Renting a private property
Before you consider renting privately, it would be beneficial to carry out some thorough research on what this entails. The following guidelines produced by the Government will assist with up-to-date information and guidance:
- How to rent: the checklist for renting in England
- How to rent a safe home
- Government guide to private renting
Other advice and websites to assist on private renting:
Property type
First of all you need to decide what type of property you need and where it should be.
Think about things like the type of property (bedsit, flat or house), what floor (for example, ground floor and first floor), what areas of Nuneaton or Bedworth you want to live in and how much you can afford to pay in rent.
To check for available properties, check websites, local newspapers, supermarket noticeboards, letting and management agents.
Websites to find a rented house, flat or room: (Note, the websites below are suggestions not recommendations)
- Find rooms to rent in a shared house or flat
- Open Rent - Flats and houses available to rent
- Onthemarket.com - Flats and houses available to rent
- Gumtree - Flats and houses available to rent
- Rightmove - Flats and houses offered by estate agents
- Zoopla - Flats and houses offered by estate agents
- Local letting agents
If you are planning on claiming benefits you will need to think about the level that you could be entitled to. Local Housing Allowance (LHA) rules are that you need one bedroom for each of the following:
- a couple who live together
- someone else in the household who is 16 or over
- two children of the same sex (a child is under the age of 16)
- two children of any sex who are younger than 10
In addition to bedrooms, the rules also indicate the following (maximum) number of living rooms if:
- one to three people live in a property, this will equate to a maximum of one living room
- between four and five people live in a property, this will equate to two living rooms
- six or more people live in a property this, this will equate to three living rooms
If you are single and under 35 years, you will be assessed differently (Single Room Rate) which means you will usually only be able to rent one room (for example, a bedsit, or a room in a shared house).
If you have more rooms than this, the benefit may not cover some of your rent and you will need to make up the difference yourself.
You will also need to think about how long you have got to find somewhere and move. If you do not have much time to find somewhere new and move, you may want to widen the areas you would be willing to live in to give yourself more choice and a better chance of finding somewhere suitable.
We also have a tenancy ready guide, whether it is your first home or whether you are just moving to another home.
- The step into your tenancy information will help guide you through setting up your bills and planning your budget so that you can be as ready as possible to move in, enjoy your home and not worry about getting into arrears or debt with your bills
- To get the most out of the step into your tenancy guide, it is best to work through it, step-by-step online, as it has interactive links that will take you to all of the websites you will need to set up your bills and to find out more information
Tenancy deposits
If you rent a property on an assured shorthold tenancy that started after 6 April 2007, your deposit (bond) must be placed in to a government approved scheme. Your landlord must provide you with prescribed information relating to this within 30 days of receiving your funds. You can see further details and information on the tenancy deposit schemes.