First Houses

[Barry the Sprout]

Ok, in a few months my first year at University will be finished and if all goes to plan then I should be moving out of my halls of residence and into private rented accomodation. So the first point of this thread is to announce to all that I am living in Harringay next year with 5 other blokes, nice men to the last. 3 Northern Monkeys, 3 Southern Fairys. 3 Whining lefties, 3 Bigoted Tories (and no, the split doesn't go the same way for some reason...). I am really looking forward to it, cheap and cheerful in Zone 3, London.

And the second, and probably much more interesting, point of this thread is to see what horror stories people have regarding their first experiences with their own house. Every person I talk to who has rented accomodation with friends has had advice and anecdotes for me, so I thought IW should be able to provide a few more. Might be fun to see how this kind of stuff happens around the world as well. So anyway, what do you think?

The secret to living with others (learned by me in the US navy) is to not sweat the small shit..anything that doesnt really matter...just ignore it [img]smile.gif[/img] That and being considerate yourself will alleviate the bulk of your problems [img]smile.gif[/img]

[Talthyr Malkaviel]

Hey, my older brother at uni's moving into one in Nottingham too but he;s still at uni, that's why it's up in Notts opf course.
Anyway, here's my sage advice to help you start thriving happy friendships with thiose you'll be staying with:
Get a haircut.
[img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]tongue.gif[/img]
Now did you really expect sage advice??

[Staralfur]

LOL, 6 blokes - sounds fun . (I think you might need Magik's advice)

I'm my second year out of halls. My first house wasn't too bad, apart from the bath leaked and fused the central heating control. This year has been a nightmare, a few examples; The cooker wasn't working when we moved in, and it took the landlord about 4 weeks to replace it. We didn't have a gas certificate when we moved in; what made it worse is the landlord tried to use the one from the previous year. We sent him a list of all the things that needed doing to his house or we had done, to make it liveable in - it was seven pages long. Needless to say, we don't get on with him very well. Moral of the story is; make sure you know that your landlord/lady is a money grabbing low life.

Talthyr - which part of Notts is your brother in? (I'm a student there too)

[ 05-16-2002, 07:43 PM: Message edited by: Staralfur ]

[Ladyzekke]

Well I must ask do you already know these people? I have a few weirdo/strango stories re roommates that you never have met before, it's a true gamble when you place a roommate ad in the paper!

[Barry the Sprout]

Originally posted by Staralfur: LOL, 6 blokes - sounds fun . (I think you might need Magik's advice) I'm my second year out of halls. My first house wasn't too bad, apart from the bath leaked and fused the central heating control. This year has been a nightmare, a few examples; The cooker wasn't working when we moved in, and it took the landlord about 4 weeks to replace it. We didn't have a gas certificate when we moved in; what made it worse is the landlord tried to use the one from the previous year. We sent him a list of all the things that needed doing to his house or we had done, to make it liveable in - it was seven pages long. Needless to say, we don't get on with him very well. Moral of the story is; make sure you know that your landlord/lady is a money grabbing low life. Talthyr - which part of Notts is your brother in? (I'm a student there too)

Yeah, we really should have checked the house a lot more thoroughly before we said yes I think. We didn't even know it came with a garage until we talked to another set of guys who had viewed it. Frankly we don't particularly care if it is a pile of crap or not, as long as it is actually inhabitable then it is fine with me. But I don't think the landlord is all that bad, we asked the previous tenents what they thought of him and they all seemed to think he was ok. Apparently very flexible with the rent, which is extremely useful.

Lady Z and MagiK - Well, I'm already living in a hall with these guys, so I share a kitchen and bathroom with a couple of them. We've already learnt to forgive the little things... like being woken up at 3am by your totally naked next door neighbour "for a laugh". Or having your kitchen cupboard door kicked down so that people could see if you really did have any food. I've probably done just as bad back to them...

And Talthyr - Haven't you got a sister to be having sex with right now, you country bumpkin? [img]tongue.gif[/img]