Chocolate eclair

So what do we need to know? Best places to look for information? What to beware of?
All seems rather daunting, as things have moved on since we left the UK in early 2007.
Thanks for any advice you can give us.

Pollyana

Rentals - I signed up for alerts from www.rightmove.co.uk and www.primelocation.com which seemed to cover most properties to rent.
The main agents advised that those are the two they use. I also did some ground work visiting some agents on my last holiday before the move, and then emailing some others, laying out my situation and establishing whether they would consider renting to me when newly back in the country. Make it clear to any that you contact that you are UK citizens and thus have the right to rent here (otherwise there are extra hoops to jump through!). Most agents will do a video tour of properties for you if you are trying to get somewhere before you arrive.
I was very lucky, found a pretty much perfect flat, viewed it on video, emailed and phoned with the agent, and managed to secure the rental before arrival. Most of it is online now, Seeing that it looked the same on the video as in the online photos was reassuring! I needed electronic copies of bank statements proving funds, ID stuff, reference from my rental agents in Brisbane, and stuff like flight tickets and removal TOR to show I was actually in the process of moving back. I did offer 6 months up front, but in the end that wasn't needed. The most complex but was that my money was still in Australia, and I had only moved half of it to the UK when I went for the rental, so it got a bit complicated showing bank statements from both sides!
The other thing that was mentioned was whether I had family who owned property in the UK and would be willing to act as guarantor, but again we managed to proceed without it.

durham_lad

This seems very similar to what happened with us in 2016. As proof of ability to pay rent they accepted pdf copies of my US private pension and although I expected and was prepared to pay up to 6 months rent in advance they accepted 1 month in advance plus a month’s rent as a security deposit, which we got back okay at the end of the rental. (We looked for and bought a house while we were renting)

brits1

If you know the area you are thinking of moving to I would contact the agents in the area, it may be best to have dates etc you may have and let the agent know, we had a good look around when we arrived back in England (we stayed with my dad) and some areas we thought we liked we did not actually like in “real life” when we located an area I telephone the agents asking if they had homes in the area for rent and we arranged a visit to each property, when we decided on a home we provided a statement from our UK bank, an oversea reference from our last rental in Aus and also our Aus mortgage account showing the completion of the mortgage and the money made from the sale and all we had to do was pay a month in advance for the new property. Good luck it can be daunting but with plenty of research and information to hand it helps the process not be so stressful.

mikelincs

Be prepared to pay 6 months in advance most agents will require that, we did when we returned from Spain, Try to get them so send you a video noy just stills, we saw stills, but didn't realise that the place had very uneven floors.

Mummy in the foothills

Are you moving near family? We knew a few people through our family who had houses to rent and I got us one of those for a year. Not the most ideal house and cost a bit more than I wanted to pay, but in a nice place. We have bought a house in the same place I can now look out the rear bedroom window and see that house we rented

theoldgit

We moved to East Sussex from our home in Thailand at the end of March, and we were aware of the current issues surrounding the rental market so had contacted a number of agents when our travel date was confirmed, only one bothered to respond, and that was only to confirm that in the current market property was being let almost instantly and agents wanted prospective renters to be in situ, and in a position to rent, before they would take them seriously.

We were able to move into a friends flat on arrival in the UK, he was working overseas and asked us to house sit whilst we looked for somewhere.

We travelled to East Sussex and booked into a Premier Inn for a week with the intention of contacting agents in person.

We stumbled across a two bedroom flat, centrally located and at a reasonable (at least in the current climate) price and called the agent. He advised that he was just compliling a list of prospective tenants, asking if we had children or pets and met the income requirements, he asked if we could meet him at the property in 30 mins, we did so and it met our needs, he advised he would discuss with the owner.

He called us back later in the evening asked for a holding deposit, and advised that they would start the referencing checks, that took about three days and we signed up, paid the deposit and moved in.

I think it’s probably the luck of the draw, and we struck lucky.

Moon_River

*I think it’s probably the luck of the draw, and we struck lucky.*

Yep, I agree. Prepare for a lot of 'leg work' and a lot of disappointments. I learned the hard way to monitor 'Right Move' and keep refreshing it every fifteen minutes to see newly listed properties come up. So I could then contact the agent and go directly to the property to view it. This was in Stoke On Trent / Newcastle Under Lyme. Same process regardless of area.

OK, I saw many unsuitable properties that looked ok in the photos but to me, had a kind of a 'dead' or 'flat' atmosphere to them. I also got wise to the Agents' waffle about what would be fixed shortly i.e. the cardboard sellotaped over the open fire because the previous tenant didn't use the fire and had a toddler, or promises from the agent/landlord/contractor to remove the unusable derelict shed from the garden etc.

Fortunately, we eventually found somewhere suitable it took a few weeks though. It was just coming onto the market and we were the first to view it and say we wanted to rent it. After the checks were done, we moved in a couple of weeks later.

A previous house my husband and I viewed and wanted to rent was rented to another couple who got there before us and got their forms submitted to the agent just prior to us.

tdrinker

Financial referencing - this differed depending on the model used by the landlord / agent. Some would only consider income from employment, pensions, etc., and wouldn't take account of savings, or income generated from savings. In this case, if you have savings but no job you'd need to pay 6-12 months rent in advance. Others would take account of savings.

Tenant type - some landlords have a preferred tenant type, e.g. a couple with both working. The further away from this you move, the less desirable you are to some landlords - single, not working, pets, kids, etc. They won't always state preferences in adverts.

Market situation - difficult, demand exceeds supply, power resides with landlords. Properties would be marketed and let very quickly, landlords would often be inflexible on viewing slots which is a especially problematic if you're living in one town and viewing in another. Some agents will rent via online viewings (and prefer this to minimise their work), others require a personal viewing (having received complaints after letting after online viewings). Some (not all) agents want you to submit an offer to create a bidding war between prospective tenants. If you see a suitable property, move quickly to view and submit an offer (even if an agent says the deadline is a few days away, properties often let beforehand).

Chocolate eclair

Thanks to everyone for your input. Apologies for not getting back to you sooner but I have been unwell and life seems to consist of GP, hospital tests and blood tests.
We have found somewhere to rent at last, the house itself is not ideal, a bit small but it's in a nice south Derbyshire village and will do us as a base.
Met the landlord yesterday and he seems very nice. We will mostly use the rental agent to go through if we have any issues. We move in in a couple of weeks time.

Letting agents seem to be rather poorly clued up on the properties they have on their books and some landlords clearly don't care about the state of the property they are renting out. We were appalled by some that we went in. Felt we just wanted to get back to our Airbnb for a shower!

tdrinker

I hope your health is / will improve.

Congrats on finding somewhere. You managed it a lot faster than I did, and I had to compromise as well. That said, my rental has turned out to be better than several of the places I missed out on such that I've become settled and not been active enough (at all!) in looking for a permanent place which I really need to be secure.

durham_lad

Congratulations on finding something. A village in south Derbyshire sounds lovely even if the rental place may be a bit small.

Chocolate eclair

Thanks tdrinker and Durham lad.
It's a huge relief to have found somewhere, next challenge is to try and fit our furniture in! Good job we got rid of loads of stuff in NZ.
I still feel like I don't quite fit in over here yet. So much has changed and we need to relearn stuff.

It's going to take a bit of time to get well again but I'm hoping having a base will help with that.

Moon_River

Glad you found somewhere. Be patient with yourself. You are tired and haven't seen your personal possessions for a long time.

I can relate to the state of some rentals. The second house we rented in Peterborough looked ok on first viewing. Living there we discovered all the things that didn't work....