Accommodation in London

How to find it (with a VIE budget)

Accommodation is the main challenge when you first arrive in London. With a VIE allowance, you cannot afford a studio in London, you will have to target flatshares, that is to say rent a room in a house or flat shared with other occupiers. You can rent the room directly to the owner of the house/flat (the "landlord") or to the tenant (the occupier who has the renting contract with the landlord - subrenting is allowed in the UK). The price is given per week (pw) or per calendar month (pcm). Here is a list of specialised websites you can rely on to find a flat/house to share :

My advice would be to target a room in the £500-£700 range, all-bills included. This will probably bring you to zone 2 (I was myself living in Kensal Rise, NW10). Here is a map of London rental prices and a tube map :

For corresponding rent levels, you can have a look at this useful website set up by London Mayor : http://www.london.gov.uk/rents. It gives some statistics about the prices paid for rents per borough, postcode and Underground station and for different property types (rooms, studios etc...)

To help you with the advert we will need to put on Gumtree for example, here the one I wrote before heading to London :

Hi,

I am a 24 years old french male moving to London for work starting in November, in Victoria station area for at least one year.

I'm looking for a reasonably sized single room in a house/flat share with easy going professionals in their twenties. Ideally I would want a place in zone 2 close to Victoria/Circle line to access easily to Victoria station. Internet connection and washing machine would be a great advantage.

I'm easygoing, tidy, clean and respect people's privacy and space. I will work monday to friday, so normally just chill out in the evenings. I am social and looking for people who like to have a laugh together but also enjoy there own space. I love sports, watching & playing. At the weekends I'm always up for going out, having a few drinks and a good time.

My budget is around £600 pcm with bills included but I will listen to all offers. I am available for viewings anytime from Friday 23rd to Tuesday 29th of October.

Please let me know if you have anything that could match with my needs.

Cheers,

Your name (your email)

Add some pictures of yourself (people like to see how will their next roomie look like..) and you should get some propositions very quickly. The best thing to do is to organise lots of viewings on a short period of time. For example, in my letter, I suggest to view the rooms from Friday 23rd to Tuesday 29th of October (my VIE was starting on November 1st). I just booked a bed in a hostel for that period (Journey's Hostel next to King's Cross Station is a very good one), booked Eurostar Tickets and went! You will probably need to visit quite a lot of rooms (5, 10, 15?) before finding one that suits you. But you will see, the London property market is very lively.. Try to avoid to share a flat with fellow countrymen, it would be a pity and probably harder to meet new people and to learn the language. A good idea is also to buy a pay-as-you-go SIM card in order to be able to contact cheaply people once you are in London. Lebara Mobile is good value for money and their SIM cards are sold everywhere.

Once you have found the place, the landlord (or tenant) will typically ask you a one month deposit and to pay the first month. It is a lot of money and you might not want to pay it with cash. Ask if you can make a transfert from abroad. To do so, you will need the IBAN number of the person you want to tranfer money to. After starting you VIE, you will be able to open a bank account at LLoyd's for example : at Lloyd's, you only need a passport and a letter from your employer to open a bank account (ask for a "cash" account, their basic offer).

Scams

Beware : there are lots of rent scams occuring in London. The golden rule is : Don't pay anything before viewing the room! I have been targetted myself several times. Here is how a fraudulent email looks like.

Example of scam

Hello,

I have attached the contract Form, my identity and instructions on how to proceed with the flat share. The contract will take effect from move-in day. You would need to read and sign it by writing your name at the end of the page I mean under my name, and you will re-attached it back to me as soon as possible. i have decided to keep my apartment for you but you will have to make payment of the Security deposit. Please note that without paying the deposit, am so sorry - it will slow down the rent process and i might be unable to keep the flat for you. If you make the deposit payement, i will have the flat secured for you. I have had so many fake and unserious inquiries. I need your understanding in this regards.

You will have to make the transfer of the refundable security deposit by Western union money transfer through any Post office or western union agent outlet. After making the transfer you will need to get back to me with the following details or a scanned receipt to enable me fully secured your room. 1. Sender's name. 2 receiver's Name. 3. Amount sent 4. MTCN (it is located on the western union receipt)

As soon as i have this, I will finalize the rent contract and have your room secured till you are ready to move into my flat. lets chat online on msn for better talk. Thanks and God bless you.

Your future flatmate

Lady Salma.

The crook even provides you with a copy of its passport (a stolen one) and a fake contract.Actually, as soon as they tell you that they want money through Western Union, you can be sure that it is a scam. Read this article from BBC news about rent scams in London.

Renting safely

Advice from Gumtree to avoid scams :

View properties in person before paying any money. Even if they claim to be overseas, people who are not willing to show you their property or meet with you before accepting you as their tenant aren’t likely to be legitimate.
Never provide your personal identity or banking information to others over the internet e.g. details or photocopies of your passport, driving licence or your credit card number. Only give this information to a landlord or agency once you’ve met them in person, viewed the property and decided to proceed with a rental arrangement. You should always view requests for personal information by someone you haven’t met with extreme caution.
Use common sense. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Be wary of any requests to use money transfer services like Western Union or MoneyGram to pay deposit money or "prove" you have funds. If in doubt about a prospective landlord or tenant, don't proceed.