Looking for a place to live (Leicester)

My wife and I are coming over in September and obviously need a place to live. I have looked at some listings of places to let on the local news site as well as checking out the landlords listed on www.nalscheme.co.uk in our future area (Leicester). www.direct.gov.uk says to check with the local council for a list of approved landlords and council homes and, well, that sounds like what we would refer to as "the projects" here, is it the same there?

Some questions I'm having are:
Does a landlord need to be accredited to be considered safe?
Do we have to have a UK address before we apply for our visas?
Do they generally require a lease (6 month/1 year)?
Can/should we get a furnished place while we wait for our stuff to arrive and look for a different place once there?
We have great credit reports here but I've read that is useless there, so will that be an issue?
Or to simplify, what's the best way to go about this?

Also, a few brits I know here say that landlords are more relaxed about pets than over here, but many of the listings I've seen seem to be no pets and, we have cats to consider.

Any insights or advice would be much appreciated.

If anybody is familiar with the area, please let me know what the better areas are or at least the areas to avoid. We need to be near the University.

I don't think a landlord needs to be accredited yet in England, I know they are planning to introduce this soon, supposedely.

I am not sure about needing a UK address.  I think you do, but you can use the address of a hotel if needs be.

The furnished issue is personal preference, but once your stuff arrives, what will you do with it? 

Your credit doesn't count here, so they might ask for someone to sign or for a large deposit.  I think some people on here have paid for extra months up front.

I haven't found any landlords to be relaxed about pets, but others have just asked and the landlord has let them.

I cannot help with most of your questions, but I can offer some advice. 

I do not believe landlords have to be accredited, but I would be very careful renting from private landlords.  I would recommend going through estate agents as you are better protected IMO. 

It should not be too much of a problem to get a furnished place but you likely won't be happy with the furnishings IME.  Worth checking though....

I would recommend looking at the Rightmove website to find properties to let in the
Leicester area.  From the site you will see that there are estate agents connected to the properties with their contact details so you can contact them directly.

Unfortunately your credit record means nothing in this country.  As such, it will be difficult for you to rent a place.  I would recommend starting to contact estate agents quickly and discuss with them what you would need to do to rent properties that are available.  I would count on a big deposit at the very least, likely upwards of three months rent.

Stoneygate is known as a nice area, as is Oadby and both are relatively close to the university.  Stay away from the New Park and Goodwood/Netherhall estates, and be aware that the Humberstone and Highfield areas are mainly inhabitated by Indian/African/Pakistani people who are predominately Muslim.  Not that this is a bad thing, just to be aware so you are not shocked.

Good luck!

Can/should we get a furnished place while we wait for our stuff to arrive and look for a different place once there?

A lot of places come furnished (more than I ran into in the US, in my experience).  Both places we've rented in the UK were furnished, and both of our landlords had multiple properties.  So we just asked the landlord to take away anything we didn't want, which I assume they put into another house/flat.  Niether one of them acted like this was particularly demanding, so you might be able to get a furnished place with the understanding that later on you're going to bring in your own stuff.  Something to consider, anyway.

I agree with the suggestion to watch the rightmove website - it seems to be the most up-to-date one out there and it's how I've found our last couple of rentals. Then contact the agency to discuss what to do given your status.

I'll be honest - we had an AWFUL time getting our first rental because I had no credit history. Even though my spouse is English. We eventually had to use a guarantor as even offering six months rent up front wasn't enough. They were prepared to use my brother in the US but the faxing of paperwork back and forth proved to be far too much hassle so we used a good friend of my husband.

As for cats, our last two places have been fine about them but we did have to put down extra money for each of them in our deposit. I think it was £100 pounds per cat most recently.