Islington Council bans tiny bedsit

During my sporadic posts on this blog along with my own experiences looking for flats in the capital I have seen several very tiny bedsits advertised online.

So the fact that a landlord in Islington was charging £737 for this flat did not surprise me at all. What did surprise me was the amount of publicity it generated.  Clearly there are people in London who have no idea how expensive and difficult it is to rent a home in the capital.

I suppose that once the flat had done the rounds on social media Islington Council felt that it was best to put a stop to any bad publicity.

http://www.theguardian.com/money/2014/jun/05/tiny-apartment-taken-off-the-market-by-islington-borough-council

Agency Fees

At the start of the tenancy in my new flat we had to hand over about £500 in agency fees.  That's a non-refundable sum on top of the deposit and first months rent that we also had to pay.

Given that we were the ones who found the flat on Right Move, saw no other properties with our agency and decided to take the flat a few days after we first contacted the agency - it did make me wonder what we were paying this huge sum of money for.

However, then came boiler bother! Boiler bother began on Day 1 actually when my Dad noticed that the pressure was too low.  Since then we've had  a boiler man/engineer/technician visit the flat 4 times.  We've also had the handyman come another time or two to fix various things. 

If our hot water cuts out any more times I feel like the agency will have earned that £500.

Generation Rent in the news again

Another flurry of articles about renting in the national newspapers.  Probably because an election is coming up and house prices and rents have continued to skyrocket in London.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/mar/29/general-election-could-hang-on-how-private-tenants-vote

One for boys and one for girls

If you don't mind sharing a room with 3 people you can rent a bed in Romford for £49 a week:

"There are 2 bedrooms with bunk beds one for boys and one for girls."

These are definitely for the girls only:

"I'm 25 male offering my apartment to a female for Free in exchange I'm looking for companionship."

"looking for couples of female roommate in central area"

c/o Gumtree.