If you’re going to move to the UK, here are a number of bills you should plan to expect in the first month or 2 if you plan on renting.
- 1 Months rent in advance, and 1 months rent as bond. This is standard fare, but can be painfull if you live in (expect a medium sized apartment to be about 250-350 pounds per week) or very near to London (In the area that Sarah and I are in expect anywhere from 500-900 per month for a decent place, dependant on size)
- Over here rent tentants pay council tax (rates), expect about 700-1000 pounds per year. Luckily you can pay in installments so expect about 200-300 pounds in the first month
- Sewerage Bill (Charged in 3 monthly blocks of about 30 pounds each)
- Water Bill (Again charged in 3 monthly blocks), Most places are on a “rates” style system where you pay a fixed fee every 3 months but some places are on a meter. For rates expect about 50-70 per 3 months.
- Telephone Bill (Charged in 3 monthly blocks), Price depends on what connection plan you use but you will pay line rental up front.
- Gas Bill (Charged in 3 monthly blocks). Haven’t recieved this yet so can’t give an estimate in price
- Electricity Bill (Charged in 3 monthly blocks). Again, haven’t received this yet so can’t give an estimate in price
So intial outlay could be anywhere from 2,800 – 3,500 pounds ($AUD 5,500 – 9,000) depending on where you live.
Some other things to watch out for:
- Everything takes a _long_ time to get done over here. Expect a lot of things to require your presence in person. There are a lot of things you can’t do over the phone.
- Most furniture is made to order, and it can take a long time to make. For instance the sofa’s that Sarah and I ordered are going to take 8 weeks for delivery (ordered 3 weeks ago now). Our bed that was supposed to be delivered in 1 week has now taken 3 weeks.
- People don’t like to help you even though its their job. You will get a wide range of attitudes when trying to sort things out on the phone from the plain unhelpfull to the rude.
- Your US or Australian keyboard won’t have a pound symbol (currency pound not the # (hash)) on the keyboard, which can be a pain in the butt
If I think of anything I have missed here I will update this post.