Renting a Home

So you are about to rent a house. Here are my top tips for being a good tenant, making it your home and most importantly getting your deposit back. Good Tenanting. 1. Pay everything on time. Set up a standing order and tell your letting agent/Landlord that you have done so and tell them so. Make sure they know that you are going to pay up even if you need a month to get the money for your deposit in your bank then make out a post dated cheque for a time you know you have money. Check with the letting agent/LL that this is ok first though. 2. Be clean. Not necessarily tidy, but clean. Also remember in some contracts if you have left a mess which ...  Read the complete review

We have been renting for 18 months now, and I have to say that time when we were looking was one of the most stressful: I just didn't know which way to go, and we landed on our feet (thank God) so let me share what we did. My number one piece of advice is to go private. This means that you rent directly off the owner of the house, and not through an agency. There are numerous benefits to this: 1) You are dealing with real people who have a vested interest in the property (ie it's theirs), so they are more likely to come and mend something quickly/properly. 2) You can save money. If you rented from an agency you had to pay a £175 set-up ...  Read the complete review

I am very recently married, and I rented my very first property away from my family home in June of last year, I must admit we rushed into it a little too quickly, me and my then fiancee had been living 60 miles apart, and so it was difficult to see each other much, and so one day when I was in the town he lives in seeing him, we went to a letting agent, and ended up signing a contract on the first property we viewed. The letting agent we used was Hot Property, and I must say I'd never use them again. The flat we viewed was two bedrooms, a brand new build. It was on the top floor of a 4 story building with no lift, and next to a busy railway line, ...  Read the complete review

I've been on both sides of renting, as at the moment I'm renting out my student house in Nottingham and renting a room myself in a shared house in the south west. Over time I've picked up a lot of tips from various landlords and tenants, so here are a few: Always sign a contract and read it carefully. This may sound obvious, but if you don't have a contract, then you have no rights whatsoever and not even any proof you've ever lived there. Even with signing a contract, it's easy enough to move in and then forget you're responsible for looking after the garden etc. If you want to move out, how much notice do you have to give? Does your contract give ...  Read the complete review

I currently rent a flat, having moved from a rented house, both of which I lived in with my partner. My current experiences of renting this flat have been positive, particularly as I deal directly through my landlord (ie not through a managed agent). My experience of living in and leaving the last house was, however, not so positive, and I would like to share my experience as I have learned a lot of bitter lessons and have only recently closed a very stressful chapter in my renting life! When we left our last property, we cleaned it from top to bottom over the space of two days, only being unable to mow the garden as the tools provided were not suitable, and ...  Read the complete review