Housing trials...

Ever since I started this new job in Stevenage I have thought about moving house to make my commute shorter. In fact, the moment I found out that I got the job I gave my housemate 1 month's notice.

The plan was to get a 2 bedroom place to share with Cynthia from church in the Angel area. Angel is one stop away from Kings Cross where I take the train out to work. After a week and a half of stressful searching we found a nice, clean, quiet, bright and fully furnished place in Angel. Some of the places we saw before this were really in need of some minor renovation work as they were plain dirty and run down. I don't know what landlords are thinking in this country... The landlord of this place in Angel was someone who was currently living in the house but wanting to rent it out. She was therefore quite emotionally attached to it and wanted to meet both Cynthia and I before she would agree to rent it to us. She'd met Cynthia previously when Cynthia had gone to look at the house the first time but I had been somewhere else looking at another place. Cynthia gave me a good report on the house so I went to have a look at it too one Sunday. It was indeed a nice place (and understandably so since the landlord lived there (although this shouldn't be an assumption)) and was much nicer than any other place we had seen. We spent about an hour there because she kept going on and on about paying the rent, keeping out end of the agreement, conditions where we would lose our bond, how her cousin was a real estate agent, etc, ad naseum! Again, she was an emotionally attached, first time landlord who was quite amateurish as far as I was concerned but we obliged her and did all we could to assure her and convince her of the quality of our character. At the end of this we come to the understanding that we would like to take the place for 6 months and would send her our current landlord and employment details via email on Monday.

So, duly, I do this on Monday. Over the next few days I get a string of emails asking for more and more information and by Thursday I was getting fed up with it! I didn't mind giving her the information but her lack of organisation in sending requests piecemeal rather than all at once was seriously delaying the process, especially since I was meant to be moving out of my current place on Saturday! I wrote her an email saying essentially what I've written above and that I couldn't give her proof of address (her latest request) now because I didn't have it with me. She had sent the email the previous night after I had left work and so I only got it the next morning and it wasn't something I had with me at work.

Well the end of it is that after lunch I got an email from her saying that she wasn't going to rent it to Cynthia and I because her brother had found someone who wanted to rent it for 12 months and didn't have a problem sending her documents!!!

Now it could be interpreted that I had lost the house for us because I told her off on email. However, her response to that particular email was extremely apologetic saying how she knew how it felt to move to a new country and that it wasn't really her asking for the information but the "reference people". And besides that, I didn't have a problem sending her the document; my last email to her said that I was going to send it through the next day! (I couldn't send what I didn't physically have within the confines of space-time.) A very dishonest statement on her part. There was also another email from her that said she had spoken to the credit checking people and everything else had gone through fine and all she needed was the proof of address.

I was majorly, majorly pissed!! Pardon my French. We had stopped looking for a place to live because we had come to a verbal understanding and whilst nothing is set until the contract is signed, that was what we were working towards. I think we got the rental equivalent of being 'gazumped'! What rubbed salt into the wounds was her parroting on about being honest and doing the right thing at the start! A total and utter hypocrite!

So I was left with 2 days to find another place to live! Luckily London is geared for this type of thing and there is quite a bit on offer, although the quality can be wanting.

I found a place that was 1 minute's walk from Earls Court tube station which was OK but situated on a main road. I did check out the noise level and it sounded ok in the day so I decided to take it. I'd lived on main roads before and handled it fine. Well at night the noise was unbearable!!! I was sleeping with ear plugs and still couldn't sleep. On Sat night after a busy and tiring day moving house I still could not fall asleep easily and got woken up at 05:50 and of course couldn't get back to sleep! Went to church like a zombie and had also lost most of my voice by this stage! On Sunday night I decided to go to bed early (at 11pm) and didn't sleep until about 3am!!! Maybe it was because I was thinking about trying to sleep and when you do that it never comes easily but the noise was a factor. Also I was getting a mild cough as well. So I couldn't stand it any longer and told the agent that I was giving two weeks notice and moving house. I had also arranged to doss at my friend's house for the rest of the week where I could hopefully sleep!

I am not too proud to admit when I am wrong, and I was wrong to take that place!

The agent rang me back and tells me she's got another place nearby that is quieter and nicer. I could go over, have a look at it and move in straight away if I wanted. I thought why not, and so went to see it. It is a house of Aussies who've just arrived (they seem quite nice people) and the room I have is set way back at the end of the house so there is no road-noise at all from the suburban side street. It is much better but there are 7 people (including me) and only one bathroom!!!

I must admit that it is not nearly as bad as what I would have thought. We have different schedules and so there is not much contention for the bathroom but it really is the 'London experience' for 18 year olds rather than what I would like and can afford to pay for.

Some nicer places have come up and there have been friends of friends who've needed a housemate but my thinking is that I can't be bothered moving again (after having to do it twice over three days). I'll just stay where I am now until I leave for Melb on July 15th. Then when I return to London I'll doss for a bit while I figure out where I'm working and find a place that is convenient for that.

So, the trials of housing in London...

In hindsight I think, should I have moved out of Hammersmith (as it was a decent place and would have saved me all this trouble)? Also I didn't end up moving that much closer to work.

I think yes, because the idea was to move to Angel. If that happened it would have been good, it's just that it didn't happen that resulted in these other negative effects! C'est la vie!

Take care y'all.