Buying a house (and renting)

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Errkal** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:19 pm

Ad7 wrote:O hai Fisher alt

Post Times are around 610 but not exactly the same but yeah seems dodge.

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **That** » Wed Aug 08, 2018 8:27 pm

Report posts you want us to keep an eye on rather than openly speculating. It's really rude and the last time this happened they were a real person who got offended and stopped posting.

Yes the majority of new users we get are bots &/ spammers but that doesn't mean making it into a whole 'thing' every time is helpful.

So I'm looking at moving out of my house share and renting with my girlfriend, and I have no idea what I'm doing!

My girlfriend is just out of uni, and the idea is that once she has moved up here she'll get a job, but to begin with I need to make sure I can cover the cost myself without dipping into savings.

After pension, tax, NI, student loan, ongoing direct debits and minimum savings, I have 1920 a month to work with. This needs to cover rent, bills, council tax, food, and any other living costs.

I've never dealt with bills or council tax - at uni they were either included in the rent or another housemate took them on, and at my current place they are included in rent. What's a reasonable cost for monthly bills to expect for 2 people, probably in a small 2 bedroom house?

Council tax also confuses me a little because it is listed by property value so I don't know how that is assessed or how I find it out when looking at rentals. Am I right in saying it's not paid monthly either?

Finally are there any other costs I'm not accounting for?

I'm trying to work it out so I can work back to a max affordable number for monthly rent. On top of that I also need to get some idea of how much minimum furnishings are going to cost for an unfurnished house.

Thanks for any help!

RNGRakoon wrote:So I'm looking at moving out of my house share and renting with my girlfriend, and I have no idea what I'm doing!

My girlfriend is just out of uni, and the idea is that once she has moved up here she'll get a job, but to begin with I need to make sure I can cover the cost myself without dipping into savings.

After pension, tax, NI, student loan, ongoing direct debits and minimum savings, I have 1920 a month to work with. This needs to cover rent, bills, council tax, food, and any other living costs.

I've never dealt with bills or council tax - at uni they were either included in the rent or another housemate took them on, and at my current place they are included in rent. What's a reasonable cost for monthly bills to expect for 2 people, probably in a small 2 bedroom house?

Council tax also confuses me a little because it is listed by property value so I don't know how that is assessed or how I find it out when looking at rentals. Am I right in saying it's not paid monthly either?

Finally are there any other costs I'm not accounting for?

I'm trying to work it out so I can work back to a max affordable number for monthly rent. On top of that I also need to get some idea of how much minimum furnishings are going to cost for an unfurnished house.

Thanks for any help!

You can pay council tax in a lump sum or monthly. If you pay monthly it's usually spread across 10 months of the year with two months free.

Rough costs will depend a lot on where you live, and what property you live in. I think as a couple we pay around £1,150 a month (rent, council tax, water, electric, gas, tv, internet). For council tax and utilities I'd say £300 a month would be more than enough.

Furnishings will depend on what you need and what quality you're buying. You could spend a couple of grand on just your settees for example. You could probably do a whole house for less than £2,000 depending on where you're buying and assuming white goods are included with the property.

Rent somewhere cheap, spend minimal on necessities, save as much as possible and once you've got enough to buy a place of your own then you splurge on really nice stuff.

Very much looking at the ikea-or-cheaper end of the spectrum! I'm only going to be looking at places that have white goods included, and my girlfriend's parents have offered some furniture (a sofa is amongst it I think), so I think it's mainly a bed and something to put clothes in I'll desperately need.

Good stuff. You can always gets something cheap that doesn't look gooseberry fool from charity shops; certainly round our way there are a couple that specialise in furniture.

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Tsunade** » Wed Aug 29, 2018 1:11 pm

If the place is completely unfurnished and you don't like the carpets, measure your rooms. Sometimes getting an off cut carpet piece will be cheaper than having it completely off the roll. I managed to get my bedroom carpet cheaper (with underlay and fitting) than ella's room carpet this way and my room is nearly twice as big as hers.

Places like charity shops normally have some decent new furniture in if you go in on the right day, we bought a love seat (and you can spin in it!) for £40 with delivery from the British heart foundation. It's just a little smaller than a 2 seater sofa but it was great for our first piece of furniture in the living room!

Be careful with energy companies. One of them wanted £74 A month from me just for the electric. We use about a tenner a week normally at max in the winter. I switched to a key meter so I can keep a eye on our usage, and so I can top up when we need more.

Can't say for gas as I don't have any in my flat.

Water rates can be paid weekly or in 2 month sums, and there's a few ways to pay that, you can pay them direct or with a water card.

TV licence can be paid weekly/monthly/3month/yearly depending if you want to bother with that or not.

Can't say for council tax as it's very odd, it depends on what banding you're in.

I'm probably missing something here and everyone else here probably can give better advice (I've only been in my place for just over a year) but I hope it helps!

Thanks both! I forgot TV licence was a thing :dread:

£150, what a take on

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Lime** » Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:04 pm

Don't forget contents insurance.

Also are you running a car?

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Errkal** » Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:06 pm

Lime wrote:Don't forget contents insurance.

Also are you running a car?

No because you drive a car :roll:

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Moggy** » Wed Aug 29, 2018 9:28 pm

OrangeRKN wrote:Thanks both! I forgot TV licence was a thing

£150, what a take on

Get a black and white TV, it only costs £50.50 then.

Lime wrote:Don't forget contents insurance.

Also are you running a car?

Insurance is a good point!

No car to worry about at the moment

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Lime** » Thu Aug 30, 2018 9:03 am

Errkal wrote:
Lime wrote:Don't forget contents insurance.

Also are you running a car?

No because you drive a car

http://instantrimshot.com/
:simper:

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **<]:^D** » Thu Aug 30, 2018 11:59 am

that url does not sound work-safe

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Lime** » Thu Aug 30, 2018 1:07 pm

<]:^D wrote:that url does not sound work-safe

it totally is.

this sounds dodgy too but isn't

https://sadtrombone.com/

Corazon de Leon

Drumstick wrote:Rent somewhere cheap, spend minimal on necessities, save as much as possible and once you've got enough to buy a place of your own then you splurge on really nice stuff.

This is very much our plan just now - rent is cheap-ish, close to both our offices/my mum/Loki(most importantly) and we've decorated nicely enough on a bare minimum budget. This should be what anyone hoping to buy in the near-ish future is doing as well, as far as I'm concerned.

If you can survive without a car, absolutely do that as well. I can't, sadly, but get by with a very cheap, crappy Corsa while we save.

For us, the GF earns a little more than I do so for the moment the plan is to survive on her wage while shoving mine into our joint savings account after my loan is taken off. Once we have things like weddings, Indefinite Leave to Remain/British Citizenship sorted out over the next eighteen months we'll hopefully have a solid deposit for a nice big house somewhere in the Central Belt drilled down.

Lime wrote:
<]:^D wrote:that url does not sound work-safe

it totally is.

this sounds dodgy too but isn't

https://sadtrombone.com/

This is a URL I see on the way to work that is genuinely safe for work,

http://www.bigboys.co.uk

Making the biggest move of my life! From Liverpool to London. I start my new job in London on the 1st of October but haven't found anywhere to rent yet. Any advice would be much appreciated from those who have rented in London.

I'll be working in Elephant & Castle however do not want to live there as I heard it isn't too nice. I like Greenwich but feel the commute might be too long. Anyway guys any advice you can provide would be great i.e. locations, rent privately or agents etc
Also is it really that competitive? I heard you have like half a dozen people after each available room so you end up having to be interviewed by the current flatmates/landlord.

PostRe: Buying a house (and renting) by **Ecno** » Thu Aug 30, 2018 9:30 pm

No:1 Final Fantasy Fan wrote:Making the biggest move of my life! From Liverpool to London. I start my new job in London on the 1st of October but haven't found anywhere to rent yet. Any advice would be much appreciated from those who have rented in London.

I'll be working in Elephant & Castle however do not want to live there as I heard it isn't too nice. I like Greenwich but feel the commute might be too long. Anyway guys any advice you can provide would be great i.e. locations, rent privately or agents etc
Also is it really that competitive? I heard you have like half a dozen people after each available room so you end up having to be interviewed by the current flatmates/landlord.

Greenwich to Elephant and Castle is a completely reasonable commute. I've never shared with randomers in London, but I do remember when I was looking in San Francisco I got interviewed for spare rooms. I can't imagine it being as prevalent in London.

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Buying a house (and renting)

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