1st Time Renters Advice

slingerz

Hi folks,

its going to be our first time renting a house and we have agreed a lease which we are due to move into on saturday week.

can people give advice on what we need to prepare for to move in? i assume our own bed clothes/towels etc but there should already be some plates/cutlery in place there

we would need to get sky set up for the tv, the box is already in the house i assume we could set the package up as we'd like it, in my case the sports package!

there is a phone line in the house but we dont want that can we ask the landlord to cancel the phone line? we would need to get broadband setup too so any tips on the best type of broadband we could get would be apprecirated

any tips/info etc is most helpful!

the_syco

slingerz wrote: »

there is a phone line in the house but we dont want that can we ask the landlord to cancel the phone line? we would need to get broadband setup too so any tips on the best type of broadband we could get would be apprecirated

Broadband usually comes through the phone line...

Zamboni

Get the phone cancelled and get the Sports package through UPC.
That way you can have your TV and broadband through one provider.

Bear in mind that you may need deposits for other utility bills such as gas and electricity if you are a first time customer.
You mentioned a 'we'. Get a bill in each name. Don't let one person be stung with all of them.
It will also help for when you need proof of address.

xflyer

As both a landlord and a renter, (Don't ask!) We brought our UPC package, including phone number, with us from our own house to the rented house. So in effect we cancelled it but that was our house. Although the first tenant still had the free basic service. I don't know how. Later tenants went and got Sky. If they leave and don't cancel it's not my problem. It's theirs. So no point in asking the landlord to cancel. If it's still working enjoy but ring Sky and get them to set it up for you.

There should be cutlery, plates etc and pots and pans. Just don't expect top of the range products. No bed clothes.

Be nice to your landlord, Ok I'm biased:D

ProudDUB

OP. Why don't you ask the landlord what is there? He/she will know best what is in the house. There is no industry standard. What is or is not there can vary hugely from property to property. It is not a bad idea to agree to an inventory of contents of the house prior to moving in, with any dings or damage to specific items noted. That way he can not hit you up for damage or loss of items after you move out. It happened to me when a landlord tried to deduct from my deposit monies to pay for missing bed linens that were never there in the first place.

Broadband usually comes through the phone line...

Not 100% accurate. If you have a UPC outlet in the wall and active UPC service in the house, all 3 products (telly, land line phone and broadband) will operate via the same wall outlet. It is not specific to just one of them. You have all three service, two, or just the one if you so choose.

Once your outlet is live, you just plug your cable into the wall outlet, install a 2 way splitter to it, and then plug in the equipment that you need for each service, a telly box for your telly & a router for your broadband and phone service. The router will have two internal modems inside it. One runs your land line phone service. The other runs your broad band service. You don't have to have both services if you don't want to. If you choose not to have land line phone service, UPC will not activate the phone modem inside your router on their end. They just have the broadband modem active on your end.

I have all three services with them. I don't really need a land line phone, but the more services that you get, the cheaper they will be. I pay 60 quid a month for all three, and only having telly and broadband would have been 50 quid. I am pretty sure I make up the tenner difference every month by making calls on the land line that I would have normally used my mobile for.

slingerz

Thanks for the responses! There is a sky box there do id imagine we could just take over that bill and there is a phone line but I think we'd prefer broadband only

It's just me and the misses to so shouldn't be any probs that way?! Just looking out for simple things that could get forgotten with the bustle involved in moving in

MariMel

one thing i will say is that the day you move in...or ideally before you move in.....go round every room in the house and write down every item in it that belongs to the landlord. Count the cutlery, pictures, lamps, curtains etc. Get descriptions and look around for wear and tear to the carpets, flooring, walls (doorhandles can cause damage).
Just so both you and the landlord agree to what it in the house when you move in and what level of wear and tear what there before you.

I remember living in a house where the landlords lived abroad for 3 yrs and when they came back to move back into the house (each leaving tenants had to find replacements)......they wanted to charge us for new carpets in the hall and living room and there were stains on them. No amount of saying the damage had been done by the numerous previous tenants before we'd moved in 4 months beforehand would be accepted. They even got quotes for new items and billed us. We hired a steam cleaner and some of us spent a whole day on our hands and knees scrubbing the place, washing walls etc. Boy they werent happy when the house was left in show room standard and they couldnt charge us for the cost of the newly ordered carpets...lol

djimi

If you can get UPC for broadband then do; its much better than any other internet service.

If you can get Sky for TV then definately go with it; its more expensive than UPC but its considerably better service.

As for the what else you need; the short answer is it depends on what is in the place already. Youll want your own bedclothes regardless (it would be disgusting to use someone elses bedclothes, duvet and pillows). There may or may not be plates, mugs, cutlery and pots and pans; my first place had them but my current place didnt.

Make sure you take a reading of the electricity the day you move in and ring the electic company with this reading. This is your starting point and you are not responsible for anything used before this.

Also, when you move in make sure that you take a full inventory of everything that is in the accomodation, go through each room with a fine toothcomb and make notes of every mark, stain, dent or whatever on all surfaces. Write it all down and get the landlord to agree to and sign it. Take as many pictures as is humanly possible of every surface and every room in the place; this will ensure that there is no dispute when it comes to the condition of the place when you move out.

slingerz

Thanks for the advice sounds lik documenting your starting point is the order of the day really!!