If you needed to be living in a 2 bed rented flat in London by Nov..

[DFOD]

When do you need to start looking?

Wondering how long the process takes and when flats are advertised ahead of availability.

Is it competitive out there or plenty of availability?

Is there an app which shows rough rental prices per area - so you can narrow down to budget?

Flats are often available nearly immediately, so you get a wider choice if you are able to start looking earlier and could take one straight away.

If you can afford it, I’d start looking next month, and accept that if the perfect one appears but they want someone in sooner then you’ll just need to take it.

Rightmove has rentals on it. The most important thing in terms of securing one (as long as you have the income to support it) is being able to place an offer immediately on viewing, and being able to go to a viewing the minute it is advertised.

Totally agree with @GCHeretic with being available to view immediately.
Sorry to say the market is brutal and competitive right now. Friend of mine was recently looking for a 2 bed, and anything decent was snapped up same day it went on the market, often at more than the asking price. Eg, she saw a place advertised for £1400 per month, and it went for £1800 pm.

That’s really helpful to know know - thanks so much.

It’s worth speaking with local estate agents to ask them to let you know when something suitable comes in. If you are available to view and rent straight away then you might get something before it even goes on the website.

Do you know which areas you are looking in?

Don’t know the area yet as person still looking for a job and that will dictate location. Do LL need the person to be employed for a certain length of time beforehand as a credit / affordability check?

And if there was one family member on UC would that be an issue for a LL? It’s a mother and daughter

They may need a guarantor. I was guarantor for my dd and I had to provide copies of payslips, bank statements & they wrote to my employer asking how long I'd been employed etc

They will only care about the tenant’s earnings.

Will the UC person be able to claim housing benefit towards the rental. Apologies for all the Qs - this is all new to me.

No idea, sorry, we’ve never claimed benefits or had tenants on them.

No, not unless their name is on the tenancy. If they are on teh tenancy the rent element will be calculated based on household income. As a mother and daughter you are not allowed to claim housing part of UC as an individual if you live with a family member.

This is really helpful to know. The daughter will be working and her mother is on UC. Trying to manage expectations around affordability as daughter will likely be earning max £25k

This is going to severely limit the choices of where they will live and what sort of flat they can rent.

Is the mother able to work too?

I'd be surprised if they would even be able to afford a private rented studio flat in London, rents are extremely high

The mother has v little English - but she is trying hard to learn. She is/was a qualified working accountant in her home country so is trying to see if she can transfer skills with poor English.

Yes that’s what I am thinking also it’s finding the balance of distance out of London - so cheaper rent but higher fares. They are living with me at the moment and monthly pass is £400/month

A two bedroom flat in my building in Zone 2 starts at around £2,500 per month. London rentals are very expensive in the nicer areas. Lots of people save a lot of money by commuting. Half an hour on the train gets you to some much cheaper towns.

Yes, my daughter just moved from an expensive rental area to a much cheaper one. Consequently the housing rate is lower so she gets less UC, but her travel is a lot more as she has to travel by train rather than tube or cycle to work. So she’s actually worse off.

How old is the Dd?

On £25k they are going to struggle to rent in many places not just London, a colleague has just moved to a 1 bed in the city centre (not London) for £1000 pm and needed a guarantor as they earn under £35k.

Their best bet is to find 2 single rooms in a shared house and pay individual rents. But its not easy to find places where benefits can be used to pay the rent.

There is also the issue of the LHA which will be very low compared to average rent. LHA is usually an average of the lowest 30% of rents in an area.

So the mother would pay for her room using housing benefit (or what used to be) and the daughter can pay from her earnings.

They wont be able to afford a flat. They could rent as joint tenants but I doubt they would pass the financial checks, affordability and might need a guarantor.

So that's what, £1.7/1.8k per month take home? I'm in zone 6 and even here you won't find a half decent 2 bed for less than £1.3k sadly. I've no idea what amount they might get in benefits though.

Rent may be a little cheaper outside London but then once you're outside the travel zones the cost of commuting goes tgrough the roof.

Based on an income of £25k it is likely the daughter will also be eligible for UC

To give you an idea, the LHA rate in Ealing is £1,300 per month

Have you done the calculation?

Yes, I put some figures into entitled to based on daughter being over 25. The mother would be affected by the benefit cap but the daughter wouldn’t if working.