Scouting for Flats

This has been one of the most interesting – hardest! – experiences in my life so far, and I’ve been through my fair share! So let me start from the beginning...

My student halls contract finished Saturday 25^th June, usually this means that I move all my stuff back to my dad’s place. Well this year is different for several reasons:

1 – My dad moved back to South Africa in November 2010
3 – This is my 3^rd year, so I’ve finished Uni and will not be coming back here and can’t live there any longer as I am not a student and the rooms are all booked for the summer.

This means that I had to search for a house/flat share which was decently priced, with decent people, in a decent location, near a station so I can travel to work, in London (preferably South West as this is where my mom, boyfriend and friends live) and with a room big enough to fit all my life’s stuff as I had to take what I wanted from my dad’s place and throw ridiculous amounts of things again. If you’re asking the question of why I don’t simply go and live with my mom instead, well the answer is simple – she is also a student at University living in student halls with the same room and with the same budget as any other student. Therefore, as you can see...I couldn’t be homeless so I had to find somewhere, and fast!!!!

I have been working as a student ambassador for a school as an Assistant Teacher full-time from 8:30am ‘till 2:50pm, so when I was not working I was rushing around trying to call people for viewings of their available rooms, which meant travelling to unknown places, getting lost and 90% of the time it was a waste of my time and energy as the flats were a complete nightmare!!! I can’t even begin to describe some of them....I’ll try!!

One of them was in South Wimbledon, the area seemed nice enough, this place was asking for £80 p/w so I wasn’t expecting what I saw!!! Me and my boyfriend went into this flat...and the minute I was in there I wanted to just run run run and RUN !!!! My instincts were telling me to just get out of there as fast as I could!! But I had arranged a viewing so I couldn’t just walk in and leave!! I didn’t touch anything as this place looked like some kind of crack house (this may actually be too good a description for it!!). Everything was broken down, dirty, smelly – it seriously looked like it could be in a scary movie where they kidnap people and cut their limbs off one by one while still remaining alive, and doing it with dirty utensils too, and those inflicting the torture are on heavy drugs surrounded by prostitutes!!! It was hell. I would have preferred to be homeless than staying there for a second!! I am the type of person who really doesn’t like to spit on the floor outside, I think its nasty, but when I left that place I kept spitting coz I felt like the air I had been breathing was dirty!!! I got home and immediately had a shower and had nightmares about it!!!

(This picture is meant to depict nightmare houses/flats J )

There was another flat which in itself was quite nice, the room was huge with a nice new double bed – it was in Stockwell. However, the guy was very scary. He already spoke quite aggressively even when we were asking usual questions during a viewing!! He had an amazing deal on offer which was £280 a month!!! Which for the size of the room and the flat in general was amazing. There is supposed to be another person there, but the deal was that as soon as I moved in he would move back to America and another girl would move in which I would interview. This all sounds alright, doesn’t it? But then he asked if I smoked, I said yes, he said he doesn’t want any smokers. I said I of course would not smoke in the house, it is not a problem for me at all, but he said he didn’t want me walking out the door to have a smoke either, because if I did, people would know his business, and start talking!! I said..no, they wouldn’t! All they would see is just a girl going outside, having a smoke and going back in the house!!! I said to him that that sounded quite shady! Then my boyfriend and I started noticing things....like the windows were all covered with a black material so they nobody could look in and he also told me not to open my bedroom window either because in his words ‘people are strange around here’. Then it occurred to me, that if I did move in, he probably wouldn’t get another girl to stay, he would probably stay...and my instincts were telling me that this guy was dangerous...what if I ended up living with a rapist?? According to him he thought the perfect tenant was someone who left for work early in the morning, came back in the evening and didn’t go out anymore or at any other time!! The whole situation was scary and plain shady!!!

I have several examples of terrible places. Now..for the good examples. There was one which was in Tooting Broadway which was £260 a month including everything!!! It was a double room, good size, but the kitchen was like a cubicle, the tenants weren’t very clean and there was no living area or table so people ate on the stairs. But still....if worse came to worse...well..beggars aren’t choosers, right?

The other was, which was the one I was very very nearly about to take was from a Portuguese landlady which was already a plus, the room was enormous, and this was in Streatham and it was £90 a week including everything. The kitchen was very nice, the bathroom was small but its ok, and there was another room smaller one, which would be taken up by another girl if I lived there. The bigger room (they were both the same price somehow?!) which is obviously the one I wanted had nothing in there except a shelf and a couch, she said she would get a double bed in and whatever else I needed (bed side table, desk etc). This was all great, so one evening I went back there to secure the room, with my mom and my boyfriend, and my mom asked if there was a contract and she said no..it was all a case of trust (which btw, sounds fishy already) so my mom didn’t want me to take it, and I asked her about the bed and a desk she said she would move the bed from the other room instead of getting a new one like she promised and she said for me to get a desk as then it would belong to me which would be better. This is already breaking the so called trust she was talking about as she was changing her story. But the main problem was the no contract thing....if after my jobs at the University finish in September, I can’t get a job, and can’t go home to my parents and can’t pay for my rent and will therefore be homeless, then I will need to apply for benefits, which can only be provided if there is a contract. I’m hoping it won’t get to that, but if it does, at least I have a plan B!!! It’s all about survival at the end of the day.

Finally, just before I was about to secure the room with this Portuguese lady after seeing the other hellholes, she asked me to give her more time as she was going to speak to people she knew and try and find a safer, better, closer place. At this point I was utterly desperate to find a place as I had 3/4  days before getting kicked out of halls!!! Plus I still had to pack all my stuff in my room which I hadn’t been able to do as I was working and looking for flats 24/7 and still move out with only my mom’s small car!!! Anyway, my wonderful mom pulled through for me, and got me 2 viewings at places of people who actually work for her University and they’re right near where she lives and she knows the ladies too. One of them was ok and the other one was amazing. It’s a good price, lovely house, lovely people and lovely area, 6 mins walk from the station and its a 10min bus away from my mom and my boyfriend instead of an hour away like before!! My bf and my mom spent the whole evening Friday and all the way until 9am in the morning moving all my stuff to the new house, it was a terrible night, and we still had to go back one last time during the day Saturday to pick up one last thing. But it is all now in the new room, my room looks like a storage room at this point, so I haven’t even slept there yet as it’s full of stuff!! But my mom and I every evening after work are going to work through unpacking everything, and trying to throw stuff away as I HAVE GOT to be able to travel light!! It’s too much of a nightmare this way!!!

Overall, difficult, insightful experience and I would simply not have been able to do it without my mom and my boyfriend. Simply impossible.

If you ever have to do this – GOOD LUCK!! SERIOUSLY!!!