Can I trust Spare room website ??

wanderer · 4 June 2013 at 7:24AM

My son is doing an unpaid internship in London this summer. He is trying to find affordable student accommodation reasonably near zone 1. Plenty of houses in spare room website. But as we live in the midlands it is impossible to check them out. Estate agents dont do short term lets. any suggestions?

samehat · 4 June 2013 at 8:00AM

I wouldn't recommend paying anything until you have seen the place. It can be costly and time consuming to look for a place but it's worth it so you don't end up scammed.

When I moved here from Paris to do a post grad i had to make two advance trips - one for the interview and one to look for accommodation. For the accomm search i stayed 3 nights in a b&b; it was just enough time but didn't give me much choice. That's in the midlands , I don't know about London.

Best of luck with it.

jamie11 · 4 June 2013 at 8:43AM

wanderer wrote: »

Estate agents dont do short term lets. any suggestions?

No they don't, it might be better for him to look for a short term lodging rather than a flat or room on contract. Lodgers have much less security of tenure but can leave with little notice if needed at any time.

hjd · 4 June 2013 at 9:16AM

My daughter has just started an unpaid internship near Southampton. She is renting a spare room in the flat of one of the staff - maybe worth asking if they could put an ad on their notice board to see if anyone had a spare room? Likely to work out cheaper too.

Cycrow · 4 June 2013 at 9:36AM

i lived in the midlands before moving to london, i just arranged all viewings on a day i had free to view them all and decided.

it wont be difficult to go and view them before moving in.

i only had a week to find places when i moved and i was working 5 days of that.

if your son has a bike and doesn't mind cycling abit, it might be cheaper to get something abit further out and cycling into zone 1.
or if not, look into travelcards to use the tube, which together with a lower cost accomadation further out could work out cheaper than something in zone 1

tim123456789 · 4 June 2013 at 9:57AM

99% of the scammers can be found out by telling them that you want to see the property before deciding. They will come back and give you a sob story about being "let down" by previous viewers so they will have to charge you a security deposit in case you don't turn up

of course - it's a scam and the property doesn't exist.

There's a tiny tiny chance that the scammer will actually have access to the building that they are using for their scam and will show you around, get you to sign a lease, take your deposit and advanced rent and then on move in day you turn up to find that the real owners/occuipiers have returned from their holiday and you can't get in. This is a tough one to call, if they have set it up right

Hezzawithkids · 4 June 2013 at 10:12AM

I think the OP is asking if spareroom.co.uk is legit? On a straw poll of one (i.e. me) they are perfectly fine but then I'm not renting in London. I found my weekday lodgings through them that I've now been using for over a year and have had no problems at all. Your contract is with the owner and the site doesn't have any involvement in your discussions - they are a 'shop window' for people to advertise their lets. In any case you can use the site to make a shortlist then contact the owners for a viewing. Legit owners will not demand any money up front at this stage.

Vazz_2 · 4 June 2013 at 10:53AM

I would use free website such us gumtree, but beware of scammers there as well. In short, if something looks too good to be truth, it probably is.

Perhaps YMCA could be a good starting point before actually starting visiting properties?

SuzieSue · 5 June 2013 at 1:06PM

Someone asked a similar question a little while ago and someone else suggested that they contact the some of the London universities as they rent out their halls of residences during the summer. I also heard this on a tv programme recently (either Watchdog or Martin Lewis')

kBHX · 5 June 2013 at 1:12PM

I've used spareroom.co.uk myself both as a lodger and live-in landlord in the past. Its a great site! The ads become free to view / contact after 7 days. As mentioned the site doesn't get involved in the process of selecting, vetting potential lodgers or landlords. That is your responsibility but I always found it a brilliant website.

anokayperson · 5 June 2013 at 1:18PM

another good site is airbnb. These operate across the world and are rooms for a night/s week, month - its your choice - good luck

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Can I trust Spare room website ??

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