Housing In London

Its been 2 happening weeks in London so far for us...the main job being house hunting in the East Ham and Upton Park area.

First we were denied by many people since we needed a place for just about 10 weeks. And after convincing and viewing like half a dozen places, we found one thing that was common in most of them....
Am not sure why, but these houses were maintained so badly!!!!
Dust, mildew, bad heating, oil stains...
Rats are common here and that is also understandable..in India there would be lot more creatures in the house apart from us humans :)..

Am curious why this is so???? Sharing the house is one thing and sharing the cleaning routine goes along and even though its done sincerely the houses seem to lack the basic hygiene. Especially if the landlords live in it!!!
Rented places looked so sparkly clean but were not being let for short term.

Of course bachelors have their way of life and sharing a house with them has a different take, but when you come here as a family, fitting in becomes difficult...especially the privacy part....even if that is compromised, its still a weird feeling...I thought it might be the loneliness in the strange new city..but still not convinced...

Is this common in many parts of London??? Or just these areas?

I don't mean to sound critical of anyone..but just curious..did anyone else face the same kind of trouble when you first got here?

Basically London seems so convenient food and work-wise. Of course its expensive when it comes to housing and that is still a manageable problem. But the apartment hunt seems to take the courage and hope out of you in just a week's time!!! We just can't trust the natives cos we came across so many problems and actually fell victim to a scam and lost a load of money. With all this around us, it just makes things feel so insecure in the new country...

Was it the same feeling with many of you guys too? Or its just us unlucky few ... ... .... ..

Just wanted to talk things out to free my head and feel better...
Again don't mean any offense to anyone..esp landladies .....

Hi,
East ham is pretty congested and most of the apartments are teeny-weeny.Not sure about upton park.Did you approach housing agents?That is the best and quick way to find a house.They have various contacts.It all depends on the people about cleanliness.Since most of them are fully furnished,there is a cramped feeling in the house.Oh God,dont remind me of Rat/rodents.I had tough time with that.Make sure you dont live close to gardens and preferrable avoid the first floor(i think the ground floor is referred as first floor there).

Hey Supriya...

Ya..we called a few agents and the same answer from all of them..no places for short term again ...
Plus the admin fee is like 350 pounds!!! That was a lot!!!!

We managed to get a place on the 2F (G+1)...basically to get some privacy.

I agree though that the maintenance part is totally on the people..and ya the furnished houses have a cramped feeling too.

Sandy,

Wow you are all set to cross the 50+ posts before the long weekend I guess.

One must be extremely cautious with the agent's fee as we had to shell out around 650 pounds to our agent.Though initially he quoted only 250 pounds for his service finally he submitted a bill for 650 which included admin fees ,referral fees and other document charges.So one must be very careful with these hidden charges.

Hey Sabitha,

Yup...really looking forward to get across the 50+ limit..hopefully will get to catch up with people soon thru messages!!!

And ya..the fee seems real high..and another thing is if its worth it or not.
If you're looking for a place for more than 6 months (long term), a month's rent as fees sounds alright...but for 2 and a half months, it seemed really over the top!!

And just for some guidance to people looking for places, if anyone knows any agent, a good and reasonable one, you could list it here for future reference.

What say??