I'll be returning to Scotland with family early May. We intend buying a house in Argyll, probably Helensburgh area, as soon as we can when we return, but need temporary accomodation (house with garden) until we can move in. I'd prefer furnished monthly let accomodation, but will take on a 6 month lease if I need too. Anywhere within a 50 mile radius of Helensburgh would be great. 2 Adults, 2 young kids and a well behaved dog.

Thanks LL

Try the following, they have plenty of places:

www.rightmove.co.uk

Sometimes, when moving back, be aware that they may ask for the six months rent in advance and try and get some references. I recently moved back from Canada and found the whole renting process painfully slow, at least in England. Maybe it is down to supply and demand how quickly the process moves along.

I've been looking here for short-term rentals by the week:
http://www.gumtree.com/cgi-bin/list_...x&ubercat=2511

It seems like rightmove is for long-term? That's my impression. Plus, I'm still not sure what the equivalent of subletting your place is in the UK (in the US I can pretty easily rent my flat out for 2 months while I'm gone)...

Hi Loch,

Though John (below) points to Rightmove.co.uk you can drill down on it to your area in Argyll and lift the rental agents who you could then contact for longer lets than weekly.

http://www.rightmove.co.uk/property-to-rent/find.html?searchType=RENT&locationIdentifier=REGIO N^95769&insId=3&radius=0.0&displayPropertyType=&mi nBedrooms=&maxBedrooms=&minPrice=&maxPrice=&maxDay sSinceAdded=&retirement=&sortByPriceDescending=&_i ncludeLetAgreed=on&primaryDisplayPropertyType=&sec ondaryDisplayPropertyType=&oldDisplayPropertyType= &oldPrimaryDisplayPropertyType=&letType=&letFurnis hType=&houseFlatShare=false&x=51&y=6

My experience leads me to think that this is easier to work with than looking at folks that rent by the week and seeing if they will rent for longer periods and discount. Also, there are people that do holiday lets in the summer who rent out for longer periods off season. That is not applicable for you as you are arriving at the beginning of season.

Thanks folks. I've checked out most of the real estate rental websites and found that my dog may determine what I can rent

be VERY careful looking at gumtree accommodation...

we were looking for some weekly accommodation in london and the people seemed nie and the websites of the flats they had to show us looked nice, but when we did some further digging, checking out their company numbers and how long their site had been up on http://www.nominet.org.uk/other/whois/ ,we found out they were scammers who would take your money and disappear into the night!

look at the forum on gumtree and see how many threads have been posted about people being ripped off big time!!
i just don't trust it now!

we are going to book a chalet in a holiday park instead, and when we go up to find a place in isle of skye to rent for a while, we will look for similar accommodation within a few hours drive of there too...

i was shocked that what looked so legitimate at first glance on gumtree was in fa t a big scam...there are loads of them, so do be careful...

Thanks for that advice.

If you know what town you are looking for some places you can read the local newspaper online and find private rentals that way.