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Renting a Flat in London

I have lived in London for 3 years and lived in 5 flats. I moved here from Norwich. I
lived in my first flat in Hammersmith for 2 years. Then in my third year in London I
moved house 3 times. These were not small moves consisting of throw some clothes
in a bag. These were big moves. I have lived with my girlfriend for 11 years, so we
have lots of stuff, and thus, lots to think about when moving. I was going to make a
big flashy website, but honestly I dont have the time. So, if you are thinking of
moving to London, or want to move flat whilst in London, I thought Id compile a list
of the most important things to consider which either I didnt do first time round, or
wish I had known when I moved.

1) Check the council your flat falls in as it will affect your affordability. I rented
a flat in Warwick Avenue which was in Westminster and my council tax was
under 48 a month. Westminster is the cheapest borough in England so you
can afford a better flat given this (Wandsworth is very cheap too). It is worth
checking beforehand. I lived in Hammersmith and Fulham and paid over 100
a month. A friend lives in Waltham Forest and his is significantly higher than
this. Check first.
2) Conduct all conversations with estate agents in writing. Cannot stress this
enough. Estate agents just want you in the flat. They dont care about
suitability or fulfilling their promises. In one flat I was promised loads; a
washing machine, a new fridge freezer etc. Arrived and it was empty. They
subsequently denied ever having promising me these things. Get it in writing.
3) Check the estate agency fees. They vary hugely from 90 (my first flat) to an
eye-watering 450 (my most recent flat). Ask before you get excited about the
flat as it might hamper your plans.
4) Estate agents are not your mate. They are the landlords mate. Remember this.
When viewing a flat, even if you love it, dont let on. They want the rent to be
as high as possible. Every single flat I have lived in, I have got for cheaper
than the advertised price. Be sensible
5) Write as many questions as you can, and get them answered by email. I mean
really think. I once moved into a flat in Shepherds Bush, assuming I could get
a parking permit off the council as I lived in the borough. I arrived at the
council and they provided an S106 document saying the landlord was granted
planning permission to convert the house into flats only if all tenants were
prohibited from getting parking permits as the borough was too congested. I
wasnt told. I thus had 8 weeks to move out and I had to get a lawyer to get me
out of the contract. Think of everything. I once lived in Warwick Avenue and
it was in a Conservation Area so I couldnt get Sky, meaning I was paying
40 a month for a service I couldnt even use as I was on a 12 month contract
which rolled from the old flat. You will still inevitably miss stuff, but be as
thorough as you can. Really.
6) Check your surroundings. I lived opposite Charing Cross Hospital for 2 years
and the constant sirens going in and out of A and E was unbearable. My
brother lives in a first floor flat on a bus route, outside a set of traffic lights.
Every time a bus stops, it makes that loud hissing gas decompression noise,
and everyone on the top deck can see him watching The Simpsons in his
pants. My friend lives in Ladbroke Grove but is very near a church, and
waking up hungover to endless church bells at 9am on a Sunday is not a fond
reminder of a rural life you used to live; its just annoying. Check your
surroundings and plan for the worst. It will probably happen. Think about
what you need every day, and how the flat fits into those plans. By this I mean
that, for example, most people need a supermarket; even a little Tesco Metro
of Sainburys Local. This sounds trivial, but if your immediate area doesnt
have one of these, trust me, it will be a real pain the arse. One flat I lived in
only had a Tesco Metro which was about a 5 minute drive away, and the local
shops all had a stupid 5 minimum spend on card, so every time you want
milk you end up spending loads of debit card charges. So think about what
you need; local shop, ATM machine that doesnt charge (my local machine
used to be 1.85 and over a 6 month period I must have wasted over 50 on
charges), bus stop, a decent takeaway, a GP etc etc. Thinking about it, check
your surroundings is one of the most important tips.
7) How new is the flat conversion? Any conversion done after 2003 has to
comply with sound regulations. Old ones dont. I lived in a beautiful Georgian
stucco fronted house in Warwick Avenue, but the conversion I was in (the
basement) wasnt really a conversion; it was just the original rooms (I imagine
it was a pantry when the house was built in 1800) with a kitchen added. As
such, the sound regulation was atrocious. I could hear the neighbours upstairs
having a poo, talking on the phone, walking around like an elephant. The
lesson is, get a new conversion. Honestly. I left the flat almost 100% due to
noise. Check when the conversion was done
8) The deposit. The landlord has 30 days to register your deposit with a Deposit
Protection Scheme. If they dont (as in, even if they do it on the 31
st
day), take
them to court. They owe you between 1 and 3 times the deposit amount. In my
case this was over 6000.00. Tenants have rights. Clue yourself up on them
and protect yourself. Read Shelters website. Its not just for homelessness.
Tenants in London get screwed over everyday. A simple bit of law knowledge
goes a long way
9) If the current tenant is in when you look round, ask them why they are
leaving, but do it when the estate agent is out of the room. The old tenant will
tell you all you need to know. And listen to them. I once had an old tenant
whisper to me there are mice here. Dont rent it. I dismissed them, moved
in, and sure enough, there were mice. Was an utter pain. Listen to the old
tenant.
10) What type of tenancy do you want? 2 years with a 1 year break clause? 1 year
with a 6 month break clause? The benefit of a break clause is as the name
suggests you can break the contract and move out if it isnt working out. The
flip side is that after the break clause period, its very easy to evict you. Do
you want security or flexibility?
11) In London, the landlord and the estate agent are separate. This is important to
understand. In Norwich I lived in 5 flats in 5 years, and for each one the
letting agent both advertises the flat, and then manages the tenancy. I have
never had this happen in London (although it does occasionally). The letting
agent just advertises the flat, and once you are in, you pass over to the landlord
as his/her responsibility. Think about how this impacts motives and
responsibilities.
12) Be friendly with your landlord. Even though I have moved house a lot, the
landlords have actually almost always been nice blokes (they are mostly
blokes). So, if you can interact with them nicely, you can avoid the estate
agent arseholes and get stuff done quicker. For example, for two of my
tenancys I wanted to break them early (one for the parking, and one for the
noise). I asked the landlord to leave in a friendly way and he was fine with it.
On both occasions the letting agent emailed saying I had to pay the landlord
costs (over 1000.00), had to pay rent until the day a new tenant was found,
and had to meet loads of other insane criteria. I called the landlord and
arranged everything directly and ended up paying 0 costs, and set my own
leave date. Be safe with them and (hopefully) theyll be safe with you.
13) Do you suit the area you are looking at? Most people are aspirational and want
to live somewhere nice, but what happens when you arrive? Ive lived in
rougher areas (Shepherds Bush) and posher areas (Warwick Avenue) and each
has their own problems. In Warwick Avenue, I wanted to get up hungover and
walk to the shops in my pyjamas and buy a bit of lunch, but in doing so, the
posh old ladies with little dogs will stare at you, and the local deli only sells
organic, farm-raised, gold-studded chicken thighs for 8. I dont suit the area.
Plan for this
14) There are no anomalies in London flat prices (except that they are too high).
By this I mean that an area has an average price for a flat, and if you see a flat
that is significantly below this, it is cheap for a reason. Now, if that reason is
that the current tenant died and the landlord wants it to be rented in a day, then
thats fine. But more than likely its because the craftsmanship is shoddy, the
neighbours are a pain in the arse, and in a week the windows will fall off (this
actually happened). If its too good to be true, it probably is.
15) Check out Builtain. When I moved to London there were tons of jobs which
normally I would have called my Dad to do, or at least one of my mates who
was an electrician and thus a proper man at fixing things. I am not one of
these blokes. Builtain is a company that does all the stuff that you dont
know how to do like: if your garden fence falls down, if your halogen bulbs go
and you dont have a stepladder to reach the ceiling, if you stumble into your
kitchen drunk and dislodge the work surfaces and you think No More Nails
is a poor alternative to fixing structural problems. They are like having a mate
who is shit-hot at DIY; a great number to have in your phone.
16) If you have the money to pay someone to move your stuff for you, then do it.
In your head you wont think that moving your stuff is going to be that
difficult so you rent a van and try it yourself. But hey, youre new in London,
and so you havent planned for your flat being on a red route so you have to
park three streets away and lug your stuff up a busy high street, or you havent
thought about the fact that the doors are too narrow for your new IKEA
purchases to fit through the doors. Pay a company. Its 300 well spent

I could literally go on all day about this. But these are just a few of the most
important things you should think about if you are moving to London, or if you
are living here currently and thinking about moving. Hope you found some of
them useful

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