What To Look For

After your research and questions, you should eventually have a list of several properties that you have made appointments to view, through agents, landlords or a combination. The advice I’m giving you here has to be general. You’ll need to apply it to a wide variety of buildings and situations by using that most vital tool for renters – your common sense. However, as you go through a property, you need to be on the lookout for safety issues, which is why I have included them in this section.

You should have appointments to view with either private landlords, or agency staff, and you still need to find out quite a lot from whoever you’re meeting before you rush to sign on that dotted line. You are looking for a property that suits your needs, is within your budget and is safe.

A viewing is your first (and possibly only) chance to learn almost all you’ll need to know about ‘the deal’ on offer. It should be a two-way process, where both landlord/agent and tenant discuss matters and decide whether or not they want to do business with each other. Don’t agree to accept a property if the agency sends you round with a viewer who doesn’t have a clue how to answer your questions. If that happens, note down your queries and go back to the agency looking for answers before you agree to sign contracts.

Avoid landlords who won’t talk to you – if they’re unwilling to explain anything now, things are unlikely to improve after you’ve agreed to hand over all that money.

What To Avoid

No matter how tight your budget though, you must find somewhere safe to live. At the bottom end of the market, this is not as easy as it ought to be. And don’t assume expensive means safe either.

Many properties, especially at the lower end of the price range and often let to young sharers, are still technically unsafe, or unfit to live in (new rules about this were introduced in the Housing Act 2004 and came into force July 2007 – check Lesson 14 on Houses in Multiple Occupation if you’re a sharer). Although regulations exist to protect tenants they are monitored by overburdened local authorities, who, despite their best efforts, often do not even realise that a particular property is being let out at all.

There are still a significant minority of landlords who operate quite outside the law, and who continue to offer dreadfully inadequate property to tenants but who’ve happily hoiked their rent to near market norms. However, simply reading a guide doesn’t really give a flavour of either the state, smell nor overall levels of dilapidation that confront some tenants as they walk into some properties.

This chapter will try to give you some overall pointers on what to check for, whatever the price range. Decent landlords/agents will offer property that is clean and reasonably presented (which doesn’t mean expensively decked out). Expect that as a basic demand.

Advice About Viewings

Before we begin considering specifics, the very best advice you can take is never to view alone. It is simply not wise to make appointments to go into empty properties with anyone you have never met before.

Besides which, there is simply too much to take in. It can be very difficult to remember everything you’ll need to, particularly if you’re viewing numerous properties over several days. Take a pad and pen and make notes – no one will mind a bit. If you are looking to share with other tenants, make sure that you’re all available to view together. Landlords and agents can quite reasonably be reluctant to reshow one property to various members of a group at different times.