Moving to new area - renting tips please?

OH and I are looking to up sticks and get away from near London to afford to buy a decent house - couldn't get much around here and we feel our lifestyle will be a bit less stressful with cheaper living prices, aquieter area, etc. I mentioned renting for a while to find out what the new area is like (we're hoping to move near a friend of mine but obviously her idea of a good place to live depends on her outlook in life) and OH has admitted I was right (I'm a woman - is there ever any doubt? ) and agrees that if we're going to move to a new area to buy, renting for a while would be a good idea to get to know the area (lets us save a little longer too)
Now, the furthest I've moved is into various houseshares that have always been only about 10 minutes down the road and OH has only moved once, in with me. My houseshares were sublets with basic contracts with the other housemates, and deposits held in the deposit scheme thingy, and current house is the family home I'm living in with my brother and his girlfriend - so no contract, deposit, nothing. So OH and I may need a little advice for this big move!
A few of my main questions, if anyone can help:

- we'll be moving to a new area. OH can hopefully keep his job, which takes the pressure off me finding a job ASAP because we could afford it on his wages and I could use some savings if necessary. However, ideally I'd like to live near to work because of the dogs - OH's job means he's home half of the day 90% of the time but for that 10% I'd like to be able to pop home to walk the dogs. So how do people work this kind of thing? Apply for jobs, if I get one, say I have to give a month's notice then madly pack up and try to find a house to rent nearby? Rent in a decent area where there seems to be jobs available and hope I get one? I'd prefer to do the same job I'm doing now but to be honest I'm not fussy and I'd do anything that earns me a wage, as long as I'm physically able to.

- what do short term and long term leases usually mean? OH doesn't want to be renting forever, I'm thinking 6 months minimum to maybe a year, so I can be established enough in a job (if it doesn't take me a year to get one! Hopefully the job market will pick up by the time we move) to not worry about finding myself jobless with a mortgage (again, probably could be afforded on one wage but I'd rather be paying my way). Ideally we'd like a place that gives us the option to rent longer if we need it, but not to be tied to it forever if we don't like the area/decide to buy earlier.

- renting with dogs. I've asked similar on another forum and been given some good advice, but more tips from other POVs won't be turned down! I've actually found a local estate agent's website where half the properties to let say pets allowed/considered/negotiable. Assuming this means bigger deposit, professional cleaning after we move, etc., anyone else find they're bound by stricter rules or more regular landlord visits or anything because they have dogs? Have people with bigger breed dogs found it harder to rent when the landlord's asked what size dog(s) you've got? Casper I'm not too worried about as he's big, fluffy and not typical GSD colours, but with Kiki being an obvious Rottie cross, I need to sell her to wary landlords - I'm considering borrowing my stepsisters to get some nice photos of Kiki with children, to show she's not a child-eating monster.

Any other things I haven't thought of? Also, any members in the Nottinghamshire area? We're looking around Mansfield (probably not Mansfield itself but a surrounding town) so 'reviews' of the area (and potential new dog walking buddies!) would be great.

I'll try and help - I used to be a letting agent please don't hate me....

A short term lease would usually be classed as 6 or 12 months and the majority of them will not have a break clause meaning you can leave the property early therefore you are tied into the contract for the duration. Having said that, most landlords/agents would be willing to let you leave early providing you/they can find replacement tenants. They may charge you an administration fee for this and I have heard of them chargind the advertising costs too but I think that is rare. Otherwise they can't stop you moving out whenever you want but you would still be liable to pay the rent. In some places (like where we are renting atm) once you have done you're initial 6 or 12 months they will not renew the contract, instead letting you go onto a periodic or rolling contract so the terms of the initial lease remain, but intead of having an end date the landlord/agent can give you 2 months notice if they want you to leave and you can give them 1 month. Some people don't like the insecurity that comes with this, but you would usually only find people willing to do this on longer term lettings because the risk to the landlord is too great on a short term basis and let's face it, they're only doing this to make money.

Renting with dogs - it's funny how much this can depend on the agents view. Many landlords will take the agents advice unless they're particularly passionate about pets and many agents have seen the problems that can arise from badly kept pets such as fleas, destruction, stains etc. And would probably advise the landlords not to accept pets. Having said that, if you don't ask you don't get. WIll tell you a bit about our experience in a sec... They would probably charge you more of a deposit and may insist on the house being fumigated and the carpets steam cleaned before you leave. As for inspections - that is very much down to the agent. It's uncommon for a landlord to have much to do with that side of things, but if they've been sung in the past they may request more frequent inspections. There are no rules on that but the agent/landlord does have to respect your right to make a home of the property and cannot be seen to be invading your privacy. A quarterly inspection would be viewed as frequent. Something else you might find is that you have more luck with letting companies who own the properties themselves therefore are purely a business investment rather than when agents are managing on behalf of someone who depends on the income for retirement etc.

I know I've waffled a bit but we've recently moved into a rented place with our dogs. We moved back in with my parents when we got Ben & Max (collies) and within 4 weeks were looking for places to rent. We were onto every local estate and lettign agent as well as my mum (who has a small letting company) trying to get any of her landlords to do deals for us! We would make appts. to view houses and get there to be told they wouldn't accept dogs even thought we had told them before hand that we had 2. It became very frustrating and we had seen one advert again and again for a house in the area we wanted to be but it was advertised as accepting DSS (no offence to peeps on benefits it's just that rented house who offer to take DSS are usually not taken care of very well by the owners) and the photos of it were fairly horrendous - the woodwork was blue and the walls orange. Everywhere. After a while of chasing our tails and wasting time we decided that maybe it was worth enquiring about this one. The chances were that in the state it looked they would have no problem taking dogs. We were right and moved in 3 weeks later. The landlord paid for paint and equipment and we decorated it througout and are just approaching the end of our lease after which time we will be on a periodic contract as they want to rent this out long term which is great for us as we aren't in a position to buy and won't be for a long time.
We were asked lots of questions about the dogs. At the time they weren't even 8 months old so I may have told a porky and said they were 10 months which doesn't make much difference but I didn't want to be turned down for having dogs that were too young.

Anyway, hope that helps. The long and short of it is if you get an appointment and the agent says they won't confirm if dogs are accepted until they know you're interested, unless you want to waste your time, it's worth demanding to know first. SO many of them seem to think that you will get rid of your dogs if you like the house enough! Stupid!!!

Good luck.

no advice about renting, but if you are at a loose end take up dog walking!!!!

If you find a landlord that allows pets, (and if they do they may have a number restriction), you may find you have to pay a larger deposit, that may be none refundable, depending on the way you leave the house.


Some Landlords will give a short term lease (6mths, ) but usually it will be a 12 mth tenancy, and as has already been said, you will be obliged to fulfill that agreement if you leave early!

Good luck!!

Oh yes - I've been out of work once for a few months and it was so boring, I don't think I could sit at home doing nothing. I've already looked into local rescues (trying to convince my friend there to adopt a dog!) so if I was jobless I'd probably look into volunteering - saves having a blank in my CV too!
Fully expecting to pay a larger deposit and it won't be the end of the world if we don't get it back. The 6 month contract than 1-2 month rolling contract sounds ideal - realistically we're not going to rent for 6 months then buy a house overnight, it will all depend on jobs, the house market, whether the seller is in a chain, etc. so the option of staying put a bit longer is appealing. As I said to OH the other night, if we buy a house that needs work done to the garden to make it secure for the dogs, for example, it would be handy to have our rental overlap the moving date by a couple of weeks so we have a bit of time to sort the basics and can move over bits and pieces, rather than trying to unpack with pooches running amok indoors because the garden's not secure enough to pack them outdoors out of the way for a bit.
Fortunately lots of places we've seen do state pets negotiable/pets allowed which is a relief - around our current area it's pretty rare to see that stated!

i currently rent with my animals, i was lucky as my landlord is a very good guy, he loves dogs esp gsd's, i paid the usual deposit (which was the same as a months rent) and a months rent up front, anytime i phone him he asks have you settled in ok? what about the dog has he settled in ok? and my answer is yes and he is always oh good as long as he likes it thats the main thing lol
he is an animal lover and doesnt see the point in landlords restricting people from having pets, as long as you look after the house, why shouldnt you is his outlook on things, im supposed to ask for his permission if i want anymore according to my contract but he just said do what you want.

im on a 6 month short assured lease, which means that i have to stay here for 6 months then after that i go onto a monthly lease so i can leave after my 6 months aslong as i give him notice.

i didnt go through any agency i found him on gumtree.

hope this helps a bit

shame your not looking a bit further south as our village is fab and dogs are most welcome alledgedly you are allowed 2 dogs but my friend had about 10 at one point, everyone knew she had them she just used to farm them out when it was time for yearly inspection (the land agent knew she had them as well!)

That's another very good point - a lot of people think animals wreck houses - they dont, people do! You should see they way some people leave them! Must be health hazards!