Renting Your First Flat: The Checklist Nobody Gives You

Before you view anything

Work out the real monthly figure first. Rent is the headline; council tax, water, energy, broadband and contents insurance are the rest, and together they routinely add a third. Agents quote the headline because that is what they are asked for.

Have your paperwork ready before you find somewhere you like. Photo ID, proof of address, the last three months of payslips or bank statements, and a guarantor's details if your income is under thirty times the monthly rent. Places go to whoever can complete, not whoever viewed first.

What to check at the viewing

Run the taps and flush the loo. Open the windows. Look under the sink and behind the bath panel if you can. Check the mobile signal in every room, because you will care about it every day and nobody thinks to test it.

Ask where the stopcock and the fuse box are. An agent who does not know is an agent who has never had to deal with a leak in that building.

The money, in order

A holding deposit of no more than one week's rent, which is deducted from the first payment. Then the first month up front and a deposit capped at five weeks' rent for most tenancies. That deposit must be protected in a government-approved scheme within thirty days - see tenancy deposit protection for how the schemes work.

You should not be charged for referencing, an inventory, or the renewal of your own tenancy. Those fees were banned in 2019 and any agent still quoting them is either out of date or trying it on.

The first hour, before you unpack

Photograph everything. Every room wide, then every mark, scuff, stain and chip in close-up with something for scale. Photograph the meter readings. Photograph the inside of the oven and the seal on the fridge.

Email the set to yourself and to the agent the same day, so the timestamp is not just on your phone. This takes twenty minutes and is the single most effective thing you can do to protect your deposit.