a newbie to this Forum so be gentle with me! :-)

I have a question for you all and wonder if you could shed some light or provide me with some answers please?

I don't have a particular good credit history - slightly chequered but have been good since my divorce a couple of years ago. In May of this year my ex-husband and I finally managed to sell our marital home which left us free and clear of over £210k worth of debt but nothing in our bank accounts from the sale. For the last 2.5 years I've lived with my Mum but am now desperate for my own space and want to rent. What I am quite concerned about is do all prospective letting agents/landlords do a credit check? I am concerned that I won't pass this check following my historic poor credit history. I work full time, earn a good salary, have a few hundred pounds in savings and pay my bills on time but wonder if my history will hinder me from getting a place of my own.

Any help with this would be much appreciated.

Many thanks.

Quirky31

The best advice would be to get a copy of your credit report from Experian and Equifax. That way you would know exactly what is recorded against you.

Not all landlords/letting agencies do a credit check, but certainly most do. Especially those with the better properties available. If you are up front about any known problems (i.e. when you have seen what is on your report) then you may be able to sweeten a deal by offering to pay six months rental in advance.

BallandChain

scrummy_mummy wrote: »

Check to see if the LL or agent has a clause which means that the current energy suppliers will be transferred over to Spark Energy when you take the tenancy agreement.
A LL or agent gets commission for every switch and whole chains of agents are now signed up to automatically switch all new tenants onto Spark when they take on a new property. The first the tenant knows is the letter confirming the switch in the post!
If you don't want to switch...check the T&C's!!!! and make sure your details are not sent to Spark!

Can they switch you without you being told? If so, can the tenant switch to a supplier of their own choice or is that not allowed in this particular instance?

katp

Hi my daughter has been renting a house for the last two months but the smoke alarms are not working and the back door wont open because of damaged hinges, she has asked the landlord to fix these problems but as yet he has.nt. she wants to move somewhere else and is willing to move out while still under contract but she will be paying double rents. Is there any law that maybe will save her a bit of money as the landlord has'nt kept up the repairs.
All the faults have been there since she moved in.
Any help apreciated