This question is from Zoopla user tbahri regarding renting in the United Kingdom if you have just arrived.
I am moving to London in around 3 – 4 weeks, I need to find an apartment/house for rental (I will stay for a couple of weeks in a hotel while I am searching).
I have a valid tier 2 VISA but it is my first time living in the UK, so I don’t have a previous address here. I also don’t have a UK bank account as you need a UK permanent address to apply for a UK bank account!
What are the requirements to rent an apartment/house in my case?
Legal Documents Required To Rent In The UK For An Expat
Jonathan Rolande talks about renting in the United Kingdom if you have just arrived here.
Video Transcription
If you have just arrived in the United Kingdom you will need a passport when you rent a property and not a great deal else. That’s legally speaking all that you’ll actually need.
The financial issue is something that will have an effect on you though, so you’ll need to prove to the agent or the landlord or both, that you can actually afford the property. You could do this by, for example, showing them a contract of employment with a UK employer that you’re coming to work for, or if you’ve got a vast amount of savings somewhere, you could show them balance statements for your accounts.
The other thing that you could do which kinda cuts out all of that, is if you have an amount of capital behind you just pay the rent in advance.
So, if the rents £1000 a month and you’re there for six months, just give them £6000 plus the deposit and it will almost then be no questions asked, you’ve paid the rent they’re not going to worry too much about your financial situation.
They will still do some basic checks but nothing too involved hopefully.
Other than that, I think just make sure that you use a good agent who is a member of redress scheme, something like the property ombudsman scheme, and when you pay your deposit insure that it’s lodged in a protection scheme as well.
So that when you leave, you’ve got no difficulties getting the deposit back and any disputes can be easily sorted out.
