Inspections

Yes I am still alive, and no I've no real excuse other than events just overtook me in May. I held a fundraising fete on the 17th, which raised about £500 (yay!) for Maggie's but it took a lot of organising on top of my full time job and training so something had to give and it was the blog. Also I'm not going to promise this will not happen again as I'm off to climb a mountain today, a night summit of Snowdon to practice for summit night of Kilimanjaro...then we have our engagement shoot...then we have a week away climbing...and we still have to raise money for our charities and also save up to pay for the trip to Kili. So yeah, sorry in advance for the irregular posting this summer...it has to be all paid for in July so maybe it will get better then...

In the meantime here is a post in inspections...

We had our inspection a couple of months ago, so while I was preparing for it I thought I would share the process. What do you need to do to prepare for an inspection?

• Your landlord or lettings agent needs to give you notice, verbal or written and the notice period will depend on your contract but ideally they should at least give you a few days to a month (you should be expecting it already ideally as they should have already told you at what intervals you need your inspections when you moved in), they can’t just turn up unannounced or on a day you have said isn't convenient and say it’s time for an inspection. Also you should be present for the inspection, a landlord or agent should not access your home when you aren't there.
• Repairs wise before the inspection I tend to just do things like fill and paint and holes or scuffs on the walls (from hanging pictures etc not massive cracks or anything you might want to show them those!), clean any carpet marks and generally do any little repair things I have been meaning to do. You obviously will need to tell them about any damage you have caused not try to hide it, but an inspection is a good prompt to do any small maintenance or repair jobs like painting over wall scuffs or replacing light bulbs.
• There should be a certain amount of leeway for reasonable wear and tear, so don’t worry about getting rid of every mark, scuff or chip. Obviously living in a place you will inevitably make some mark on it, although ‘reasonable’ can be hard to define I’d say generally any small marks on skirting boards or doors, or any small scratches on hard floors or small marks on carpets are acceptable. However large marks on walls or floors (like paint spills, animal wee, carpet tears) or any things that you have actually broken are damage rather than ‘wear and tear’. You’ll need to agree with your landlord what you are going to do to rectify any damage.
• Think about any problems you have been having or anything you want to show the landlord. As well as them looking over the property this is a good time to show them any problems, and a good chance to ask any questions face to face.
• Obviously don’t leave any big problems until the inspection, contact your landlord or agent as soon as they arise. When I say ‘problems’ I will ask them about at the inspection it’s just little non urgent things I've been meaning to ask them about like the loo seat is a bit wonky is it ok if I get a new one or will they, or to let them know that the bedroom window gets a lot of condensation and that might be a mould issue down the line…not things like there is a massive crack running down the bedroom wall or the oven doesn't work.
• I tend to email any issues to the landlord before the inspection so they know what to expect, and often can start looking into things beforehand and we can have a talk about possible solutions at the inspection. I find this helpful (some might not), we tend to communicate via email with our landlord so when we set up the date I just send the main things I want to talk to them about so if there are any things on there we can sort out or get started on before the inspection it speeds it up.
• They don’t need to look at any of your personal stuff, should go without saying they don’t need to look inside your furniture or through your things. However if they want to look at walls or carpets that look like they might be damaged but hidden by furniture you might need to move some things around. If it is heavy furniture and you can’t move it there and then you might need to arrange for them to come back.
• An inspection should be professional so you shouldn’t need to feel worried or intimidated about it, but I once had one from a letting agent who made no effort to talk to me about the property, just arrived and barged around from room to room noting all the smallest marks or ‘potential damage’ (stuff like having washing drying inside will cause mould, although there was no mould as I’m careful to open windows if drying inside – and there was no garden or tumble dryer at this property), and asked rather rude questions like ‘did I always leave dirty washing up out? Was I aware that could cause an infestation?’ like we were stupid or living in a pigsty (There were a few bowls from breakfast on the counter not washed up and it was only mid morning, the rest of the place was clean). I always have Tom home for inspections as well, if you live alone and do feel nervous about the inspection having a friend or family member there to back you up or just for moral support might help. I can be quite assertive and I know my rights so didn't feel intimidated but I was really shocked by the attitude.
• It is also good to have a copy of the landlord or agents notes or to take your own, so that you can remember everything that was discussed.
• Cleaning – I often have a little clean before people come round any way (I think a lot of people do!), and the flat is relatively clean most of the time. You shouldn’t need to scrub the place from top to bottom before an inspection but I tend to just make sure the kitchen and the bathroom are clean, dust and run the hoover and mop round. I also empty the litter tray before and make sure there aren’t any litter tray smells lingering (I do that just before anyone comes round though as I am paranoid about the flat smelling of cat wee). Generally just make the place presentable, as long as the place is at an acceptable level of cleanliness (I.e. no stains on the carpet or piles of rubbish) you shouldn’t need to worry about the odd bit of dust or stray laundry, you do live there after all it’s not a show home.
• If you don’t have time to clean much right before the inspection then just make sure that the floors, walls, windows and fittings are in good condition. The landlord or agent should be focussing on the stuff that they are responsible for, like the actual walls, floors and ceilings as well as kitchen counters, fittings etc. Your possessions shouldn’t be of any concern to them. If the place is messy but clean (i.e. the carpets and counters are clean and there are no marks on the walls, but you have loads of laundry to do and the bed isn’t made) then that will do.
• If there is something that needs doing, how do you work out who is responsible for it? Generally anything caused by you like damage to walls, flooring, windows, fixtures and fittings you are responsible for repairing or paying to get repaired. Anything that is generally faulty like an oven, boiler or shower that has stopped working (not from damage by you) is the landlord’s responsibility, as well as of course any structural issues and general repairs or maintenance (like boiler servicing and electrical or plumbing issues).
• Get a verbal agreement at the inspection of what needs to be done, and who is responsible for it, sometimes you or the landlord might need to go away and get a professional to come back and look at something so get a timeframe agreed on when this will happen. Make a note of these timeframes in your notes from the inspection, some agents even bring a form that you fill out with the inspection notes, any damage, any repairs and what needs to be done and you both sign. After the inspection if things aren’t moving along then refer to the notes from the inspection and remind the landlord of what was agreed.

That's all of my little tips on inspections, feel free to add your own in the comments and I will hopefully be back soon!

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Renting with pets – Part 4 – Long term

Last in the renting with pets series today. So you’re all settled in with your pet, but as a tenant what do you need to think about long term?

• Toilet habits – Obvious really but keep the litter tray clean, change the litter regularly and use a mat underneath to protect floors. For dogs or larger animals if they go outside make sure to clean up after them regularly to keep any grass in good condition. You might need to reseed the lawn sometimes if any yellow patches come up from animal pee.
• Carpets – Pets like dogs and cats will put a bit more strain on carpets. There will be inevitable accidents, muddy paw prints and puke so make sure you always have a good spot cleaner to hand, I also shampoo our carpets once or twice a year (depending on how dirty they get). You can rent carpet cleaning machines from DIY stores for a pretty reasonable cost to give them a really deep clean, I’d definitely recommend doing this before you move out. Rugs are also great for protecting problem areas.
• Our cats are pretty good at using the scratching post and not clawing the carpet or furniture, make sure you provide them somewhere to scratch though as they will scratch something to sharpen their claws and you don’t want it to be the door frames or carpet! Sometimes they won’t use a post and would prefer to use a tree or fence post – you might need to discourage this dependent on your property. There are lots of different scratching posts or mats available, if they won’t use a post try a mat and vice versa. If they really won’t use the pet store ones and prefer wood then you could DIY something or set up a piece of wood they are allowed to scratch. They will often go back to the same place so for example if they seem to like a certain fence post just rig a plank to it and they can scratch that rather than the fence.
• Smells – litter trays, wet dogs, water in tanks, pet food left out in hot weather etc can all make some unpleasant smells. You will probably need to vacuum more often now you have pets (I used to hoover just once a week now try to at least twice a week) or bath/groom your dog more regularly. We change the litter as often as we need to, to try and avoid the cat wee smell. Also due to not having our own bin and sharing with the landlords we use litter tray liners, we just pick up the liner and its contents and put it into a small bin liner, then tie the top and take it out to the bin – this keeps the smell at bay until the bins are collected. We use a freshening powder in with the cat litter, and also have a plug in and air freshening sprays in the bathroom for if it does get a bit whiffy. We try to air the place as often as we can, although being a basement flat it’s nice to get some fresh air anyway. We change the water often and clean the filter weekly on the turtle tank. You may also need to use febreeze on carpets and curtains, I use ‘shake n vac’ type carpet deodorising powders every now and then to freshen carpets and rugs.
• Heavy tanks or vivariums can mark floors, a rug or floor protective mat underneath will help catch any water and protect the floor. We need to get a new tank and when we do I’m thinking of this, as our current one seems to be ok but a larger heavier new tank might leave dents in the floor.

Pets are the best way I’ve found to make a house a home, enjoy them!

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1 Year on - Hates?

After the post on Monday about things we love about our flat a year in, here's the post on the things that we don't love. 

I said the same in the post back here that I did 6 months in along a similar topic, but there really isn't anything we really hate about this flat. However there are a few things that could be better. We've actually managed to resolve a lot of the issues, or they were things we just needed to get used to, so I though a recap of the issues we had 6 months ago would be good:

1. 'Apartment Living' as the Americans call it can take a bit of getting used to (before this we lived in a maisonette and then houses), there are people living above us and on both sides. Sometimes there can be noise from them, and sometimes I'm conscious that we might be disturbing them. We also share the wheelie bin, so have started using litter tray liners and bin liners for the cat litter and are more conscious about not filling the bin up in the first few days. Also being used to having a driveway and a garage etc it takes some getting used to living in a flat. We are pretty much used to this now, our own private garden would be great but we are just not going to get that in the town centre with a 1 bedroom in our budget.
2. Not having a driveway or being able to park right outside our front door. There is parking on the other side of the road and down a side street just round the corner, only a few times have we found no spaces on either road and had to park further away. I don't have the car often, so it's mainly Tom that deals with this and most of the time he gets a space reasonably close, but when it's tipping down with rain and/or you have heavy shopping to bring in it can be a pain. We do have an access road out the back though so we can unload stuff and bring it in through the back garden but then we have to go and park the car. We are used to this now, a drive would be great but again not something we are likely to get for a 1 bedroom in the town centre. 
3. On from that point, not having my own car. This really isn't a downside of the property really just something I've noticed. I could have a car (we're allowed 2 permits) but really it would be a massive extravagance financially to have 2 cars, I don't need to drive to work (Massive plus point there though!) so it would stay parked for the whole week and only be used maybe at the weekends. Still kind of sucks, especially as the climbing centre is over in Gloucester, along with all my family, so sometimes it feels like I moved to Cheltenham to spend half my time getting buses back to Gloucester, but it saves a lot of money and a car would just not get used enough to justify me having my own. 
4. We used to have a big living room at our last house that held our sofa, armchair, turtle tank and a drop leaf dining table. It was the first and only place we have had a dining table and I loved it. We had Christmas at home for the first time, and had Sunday dinner regularly inviting family round, we had nice meals sat at the table rather than eating off plates on our laps. I really miss having a dining table here. Solved! We have a dining area now, and a new laptop rather than our old big desktop so no need for a proper desk as I work at the table or on the sofa. 
   
5. Also on that note of having people round, not having the spare room so we can't have people stay over. We still have the storage space as we have the office and the entrance hall, but we don't actually have a spare bed any more. Although we only had people stay over twice at our last place, and we have a sofa which people could comfortably sleep on or we could always get an air bed to put in the living room if we wanted to. Sort of solved, I wouldn't invite people round for a sleepover on purpose but we have options if people do want to sleep here. We had 2 people stay on the sofa last year and both said it was fine to sleep on (although both were after nights out, and one was pretty much passed out by the time he got back to ours so we could have left him sleep on the kitchen floor and he probably would have slept through). We also bought an air bed for camping which if needs be we could inflate for people to sleep on. 
6. Lack of natural light in the bathroom and office, these are rooms we spend minimal time in but if I start using the office more it would maybe become more of an issue. I usually type posts on my netbook while sat on the sofa, but have been going to a chiropractor for my back recently and don't want to do this long term. Once we have a table/desk set up with a proper chair I want to actually use the office, so will have to invest in some good lamps! A solution I've thought of would again be to move it out to the entrance hallway, but in the winter it's a bit cold out there so wouldn't be a nice place to sit and work. We'll see once we get the table and get it all set up. Never really became an issue to be honest, I rarely work at the table for long enough to make it an issue, it's not like I'm in there for hours every day, so the way we use the space makes this not a big deal. We spend most of our time in the kitchen and living room (like most people do I'm sure) not in the hallway or bathroom so it's become less and less of an issue.

The only new point would be the mould and damp. You can see back in this post how bad it got, I'll spare you those photos again in case anyone is eating reading this but you can click through to see. That however is being sorted, and hopefully this month. After our inspection the Landlord has some ventilation people coming out to fit something to take out the old air from the flat and circulate it with new air from outside, after an assessment proved our theory right of it being condensation damp from lack of ventilation. I'll let you know how that goes and how effective we find it but it's nice that it's getting sorted quickly.

That's everything really, they are all quite minor things or things that are being sorted out. There are a few other little things I would change if I bought this flat tomorrow that I've talked about in my 'If I owned the flat' posts but they are really more down to personal taste, things like take up the doormat in the hallway, put more shelves or units in the kitchen, knock through some walls, change the carpet, or put in an extractor hood.

1 year on - Loves and Hates?

Continuing on from last weeks 1 year round up of the blog stuff, I thought a 1 year progress report on the flat itself might also be good. I did a similar post at 6 months. Really all the points we love back there are the same but after a whole year there are some different things or just different perspectives.

First up things we love, the 6 month post is back here.

1. It was warm through the winter, and cool through the summer. Being a basement it seems to keep snug in the winter with the heating on (which isn't too expensive, we had credit in the gas bill last year), but in the summer if we keep the doors and windows closed it stays cool. Awesome. There's a post here on keeping warm and saving money.
2. The area, I mentioned this last time but we have since found more places nearby that we love. The Daffodil restaurant is one of the best meals I've had in a long time and also a beautiful building, The Langton has a gorgeous patio for sitting out in the summer, Bath Road has amazing charity shops, The Swan has some lovely comfy sofas and do nice pies, there are lots of walks and outside activities around within a walking distance or short bus ride. There are also so many choices for things to do that we sometimes get a bit confused by all the options, the Town Hall does some really good comedy, music, wedding fairs etc and there are numerous festivals on through the year from food to literature, and it's all within walking distance!
3. This kind of comes in with the area, but the lifestyle here is a vast improvement on what we had before. The novelty hasn't worn off for me yet of where we live. Even with Gold Cup last week, which means the town is packed for a week with race goers. I feel really blessed sometimes to be living here, it might be because I wasn't raised here and that my home town has kind of gone a bit downhill (don't lynch me please people, you can't deny it), or was never really up the metaphorical hill in the first place, so I can see the difference and don't take it for granted. I walk around grinning to myself when I go on walks within a few miles of home for panoramic views over Cheltenham and the surrounding countryside, or when I walk through Pittville Park, or Tivoli, or Montpellier, or The Promenade. It really doesn't compare to where we have lived before, or where we will probably live again. I understand though that everywhere has less attractive areas, and I know Cheltenham definitely does, and I'm not kidding myself that I'm posh now!
   
4. The price. Since living in Cheltenham for a year I've realised the rent is pretty reasonable. We could definitely be paying less, but then wouldn't have a garden or it would be a smaller one bedroom flat. We could also definitely be paying more if we were in a more desirable location like Bath Road, Tivoli or Pittville, but we have all these areas within walking distance.
5. The rest were all covered in the 6 months post, but we still love all those points. The location, size, garden, landlords (well we don't love them like that but they seem nice, and are good at dealing with things quickly and efficiently), that it's painted white not magnolia (1 year in still can't get over that), quality of the finish, the money saving features and the period features.

Next up is things we miss or we don't love so much, there aren't many! Really this is home now, it's probably the most attached I've ever been to a rented place. Usually there is something wrong and I get itchy feet after a year or two and want to move. However here I don't want to move and actually will be sad when it comes time to buy somewhere and move (probably out of town because we can't afford it) to our first house. 

Renting with pets - Part 1

I promised this post ages ago back in one of my first posts, as we rent with pets I get a few questions on how that works from friends and family wanting to know how we get on or looking to maybe get a pet themselves. I've broken this up a bit otherwise it would have been a long wordy post, so this is the first part on how to find a pet friendly rental.

I love our pets, and once we get our own house we will have a dog (the cats will not be impressed), but I would be the first to admit being a tenant and having pets can be a bit of a tricky situation. So how do you go about finding somewhere pet friendly or convincing your current landlord to let you have pets? We got our cats when we lived at our last property which we rented from family. This was therefore a lot more lenient, and we had no trouble getting the cats, but when we moved it proved to be difficult so here are some hints and tips on what I found when trying to find a pet friendly rental.

• Just ask. If the advert says no pets then it’s probably no pets, but if it doesn’t mention pets at all then it’s worth asking. If you really like the look of a place but it says no pets then it’s actually probably still worth phoning and asking, if the property has been on the market a while and the landlord wants to get a tenant they might consider it, and the worst they can do is say no. The same goes for your current landlord, if you moved in with no pets you probably didn't ask if pets are allowed, so just ask.



'Don't look at that look at MEEEE'

• The split I found was about 80% no pets, and 20% yes to small pets. Although this will differ on area and type of property (e.g. large family homes in the countryside might allow pets more often than small flats in the city). Obviously that 20% was then reduced further by location, price, our requirements and taste etc, so about 10% of places I rang to enquire about were actually viable for us and our pets. That sounds like a terrible ratio and it was a little soul destroying being told no time after time, but we got there in the end to our lovely flat. It just takes more effort to find a rental when you have pets.

• Having pets will limit you while house hunting in more ways than one, as you also need to find somewhere suitable for your animals as well as somewhere where they’re allowed. For example we saw some lovely 3^rd or 4^th floor flats but we wouldn't have been able to let the cats in and out so they were not a possibility for us, we wanted ground floor or a very low 1^st floor.
• The turtles have never been an issue, once people find out that they never leave the tank they’re pretty OK with them. So I’d say things like fish, lizards, snakes, frogs etc that live in tanks and rarely come out and mess up the place are likely to be pretty acceptable, although definitely check first that they are allowed.

If only they stayed this small!

• We found that private landlords are more likely to allow pets rather than going through an agency. Often agencies will have a blanket rule for all their properties with regards to things like pets, smokers, benefits etc, and as it is not their property are not going to bend the rules.
• Be upfront and honest, I ask about pets on the first phone call to enquire about a property. Some people said to me to go and view a place first and show our interest then once we have said we would like to take the property say we have pets as the landlord is more likely to allow it if you are already there. I personally don’t think this is the best way to do things, it seems like a waste of time for everyone involved. In this rental market places go so quickly that I don’t think it makes any difference to the landlord that you are keen on the place if they do not allow pets, as they will find a tenant with no pets just as quickly.
• Although it doesn't hurt to play up your positives, for example Tom and I could move in right away and had a deposit ready, we have both been in our jobs for years and have great references from work and our previous landlords, we have great credit and are looking for a long term let…but oh yes we have 2 little cats and 2 even littler turtles.

• You might be asked to sign a pet clause in the contract, or pay an additional deposit. Think about what you would be prepared to do, we just had an addition to our contract that we have 2 cats so would need to rectify any damage they caused but obviously we would expect to do this any way. We weren't asked for any extra money on the deposit but I have heard of people being asked to do this, the amount that would be reasonable to ask for would depend on the rent of the property.
• If the place you are renting now allows pets, or you ask your current landlord and they say yes, think about what would happen if you had to move. The nature of renting often means you move more often than if you owned a place and it is not always your choice, so just bear in mind that you might struggle to find another pet friendly place. Maybe research the market in your area first and see how many more pet friendly places there are. I wish we had done this before getting our cats, we might have waited otherwise or would at least have been prepared for how hard it was to find somewhere else.
• There are definitely places around that allow small pets like cats, turtles, fish, hamsters etc even if they are hard to find. Dogs and multiple pets appear to be more of an issue though. Think about what animal you want to have and if they are going to be a problem for future landlords.



Who could say no to that face?

• Attitude. One lady said to me on the phone that 2 cats was a problem but 1 would be OK ‘I suppose’ (like she was doing me a massive favour), would I still like to view the property? I said no, what was I supposed to pick my favourite and leave the other one behind? A lot of landlords and agents I spoke with had very negative attitudes to pets, and some were even downright rude when I asked about pets, even though their ad didn't actually state ‘no pets’. Which I did point out to a few rather rude agents and landlords. My pets are my family, I am not prepared to leave them behind or choose between them so I never even considered these very insensitive offers or comments. Unfortunately as a tenant sometimes you have to deal with rude landlords or agents, for some reason a few of them seem to view tenants as an inconvenience and if you ring with anything other than a grovelling attitude asking them to please please please let you view their property then they get rather annoyed. I take the opinion that I wouldn't want to rent from this type of person anyway if they are rude or unhelpful, I’ll take my money elsewhere.

That’s about it really, if you have anything to add please add it in the comments! Next month - preparing a rental property for pets and how to minimise damage in those key first weeks.

Renting - Current Stories

Renting has been in the news a bit recently, I saw a feature on Watchdog last week about the unregulated lettings agencies industry and experiences people have had with lettings agents. You can read the report here. 

After our first property we were put off renting from lettings agents as while they weren't con artists or terrible people they were just a bit useless. However, as letting agents are completely unregulated in the UK anyone can set up an agency with no experience, credentials or training. 

There is also no independent body to report unscrupulous agencies to. There is a property ombudsman who you can report agencies to if they have signed up to the scheme, but it is not currently mandatory for them to register. Obviously there are laws covering you in general for theft or fraud and you can take agencies to court, but if you are unhappy with them for bad service, asking for unreasonable fees or giving you unfair treatment then there is nobody to report them to and no regulations really laying out how they should be treating you in the first place.

There are going to be new laws introduced that mean all agents will have to register with a property ombudsman (although this is not yet law, and there is no date set), but will not dictate who can become a lettings agent. In the UK around 60% of lettings agents are already registered with the property ombudsman, which regulates the housing market.

Watching the report by Nigel Havers I saw a lot of things I had experienced, having problems getting money back from agents, not being able to speak to your agent, and the mysterious landlord who they represented making decisions without us being informed.

Personally when my sister and I were looking for our first flat we thought we would be safer with a lettings agent, as we kind of assumed they were somehow regulated. 

Have any of you ever had a bad experience with a lettings agent?

My advice would be:

• Check if they are registered with a property ombudsman or if they have any credentials like awards, diplomas etc.

• Read the contract in full and in detail, if there are any points you aren't sure of question them, get it all nailed down in detail before you sign anything.

• If there is anything in the contract about staying with one energy supplier or any other supplier then get this removed, you have the right to change utility supplier and in the report on watchdog there were agents that have in the contract that tenants had to stay with a company that was overcharging them and they found it very difficult to switch.

• Unless you have extenuating circumstances which means you have to, try not to pay a lot of rent up front. If you are then given your notice or move out you might face a fight to get your money back, and if you have a very bad agent may not get it back (as in the case of Nigel Havers here). We have always paid a deposit and one month’s rent in advance then paid monthly from there on in.

• Once you sign the contract and move in you lose a bit of power over the agent, if there are issues with the property that need fixing or there are inconsistencies or things you are not happy with in the contract do not sign it and do not move in. Agree that any repairs will be made before you move in, and get the contract sorted. Our current landlord did 2 or 3 drafts of the contract for us as there were things we needed to agree (about pets mainly), a good agent should be willing to do the same.

• The joy of renting is if you really don’t like it, you can move with minimal financial outlay.

•  If you love the property but hate the agent it's difficult. We found out the contact information of our actual landlord from the landlord of the flat below us and could have contacted them as a last resort, in the end we moved out before we needed to but chances are they don’t know how rubbish the agents are and if there are major shortcomings or negligence from the agent then you could inform them. This should obviously be used as a last resort because they have employed an agent for a reason, so don’t contact them for a small issue. If I were paying a lettings agent to manage my property and they were mismanaging it to the extent that I was about to lose a tenant I’d want to know.

• If and when you do move out the deposit can be a bit of a sticking point. I once spent two days cleaning our flat before moving out to be told that it was not clean enough and I had to lose some of the deposit. It was not clean to  a ‘professional standard', the flat was sparkling as far as I was concerned but at this point I had had enough so just took the money and ran, to our new house via a private landlord, grateful the whole thing was over.

• Take inventory photos when you move in if your agent or landlord doesn't, and then also on moving out so you can compare. There is an allowance for reasonable wear and tear in most contracts, so get this straight before you move in what they will allow as ‘reasonable’ so you can make any repairs (Like maybe touching up paintwork) before the final inspection and get as much deposit back as possible.

There was then also this feature on Yahoo! On a new development in London that allows 5 year contracts for tenants and the ability to decorate and make changes to the apartments. The prices are absolutely shocking, over £1000 pcm for a one bedroom flat, but it is in London overlooking the Olympic park. I thought the idea of long term contracts was great for more security (tenants could still give notice and move if they needed to), but I would be reluctant to make large changes and spend a lot of money on a place that ultimately was not ours.

What do you think, could you be tempted (if you could afford the rent!)?

They also had this interesting comparison between now and 2007

Do any of you rent? Is it by choice or through necessity?

6 months in - what do we miss?

OK so we had a nice post on what we love about the flat here, but what are we lacking?

Really there's not a lot, mostly just stuff we were aware of moving in and just need to get used to.

1. 'Apartment Living' as the Americans call it can take a bit of getting used to (before this we lived in a maisonette and then houses), there are people living above us and on both sides. Sometimes there can be noise from them, and sometimes I'm conscious that we might be disturbing them. We also share the wheelie bin, so have started using litter tray liners and bin liners for the cat litter and are more conscious about not filling the bin up in the first few days. Also being used to having a driveway and a garage etc it takes some getting used to living in a flat.
2. From that last point, not having a driveway or being able to park right outside our front door. There is free parking on the other side of the road and if there's no spaces there there's permit parking (Tom pays £80 per year so not too bad but still an added expense) down a side street just round the corner, only twice have we found no spaces on either road and had to park further away. I don't have the car, so it's mainly Tom that deals with this and most of the time he gets a space reasonably close, but when it's tipping down with rain and/or you have heavy shopping to bring in it can be a pain. We do have an access road out the back though so we can unload stuff and bring it in through the back garden but then we have to go and park the car.
3. On from that point, not having my own car. This really isn't a downside of the property really just something I've noticed. I could have a car (we're allowed 2 permits) but really it would be a massive extravagance financially to have 2 cars, I don't need to drive to work (Massive plus point there though!) so it would stay parked for the whole week and only be used maybe at the weekends. I really miss having my own car though, it's a minor inconvenience but it just means I've lost a bit of my independence, I have to get used to waiting for Tom to ferry me around or waiting for him to get home so I can have his car. Anyone who knows me will know this is not really 'me' to rely on someone else so much and to have to ask Tom to do stuff all the time, even if it is stuff I always did when he gave up his car at our last place (I keep trying to remind myself it's just his turn!).
4. We used to have a big living room at our last house that held our sofa, armchair, turtle tank and a drop leaf dining table. It was the first and only place we have had a dining table and I loved it. We had Christmas at home for the first time, and had Sunday dinner regularly inviting family round, we had nice meals sat at the table rather than eating off plates on our laps. I really miss having a dining table here, although I'm trying to find a small table that we can use as both a desk and a table and hope to remedy this soon. Although I'm afraid we will never be able to have 10 round for Christmas dinner again while we're living here, as it will have to be in the office in place of the desk and will be a table for 2 or at the most 4 if we pull it out into the middle of the room. I want a table where we can have the printer, laptop and cork board which can be converted to a dining table quickly by adding another chair and taking the computer stuff and cork board off it. Really if we didn't have the turtles or could move them into another room you could get a bigger table in there, or you could put a table in the entrance hallway but that's pretty far from the kitchen so wouldn't really be great as a dining room.
5. Also on that note of having people round, not having the spare room so we can't have people stay over. We still have the storage space as we have the office and the entrance hall, but we don't actually have a spare bed any more. Although we only had people stay over twice at our last place, and we have a sofa which people could comfortably sleep on or we could always get an air bed to put in the living room if we wanted to.
6. Lack of natural light in the bathroom and office, these are rooms we spend minimal time in but if I start using the office more it would maybe become more of an issue. I usually type posts on my netbook while sat on the sofa, but have been going to a chiropractor for my back recently and don't want to do this long term. Once we have a table/desk set up with a proper chair I want to actually use the office, so will have to invest in some good lamps! A solution I've thought of would again be to move it out to the entrance hallway, but in the winter it's a bit cold out there so wouldn't be a nice place to sit and work. We'll see once we get the table and get it all set up.

Really that's all I can think of right now, and none of them are really massive issues, just some little niggles we've discovered along the way. I'm hoping that I'll get used to not having a car (I'm telling myself it's greener, I'm getting more exercise and I can get another one whenever I want to!), and we're pretty used to living in a flat now and not having the same amenities as a house. The other issues are really things we can work around we just need to figure it out and make adaptations, so there's nothing really that I regret about taking this place and on balance we definitely like more about it than we dislike about it, in fact we're very happy here!

6 months in - what do we love?

Another kind of recap post, on what we love in our new home.

If you look back to our first few posts, you can see we were given our notice at our last place. Although it was not the ideal home for us and I was starting to get ideas about moving (we move on average every 2 years and had been there nearly that long...), but even so moving was not our decision. Looking back though I am so much happier here than I was last year, I will share a history of each place we've rented and it might get ugly but I think it's important to lay out why I think I'm informed on most problems you could encounter being a tenant!

Any way back to the point, firstly what do I love about our flat?

1. The location. I don't have my own car because I don't need one. I can walk to work and get the bus to my other work (I'm split between 2 hospitals). We're near enough to the town that we can walk to the town centre and other areas with shops, bars, restaurants etc. However we aren't actually in town so it's quiet and there is parking etc.
2. The size, we have the 2 hallway/extra rooms which are extra to what you usually get in a one bedroom. The rest of the rooms are also really well proportioned, we seem to have the perfect amount of space and I can clean over the whole place in a couple of hours. Plus it doesn't cost a fortune as it is still really a one bedroom.
3. The garden, love having some outdoor space, it's a manageable size and no lawn to mow!
4. The landlords, we were concerned that as they live above they might be overly 'involved' but we have only seen them a handful of times, although they have responded to any queries or requests really quickly and reasonably. 
5. It's painted white, not magnolia. I hate magnolia, why does every landlord want to paint everything magnolia?! I love the white walls as we really can go with any colour scheme for accessories and furniture in any room.
6. The quality, the place was freshly decorated and carpeted before we moved in and is really well done.  The light fixtures are all nice and the blinds and curtains are all nice quality. 
7. Money saving, while the flat is £50 per month more than our last place in rent, we have a freeview aerial here so don't pay for cable, the heating is all new and efficient and the place is smaller and generally more modern than our last house (despite being over 100 years older than it) so over the long term should be cheaper to run.
8. The area, Cheltenham in general is a nice place to live in our experience. There is plenty to do and loads of festivals on through the year. There are plenty of nice restaurants and we feel like we have more of a lifestyle here, we sometimes feel a bit common for the area haha (seriously it's a bit posh).
9. It's old, I prefer old buildings to new and I like the wonky walls, sash windows and period details.
10. Maintenance, while the place is pretty low maintenance we also have space and scope to make it our own (obviously in a limited kind of way), but this doesn't over extend into fixing the place up and spending our own time and money on someone else's property. It's in that sweet spot you want as a tenant that you can hang pictures etc but the place doesn't need too much work.

That's the 10 things I love about our new home (at some point I'll also have to stop calling it 'new'), I'll do a post on what we miss or wish we had and what we can do to solve these (very small) issues.

Outside

I haven't shared pictures of the outside areas of our flat yet, mostly due to it being either dark, snowing or raining every time I remember this fact! Now it's getting lighter in the evenings and when I came home from work one day it was even sunny so I took the opportunity to take a few pictures, this is the front of our flat from the gate.

This is taken from the corner to the left of the window (The bedroom window), our front door is on the left under the light. The brown door is to an under stairs space that houses the meters for us and the house above. It's quite a large space that nobody seems to use (We've not been told it's ours to use but the landlord doesn't seem to keep anything in there either) so I might ask if it would be possible for us to keep our bikes in there as long as they don't block access to read the meters, as they're taking up loads of room in the back garden. 

From the top of the steps

The flowers in the planter are just starting to come up, I want to get some more plants by our front door, and maybe even a window box under the bedroom window, as the front does look a bit bare and sad sometimes so I'd like to brighten it up a bit.

This is our back garden which now it's starting to get a bit more spring like I'm looking forward to using, it opens out from the kitchen

Under the tarpaulins are our bikes in front and the barbecue at the back, see what I mean about them taking up a lot of space?

The steps lead up to the garden for the house, the boundary between the two gardens is the steps (pretty much where Jazzie is sat in the photo below) and the hedge also forms quite a natural screen/boundary. The stairs on the right lead up to the back door to the house above, our kitchen window is the other side of the frame for the stairs and looks out pretty much straight onto their patio so in summer that might be a bit awkward! In this picture Jazzie is staring down a cat that wandered into our garden while I was taking these photos, but we actually don't seem to get too many other cats around apart from this one (I think he lives next door) and so far she hasn't gotten into any fights, she looks pretty but she's a bruiser really so other cats don't tend to come back after one showdown!

We're quite enclosed by walls but we seem to be almost south facing so we get the sun most of the day

All of the plants in these pictures apart from the ivy under the table were left by the landlords, including meercats

The table and chairs also came with the flat

I'd love to not have so much stored out here but hopefully in the summer we can take the tapaulins off and it will look a bit better! All the things in carrier bags are our old terracotta pots which I had at our second house as the garden then was gravel.

It's not a massive space but I can see us eating out here in the summer and as we seem to get a reasonable amount of sun it should be a nice place to sit out and read a book. Neither of us are exactly avid gardeners so low maintenace is better for us, but once we get some flowers and shrubs in the pots and get those tarpaulins out of the way I think it will look good.

Any suggestions of what to plant and when are welcome, so far the only plants we have that weren't left by the landlord are the terracotta pot near the door which has mint and basil in it and the ivy under the table, both of which seem to be indestructible!

The Dreaded Mould

While we were moving the old wardrobes out of the bedroom we found this

Anyone who knows the stress I had over the last few years about mould can picture my over dramatic wringing of hands and crying 'NOOOO!' at this point. Our last house had a damp mouldy bathroom which was eventually refitted and got an extractor fan after I spent well over a year scrubbing mould from the grout weekly, but the spare room had mould and damp which by the time we moved was spreading to the bedroom, living room and hallway, despite my best efforts to clean if off regularly and use a dehumidifier. So seeing this I could have cried.

I cleaned it off and thankfully it's all come out, the paintwork is not bubbled and the wall is not damp or overly cold which is a good sign that it's just some mould from moisture in the flat or from not enough ventilation and not actual damp. I also let the landlord know as they had a damp proof coating done so if we start getting damp they might need to get that looked into. They provided us with a dehumidifier to use as in winter it's hard to open windows all the time which is very nice of them, but I ran a dehumidifier for 2 years at our last house (Literally it was on 24/7) and I'd rather not start all that again so I'm trying to open the window in the bedroom more often as to be honest we probably weren't ventilating it enough. If I can't open the window a few times a week I'll run the dehumidifier in there though just to make sure. Also we are going to keep the furniture away from the wall slightly to allow air to circulate.

Have any of you ever had problems with mould or damp? What do you do to keep it under control?

Why we chose our flat

When we were given our notice at our last place we sat down and set our what we were looking for in a new place. I recommend doing this when you're house hunting, we both agreed what was absolutely essential for us in our new home, and we stuck to these rules when browsing advertisements and contacting agents or landlords. Our requirements were:

• Budget - around £600 per month
• Location - town centre or in an area between Gloucester and Cheltenham
• Accepted pets
• Parking (although on street was fine as long as it was readily available)
• Central heating and double glazing - I hate to be cold and we've had terrible experiences before with night storage heaters
• A larger one bedroom or a two bedroom, no studios (We have a lot of stuff as well as two cats, and two turtles in a 4ft tank, so a small one bedroom or a studio would be a bit cramped for us)

We found plenty that fit the bill on most points, but the pets were a problem. There were loads of places that were also taken by the time we called to inquire about them. We had to be out of our place by around the end of December, and by mid November we hadn't found anywhere, hadn't even been on a viewing in fact, I was getting pretty anxious. I then spoke to our now landlady, she was very polite (Not always something I experienced this time while making inquiries, and said cats would be OK,  so we booked in a viewing. The ad said 'lower ground floor' which I was wary of as I had never lived in a basement flat before and it didn't really appeal to me, but she assured me it really is lower ground floor as it has full size windows and its own front and back doors. At this point I was just happy to get a viewing booked for a nice sounding place that accepted cats! The flat met all of our major requirements before we even went to see it, one bedroom, under budget, the cats were welcome (In fact a previous tenant had one), there was on street parking, the location was perfect and the heating was all brand new.

I was pretty excited about this place, and once we went for the viewing it did not disappoint. Although it is lower ground floor, and we were viewing in the evening in November so it was dark, I could see what they meant about it not really being a basement flat, it does have full size windows and in the daytime is pretty light (Except the bathroom which gets no natural light at all, but I don't hang out in the loo too much so I don't mind). When we came in the front door into the hallway and other small room for a minute I thought these were the only living areas and was disappointed, but once we walked through and realised that there was the entrance hall, another small room (now our office) and the living room I was pretty impressed with the space on offer for the budget. The kitchen and bathroom were both modern and in good condition, the bedroom was a large double, and it had a courtyard garden. The flat also met all of our 'would be nice' points, which we set out secondary to the essentials as we could live without them, these were:

• Outside space
• Modern and recently refurbished
• A few ameneties within walking distance - With the town centre about a 10 minute walk away there is pretty much everything we could need within walking distance, but also just over the road there are 2 pubs, a local shop, a takeaway and a vintage guitar shop (which Tom was happy to discover). There are also within about a 5 minute walk parks, a swimming pool and a gym.
• Money saving features and more efficient to run - The flat had a freeview ariel so we wouldn't have to pay for TV and brand new heating.

The main plus points that really made this place stand out for us were:

• The 2 hallways/rooms, which would make up for losing our spare room and attic. Most one bedrooms I had seen comprised of a bedroom, a bathroom and a kitchen/living area which the front door opened into, with a spare room and attic full of stuff we liked the idea of extra rooms!
• The flat was finished to a high standard, the decorating, plastering, carpets and flooring were all new, and the kitchen and bathroom were modern - I don't think brand new but pretty recent.
• 5 minute walk from my work, meaning we could still only have one car. Tom used to walk to work and I drove, we could just swap and not have to get a second car.
• It had a nice amount of outdoor space and was self contained, so we'd still have our own front door and back door. 
• The landlords seemed nice, and when we said we wanted to think about it they didn't pressurise us by saying they had other viewings (something I've experienced before), they said they didn't have anyone else booked until the end of the week so to think it over.
• It was painted in white, not magnolia, I hate magnolia with a vengence (I didn't mind it so much 5 years ago, but renting does this to you) and white is so much easier to work with.

Even though this was the first place we actually viewed on our house hunt this time, we just fell in love with it and it met all of our requirements, and most importantly we could see ourselves living there. The only downsides we could find were:

• On a busy road, an A road in fact. Once inside you can't hear it, but we were worried about the cats. The solution to this was that the flat is in a long terrace of houses, so we figured if we let them out of the back only, never out of the front, they would actually have to go pretty far to get to the main road, and they never go much further than the garden or next doors garden usually. At our last house they also showed a healthy fear of cars, we lived on a quieter road but there were still plenty of cars going past, and they always seemed to go over the back garden not into the street. We now shut the door between the office and the entrance hallway before opening the front door to make sure they don't get out the front but to be honest they don't even try now, as they're used to going out the back I don't think they even realise there is a front door!
• It was the first place we viewed, so we thought we might just be taking it because we were in a rush to find somewhere and had found it difficult to find a place that accepted the cats and that we liked.

We thought about it and slept on it then when we talked about it the next day we both still really liked the place, and thought even if we viewed 20 others we'd still like this one and would be disappointed if someone else had taken it by then. So we decided to bite the bullet, stop doubting our guts and just take it. I haven't seen another property yet that makes me wish we'd hung on.

So that's what we liked about the flat, why we took it, and how we went about looking for it. 

I'll do another post later on house hunting in general, my experiences, funny stories and how we found each of our properties.

History

So after the tour of our new place I should probably give a brief history of our properties and our current place. I'll go into details on each type of property, our experiences and what I would do differently in future posts.

Tom and I moved into our current flat at the start of December last year. It's a lower ground floor one bedroom in a regency house near the town centre. The landlord lives in the house above and we rent directly from them, the flat is self contained, i.e. we have our own front door, back door, garden and utilities.

Before this our property history is:

1. I first lived with my sister in a 2 bedroom maisonette on the outskirts of the city rented through an estate agent, Tom then moved in and my sister moved out and moved in with her boyfriend (Although there was a crossover time when all 3 of us lived there). Renting via this estate agent was not a good experience for us, I am in no way saying all estate agents are like this but we did not get along with them at all - more on this later.
2. We moved to a small one bedroom house in the suburbs with a garden rented via a private landlord who was very professional and lovely to deal with. This is where we got the turtles, as they stay in the tank at all times unless we are cleaning it most landlords seem to have no issues with them.
3. We rented from a family member, a 2 bedroom bungalow with a garden and garage in another area of the suburbs. Now, I'm not going to describe this place as I don't want to start out on a negative note before this blog even gets any followers, but definately more on the skeletons in this particular closet in a future post(s)! However I'd say what we learnt is that renting from family is the same as borrowing money from family or friends, and the same cautions apply. This is when we got our cats which I admit has restricted us for future properties.
4. In the end we were given our notice to move out and we found our current place and all lived happily ever after so far...