anyone rented through Flatland in London?

A question about : anyone rented through Flatland in London?

Hi

I'm going to secure a flat to live in during my degree next week in the London area, have found a number of properties that suit my budget and requirements and they're all through the estate agents Flatland ... i've heard differing reviews on these guys but to be honest apart from the fee you have to pay them up front before you view anything etc, it seems to be a pretty decent service in terms of saving money and avoiding other daft fees through other estate agents and there fore suitable for students who are looking to avoid certain things and save as much as possible when securing a flat to live and while renting etc ...

anyone with any feedback .. be much appreciated thanks

Best answers:

• Why do you have to pay upfront? Sounds like a total con to me.
  I have seen what they advertise and it looks overpriced ( they used to have pages in the lOOT)
  Personally I have always avoided them as they look dodgy , just the advert gives me that impression.
  I can recommend a letting agent in east london, im sure others would recommend letting agents too.
  Where are you looking to live?
• i'm going to be living west london, anywhere surrounding the acton area which is where my music school is so so far been looking places like Chiswick where theres some good flats i'm viewing monday, but the more advice the better to be honest, im really on a tight budget for my first few months and have decided to avoid a big house share as its not really my thing and have been totally messed about by various estate agents in acton. costing an absolute fortune etc
• Have you had any info from the college, mine has an accommodation office, or a list of accredited student landlords.
  are you looking for a one bed flat then ? what are you looking to spend?
  I am in East London so Im sure my agent is a bit far out for you?
• to be honest the info of all the agents etc the uni provided in the acton area were all rubbish to deal with apart from one or two, yeah i suppose east is a bit far out, it has really got to be west for me ..
  im maxing 500 a month rent at the moment for my flat, but finding a lot of places that are going even cheaper for decent studio flats. Im not fussy just want it to be relatively modern still and clean etc ... i guess im just going to have to be in the right place at the right time. its just until i secure a decent earning part time job during my guitar degree i need somewhere cheap to be able to manage properly so i don't want to be going over 500 a month to be honest. i have around ten thousand a year to live on and whatever i earn from work on top of that at the moment so need to work around that budget.
• sorry forgot to add, yeah a one bed flat ideally, with other things included preferably own shower room etc and not shared but keeping an open mind ...
• If your looking on their website or on zoopla or another property finding website and there are flats advertised by flatland they propbably are old or just some example they put up but in reality not actually available. I used them last year and i did get a studio but they did send me to a few dumps too. You should call them to check if they are really available but its best to stick to a proper estate agent.
• The problem is that your budget is really low to be honest for a one bed flat... just from looking on rightmove....
• yeah i called them the ones im looking at are indeed still available, its whether the pictures are really what the state the places are in. to be honest my budget of 500 a month is pretty much the norm for most students who are studying where i am at the moment in most house shares and flats apparently work out cheaper anyway for what im looking at, flatland claim to "specialise" in finding low priced studio flats etc for people in similar positions to myself, once im working in london too and settled i can raise my budget and look elsewhere. ive found a lot of places available well within my current budget so its just a matter of viewing them and deciding what to go with now. im still going to go with flatland next week and see what happens. if its not to be then nevermind i'll have to go somewhere else ... if i have to go above the 500 a month rent mark then i'll have to take it on the chin haha
• I can understand your frustration with estate agents. My studio was pretty small but they all tend to be. It was in hammersmith for 700pcm, studio around that area and near where flatland is itself tend to be alot. It was clean with own bathroom. Not sure if ill find a place like that right now, but if its in acton it should be easier.
• haha yeah i was surprised to learn that a holding fee i put down on a house with one of these estate agents i speak of who seemed to go against their word after we'd put the money down is actually refunding me this week, so thank god for that.
  fingers crossed in a couple of days i'll have my flat nailed down and the stress is over!!
• Hmm I'm skeptical of that. Don't know of anyone who's used Flatland before. But given that estate agencies all seem to be a bit dodgy (ie I recently was flat hunting in London and we knew by the time we'd viewed that flat that it had already been rented yet they still continued to make out that it hadn't been), maybe it's worth paying a fee to get a premium service. However, unless you find someone that actually has used them, I would avoid it. Why not check on Zoopla and Gumtree; I found my flat on Zoopla. You just have to be extremely quick off the mark. If it states the place has had more than 10 views, I don't think it's worth arranging a viewing- the flat/house will already have gone. And it's worth checking later in the day and early in the morning for new property updates.
• Hi,
  I used Flatland earlier this year in July. You do have to pay an upfront fee but there are other services like this, e.g. Interlet, so it's not entirely strange or dodgy.
  They had quite a range of properties available back then and you can just pick and choose which ones you want to go and see.
  They're only an introduction service so it's up to you to sort things out with the landlord if you decide to take a property.
  The fee isn't all that bad when you consider how much "proper" estate agents will charge in fees.
  All in all, I'm happy with them
• I did, registered and paid. Went to see three flats, wasn't particularly organised and the same man showed us round three flats, he didn't have the key for one of them. Were very basic properties and excluded a ridiculous amount each week for bills, which would be far more than they actually cost.
  I didn't end up getting my flat through them, so bit disappointed that i paid the fee. Although the staff in the office are knowledgeable.
• Hi I am currently looking for a self-contained studio flat with a similar budget to yours - which I realise is quite low - and was amazed at what was available on the Flatland website. I am concerned about bills, of course as well as whether these flats actually exist. I am curious to find out whether it worked out for you and did you actually find a decent flat through them?
  Thanks
• Same as above, any chance of an update Bumsnogger?
• I've used flatland services this january and found accommodation through them within just 2 days. They were very friendly, efficient and helpful; highly recommended, just Ј62 for their service.
• Hi,
  I want to say that it is true you have to pay to access this flatland service but first of all you would need to pay some sort of fees with agencies as well. Thus there is no real difference. Second, me and my boyfriend were desperate in our search for a flat and had tried many different means, but at flatland they allowed us to see many properties that were good for our budget and very quickly, thus I think it was a cost-effective way to reach a very good result. Indeed, we really like the place we are in now.