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I don't mean to piggyback this thread but... well. What are some good sites for finding apartments in London, particularly avoiding bloody real estate agents? My girlfriend is there currently looking for places but it's a mess. She's using Zoopla (going through realtors) and someone recommended something called 'Flat Finder' but we couldn't find it online. Anybody have any suggestions? She'd need the whole place or at least something cat-friendly, we're going to have to bring over our 2 cats. We'll need it for 6 months and things aren't looking good.
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Jun 24, 2015 15:47
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:I don't mean to piggyback this thread but... well. As I understand it there's a quirk of UK insurance policies whereby flats pretty much never allow pets - even if the flat's owner was willing to have one, their insurance policy won't allow it. And it's not like it's easy to even find a landlord who's ok with them; seriously, Britain('s landlords) hate pets, for all the guff about the UK being a nation of animal lovers. Where are you bringing them from? You'll need to look into pet passports and rabies injections and so on, which is expensive and has quite a long lead time. Other standard househunting sites are rightmove.co.uk and maybe spareroom.co.uk, though the latter less so if she needs the whole place to herself.
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Jun 24, 2015 15:58
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:I don't mean to piggyback this thread but... well. Want you want is not going to happen, unless you have thousands of pounds to spend on monthly rent.
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Jun 24, 2015 16:02
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The cats are all sorted to go vaccination and passport wise, they're coming from Italy (one we already brought from Australia 2 years ago) so it's not that bad from that perspective. It's just money for shots, documents and flights (for 6 months it really doesn't seem worth it but logic doesn't enter into it much). We weren't planning on telling the landlord or the realtors about the cats, just hide it and hope they don't do random house inspections too frequently. I mentioned that we have cats mostly to illustrate why we need a whole 1-br apartment to ourselves rather than just spareroom.co.uk. I'll check out rightmove.co.uk, it sounds familiar but I'll pass it on and see if she has used it yet. Thanks
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Jun 24, 2015 16:05
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:We weren't planning on telling the landlord or the realtors about the cats, just hide it and hope they don't do random house inspections too frequently. I mentioned that we have cats mostly to illustrate why we need a whole 1-br apartment to ourselves rather than just spareroom.co.uk. They're required to give you 24 hours' notice before entering the property, so if you can find an emergency place to stash them at very short notice (and all their paraphernalia), that might help.  ('realtor' sounds super American to my ears, btw)
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Jun 24, 2015 16:10
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Well we have friends in London who would (probably?) take the cats for a short period of time if the agents come. The main issue is just finding a 1br in London with access to Victoria station for like 1000-1100/mo. This is not my ideal plan by the way, it's just the best we have. Girlfriend really wanted to take this contract and live in London and can't bear to be away from me or the cats for 6 months. I also don't know if realtor is commonly used in Australia or not, probably not, I tend to mix and match American and UK English moreso than most.
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Jun 24, 2015 16:21
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6 months is more in the serviced apartment territory imo.
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Jun 24, 2015 16:22
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Unfortunately I think even a base serviced apartment would be out of our price range, let alone one that's cat friendly, and otherwise they'd spring us within a week. The situation is just so dumb but I don't know what else to do, I've expressed all my reservations and she's going ahead with it (job starts Monday) so all that's left is to give it an honest try and then... deal with whatever comes next. Goddamn, being broke and trying to live like a rich idiot is definitely not the way to do things.
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Jun 24, 2015 16:27
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Kaiho posted:6 months is more in the serviced apartment territory imo. Na, 6 month lease isn't that unreasonable. I've not had problems with that before, though some landlords do prefer a year.
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Jun 24, 2015 16:35
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At that price point it's just not going to happen i'm afraid. You'll need to move outwards, probably zone3+ and commute into Victoria (assuming that's where the job is?) Really though we need more details to be able to help. Look for commuter rail lines (not necessarily the tube) which go to Victoria.
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Jun 24, 2015 16:37
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:Well we have friends in London who would (probably?) take the cats for a short period of time if the agents come. The main issue is just finding a 1br in London with access to Victoria station for like 1000-1100/mo. This is not my ideal plan by the way, it's just the best we have. Girlfriend really wanted to take this contract and live in London and can't bear to be away from me or the cats for 6 months. You can get to Victoria in about 30 minutes or so from any of these flats, for example. Look at transport links, not areas around Victoria itself - only super rich people live that centrally. Bollock Monkey fucked around with this message at 17:26 on Jun 24, 2015 |
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Jun 24, 2015 17:22
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From what I recall the victoria line (it's actually called that, you should plan on using it) is the fastest but also noisiest line in London. Wear earplugs! I just looked up 'victoria to buckingham palace" on the internet: 0.6 miles 0.9 km It's expensive. I never lived within zone 1-2 until I moved to old street station, and that sucked.
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Jun 24, 2015 17:36
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She has definitely been following transport links rather than geographical proximity. The job is at Victoria, she has been looking south-west to south-east, generally around Streatham latitude or a bit further out but comparing transport ETAs using google maps for each place. The 6 months thing hasn't been a problem for the agents she's seen so far, just that everything gets snapped up super quickly and they keep asking her to expand her budget by 100 pounds a month, etc etc.
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Jun 24, 2015 17:42
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redreader posted:I moved to old street station, and that sucked. I was there yesterday, and it looked like it sucks
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Jun 24, 2015 19:55
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Old street: I lived in a secured place, but 2 other apartments were in the same secured gate. One of them regularly had friends over for super loud fighty cokey parties in the nextdoor apartment that stopped around 2-3am. Once I knocked to ask them to please be quiet, and the tenant restrained his giant friend who wanted to beat me, and just calmly said to me "just call the old bill, mate" (i.e., call the cops) which I didn't do because I'd have been assaulted or something if I had. Probably. When they left later that morning they knocked super loudly on our door. Definitely not worth asking nicely.
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Jun 24, 2015 20:35
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:everything gets snapped up super quickly and they keep asking her to expand her budget by 100 pounds a month, etc etc. I'm sure this has been mentioned earlier in the thread but generally speaking if you see a place you like, you take it. The rental market is so competitive that there is zero time to 'sleep on it / think about it for a while' because someone else will snap it up. I live in Islington N1 and when I viewed this place I was on the phone to the estate agent before the residents had finished showing me around.
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Jun 24, 2015 21:07
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:I don't mean to piggyback this thread but... well. spareroom.co.uk gumtree also the first 2 pages of any flat website are insane for some reason, once you're on page 3 things start getting more reasonable.
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Jun 24, 2015 22:18
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also you WILL be able to find somewhere on the victoria line for 1000 a month, lol thats fine, just don't panic and don't dither. man, 1000 is plenty. if you've read this thread from the start you'll know that goons are just trying to scare people about london. good luck bro. im moving back to london with a much smaller budget this summer lol, now that's gonna be hell.
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Jun 24, 2015 22:21
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also maybe ask around for sublets, a few years ago I rented out my room for 3 months while i was dicking about in other countries.
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Jun 24, 2015 22:22
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opus111 posted:im moving back to london with a much smaller budget this summer lol, now that's gonna be hell. How long have you been out of London? There's a lot of hyperbole in this thread, but poo poo is getting pretty ridiculous here.
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Jun 25, 2015 12:39
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Anyone go through the process of getting a National Insurance number? Just moved to the UK in May and started a new job this week. I'm on a visa that allows me to work but I guess I'll have to call the government and apply for one of these numbers. Google gives plenty of instructions, but just curious to get a goon testimonial on how long it takes, etc.
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Jun 25, 2015 15:24
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:How long have you been out of London? There's a lot of hyperbole in this thread, but poo poo is getting pretty ridiculous here. I live in Oxfordshire, I've just been househunting, and all this stuff about massive prices and having to take a place immediately and so on is 100% true here. London is going to be worse.
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Jun 25, 2015 16:19
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feedmegin posted:I live in Oxfordshire, I've just been househunting, and all this stuff about massive prices and having to take a place immediately and so on is 100% true here. London is going to be worse. Yeah, apparently prices went crazy just after the election, too. 12.5% increase over last year. http://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/15/london-rents-homelet-survey-housing-crisis
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Jun 25, 2015 18:39
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Mein Eyes! posted:Anyone go through the process of getting a National Insurance number? Just moved to the UK in May and started a new job this week. I'm on a visa that allows me to work but I guess I'll have to call the government and apply for one of these numbers. Google gives plenty of instructions, but just curious to get a goon testimonial on how long it takes, etc. The time it takes to get your NI varies a lot but anecdotally the system seems to prioritise numbers for people who are employed over those who are receiving some kind of unemployment benefit. I'd guess 1-2 weeks but you always hear of fringe cases of several months, although since you're on somebody's payroll I imagine you'd fall into the former group and get it fairly soon. Sometimes you might be called in for an interview about your working circumstances and in that case they'd be able to give you a more solid wait time. https://www.gov.uk/ is the best resource for all these kinds of questions.
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Jun 25, 2015 18:54
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:How long have you been out of London? There's a lot of hyperbole in this thread, but poo poo is getting pretty ridiculous here. 4 years in total, i go back now and then and i keep my eye on rent prices though and all my friends live there and move about as often as single guys do so im not in the dark. In total ive moved away and back to london 3 times, each time everyone said there was no chance but if i stay on a friends sofa for a couple of weeks and put the legwork in i usually find somewhere 30-40% lower than what the papers say - the luxury of having time
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Jun 25, 2015 22:31
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kecske posted:The time it takes to get your NI varies a lot but anecdotally the system seems to prioritise numbers for people who are employed over those who are receiving some kind of unemployment benefit. I'd guess 1-2 weeks but you always hear of fringe cases of several months, although since you're on somebody's payroll I imagine you'd fall into the former group and get it fairly soon. Sometimes you might be called in for an interview about your working circumstances and in that case they'd be able to give you a more solid wait time. Yeah that sounds about right - anecdotally, I got mine a week or two after moving here/starting my job. Everything was arranged via the various forms my employer had to fill in anyway, no extra input from me needed.
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Jun 26, 2015 08:24
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:I don't mean to piggyback this thread but... well. PM sent
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Jun 26, 2015 12:20
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pim01 posted:Yeah that sounds about right - anecdotally, I got mine a week or two after moving here/starting my job. Everything was arranged via the various forms my employer had to fill in anyway, no extra input from me needed. That doesn't sound right. You have to have an interview for your NI. Or you did 9 years ago when my wife moved over anyway. And an employer / job offer.
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Jun 26, 2015 14:41
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It depends on your visa/citizenship status, it's totally possible to get a NIN without an in person interview.
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Jun 26, 2015 14:44
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I got pretty lucky with my NI interview. They gave me one for the day after I called.
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Jun 26, 2015 15:44
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Saros posted:It depends on your visa/citizenship status, it's totally possible to get a NIN without an in person interview. Maybe it's because she's Norwegian so didn't have any visa / other paperwork. Thinking about it most people there were EU or EEC.
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Jun 26, 2015 17:06
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Saros posted:It depends on your visa/citizenship status, it's totally possible to get a NIN without an in person interview. in 1998 I had a UK passport and still had to go to an appointment. All it was though was "do you have a job? ok here's your NI # 6 months later sent to an address you're no longer at"
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Jun 26, 2015 17:11
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It's maybe because I'm in Scotland (or moved here from the Netherlands)? My wife moved with me at the same time and she didn't have to interview either.
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Jun 27, 2015 12:13
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Sulla-Marius 88 posted:I don't mean to piggyback this thread but... well. Gumtree in England is like the exact opposite of Gumtree in Australia. It's absolutely useless, 99% bullshit agents and scams.
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Jun 28, 2015 19:58
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its worked for me in the past...
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Jun 28, 2015 22:56
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freebooter posted:Gumtree in England is like the exact opposite of Gumtree in Australia. It's absolutely useless, 99% bullshit agents and scams. Yeah this is just plain wrong, sorry. EDIT: To clarify, I don't know what kind of places you were looking for, but Gumtree London is great for finding shared flats.
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Jun 29, 2015 08:54
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It's fine if you don't mind living in a room let out by an agent, i.e. living in a sharehouse where the landlord immediately replaces any vacancy with the first paying customer, so you have zero control over your housemates and the place is a merry-go-round of weirdos and psychopaths. It's not so great if you're looking for an advert actually written by the existing housemates who are going to vet you, and so you will, in turn, be part of the vetting process about any new housemates. In my experience Gumtree is like 99% letting agents, whereas flatmatefinder and spareroom are adverts put up by the people you'll be living with. Living in a flophouse is fine if you've just arrived and are setting yourself up in the first few months. But living in a sharehouse is a long-term reality for virtually all new arrivals to London, and it's going to be a pretty crummy life if the people you share your living situation with are determined entirely by a Russian slumlord who writes ALL CAPS WIFI SKY TV CLOSE TO TESCO adverts on Gumtree.
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Jun 29, 2015 09:19
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Goodbye London: why people are leaving the Capital London-born Rafael Behr has left the capital, and he’s not the only one. As prices spiral, many are seeking a gentler life elsewhere. Here he explores his motives and how he sees the city changing and meets three more residents who’ve gone. http://gu.com/p/4a4dq
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Jun 29, 2015 19:02
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He moved to Brighton to escape the bad things about London. Right.
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Jun 29, 2015 20:20
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Two weeks have passed since I took the plane to London. So far, I've managed to get a job, get accommodation (live in accommodation), get my NINo, learn how to move around, I've attended my first acting class in English and I've started to meet interesting people. I've learned a lot of things and confirmed many truths told in this thread (primarily that contacts are key to success here) and I feel really thankful to you all who have helped me find a way through the biggest decision in my life :-) I'll update the OP once I get a PC (I hate writing with my phone). oliwan posted:Goodbye London: why people are leaving the Capital I like you. You are like the quintessential antagonist of the thread :-)
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Jun 29, 2015 20:21
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