Houseshares have to be better than this, right?

[Cremeegg30]

Does anybody live in a semi-decent houseshare?

Since October I've lived here to save money due to having some debts to pay etc.
Finally getting into a better financial position now and working 2 jobs. I'm on a good wage now and could afford to rent my own place, but I would like to buy a place and don't want to keep flitting between places so I am a bit torn.

Anyway the house.. it's totally my fault for moving here, it was cheap, no deposit, flexible contract etc.

I viewed it virtually due to covid and also as I was abroad.
I pay £375 per month for a room including all bills.
For starters somebody has engraved something phallic into our front door and the landlord hasn't bothered to do anything about it.
We had a cleaner who wasn't exactly the most competent but she hasn't been since before Christmas. The agency have ignored the several messages I've sent to ask when and if she's returning.

There was a huge hole/leak in the ceiling when I moved in, which I was told would be getting fixed. It was finally done so last week, after 4 months here.

1 oven and limited cupboard space for 6 people. I have 1 shelf in the fridge but people still dump their stuff onto it.

Toilet is sometimes left pretty dirty. People also don't use air freshener so sometimes when you walk past the loos which you have to to get to the kitchen you get vile odours. Live with 5 men and one urinates without closing the door.

My room is right next to somebody else's so I previously had a couple having loud sex at 3am, now I have somebody who sounds like he's throwing things against the wall every time he opens his wardrobe etc.. I'm sure it's not him, just the walls are paper thin. The night he moved in I didn't know anybody had, heard a huge bang from the initially empty room from next door and thought something had collapsed in there.

The whole house just smells bad. The internet is dire despite me reporting it, when I moved in my drawers were broken and I couldn't actually close my window as a tree had grown over it. I had to cut away at the tree to be able to close it.

The street is filled with litter. I honestly think I've chosen the worst street in the town. All in all it's a depressing place to live and doesn't feel like home.

The landlord clearly doesn't want to spend a penny on the house and it shows.

I have a house deposit, a 15-20% one at that but atm my credit rating isn't high enough, though it's going up.

Not sure what to do, it could be 6 months or more before I can get a mortgage. Don't want to move again then move yet again.

Any advice welcomed.

Life is too short. Move.

It sounds as though the house wouldn't pass a HMO inspection. In terms of the toilet issues, there's nothing that can be done about that. You need to move, unfortunately.

I have lived in houseshares a bit like that and much better ones. Move.

Move to a different house share or own rented place. Buying a house could take 6 months in itself. It can't be a big job to move as I assume you have no/little furniture. Just a little hassle looking round some house shares.
Having said that it doesn't sound worse than my student houseshare, except for house repairs situation. But it's easier if you are friends with the people you share a minging bathroom and kitchen with!!

Move. My friend has lodgers - it's a beautiful 4 bed new build house, she rents the top two bedrooms out. As she lives there too, she cares very much about the state and cleanliness of the house.

I know lodgers rights and tenants rights are different but maybe look in to it?

Move!!

100% move

Look on spareroom. Com
Find a nice 2 bed place with someone or look for large family homes they often rent out a bedroom but it's fairly self contained so essentially a studio flat

I know it’s not very cool to say but I would find a sexual partner to shack up with even if temporarily

The agency had quite a strict vetting procedure so I felt a bit more reassured.
My credit rating is currently 'poor'
I don't know what sort of score would qualify me for a mortgage. The house price is pretty low (circa 50k) and I have a high deposit. Also have a guarantor and 2 permanent jobs. Quite frustrating really but all I can do is wait I supposed.

With what you describe, I would be moving. If you think you can hack it for another 6 months or more, it can't be that bad.

That doesn’t sound great. I would pick somewhere with fewer housemates, not 5 blokes.

Find another place.

It can’t be that hard to move? You only have one room of stuff? No notice period?

You could be living elsewhere in 4 weeks from now.

That sounds awful- definitely move to a different one. Moving can take months, so you may be living there another year. I would also report it to the housing department at your council.

I think OP is wanting reassurance that if she moves to another househare, it could be better than this, or positive stories of house sharing, rather than people telling her to rent her own place or move? But anyway. Yes I've had far better than that op and I've had a lot I've had worse too

Find someone looking for a lodger fewer checks made??

I think I will, sounds silly but I'm embarrassed to be moving yet again for what could be another few months.

@BubblyBarbara

I know it’s not very cool to say but I would find a sexual partner to shack up with even if temporarily

Seriously? That has way more chance of going south than a crappy but safe share house.

I have a month notice period yeah. I would definitely take one of those studio rooms.

So hard to know how long it will take to improve my credit score ( no CCJ or anything, just very low score) .

I'd move. I have lived in 3 different house shares and two had the house owner living in them and I found that made a difference to how they took care of it. Also smaller numbers work better I think

Also if you just rent a room then moving is relatively easy, you can fit everything in a car

I would move to a cleaner house with fewer housemates. Your current place does not sound nice. If you are living in one room it won't be hard to do the actual packing and moving so why wouldn't you?

I lived in a great houseshare once. Housemates were my age and we all became friends. I had my own en-suite room. I loved living there.

In your position I'd move. Don't be embarrassed about it. There are much better places to live. Things are miserable enough at the moment, don't make things even worse for yourself!

@Cremeegg30

The agency had quite a strict vetting procedure so I felt a bit more reassured. My credit rating is currently 'poor' I don't know what sort of score would qualify me for a mortgage. The house price is pretty low (circa 50k) and I have a high deposit. Also have a guarantor and 2 permanent jobs. Quite frustrating really but all I can do is wait I supposed.

Have you tried to get a mortgage agreement in principle? Or spoken to a broker to find out what they could offer you?

Also, have you researched what you need to do to improve your credit score?

Move if you can. I ended up in a depressing houseshare, then moved somewhere further out (by myself - bliss!) for 6 months. Even though I didn't want to move so quickly, the sense of relief was immediate and I felt better than expected.