What do I need to know about renting?

[HouseHunting]

We are about to start looking for a rental property as we are completing on our house mid Nov (exchanged today). Other than looking on rightmove & popping into the local letting agents is there any advice you could give me as I am feeling pretty clueless. Have heard numerous horror stories & want to be fully informed of what to do or not to do before we sign on the dotted line. Thanks

[Scottie22]

The most important aspect of renting for us is who is responsible for repairs? Do you deal direct with landlord or letting agent - that kind of thing.
The other important thing especially at the moment is the position your landlord is in - is he/she in it for the long term or have they been forced into renting out property because they couldn't sell. I have a horrible suspicion that lots of tenants will be forced to leave rentals if landlords decide to sell up if/when the market picks up...

Sorry if they are obvious questions to you - these would be on my list though.

Good luck with your search...just helped my friend move house today who has STR - she's over the moon!!

[HouseHunting]

Thank you Scottie22 - what does STR stand for?

[PfftTheMagicDragon]

Bit further down the line in terms of what to do, but you should make very, very sure that you take a LOT of photos of the condition of the house, make sure that they fill out a condition inventory, this will note down any stains, damage already in existence. It is easy to think that everyone is decent but they are not! Not all landlords are awful (and there are a fair few terrible tenants) but there are those out there that see your deposit as a chance to touch up their fittings!