Moving To/Living In London Megathread - ALL QUESTIONS TO GO HERE

Pigwidgeon

Hi guys,

So it looks like I may be moving to London in the next few weeks, I'm going over for a trial next weekend. My main problem is I haven't a clue where to start when it comes to looking where to live. I'll be working by regent's park, I know the closest underground station is Camden Town. Where would be good areas for me to look into moving to? Also I've only lived at home in Ireland, so don't have any landlord references. Would this cause a major problem for me trying to find a place?

rainbow kirby

Most of the areas really close to Regent's Park and Camden Town are quite expensive to rent in, particularly if you're going to stay in zone 2. Try looking further out along both branches of the Northern line, myself and my OH live in Archway (borderline zone 2/3) and we were able to get a lot more for our money there than we would have around Camden/Chalk Farm/Kentish Town. You may find a good share close to work though - there are a lot in the area.

The landlord reference thing could be an issue for some landlords, you'll probably need to explain the situation. It's less of an issue for sharing though.

djpbarry

RoisinDove wrote: »

So I've been looking for over a week now and every time I ask about a lock, I either get a snotty reply or they stop replying. Even though I've now started explaining why (my past bad experience) and stating that it's no reflection on them. Lots of people are claiming that it's not possible to put a lock on due to the insurance, fire regulations or landlord's wishes. It's really getting me down now. It's so hard to believe that so many people think it's unreasonable to want to lock your door when moving in with total strangers who haven't earned your trust. It feels like I'll never find anywhere!

It’s really not at all unreasonable and I’m surprised you’re having such trouble.

Might be an idea to try teaming up with like-minded people and then go looking for a place together?

Grandpa Hassan

RoisinDove wrote: »

So I've been looking for over a week now and every time I ask about a lock, I either get a snotty reply or they stop replying. Even though I've now started explaining why (my past bad experience) and stating that it's no reflection on them. Lots of people are claiming that it's not possible to put a lock on due to the insurance, fire regulations or landlord's wishes. It's really getting me down now. It's so hard to believe that so many people think it's unreasonable to want to lock your door when moving in with total strangers who haven't earned your trust. It feels like I'll never find anywhere!

To be honest, I have only ever come across one place with locks on the doors. And this was a huge place with 7 bedrooms, lower end of the scale, and which had a high turnover and rooms rented separately. Actually my forst flatshare after college as was so cheap

The reality is that most flatshares are in regular houses or apartments, and locks on the doors won't be fitted I rent out my two spare rooms in London, and neither have locks. If anyone asked for one, I would politely decline and suggest they look elsewhere. There is huge demand for decent houseshares in London, and you can just move on to the next person.

I would absolutely not want a lock on the door of a room that I am renting. Next thing you know the tenant has locked himself all hours of the day and is running a crack factory (OK.....a huge exagerration, but just making a point).

You will probably find somewhere eventually, but I would suggest that it would likely be at the lower quality end of the scale, in a place with a high turnover of tenants.

You have been very unlucky with your flatmates, and I fear that your paranoia is going to really severly limit your opportunity to find a nice houseshare. What you experienced is not the norm

Fysh

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

To be honest, I have only ever come across one place with locks on the doors. And this was a huge place with 7 bedrooms, lower end of the scale, and which had a high turnover and rooms rented separately. Actually my forst flatshare after college as was so cheap

The reality is that most flatshares are in regular houses or apartments, and locks on the doors won't be fitted I rent out my two spare rooms in London, and neither have locks. If anyone asked for one, I would politely decline and suggest they look elsewhere. There is huge demand for decent houseshares in London, and you can just move on to the next person.

I would absolutely not want a lock on the door of a room that I am renting. Next thing you know the tenant has locked himself all hours of the day and is running a crack factory (OK.....a huge exagerration, but just making a point).

You will probably find somewhere eventually, but I would suggest that it would likely be at the lower quality end of the scale, in a place with a high turnover of tenants.

You have been very unlucky with your flatmates, and I fear that your paranoia is going to really severly limit your opportunity to find a nice houseshare. What you experienced is not the norm

By the logic you espouse, someone renting a house or flat shouldn't expect to be able to lock their front door because what if they were running a crack den? Any competently-written tenancy agreement includes provisions for the landlord having the right to access any rented space so long as due notice is given (usually 24 hours). Any notion that you should have unfettered all-hours access to the space is based on a misinterpretation of the tenant's rights, and I at least would refuse to rent a room under such terms. The landlord concerns you mentioned above are already addressed in the standard terms of most AST contracts; those aren't relevant to the OP's issue.

Consider this: anyone who owns any valuable items would have to be able to trust not just their current flatmates but also everyone who's ever shared with them, or who may be given freedom to stay in the place. How can you meaningfully do that? All you could do in that case is hope for the best, own no valuables, or keep those valuables with you at all times. In such conditions you wouldn't be able to get contents insurance for your possessions, so in the event of a burglary you'd be SOL. (Which, of course, wouldn't be something taken into account when setting a "reasonable" rent...)

What you suggest is a huge burden to place on the tenant and I find it sad (but not entirely surprising) that the lunacy known as the London rental market considers it commonplace.

Grandpa Hassan

Fysh wrote: »

By the logic you espouse, someone renting a house or flat shouldn't expect to be able to lock their front door because what if they were running a crack den? Any competently-written tenancy agreement includes provisions for the landlord having the right to access any rented space so long as due notice is given (usually 24 hours). Any notion that you should have unfettered all-hours access to the space is based on a misinterpretation of the tenant's rights, and I at least would refuse to rent a room under such terms. The landlord concerns you mentioned above are already addressed in the standard terms of most AST contracts; those aren't relevant to the OP's issue.

Consider this: anyone who owns any valuable items would have to be able to trust not just their current flatmates but also everyone who's ever shared with them, or who may be given freedom to stay in the place. How can you meaningfully do that? All you could do in that case is hope for the best, own no valuables, or keep those valuables with you at all times. In such conditions you wouldn't be able to get contents insurance for your possessions, so in the event of a burglary you'd be SOL. (Which, of course, wouldn't be something taken into account when setting a "reasonable" rent...)

What you suggest is a huge burden to place on the tenant and I find it sad (but not entirely surprising) that the lunacy known as the London rental market considers it commonplace.

You're talking about ASTs. The London rental market from an AST perspective is actually well regulated, if expensive

I am assuming that the poster here is just looking to sublet a room in a houseshare.....and thus there are no tenants rights, either in London or Dublin or anywhere else. Nor would those living in the house have the right to fit a lock.

There is a huge demand for nice houseshares....places go in a few hours on spareroom.co.uk. There is no need for those renting the room to talk about locks on doors. I feel that the poster will find it hard to get what they want

In houseshares you do hope for the best. That is the nature of it. But most people are nice. Even in London

Fysh

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

You're talking about ASTs. The London rental market from an AST perspective is actually well regulated, if expensive

I am assuming that the poster here is just looking to sublet a room in a houseshare.....and thus there are no tenants rights, either in London or Dublin or anywhere else. Nor would those living in the house have the right to fit a lock.

There is a huge demand for nice houseshares....places go in a few hours on spareroom.co.uk. There is no need for those renting the room to talk about locks on doors. I feel that the poster will find it hard to get what they want

In houseshares you do hope for the best. That is the nature of it. But most people are nice. Even in London

There's no reason (other than a landlord not being bothered with paperwork) that each tenant in a houseshare can't have an AST with the landlord specifying their room as being the scope of the tenancy and access to communal facilities/areas. Though I admit that this would make it awkward to get in on a houseshare where you also get on well with the other tenants because of the extra layer of admin that would have to be involved.

I suppose it depends on which of the two is more of a priority to you that determines which way you should go.

RoisinDove

Grandpa Hassan wrote: »

You're talking about ASTs. The London rental market from an AST perspective is actually well regulated, if expensive

I am assuming that the poster here is just looking to sublet a room in a houseshare.....and thus there are no tenants rights, either in London or Dublin or anywhere else. Nor would those living in the house have the right to fit a lock.

There is a huge demand for nice houseshares....places go in a few hours on spareroom.co.uk. There is no need for those renting the room to talk about locks on doors. I feel that the poster will find it hard to get what they want

In houseshares you do hope for the best. That is the nature of it. But most people are nice. Even in London

I just don't see how any reasonable person could find it unreasonable for someone to want a lock on their door. I have all my personal possessions with me here in London, from my birth cert to hospital letters to irreplaceable jewellery and photos to expensive laptops and musical equipment. All of that is at the mercy of anyone who enters the shared house. It's not so much the flatmates I worry about, it's who they might bring home. I had a flatmate once who was a nice girl but who had one night stands every other week and brought home blokes she didn't know at all. I've had flatmates who were nice people but had no problem letting their friends sleep in my bed when I wasn't home. It made me very uncomfortable to go away for the weekend and have no idea who was sleeping in my room and/or going through my belongings. Even if the flatmates themselves are nice, you can't really trust friends of friends or whoever else might end up in the house.

djpbarry

RoisinDove wrote: »

I had a flatmate once who was a nice girl but who had one night stands every other week and brought home blokes she didn't know at all. I've had flatmates who were nice people but had no problem letting their friends sleep in my bed when I wasn't home.

Eh, none of those people sound "nice".

enda1

Fysh wrote: »

There's no reason (other than a landlord not being bothered with paperwork) that each tenant in a houseshare can't have an AST with the landlord specifying their room as being the scope of the tenancy and access to communal facilities/areas. Though I admit that this would make it awkward to get in on a houseshare where you also get on well with the other tenants because of the extra layer of admin that would have to be involved.

I suppose it depends on which of the two is more of a priority to you that determines which way you should go.

As a landlord you would then be responsible for finding each new tenant as one moved on rather than enforcing the remaining to find the next one and maintain their payments. Also doesn't each AST have to meet certain conditions of toilets, kitchens etc. individually?

Lastly if they're live-in landlords, ASTs go out the window and its their terms or the street - choose.

Fysh

enda1 wrote: »

As a landlord you would then be responsible for finding each new tenant as one moved on rather than enforcing the remaining to find the next one and maintain their payments. Also doesn't each AST have to meet certain conditions of toilets, kitchens etc. individually?

Lastly if they're live-in landlords, ASTs go out the window and its their terms or the street - choose.

Most of this is true, particularly re: live-in landlords (I was pretty sure that an AST can exist for rooms within properties that use shared facilities, though I suspect they involve better provisioning of same than is necessarily common in house shares...) What I was getting at is that if a landlord has serious concerns about who's living in their property (and using that as a justification for some insane "no locks on bedroom doors" policy) then having ASTs on a per-tenant basis is the way to go, rather than letting the tenant sort out replacements amongst themselves - partly because ASTs contain well-defined terms for reclaiming the space and partly because it ensures that the occupant is known to the landlord, rather than some randomer about whose presence the landlord may or may not ever be informed.

I've lived in both setups (though I always had a lock on my door, and didn't have to ask for it), and my experience is that houses with individual AST-type agreements with the landlord involved involved tenants actually adhering to the terms of the contract, whereas houses that didn't tended to involve tenants doing what the hell they liked (including in one memorable case refusing to pay for bin tags and just piling up refuse bags in the back patio for the best part of six months - thank god I'd left at that point!).

silvervixen84

RoisinDove wrote: »

Hi all

I'm looking for a room in a shared house and finding it a bit of a headache. People seem keen until I ask if the room has a lock on it and then I get snotty 'we all trust each other here, we don't need to lock our rooms' type emails. I had a horrible experience in my last flatshare, with jewellery of enormous sentimental value being stolen and private documents being rifled through, and there's no way I'd ever risk that again. It's not the flatmates themselves I'm worried about, it's the friends of friends, one night stands and things like that...

Unfortunately 'room has a lock' doesn't seem to be a screening option on any of the share websites and people tend to get offended when you ask....what am I meant to do now? It just seems ridiculous that people actually expect you to move in with complete strangers and have all your possessions at the mercy of people you barely know and their friends who you don't know from Adam.

http://www.spareroom.co.uk/flatshare/flatshare_detail.pl?flatshare_id=3265639&search_id=165303867&city_id=&flatshare_type=offered&search_results=%2Fflatshare%2F%3Fsearch_id%3D165303867%26&

I don't know what area you want to search or your budget but I just did a quick 'advanced search' on Spareroom and put in keywords 'door lock' and it brought up some searches like the one above. Good luck finding somewhere

Dick Turnip

Hi, so I've moved over a few weeks ago and had my interview for NI number yesterday which can take up to 4 weeks apparently.

I might have to go to GP before then, what's the best way about getting an appointment?

I'm in temporary accommodation for another week so my address is going to change again in a couple of weeks and I won't have utility bills changed til April.

Just a bit confused as to my best way to go about it.

RoisinDove

djpbarry wrote: »

Eh, none of those people sound "nice".

Well, they were nice people in general. How are you supposed to know when you move in with someone after meeting them once if they have lots of one night stands? It's crazy that you're supposed to move in with strangers and just be cool with leaving all your stuff there.

Anyway, does anyone have any idea what Leytonstone is like? I've seen a place I like there and it seems grand but I know the area has had some bad press, not least because of the recent fatal stabbing that happened there...obviously nowhere in London is 'safe' but is this area worse than others?

ballsymchugh

sure longford had a stabbing there not so long ago, and it's still one of the finest places this earth has to offer.

djpbarry

RoisinDove wrote: »

Well, they were nice people in general. How are you supposed to know when you move in with someone after meeting them once if they have lots of one night stands? It's crazy that you're supposed to move in with strangers and just be cool with leaving all your stuff there.

Oh I know, It’s impossible to know. That’s why I suggest trying to team up with people and then finding a place together. That way you can be reasonable sure you’ll be living with like-minded individuals and set out the ground rules in advance.

silvervixen84

RoisinDove (and others looking for accom here), another option for you could be to head along to a speed-flatmating night.

http://www.speedflatmating.co.uk/

I went to one before but unfortunately didn't get a flat out of it. I still think it's a good way to meet potential flatmates/landlords before agreeing to anything. Potential Landlords and sharers turn up in a pub environment, everyone wears a sticker with their name and what they're offering/seeking, as well as the budget so you instantly know before you start talking to someone. There are different nights for different areas/zones.

It's actually a good night too as the atmosphere is friendly and everyone is approachable.

djpbarry

silvervixen84 wrote: »

It's actually a good night too as the atmosphere is friendly and everyone is approachable.

How approachable?

Grandpa Hassan

djpbarry wrote: »

How approachable?

How else do you think Londoners go about choosing flatmates!

Dazzler0911

Has anyone used that AnyVan.com website to organize getting stuff getting transported over to London?

What kind of price would I be looking at for getting a pallet sent over?

Or any other similar sites that people could recommend for getting items shipped across?

DeSelby83

I am moving to London very soon and was hoping to get as much as possible set up before I go.
Is it possible to buy an oyster card before I go (I'm assuming that's the best option for travel around the city)? Is there a monthly travel card or am I better off using the oyster card as a pay as you go type of card
What will I need to set up a bank account? Will I need proof of address?
How often do you pay council tax, is it different from area to area or is there a flat fee?
Is general is there any no go areas to look out for while trying to look for a place to stay?

Thanks for any help

djpbarry

DeSelby83 wrote: »

I am moving to London very soon and was hoping to get as much as possible set up before I go.
Is it possible to buy an oyster card before I go (I'm assuming that's the best option for travel around the city)? Is there a monthly travel card or am I better off using the oyster card as a pay as you go type of card
What will I need to set up a bank account? Will I need proof of address?
How often do you pay council tax, is it different from area to area or is there a flat fee?
Is general is there any no go areas to look out for while trying to look for a place to stay?

Thanks for any help

Check the FAQ thread:

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056364193

Louche Lad

DeSelby83 wrote: »

I am moving to London very soon and was hoping to get as much as possible set up before I go.
Is it possible to buy an oyster card before I go (I'm assuming that's the best option for travel around the city)? Is there a monthly travel card or am I better off using the oyster card as a pay as you go type of card
What will I need to set up a bank account? Will I need proof of address?
How often do you pay council tax, is it different from area to area or is there a flat fee?
Is general is there any no go areas to look out for while trying to look for a place to stay?

Thanks for any help

On council tax: I think most people pay it monthly, and it varies from area to area - each council sets its own. Also, generally the larger the property, the higher the tax.

The tax is levied per property, not per person. So ten people living in a house will pay the same total amount as two people. There's a discount for a property where only one person lives.

Pigwidgeon

So what mobile networks are the best? I'm finding it difficult to figure out the pay as you go offers by their websites! I'm not too pushed on the amount of minutes, unlimited data or cheap data would be the important ones for me for keeping in touch with people back at home.

I think I've narrowed it down to either three or orange, but there seems to be a lot more networks than at home so if there's something I'm missing please let me know!

theteal

Pigwidgeon wrote: »

So what mobile networks are the best? I'm finding it difficult to figure out the pay as you go offers by their websites! I'm not too pushed on the amount of minutes, unlimited data or cheap data would be the important ones for me for keeping in touch with people back at home.

I think I've narrowed it down to either three or orange, but there seems to be a lot more networks than at home so if there's something I'm missing please let me know!

giffgaff, £12 unlimited data, O2 coverage

Pigwidgeon

Hadn't heard of them but they seem perfect for what I'm after. Thanks!

ballsymchugh

agree with the above

it really just boils down to the price, as the difference in coverage in a massive city is negligible. giffgaff is sim only though.

djpbarry

Pigwidgeon wrote: »

Hadn't heard of them but they seem perfect for what I'm after. Thanks!

This might be of use:

http://www.moneysupermarket.com/mobile-phones

Bench Press

giffgaff is the business

Axiomatic

Hey People... I just thought I would let people know about this. It's called a HSBC Passport account. It is just that. All you need is a passport and away you go. Just take a bit of the hassel out of things 'till you get around to setting up a solid account.

http://www.hsbc.co.uk/content_static/en/ukpersonal/pdfs/en/passport_brochure.pdf