Here it is, you guys. The moment when I can finally share all the details with you what it was like to rent our very first flat in our new country of residence, the UK. Today you will learn everything you need to know about how to rent your first property in the UK.

I am very excited that I am the one who can help you get started on this journey!

It was a process that took us one week exactly but if I count the searching and scrolling-through-the-ads-part it took as a bit longer than that, let’s say about a month. I’m not gonna lie, looking for property was pretty annoying, and far from relaxing! Maybe it’s fun for someone but for us, it wasn’t. We just wanted to find a place that isn’t to big nor too small, and in a reasonable price.

Our entire focus was on finding an affordable 1-bedroom apartment.

Just don’t take the whole thing too easy just because we did in such a short time. This could have easily taken us few months if we were not-so-in-a-rush.

We had to decide and react quickly because we had no other choice. My boyfriend took a time off from work and I did as well, just to be a flexible as we could be. We couldn’t afford to search for an apartment longer than we did because we had to go back to work. And while working we would be too busy and exhausted for those phone calls, driving around for late afternoon viewings.

We are a young couple who has just moved to another country so we wanted an affordable place just for a start. My boyfriend was already there for some time and working as a live-in carer so he didn’t need his own place. When the time came for me to move in the UK after him, he got a job in a laboratory so we needed our own place, and I mean fast!

My plan was to start a business so money wouldn’t just start falling from the sky. This is why we looked for a more affordable option.

1. Don’t move into a shared house unless it’s urgent

Shared house basically means you will have our own room but you will have to be ready to share the kitchen and bathroom with other tenants. The idea was awesome from the financial point of view. We know many people start that way, even many professionals live like that.

Our expectations before viewing these flats:

A clean, luxury apartment shared with a few other employed professionals, low cost, fixed amount to pay each month (bills included).

A reality that hit us while viewing:

A dirty, stinking place shared with other people (maybe students, maybe unemployed, it doesn’t matter). These places were literally holes because not many people care about having a clean environment, obviously. From what we saw, people like us are in minority. We clean regularly, have a fresh and tidy place and we just couldn’t find anything like it.

So I guess we just wasted our time when looking for a shared accommodation. If you’re looking for your first flat I strongly advise you to avoid places with multiple occupations. Unless you’re very lucky you’ll find nothing else than an awful piece of garbage to live in.

And the most interesting thing we found out is that there wouldn’t be much difference in price if we rent our own 1-bedroom apartment. The difference would be around 100 GBP. This really isn’t much if you consider that the whole place is yours.

Well I guess it was a lesson well learned. Never go into shared accommodation unless you really take your time to look for it carefully. There probably is a shared place somewhere that doesn’t have these issues but it’ll probably take a lot of time to find it.

 2. Where to look for available properties?

There are 3 main websites in the UK people use to rent or buy a place

1. Rightmove

2. Gumtree

3. Zoopla

The first one, Rightmove, was definitely the best and most user-friendly. Most of our potential flats came from Rightmove. This website made it very easy for us to search, add filters and save our favorites to a special folder. But all of the ads came from the agency on this site.

Gumtree is a very popular website where people buy and sell used stuff, second-hand accessories, cars, equipment and many other. Here you can find a variety of apartments to rent. The good side is that you will find many places with a lower price because you’ll find more private ads than agency ads.

But the bad side is that these places are in much worse condition if they are coming from a private owner without the agency involved.

Besides. The website itself was awful, whenever we were searching and wanted to go to another page, it made a reset to all of our filters (like area, number of bedrooms, max price). We gave up very quickly when using Gumtree. Pity for all of those ads that aren’t on page 1, I guess.

Zoopla was quite allright and user-friendly. Although there wasn’t so much choice as on the Rightmove and the searching option were a little limited it is a go-to website if you want to find your new home.

3. After picking your favorites … the whole process …

Write down the questions you would like to ask when calling the agency/landlord. Questions are usually about the estimated bills, costs of moving in, the area of an apartment, neighborhood, minimum tenancy length and so on. Ask them whatever is important to you, personally.

Then you should arrange a viewing with them. After the agency books a viewing they will not book it for others, at least some agencies have that policy. But you must book a viewing as soon as possible.

When the day of the viewing comes, arrive early and take your time to look around the area in which you’ll potentially live in for the next few months or even years. It is important that it is a safe and peaceful area you’ll feel okay living in.

As for the apartment itself, have your eyes open for every detail: doors, windows, walls, carpets, damp/ mold, neighbors, kitchen equipment, bathroom equipment, etc.

Important note: Ask them about the amount of moving-in fees. You don’t want to find yourself surprised (and angry) later. It is better to know be prepared for all the costs.*

Make a list of things you should pay a close attention to, the day before the viewing so you don’t forget anything.

They will ask you these four essential things:

Are you employed?

Do you smoke?

Do you have any pets?

Do you have any children?

In most cases, you cannot rent a flat if you’re unemployed, and they usually don’t accept DSS (meaning you’re living on government social benefits).

I strongly advise you to be honest because you will have to prove your employment. Agencies call your employer and ask them for reference. They usually ask them if your job is stable and if you’re going to work for them in the next 6 months. Don’t worry to much about that specific thing, it has been told to us that there’s a 50-50 chance that they say yes so it doesn’t directly effect your chances of renting a place.

4. Ok, so you made a decision and want to move in.

What now?

Call the agency and let them know. Ask them what’s next. I’ll tell you about the usual procedure so you can be prepared as possible.

Make a decision quickly because apartments here go fast! If we didn’t say yes immediately, our flat would be take by someone else the next day!

Agency will send you an application form where you will have to fill in all the usual personal details + information about your employment (a type of contract, current salary, etc.)

When you’re done with that, send them the application form back and the agency will contact you whether the application was successful or not.

If successful, they will ask you to pay the application fee (*NOTE: not every agency includes this expense but most of them do). If the application fee isn’t required you have to look at it as a bonus, it will be written on top of the ad so it is the first thing to see.

The application fee is usually about 125 GBP (or it can be 180 GBP) per applicant and a little less per every additional applicant. We paid exactly 225 GBP for the two of us. We didn’t like this part, at all. But you have to pay and it is a non-refundable fee. If you change your mind about the apartment you will not get this money back.

Another thing you most certainly can’t avoid is the damage deposit.

Damage deposit is a returnable fee that you get back at the end of your tenancy…if you don’t make any damage to the place. It is usually an amount of monthly rent + 100 GBP. So if the rent is 400, then the damage deposit is going to be 500 GBP.

Another thing you will have to pay is one month’s rent.

Some agencies will also ask for the administration fee or tenancy agreement fee but we didn’t have that. Choose the agency wisely to avoid unnecessary expenses.

After you paid everything necessary it takes about a week for the agency to prepare the tenancy agreement, possibly clean the place and prepare it for moving in.

In our case, it took 4 days because we were in a rush and asked them if it can be done in less than a week. We had a viewing on Monday and we moved in on Friday, the same week. So you can totally speed up the process if you ask nicely.

Or if you don’t want to move right away they are prepared to wait a few weeks up to a month (because most people are already tenants somewhere else and they still have to pay their rent in a previous place)

Read the agreement carefully before signing to avoid any troubles that might appear later.

Related posts:

How moving to the UK was the toughest (and the best) decision I could possibly make

Ten Crucial Things To Consider When Moving To A Foreign Country

Coming soon:

How to quickly decorate your new and unfurnished apartment on a budget?

That’s it for now, lovelies. I hope you find your special place soon and spend many happy years there or at least find something nice for a good starting point.

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