Moving Home and Renting with a Dog

 

I never realised just how stressful this process was, honestly I bow down to those who have had to go through the process of buying a home and all that comes along with it.

Although I am only renting, it has still meant that I have had to go through reference checks, which I knew I would fail and need a guarantor. On top of that trying to find someone that will accept a dog is nearly impossible! There are so many bad dog owners out there, that have created such a bad rep for people like me making it extremely hard to get landlords to even entertain the idea! I understand that landlords may have been stung before with an irresponsible dog owner, but seriously we aren't all like that! I cannot comprehend how anyone would want to leave dog mess laying around and have their house dirty? Having a dog is no excuse, they certainly don't want to live like that either! So just keep at it and keep looking, it will take longer than usual but you WILL find somewhere.

If you can get one, get a reference for your dog. This is something landlords can ask for and even if they don't it may help ease their minds.

I found this place by chance, my brother actually spotted it on zoopla and I instantly jumped on it! I mean it is only a few doors down from my Mum and so so close to all my other friends and family! Trustworthy dog walker right there were my initial thoughts!

The letting agents have not helped in the process either, they are extremely poor with communication and don't seem to want to ease in your stress levels. Having spoken to several people about this it is clear this is just a general trait of an estate agent... Good work guys think you need to work on that! So my advice with this is to keep chasing them up, they will not contact you. If you want a job done well, you have to do it yourself.

After going through the process of referencing and then having to wait to hear back from the landlords whether they were happy to proceed on the basis of a guarantor and then that all coming back fine for the letting agent to just tell me sorry still need to confirm with the landlords to see if they want to go ahead? Come on I thought you had said that it was all A okay based on the fact that I had a good guarantor?!?

The main thing that was stressing me out was the fact that I knew I needed to leave where I was and it was getting extremely uncomfortable being there. So having to keep waiting for an answer when I could have been spending that time looking for a different place to live if this one feel through, was beyond frustrating. Honestly I got so many colds/ flus in that time I lost count.

So after spending 3 weeks in limbo I finally found out that I got the House!!! Yipee!!!

 

From here it is pretty smooth sailing, you just have to pay the deposit and first months rent. Once that is all done you can agree a move in date to get the keys! I did my move in date mid week on the 26th April, so that I could get stuff moved over during the week evening's. I was also very lucky in that I planned to have a half day on the Friday and a few days after the weekend before I started my new job. This gave me the whole weekend to get everything in and where I wanted it as well as settle Harley in.

I had started packing as soon as I got the all clear and got boxes from supermarkets and that people were chucking away, much cheaper than trying to buy them. I transferred all my stuff by car and over a few trips, however you can hire a van and do it that way, just note that it is always cheaper hiring a van in the week rather than a weekend.

Settling Harley in was a lot easier than I thought, she wasn't happy the first night I started to move things in, however here is where I made the biggest mistake I could have! I didn't bring any of her things over first... so lesson learnt and great advice for you is to ensure you have some of their things in the home before you bring them over to the new place.

I know this because on the Thursday evening when I had some of her toys in she was right as rain, running round bringing her toys everywhere, even showing Suzanne round the House. She had pretty much settled in there and then!

Not only do you need to get all your stuff in but you need to insure it! I use Top Cashback where you get money back on normal internet purchases for free!! there is no sign up fee, just simply buy something off the internet through their link and get cash back, I think I got about £21.00 back on my home insurance. Every little helps.

I searched for deals on wifi etc. but found that because I was an EE customer it was cheaper to do it directly through them and get a good deal.

The other things to consider and arrange are all your utility bills and council tax, remember if you're living on your own you get single persons discount.

One massive thing to note is that you must go through an inventory report with the landlord on the day you get the keys, to agree on existing damage etc. this covers both you and them in the event of a dispute later on. Ensure you get lots of pictures too. On the day of move in make sure you write down all the gas, electric and water readings before you do anything, you don't want to be paying for someone else's debt!

I hope this is helpful to at least one person, I for one am glad that it is all done and feel so much happier in myself. Seriously loving all the space to myself.