Moving To/Living In London Megathread - ALL QUESTIONS TO GO HERE

djpbarry

jimbojazz wrote: »

I'm seriously worried about this now as this job offer has been a god send

Don't be. Letting agents are morons. There should be absolutely no problem with them obtaining a credit history for you should they need it.

Landlords of London – why, oh why, do you continue to hand over your cash to these incompetent fools?

Fysh

jimbojazz wrote: »

I've just been offered a job in the UK.

The company needs an immediate start.

I was over there yesterday to tie up the loose ends.

Then I hit a hitch.

I went looking for accommodation with estate agents and was told that because I was resident in Ireland and had no credit history there that it would be difficult.

They said something about a Homelet referencing agency that they use but they were unsure about whether they check Ireland.

Has anyone any experience of this and can they check Ireland credit history which would clear up the situation.

I'm seriously worried about this now as this job offer has been a god send

Bypass the agents completely, and use craigslist/gumtree/spareroom or whatever site you prefer to find yourself a houseshare/short-term lease for a month or two.

Once you're here, use that address to open a bank account and get your NI number application under way. Get your Irish bank account address changed to this temporary address and get them to issue a statement to it - you can now use this as proof of residence, not to mention proof of whatever assets you have.

If you can, get a written reference from your last landlord in Ireland. With that, a letter from your new employer confirming your position and salary, and the letter from your Irish bank stating your assets, you should be able to find a landlord who'll take you.

who the fug

djpbarry wrote: »

Landlords of London – why, oh why, do you continue to hand over your cash to these incompetent fools?

Because they be handy for managing (explaining the facts of life) the expectations of people who are looking for accomodation.;)


Also we can blame them when soemthing fecks up

jimbojazz

Thanks for the replies.

I went onto the spare room website yesterday and registered and by 6pm everything was sorted and deposit paid.

Lovely house 10 minutes form my work and the best bit £500/month including bills

Now all I have to do is get over having to leave my 2 kids behind

silvervixen84

That must be a new record jimbojazz! Best of luck in your new place.

reddan

Hey Guys,

I literally just got off the boat there last week and am staying with my pal in East London. It's a bit uber tredndy for my tastes so I'm thinking of heading south to Brixton, I've been out there a couple of times, my friends live there and the whole place just seems a lot friendly.

South London seems bit more cut off then the east and north from the city, but it's a hit I'm prepared to take.

I got sorted with a recruitement agency and despite my Irish "welcome" -guiness a plenty- I managed to pull it together for an interview and got a week's temping work on Tuesday.

Anyway who's looking to set up a bank account I'd advise you to go as early in the morning as possible. I'm going for a Hsbc passport account which is handy enough to set up, however I went in after 11 and I had to wait the guts of 45 minutes to talk to someone.

Does anyone have any idea of decent-reasonably priced- place for grocery shopping. I made the mistake of going into Iceland today, in Bethnal Green, and the selection is unbelievably bad.

All the tesco's are express store,s and aren't that well stocked either. Is Sainsbury's the big one here? I've just managed to source around the corner from me so fingers crossed

djpbarry

who the fug wrote: »

Because they be handy for managing (explaining the facts of life) the expectations of people who are looking for accomodation.;)

Myself and the missus got an agency to let our place in Dublin a while back - never again. They took way longer to let the place than they said they would, there was a complete lack of communication (and every time we emailed/rang we dealt with a different "agent") and they were entertaining ridiculous offers 20 - 30% below their initial valuation. Utterly, utterly useless.

reddan wrote: »

Does anyone have any idea of decent-reasonably priced- place for grocery shopping. I made the mistake of going into Iceland today, in Bethnal Green, and the selection is unbelievably bad.

All the tesco's are express store,s and aren't that well stocked either. Is Sainsbury's the big one here?

Depends what you're looking for. Iceland I wouldn't go near, personally. Sainsburys, Tescos and the Co-Operative I would say are all fairly similar, but the Co-Op would be my personal preference of that three. Asda I'm not sure about. I like Morrisons myself - they do good own brand stuff and often have great beer selections. M&S and Waitrose are then at the upper end of the scale price wise.

reddan

djpbarry wrote: »

.
Depends what you're looking for. Iceland I wouldn't go near, personally. Sainsburys, Tescos and the Co-Operative I would say are all fairly similar, but the Co-Op would be my personal preference of that three. Asda I'm not sure about. I like Morrisons myself - they do good own brand stuff and often have great beer selections. M&S and Waitrose are then at the upper end of the scale price wise.

Thanks alot for that djpbarry. I've been checking them out online, seems a good un.

clsmooth

Looking for some tips to get him settled-he needs an NI number first which as far as I know only requires a passport and to supply an address at the interview? Is any proof of address needed? Also with regards to a bank account, do banks accept a NI letter or does it need to be a utility bill? Also how do you get registered to be eligible for the NHS? He's just come over and is staying with me whilst he is looking for a job so any tips with the above questions would be great!

LadyMayBelle

To register with the NHS:
http://www.nhs.uk/chq/Pages/1095.aspx?CategoryID=68&SubCategoryID=158

Enter your postcode here to find out what your options are and just walk in:
http://www.nhs.uk/servicedirectories/Pages/ServiceSearch.aspx?ServiceType=GP

Fenny

Has anybody ever lived in Camberwell? I'm looking at a nice houseshare there, and the rent's pretty good, but after a bit of Googling I'm starting to feel like Camberwell's not the nicest or safest area to live in...! Just worried about walking home in the evenings and or going out at the weekends and so on, but the street the house itself is on seems pretty quiet and peaceful. Any advice would be v. appreciated!!

bluedolphin

Fenny wrote: »

Has anybody ever lived in Camberwell? I'm looking at a nice houseshare there, and the rent's pretty good, but after a bit of Googling I'm starting to feel like Camberwell's not the nicest or safest area to live in...! Just worried about walking home in the evenings and or going out at the weekends and so on, but the street the house itself is on seems pretty quiet and peaceful. Any advice would be v. appreciated!!

I live in Peckham which has probably just as bad - if not worse - reputation as Camberwell. I've been here almost 18 months now and haven't had much of a problem. (Fortunately, I was visiting home when the riots kicked off in August; the riot in Peckham was just by my flat but luckily I could see my block from the aerial shots on Sky so I could see it hadn't been burnt out... :pac:) As far as I can make out, unless you go looking for trouble you won't find it come chasing you. That said, it's wise to be cautious and streetwise. One thing I would check is how close you are to your bus stop and the night buses that served you - you don't want to have a 20 minute walk at 3am after a few beers anywhere, but especially not around here. Just use your common sense - if you feel okay, then it's probably all right...bit of sense and you'll survive! My experience of living in Peckham is pretty positive; there is quite a community spirit and it's really vibrant; it's also pretty cheap and very "local". Camberwell's pretty much the same, so go for it I say.

Fenny

Thanks, that really helps! I think I'm fairly sensible about not flashing expensive stuff and getting home safely in general, and with luck, it should be fine. Combined with the allure of a Zone 2 travelcard (I'm living in Zone 4/5 at the moment), I think I'll sort out a deposit this week! :P

jethro081

ok folks, this is a bit of an odd question

but im looking at moving over in the new year, and im fairly confident about finding work and that, but basically what im asking is, from your experiences, what would be the minimum amount of savings that you would need to head over?

i have a couch i can crash on for a good while, but im just wondering how much you would think a man would need to keep himself ticking over till he got a job and got paid?

sorry for the vague question, im just looking for some annecdotal evidence here.

thanks

Jack B. Badd

jethro081 wrote: »

ok folks, this is a bit of an odd question

but im looking at moving over in the new year, and im fairly confident about finding work and that, but basically what im asking is, from your experiences, what would be the minimum amount of savings that you would need to head over?

i have a couch i can crash on for a good while, but im just wondering how much you would think a man would need to keep himself ticking over till he got a job and got paid?

sorry for the vague question, im just looking for some annecdotal evidence here.

thanks

About 5 years ago, myself and my OH moved over with £5k each. We both had jobs within a month, had to pay for short-term house-share for 4 weeks and put a deposit down on an apartment before we started receiving pay from our work. Cost of living (food, travel, rent) has gone up since then but if you're looking for a house-share rather than an apartment to yourself you probably won't need to spend as much on a deposit.

spacelucy

Hi,

I've been studying in the UK from 2009 until earlier this year, and qualified as an occupational therapist a couple of months ago. While I was looking for a job I've been back in Ireland, and now I've found one in England so I'm moving back. I've been told I need an enhanced CRB check which the Trust I'm working for are applying for - do I also need garda clearance since I've only been in the UK two years? And if so, does anyone know what kind of garda clearance I need? I can't apply for vetting as an individual, and the UK Trust wouldn't be registered with them. I've read about a police certificate somewhere but it's all a bit vague; can anyone shed any light on the process?

Thanks in advance!

LadyMayBelle

spacelucy wrote: »

Hi,

I've been studying in the UK from 2009 until earlier this year, and qualified as an occupational therapist a couple of months ago. While I was looking for a job I've been back in Ireland, and now I've found one in England so I'm moving back. I've been told I need an enhanced CRB check which the Trust I'm working for are applying for - do I also need garda clearance since I've only been in the UK two years? And if so, does anyone know what kind of garda clearance I need? I can't apply for vetting as an individual, and the UK Trust wouldn't be registered with them. I've read about a police certificate somewhere but it's all a bit vague; can anyone shed any light on the process?

Thanks in advance!

You need to check with the Trust and see if they require a Garda clearance from you.
Have you worked under a Garda clearance in Ireland; I imagine you would have one from college since you did OT... Contact your last employer or college and ask them for a copy of your garda clearance so you can hold onto a copy yourself in case the Trust request it.
Also bear in mind that the uk crb will check Irish addresses as well .

later12

jethro081 wrote: »

ok folks, this is a bit of an odd question

but im looking at moving over in the new year, and im fairly confident about finding work and that, but basically what im asking is, from your experiences, what would be the minimum amount of savings that you would need to head over?

I should think €1000 is about reasonable, depending on how long you can stay with your mates. You could probably get away with less, but I reckon €1000 is enough until your first paycheque unless you have any specific needs like paying for a deposit for accommodation.

spacelucy

LadyMayBelle wrote: »

You need to check with the Trust and see if they require a Garda clearance from you.
Have you worked under a Garda clearance in Ireland; I imagine you would have one from college since you did OT... Contact your last employer or college and ask them for a copy of your garda clearance so you can hold onto a copy yourself in case the Trust request it.
Also bear in mind that the uk crb will check Irish addresses as well .

Just saw this now, thank you! The trust said they'll wait to see what Criminal Records Bureau says. If they'll check my Irish addresses that should be fine I reckon, I did have one for uni which I still have, but have also lived in Ireland since then so was unsure if I'd need updated garda clearance. Hopefully will all be okay!

Scubadevils

Hi All,

I'm likely to move over to England sometime in the next couple of months. I work for a company that want me to move over and I'm in the process of trying to decide if it's the right thing to do - I reckon it is but we've 2 young kids and reluctant taking them away from the rest of the family etc. Anyway... decisions, decisions... Ireland doesn't seem to be recovering anytime soon...

I'm looking around the Brighton area at the moment as it has been really recommended as a place to live with a young family - I only need to be at the office on a Monday in London so the commute isn't an issue as such. That said, if there are areas nearer to London with good community and suitable for young families, good local schools etc I'd be keen to hear peoples views? Hemel had been suggested also but I don't know the area at all. My main considerations are nice area, not mad money, good schools, amenities etc - I was a bit shocked at the cost of the train fare when I went from London Victoria to Brighton a couple of weeks ago, 40-something pounds for 2 single tickets!

Cheers.

djpbarry

Scubadevils wrote: »

Ireland doesn't seem to be recovering anytime soon...

That really depends on what it is you do, but obviously you know that yourself. Things are not exactly rosey in the UK - just something to bear in mind.

Scubadevils wrote: »

I'm looking around the Brighton area at the moment as it has been really recommended as a place to live with a young family - I only need to be at the office on a Monday in London so the commute isn't an issue as such.

Brighton is a nice area - that wouldn't be a bad choice. As for other suggestions, it would depend on where in London your office is? For example, I could suggest Oxford as another possibility, but if your office were in East London, for example, getting to/from Oxford would be a bit awkward. There are plenty of nice areas in outer London too - it all depends on how much you're prepared to spend on housing really.

Scubadevils wrote: »

...I was a bit shocked at the cost of the train fare when I went from London Victoria to Brighton a couple of weeks ago, 40-something pounds for 2 single tickets!

Commuting to/from/within London is expensive - there's no getting away from that fact. But, if you only have to be in your office once a week, then that's not a major consideration for you.

Scubadevils

djpbarry wrote: »

That really depends on what it is you do, but obviously you know that yourself. Things are not exactly rosey in the UK - just something to bear in mind.

Oh indeed and the industry I work in is certainly experiencing its challenges in the UK also - nowhere near that of the Irish market though and I would feel considerably safer there than here... to the point that I've been pretty much told I don't have a career with the company if I stay in Ireland! Assuming of course I decide to take up the offer and not look elsewhere in Ireland, not that there are many choices here though which is the problem.

Brighton is a nice area - that wouldn't be a bad choice. As for other suggestions, it would depend on where in London your office is? For example, I could suggest Oxford as another possibility, but if your office were in East London, for example, getting to/from Oxford would be a bit awkward. There are plenty of nice areas in outer London too - it all depends on how much you're prepared to spend on housing really.
Commuting to/from/within London is expensive - there's no getting away from that fact. But, if you only have to be in your office once a week, then that's not a major consideration for you.

The office is near enough to Euston Road so pretty central, convenient to Great Portland St tube etc. The housing budget is yet to be defined and currently being considered but I think in the region of 1.6k GBP rent per month - possibly push it up to 1.8k. Yes agreed also that its not too much of an issue with only once a week commute to London... well typically anyway.

Thanks for the help!

jonnyfingers

Scubadevils wrote: »

The office is near enough to Euston Road so pretty central, convenient to Great Portland St tube etc. The housing budget is yet to be defined and currently being considered but I think in the region of 1.6k GBP rent per month - possibly push it up to 1.8k. Yes agreed also that its not too much of an issue with only once a week commute to London... well typically anyway.

Thanks for the help!

I'm living in Woking in Surrey at the moment and love it. The girlfriend commutes to London and I go the opposite direction towards the south coast. Surrey is a lovely, albeit somewhat expensive, place to live. But there's plenty of parks and green areas for kids and the schools look pretty good. There's a nice mixture of large towns and small country villages, all within a few minutes of each others. Not sure what your interests are but there's plenty to see and do no matter what you like.

It's also really easy to commute to London and most or the surrounding area.

South Western Trains go to Waterloo and you could get the Bakerloo Line up to Regents Park for work. On the main train lines you'd have a choice of Esher, Epsom, Woking, Guildford and many others as places to live. If you're only commuting one day a week the train would cost about £18 return for each journey. From our apartment in Woking to her office on Oxford St. only takes about 45 minutes. The train from Woking to Waterloo only takes 25 minutes, so very commutable.

Another advantage for Surrey it that it's close to Heathrow and Gatwick airports, handy for trips home or going somewhere for a holiday. The M25 and M3 are close too which gives you driving access to most places.

But all in all there's always a few places in Surrey on the "best place to live" surveys every year.

As for Brighton, I've been there a few times. It's a nice seaside town. The train to London is very good, but expensive, taking just over and hour and it runs very often at peak times. But still, depending on how close you live to the station, you'd be looking at at least a 1.5 hour commute, probably more. The town has a good selection of shops and restaurants, plus Brighton Pier which has amusements and traditional sweets and fast food shops, which is nice. The weather is also very nice along the south coast, but to be honest it's pretty good anywhere south of London.

But unless you really need to live in Brighton for some reason,I'd consider somewhere closer to London. You will find somewhere to live just as nice but save yourself a bit of hassle on the commute to work.

As for your decision whether to move or not, all I can say is that I quit a good job to follow my girlfriend to the UK and I don't regret it one bit. Obviously my situation is different as I don't have kids, but there just seems to be much more to do over here, plus plenty more job opportunists if you ever did want to move on.

If you have any more questions about Surrey, or the Southampton/Portsmouth area, let me know and I'll do my best to answer them.

ballsymchugh

Scubadevils wrote: »

The office is near enough to Euston Road so pretty central, convenient to Great Portland St tube etc. The housing budget is yet to be defined and currently being considered but I think in the region of 1.6k GBP rent per month - possibly push it up to 1.8k. Yes agreed also that its not too much of an issue with only once a week commute to London... well typically anyway.

Thanks for the help!

that budget would get you a cracking house in maidstone in kent where i am.

i'd recommend it for a few simple reasons... it's takes an hour to drive in to trafalgar square at the weekends, excellent train service from a few stations around the place, the schools here seem to be pretty good, it's a nice area (everywhere north of maidstone, with maybe the exception of canterbury, is a hole) especially to the south towards tunbridge wells, cranbrook area.
plus you have 4 airports within an hour. gatwick is 45 mins away if you take your time, stansted is 55 mins (allowing for the traffic at the dartford crossing), heathrow is an hour, london city is about 40 mins away and it's extremely handy for last minute flights when ryanair and aer lingus are already more expensive.
also, just south of ramsgate there's a quality sandy beach for the sunny days, way better than the stones of brighton, and the ferry to france is 45 mins away.

caesar

I'm moving over Thursday I've noting sorted in terms of accommodation but I've being doing a bit of research and looking on gumtree and spareroom. On the plus side, I do have a job sorted. I will be working in Finsbury Square starting next week. Having read this thread and the other one, I've drawn up a list of the following areas for myself:

Clapham - South is apparently better? The young Irish community that is supposedly there attracts me if I'm honest. I want to get to know locals and others but I like the idea of having a few Irish people around, initially anyway. Aside from that, even from the basic research I've done I have a good feeling about the area.

Finsbury Park - Would be handy for work I think, don't know much else about it though.

Kilburn – Seems to come up a lot in terms of the amount of Irish there but at the same time, it's been mentioned that it hasn't attracted the new wave of Irish.

Camden - I've heard good things but someone said to me that it might be better to go out there once in a while rather than live there.

Hackney – The Dalston area was mentioned as somewhere in particular. Also, my sister met work colleagues from London who said it was an up and coming area.

Elephant and Castle/Kennington area - Was mentioned to me by two family members who have lived in London before and on the thread somewhere. I'm not sure though, finding it difficult to get a sense of the area.

Islington - I saw it here and it came up in a few searches on those sites, rent seems on the high side and I haven't yet worked out commute options.

Other areas I have jotted down are Shoreditch, Ealing, Kensal Green and Shepherd's Bush but I still have to do my research on those as well as some more on the ones above.

I don't know London at all but I guess my preference is somewhere with an Irish community. A commute of 45 minutes or less door to door would be great so no further out than Zone 2 I assume. I'm not sure how the above areas fit into my criteria in that sense. Maybe someone can advise? I'm looking to share with 3 or more as I want to get to know people. It would be nice to have one other Irish person in the place in terms of the common ground type conversations. In terms of rent, I figure it’s going to be somewhere between £550 to £800 pcm, can’t see myself going above 700 to be honest, it would want to be special if I were to. I read that a tenant should be earning 2.5 times their annual rent (before tax). Would you think that is about right?

Hopefully, the search goes well and any advice about the areas mentioned or whatever would be greatly appreciated My research so far has been slow but I'm getting there.

djpbarry

ballsymchugh wrote: »

that budget would get you a cracking house in maidstone in kent where i am.

i'd recommend it for a few simple reasons... it's takes an hour to drive in to trafalgar square at the weekends, excellent train service from a few stations around the place, the schools here seem to be pretty good, it's a nice area (everywhere north of maidstone, with maybe the exception of canterbury, is a hole) especially to the south towards tunbridge wells, cranbrook area.
plus you have 4 airports within an hour. gatwick is 45 mins away if you take your time, stansted is 55 mins (allowing for the traffic at the dartford crossing), heathrow is an hour, london city is about 40 mins away and it's extremely handy for last minute flights when ryanair and aer lingus are already more expensive.

Some of the transit times you're quoting there are incredibly optimistic. An hour from Heathrow to Maidstone? Not a hope. An hour to central London? Maybe, if there's absolutely zero traffic - sure the train to Victoria takes about an hour.

djpbarry

caesar wrote: »

Elephant and Castle

No. Just, no.

caesar wrote: »

It would be nice to have one other Irish person in the place in terms of the common ground type conversations.

Like many other posters on here, I think you're putting a little too much emphasis on the Irish thing - it'll end up restricting you. You will not be able to avoid Irish people in London during the course of your day-to-day life - there really is no need to make a special effort to seek them out.

caesar wrote: »

I read that a tenant should be earning 2.5 times their annual rent (before tax).

I would say 3 times as a minimum, but that's just me.

ballsymchugh

djpbarry wrote: »

Some of the transit times you're quoting there are incredibly optimistic. An hour from Heathrow to Maidstone? Not a hope. An hour to central London? Maybe, if there's absolutely zero traffic - sure the train to Victoria takes about an hour.

they're my own experience anyway. it's been a while since i've used heathrow from maidstone, maybe about 4 years actually, but getting to hurling matches in greenford took and hour and 15 mins.
there doesn't have to be zero traffic, just as long as it's flowing, it's fine.
the trains from maidstone don't tend to go the most direct route into london anyway. going out on a saturday via m20, m25, a2 was always fine. you'd only hit traffic about new cross and bermondsey if at all, but it did take an hour.

caesar

djpbarry wrote: »

Like many other posters on here, I think you're putting a little too much emphasis on the Irish thing - it'll end up restricting you. You will not be able to avoid Irish people in London during the course of your day-to-day life - there really is no need to make a special effort to seek them out.

I was thinking that after I posted. I don't know what it is, it's not like I haven't lived with people of other nationalities before. I don't want to live with all Irish or anything like that as I think it would kill the experience to some extent. Ideally, I'd like to find a place that would have people from different parts.

Thanks for the advice.

djpbarry

caesar wrote: »

I was thinking that after I posted. I don't know what it is, it's not like I haven't lived with people of other nationalities before. I don't want to live with all Irish or anything like that as I think it would kill the experience to some extent. Ideally, I'd like to find a place that would have people from different parts.

I think you'll be genuinely surprised by how often you encounter Irish accents here. I don't think a day goes by when I don't hear "Ah, sure it's grand" or some such.