What Happens Between the Viewing and the Keys
Most people spend their energy on the viewing itself and then discover that the difficult part comes afterwards. Once your offer is accepted, the agent will usually ask for a holding deposit — commonly one week's rent — which takes the property off the market while your references are checked. It is not the same money as the security deposit, although the two are confused so often that agents have stopped being surprised by it. The holding deposit is normally credited against your first month's rent; the security deposit sits untouched in a government-approved scheme until the tenancy ends.
Referencing is where a straightforward-looking application slows down. An agency will ask a current employer to confirm your salary, a previous landlord to confirm that you paid on time, and a credit agency to confirm that you exist in the way you say you do. Any of the three can take a fortnight if the person at the other end is on holiday, and none of them is under your control. What is under your control is having the documents ready before anybody asks for them: payslips, a passport, and the name and email address of somebody who will actually reply.
The last surprise is what “bills included” means, because it rarely means all of them. Read the clause rather than the advert. In most flats it covers the water and the council tax and stops there; sometimes it covers electricity up to a monthly cap, above which the difference lands on you in a bill nobody warned you about. Ask whose name the energy account is in, too. If it stays with the landlord you cannot change supplier, and you will pay whatever tariff he happened to sign up for years ago.
Glossary
- a holding deposit
- — money that takes a property off the market while your application is checked
- referencing
- — the checks an agency runs on your job, your rent history and your credit
- a cap
- — an upper limit that cannot be passed
- a tariff
- — the price plan an energy company charges you under