Anglotopia

Who Doesn't Want to Live Above This Shop?

There are few things as distressing as looking for a flat to rent in London. I’m not sure if it’s inherently more difficult than other cities, but it sure feels like there couldn’t be anything much worse out there.

A year ago I spent three solid weeks looking for a studio/1-bedroom in Islington, North London and finally found the perfect place at the right price. All set to re-new my lease this year, I was instead served with a notice telling me that I’d have to be out on the 1st of June because my flat was going on the market to be sold.

After some choice words with the landlord, I accepted that I was back to the drawing board and on the hunt again. Here’s a guide to the process of finding your own flat using the estate agent route, which is most common way to find a flat to rent in London.

By the week?

The first thing to know is that most rentals are listed by the week with a pw (per week) stuck on the end. Sometimes you’ll see “pcm” which means per calendar month. Even if it’s pw, it doesn’t mean that you pay by the week, you still pay monthly, but it’s how many things are negotiated and advertised. I’ve found this to mean that I lose track of how much I’ll be paying much easier because it’s a smaller amount.

Therefore, I found it worth while to have a little chart of how much various weekly rents turn into monthly, because it’s easy to think another £20 is nothing, until you realise that’s another £1,040 over the year. For example, £250 per week x 52 weeks / 12 months works out to £1083.33 per month. Don’t fall into the trap of only multiplying it by 4 in your head and think it‘s £1000, as the extra £80 will add up.

Estate agents -the men (and women) in Minis

The basic thing to know about renting in London is that the “estate agents” (real estate agent) work for the landlord and not for you. They hold the keys to the kingdom, quite literally, and will run circles around you without recourse. They’re unregulated, low on ethics, and will say anything to get you to sign a contract. So it’s worth being cautious.

They also zip around town in Mini Coopers or equivalent cars and generally get lost getting you to various properties, so you never really know where you are. I try to meet them at the property so I have a realistic idea of where it is, rather than being driven there. Also, expect that what you say your budget is (in my example, £250) is a starting off point. They will then show you things that are £275-£290 and say that the landlord might take an offer of £250.

Even though they don’t work for you, it doesn’t mean they won’t charge you fees. They charge between £75-150 per person for a “background check” which can range from an actual detailed background check to just asking you if you have a job. A new fee I’ve just come across is the “inventory fee” which ranges from £100-£150 to record what’s in the flat when you arrive and when you leave. They say this is to help you get your deposit back. I think it’s the opposite, but go along with it, like much of this process, because it’s industry standard.

Viewings

Estate agents tend to show properties from 10am – 6pm Monday through Friday and 10-4 on Saturdays. What if you work?? Tough. I’ve found myself rushing off from the office at 5.15, during lunch times, and any other time I can squeeze in a viewing. Saturdays are the hottest time and you can expect most things you’re looking at online on Monday to actually have gone on the Saturday. Almost nothing on an agent’s website is really available unless it’s just come on that day. This is why it’s best to try to get in good with an agent or two and they’ll send you updates or ring you personally when something in your price range comes on the market. Often you can’t look too far ahead for a property and it’s best to do it as close to the time you need to move as possible, but this obviously adds to your stress level. Some landlords can be negotiable on the date.

The offer

So you’ve got in touch with a few estate agents and they’re showing you around and you see something you like. You then “put an offer”. Let’s say you’ve been shown a £270pw property and make an offer of £250. You’ll be whisked back to the estate agent’s office and need to put 1 weeks rent as a “holding deposit” and sign some paperwork saying that if you back out, you lose the money and if the landlord backs out (for any reason!) you get the money back. You need to put the money down this on the spot with cash or by debit card and write down anything that you may want (including having the place cleaned!) on your offer. You also could ask for a different date to move in, for example, to reduce the amount of time you’re paying rent at two places. The agent then contacts the landlord and gets back to you with the landlords counteroffer, acceptance, or refusal to accept your offer. The trouble is that someone may have come along and put an offer of £260 or the full asking price of £270 while you were waiting to hear back from the landlord. So until your offer is accepted, don’t assume the property is yours. This has happened recently to me and it’s really upsetting. I’d offered the asking price but hadn’t gotten to the office to put the cash down in time. Someone else had their card accessible and put the holding deposit down before I could, even though I’d made the same offer first. There were tears. Lesson learned.

Reject, accept, negotiate

The agent often comes back with something just shy of the asking price, say £265 and you can then accept it or get your money back because he has technically rejected your offer. Often landlords won’t want to negotiate on price, but this is your chance to ask for some extra furniture like a dining room table or to have the carpets professionally cleaned. Press too hard and they’ll back out, though. It’s a delicate balance and is really a shame that renters don’t have anyone on their side in the negotiation. Do ask if the property is “managed” or not. This means whether the estate agency will be your point of contact when things break (which they do) instead of the landlord. I’ve had a much better experience with managed flats personally, but it can go either way.

Deposit

So the landlord countered with £265 plus cleaning the carpets and you agree. Now it’s time to pay up! You pay the standard deposit is 6 weeks rent (again, with the weeks). You can sometimes negotiate it down to 4 weeks but that’s the minimum it needs to be for it to be held in the Government’s Deposit Protection Scheme. This is a recent development to help renters get their deposits back from landlords and is a much needed protection, so try to make sure that your property rented under the scheme.

So 6 weeks rent at £265 (£1590) plus first month’s rent (£1148.33) plus fees to the estate agents (£250) minus your holding deposit (£260) for the grand total of £2728.33. You can often press them to hold off paying the first month’s rent until a day or two before you move in. I find this helps with cash flow because for anyone, it’s a lot of money to put down, especially while you’re paying rent someone else still!

The contract

You sign the contract and finally have some rights to the flat. The agent then contacts your employer and sometimes your bank and a former landlord to make sure you’re legit. There isn’t a credit check like in the US or if there is, they’ll easily go around it as many foreigners don’t have credit. They do want you to have a UK bank account and generally be established in the UK. At any point the landlord can back out until he’s signed the contract and then you’ll get your money back, but nothing for all the time you’ve wasted in the process, so it’s best to check with the agents that the landlord has signed the agreement.

Congrats, you’ve got yourself a flat in London!