I browsed for information on this but the most recent was this conversation from last fall:
http://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=36510.0So I thought I’d contribute my current experience. I arrived on an HSMP visa a couple of weeks ago and have been staying at a friend’s house while I looked for a flat in London.
I started off looking on Craigslist, Gumtree, and TimeOut.com, which has classifieds. I found a place that looked good and sent an email inquiry. After some emails back and forth we talked on the phone. The guy told me he was in Liverpool and kept asking if I would really show up, as he didn’t want to come all the way to London and be stood up. He suggested that, to prove I had the money, I should wire one month’s rent to a friend’s account and send him a copy of the wire transfer form, and then have my friend wire it back to me. Needless to say, I declined and told him never mind. After doing a bit of research I discovered this is a fairly common scam. Once they have the form they are able to take all the money out your account within an hour. One tip: His phone number began with 070, which to the uninitiated just looks like a mobile number. However, these numbers can be forwarded anywhere in the world. I suspect from his accent that he was in Nigeria or a similar place. He even sent me, unsolicited, a purported copy of his passport. It was an Irish passport showing a white guy, which did not match his voice.
Next I went to the neighborhood I was interested in and walked into an agency (I had seen some of their listings online). I got a nice woman and told her what I wanted to spend, which was more than I was paying in the US, but a moderate amount. She showed me a place that had just come on the market, but it was really grim. She told me she could show me another one the next day that might be more suitable. I went home and thought about it, and decided maybe I should just find a short-term rental and look for a permanent place after I got a job and had a better idea of what I could spend.
So I looked on a website showing short-stay flats and found a likely candidate. This website just lists the flats; you send in an inquiry and it is sent to the flat owner. For this particular flat there was no rent listed; it asked what you were looking to pay. I exchanged several emails with the website manager and the owner and said I would like to take the flat even though the rent was high, but wanted to see it first. This took five days to arrange (it was over a bank holiday (three-day) weekend). When I went to view the place, thinking I would be moving in the next week, the owner told me that the rent was £200 higher than he had quoted me, and that there was no way I would find anything in London that was safe and clean for less money (which is ridiculous). I didn’t take it.
Meanwhile I had thought maybe I would try a different neighborhood, so I spent a couple of days walking around it and looking for rental signs and agency names. I went home and looked at all their websites, and made a list of agencies to visit. As I was about to set off, I got a call from the woman who had shown me the grim place. She had another one she thought might suit. We looked at several places that day, and I finally saw one I really liked, which was far more money than I had wanted to spend, but also had a lot of advantages.
Now the fun began.
The agency was going to have an open house showing of the flat that evening, so I had to decide then if I wanted it, as it would very likely be gone after that. I had to put in a bid, similar to offering to buy a house in the US. I also had to put up a week’s rent plus a £115 fee, as part of the bid. I paid this on a credit card. If the landlord refused it, I got the money back. If they accepted and I changed my mind, I lost the money. Gulp. I went ahead and made the offer and got it, but as I don’t have a job yet I had to pay six months’ rent in advance, plus a £3000 deposit. (By the way, you don’t get interest on your deposit.)
I learned I got it on Thursday morning, and the lease started on Sunday, but I had to pay the whole amount before I could move in. My US bank has a branch here in London, so I naively thought I would be able to go in and get a bank draft for the whole amount (I had put a large amount of cash into my checking account for just this purpose). Wrong. They told me they didn’t have access to my US account. I had a long conversation (on their telephone) with someone in the US, who did his best to help me. The only way to get it done in any sort of reasonable timeframe was to do an online wire transfer request. Luckily I had set up online banking before I left the US. So I agreed with the agency that I would give them £3000 in cash and have the rest sent by wire. The man in the US told me he would raise my ATM withdrawal limit to $6000 a day so I could get the money out.
By this time the branch was closing for the day, so I went back the next day, after doing the online transfer. Again, naively, I thought I would be able to go to the teller window and swipe my card and have them hand me the money. Wrong again. I had to use the ATM, which is located in the front of the branch directly in front of huge plate glass windows, in full sight of the busy sidewalk, full of sketchy characters. Great. So I went and put my card in. The limit for an individual withdrawal was £250. So, yes, I made 12 withdrawals, stuffed all the £50s, £20s, and £10s into my wallet (about an inch-thick wad of money), and went outside and hailed a cab as quickly as I could. I have never felt so conspicuous, especially as a long line formed behind me (I actually stopped after six withdrawals and waited for the line to clear, as I didn’t want to hog the ATM).
So, I’m still waiting to hear that the wire has hit the agency’s account. It did go out of my account on Friday, but they said it can take up to two weeks, which I find very hard to believe. Meanwhile, I am embarking on my next adventure, which is to find some reasonably priced furniture for the flat.
Hope this was useful to someone!
