Moving out & finding somewhere to live!, aaaah! Options

[Hobbes]

Paprika.

Always keep paprika in stock. The greatest spice (?) on this world.

[WeeJ]

K, so I came home last night to find the radiator in our hallway has leaked everywhere. It's soaked everything and destroyed the floor

Good news is this won't cost us a penny to sort as we rent. Bad news, we have no heating until it's sorted. Fingers crossed it stays warm.

Anywho, reminded me of this thread

[Mata]

This is where you find out how good your landlords are. Mostly they should jump into action and get it sorted very quickly. A few... Well, it could be a cold Christmas. 'Hopw you've got the good kind!

[froggle-rock]

Paprika.

Always keep paprika in stock. The greatest spice (?) on this world.

Marry me?

[Hobbes]

Paprika.

Always keep paprika in stock. The greatest spice (?) on this world.

Marry me?

And they say romance is dead.

[patback87]

Sounds like everyone has given you good advice. My major points I look at when I'm looking at apartments are, if I come home really late at night am I going to have to worry about getting mugged or caught in some gang crossfire (I'm not sure how crime is in London), on security I think someone already mentioned it, when I lived in Chicago I got burglarized twice, the first time I made a couple of mistakes, I lived on the first floor and should have thrown a red flag about my back door not being fitted in the door frame properly and that my window air conditioner wasn't secured properly, the second and most recent one wasn't my fault they actual broke down my door to get into my apartment.

Also I don't know if you guys have something like renters insurance like we have here, I would suggest it, that was the first thing the cop told me in first break in that I should get renters insurance, in the States usually the landlord only insures the physical building and it's your responsibility to insure your belongings against theft, fire, water damanage, and whatever else may happen to your stuff.

Another few things to look at is laundry, it seems like a very minor thing, but my last apartment in Chicago didn't have it in the building and I lived in a neighborhood that lacked anything but dry cleaners, at first I was trucking my laundry on two buses to go to the nearest laundry mat and then I bought a portable washer, but what I'm saying is that if you building doesn't have laundry make sure there is a laundry mat close by.

I'm trying to think of other things other than the fact to make sure that you like it enough to live out the lease and possibly another lease, again I'm not sure how leases are done for you guys, but the standard here is a year lease and usually they are tough to break unless your landlord is a slumlord (my first apartment had a water leaking issue right above my toliet mulitple times and it would take them forever to fix it and it was never enough to constitute breaking the lease, most major leasing companies know how to bend rules just enough) or you can sublease and find someone to take your lease over.

That's just my advice, I've moved a lot since I moved out of my parents for school, not as much as Hobbes, but I think it's been 5 times in the last 4 years and actually 6 if I count when I lived in the dorms and moved floors for summer housing, I only lived in my second apartment in Chicago for about a month and a half, I broke my lease because of the break in, but that was because I had a decent landlord and I kept bothering him about my safety.

Finally back to safety, I'm not sure if you lived on campus when you were at uni, but just good advice when it comes to living in a city is to always be aware of your surroundings and if something doesn't feel right follow your gut. I have certain rules I set myself to follow when I'm out late, I usually don't listen to my music after a certain time and try not flash my cell phone or any other vaulables out. I had a friend get held up in his neighborhood (one of the safest in the city), because he made a couple of mistakes one he was listening to his music late on his EL ride home, which he had big expensive Bose headphones, and he saw the people follow him when he transfered EL lines and they followed him all the way to his street. Needless to say the story kind of ends well after he was held up he ran up to his apartment called the cops and luckly the cops caught them and he got most of his stuff back, they had ditched some of his stuff. The sad part of the story is the one that actaully pointed the gun at him had just gotten out of jail for doing the same exact thing and out of the three others two were 16 year olds. Again I don't know what crime is like in London, I'm basing this on my experience in Chicago and NYC.

So I hope all of that helped and good luck, it's often about luck and stumbling upon a nice place and being in the right place at the right time. Sorry for the long post, but I'm just trying to give you some advice from my experience with renting and living out on my own.

Reason for edit: Just making it easier to read.

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

Thanks for the advice!

I've found a flat now... its more expensive than I would have liked but includes all bills and seems pretty nice so I decided to take it since I was getting sick of visiting places. The lease has a 6 month break clause so I might decide to find somewhere else once I've gotten to know the area better. I ended up visiting quite a lot of flats but unfortunately I was too slow to put a deposit down on the one I really wanted, and then another one I made an offer on was let to another tenant who had put down a deposit through a different agency and was willing to pay more than me

I'm not sure about insurance yet as I don't really have anything of value besides my computer but it seems like it's probably a good idea anyway?

[Sir Psycho Sexy]

I'm not sure about insurance yet as I don't really have anything of value besides my computer but it seems like it's probably a good idea anyway?

Absolutely, never under estimate what an upset losing any or all of your person belongings could be.

[patback87]

It's good to hear you found a place. Even if you think you don't have much stuff in insurance is good to have. I think what bothered me most about the whole thing was the fact that the people got away with it. The police tend not to investigate property crime so much at least in a big city, they have bigger crimes to solve. Not that I don't want them solving murders, but you just feel so violated because they were in your personal space.

[snooodlysnoosnoo...]

includes all bills and seems pretty nice

That is always a good thing, means you know exactly how much you'll be paying out every month rather than having things taking every spare bit of cash for 10 months (Council Tax, Water) then having 2 months where you suddenly feel rich but don't realise why until you've spent it and then regret not saving at least some of it.

Anyway, congrats! When are you moving in and when can we see pictures!!! I am such a nosy so and so.

[TigerLily013]

DEATH BY FUFU! /Futurama

I mostly have a cupboard of condiments and tins of tomatoes. All it takes then is a minimal amount of actual ingredients and you can make great tasting dishes for not much dosh.

I thought it was SNU SNU, not FUFU lol! Sorry just noticed that now.

Anyway hope the looking into things and moving is going okay Crazymat. Not sure how the housing market is over there, over here in Ontario it seems to be slowly improving again. Cheers!

[Mata]

Get contents insurance. Tescos do pretty decent rates.

I would also highly recommend occasionally doing back-ups of anything important on your computer - that goes especially for important documents, but music and other stuff you've paid for too is a good idea. Definitely, definitely do this for anything on a laptop. If someone were to break in, that's the first thing that they will go for. I hope you never need it, but rented properties are usually targetted more than purchased houses because the security is usually worse. Despite the scary warnings, this kind of stuff isn't incredibly common, but it's bound to happen at some point in your life unfortunately, so it's best to be prepared.

I hope the move goes well!

[Moosh]

Ugh contents insurance. I was trying to get some a week or two ago, but apparently being a full-time student and living in a flat that you own outright* means no one will insure you. Eventually had to get it in my dad's name.

My current property issue is how bloody long it takes to get connected for phones/internet. I moved in and called BT to get them to put the phone in my name. 11 working days. Then I wanted to sign up for internet (not from BT). Another 3 weeks. How can it possibly take that long?

*This is not strictly true, but for legal purposes it is.

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to the lack of internet when I move in. My isp better not take that long... 3 weeks is ridiculous!

Will check out tescos insurance (also if anyone has any other recommendations that would be awesome). I'll try and make sure I do regular backups as well. Again, I don't have anything really important, but I won't be too pleased if I have to *ahem* legally purchase my movie/music collection all over again!

I'm moving in on the 1st of october. Might be able to upload some pics once I'm there if I can find somewhere with free wifi...

[snooodlysnoosnoo...]

Direct line have 50% off home contents insurance at the moment!! I also have my car insurance with them so got a bit more discounted because of that but I'm guessing you probably won't have a car if you're going to be living in the middle of London!

Hope the move goes smoothly

[elphaba2]

Crowded cafes are your best friends. Think Starbucks. They will not notice immediately if you do not order anything. And if they do, buy a giant delicious cookie to nibble at during internet breaks.

[Daria]

Yay for finding somewhere!

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

Argh contents insurance is confusing! How do I find out things like when the property was built?

I think I will be spending a lot of time in starbucks/other cafes in the next 2 weeks. BT suck.

[Moosh]

You don't have to be that accurate about when it was built, generally the decade should suffice.

[Mata]

2 weeks is actually pretty fast for turning on the internet in a new house. It often takes around four weeks.

As CM says, rouhgly guess the decade the house was built. If you don't have a clue about that, take a few photos inside and out, post them on here and we'll take a shot at it.

[CrazyFooIAintGet...]

Yeah I've got no idea...

There's a picture of the outside here but I won't have any other photos until I move in on thursday.

Oh and the 2 weeks figure above was just to connect the phone line - I'll still have to sort out internet after that as I'm going with a different ISP. Strangely, I received an email from BT yesterday saying my service begins on thursday, so maybe they aren't so bad after all.

[Mata]

Hmm... Sash windows and big lintels... It's tricky to say. The pillars look more like the twenties, but the height of the ceilings makes me think of the late 1800s. I've no idea, but it's not recent. Your landlords should be able to tell you if you explain it's for the insurance.

[Lurker in the Pa...]

I call twenties on that. Also, don't leave your shower on all day, it causes you to have a damp flat and gives your flatmates panic attacks. *whistles*