Hints on renting a flat/house

Hello everyone,

I will be relocating to London in June together with my fiancé. For a start, we can have a house share, but eventually we will get a place for ourselves.
Main criterias will be price, area, availability of stores, shops, tube, etc. But, I would also like to learn some tricks on picking the right place. Here are my questions

- what does a central heating mean in England? Is it efficient to keep heat-loving people alive? Can we have at least + 22C in the flat? and not only in the bedroom, but all around the place? Can we adjust the temperature ourselves?

- if I want to have a hot water 24*7, should we look for a place with a boiler? Or any other device to keep the hot water running? If the place doesn't have any, should we wait for unexpected cold showers sometimes?

- I hate carpeted places to rent! feels like collecting dirt of all previous tenants, ugh!!! But it looks like Brits just love it. Is there any particular reason behind it? Should I reconsider my attitude?

- I like Victorian houses, but what is the snag?

- why they accent on double glazing in adverts for flats/houses? Is it a mere beautiful added value or a real advantage?

I will appreciate any other hints or advices on renting the flat/house in the UK. What should we pay attention to?

Thanks in advance

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Hey Donu ,

Welcome to the Forum! :wave:

Some good question there, and one which I guess you just take for granted if you've liked in the UK all your life.

OK, "central heating" is a heating system with a main thermostat and a thermostat in every room as well as a timer. This alows to to set a general ambient temperature around an entire house or specifically control temperature in individual rooms. This can be useful if you want to save money on heating and not heat rooms which don't get as much use as others.

As far as hot water goes, nearly all places that you'll be looking to rent with have hot water 24/7 - even houses with "economy 7" (which is a system that heats during the night) but a lagged jacket on your water tank means that the water will stay hot all day. There will also be an "emersion" heater which will allow you to turn hot water on at will.

You'll find that most properties on the market for rent will have good central heating and hot water systems. If in doubt, ask your estate agent.

Carpet is probably the norm for floor covering in the UK - wooden flooring is available in rented houses but it is seen as perhaps more fashionable and so expect to pay more for this.

There are no real snags with Victorian houses apart from their age and so you may uncover problems as time goes on, but this shouldn't be a problem as your landlord/ agent should take care of any problems that come to light.

Finaly: double glazing. Double glazing is a more efficient way of keeping heat in than single sheet glass - this just enables you to keep your energy bills lower when heating your house through the winter.

I hope this answers all your questions.

Check out these helpful tips on renting a house in the UK:
housemouseuk.com/rentingahouse

Have a great move to the UK.

All the very best,

AIL Staff

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Thank you very much! Very helpful indeed.

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Hi All,

I would like to give some advice to anyone to is moving to London and wanting to rent a flat. I moved here 10 months ago from Australia. When I got here we found trouble finding a place that we liked and we ending up renting a place from "Accommodation London". They only rent to foreigners and I thought that given the price I had found myself a good deal.

Watch out - this company is out to rip people off. If there are problems with the place they wont come and fix it - we had 3 leaks in the house by the time we left. If you want to pay your rent in cash you have to pay 12 pounds on top. When you want your bond back it has to go on a credit card - if not they will charge you 50 pounds to give it to you in cash. And thats only the beginning.

Steer clear of "Accommodation London - www.accommodationlondon.co.uk/
and you will have a much enjoyable experience in this great city.

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Just a couple of things to add:

Double glazing is also useful to keep the noise out. Depending on where you live, you may have a lot of noise from the street - noisy passers-by, traffice, police sirens etc.

And Victorian houses can be quite peculiar. A lot of creaking from the wood, pipes etc. Plus beware of moths - a lot of old houses, particularly those with wooden floors have moths that will quite happily munch on your clothes and live in your food cupboards!

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