Good! Thank you! I need to know what I''m getting into here.Date: 6/22/2008 12:07:25 PM
Author: Addy
I will now show my vulgar American side and talk a bit of money.
Ok, that sounds reasonable.I live in Essex, which is outside of Central London (zone 1) and outside of London in general (rough boundary of the M25 ring road). There are 32 boroughs in London, each of them will have different council tax.
We started our lease in very early April so I have no clue how it works if you start your lease later than that in the year. Our council tax is divided into 1 payment of whatever it was and then 9 more payments of £109/month. We finish paying on 1 Feb of each year. It is pro-rated if you move in later in the year but I''m not exactly sure how. When we move before 1 April we will let the council know and stop paying for that year. Eventually, around 4-6 weeks later, they will refund us for the part of the year that we haven''t been at the house. Each council will work differently. Council charges will include the cost of trash and recycle pick-up, street cleaners, libraries, etc. Our estate agent wrote to the all the local places, gas, electric, council for tax, water with the date we moved in and any meter readings. That''s when we started getting a bill from the council. It was about 2-3 week after we moved in and were were given about 14 days to make the first council tax payment.
You have to get your credit re-checked every time you renew, and you have to pay an additional £55/year for that? Bleh, that''s...unusual. And slightly criminal.I have no clue about ground rent. Service charges for rent may include if you live in a block of flats and have a porter, or maintenance that needs to be done on the building. As far as other fees, in the US when I had a reference/credit check it never seemed like much money. Over here we paid around £160 and then another £55/year if we live in the same flat to have it re-checked. I found a couple of places that charged a cleaning fee of around £100 when we moved out no matter if we cleaned it ourselves or not. Deposit is normal around one to one and a half months rent. We negotiated the price of our rent a bit and also asked for a 6 month break clause. 6 months into the lease we can give our landlord 1 month or she can give us 2 months notice. We wanted the option in case it didn''t work out. Not everyone was willing to give us the break in the lease for an out. Even though we''ve now signed 3 leases here we''ve always asked for that clause.
I find the transport to be the hardest thing. In my area of Essex, if I go from my local train station I would pay £2,850/year for a season ticket. Because of this, to save money, I go from a Zone 6 station and pay roughly £1,750/year. Not much savings maybe but the commute time also makes a difference for me (over 2 hours compared to roughly 90 minutes). Depending on where I live in London I could spend much less on travel, have a shorter commute, and the savings on travel would be eaten up by rent prices. To me, this is worth it. I want a shorter commute. I quickly found out that living outside of London was a whole series of cost analysis but I''m not in a position to change it quite yet.
Thank you for taking the time to write all of that! I am so used to having my car that it didn''t dawn on me how a year''s worth of public transportation costs could add up.Wow, that was long. I know you have a lot of questions. Hopefully one of the other Londoners will chime in with how thing work around them!
Thank you, star sparkle!Date: 6/22/2008 12:20:42 PM
Author: star sparkle
FI lived in Central London for a few years, so I''ll try to glean some info out of him when he gets home from work today.
You and me both! And it's all me, because J detests math.Date: 6/22/2008 12:52:22 PM
Author: Addy
Gwen, please share your newly found website for transportation! We're going to try to move in the fall when we break our lease. We're trying to very carefully balance a reasonable area in rent (haha!) with transportation costs and commute time. I feel like I need a 2nd degree just to figure all this stuff out sometimes.
Hahah! Yeah, I can imagine. And I know things are going to add up quickly, so I''m trying my best to not get blindsided, but I know I won''t be able to plan for everything. I realize this is probably not possible, but I would LOVE to be able to find somewhere to live where my salary pays all the bills so what J makes can be put into savings, but considering we don''t want shared housing, it may be impossible. London isn''t the best place in the world to be trying to save!Date: 6/22/2008 1:04:35 PM
Author: Addy
Of course, fees will very much depend on your area. I was shocked when they asked me for another £55 when we wanted to renew the lease! I was saving the landlord and estate agent money by them not having to re advertise and show the flat. Everything just so quickly adds up. It makes me miss my very laid-back area of the US sometimes. And don''t even get me started on the council. I''m not sure what we actually pay our £1,050/year for!