Current mood:
adventurous
You have probably have heard about my plans to move out of London, and heard me say that it was all happening as I had arrange to move to Leamington Spa, but in fact I never got there, I am writing this from my old flat in Surbiton!
The flat I intended to move in to up there was owned by a private landlord, but all the arrangements were conducted by an estate agent. Now this agent wanted quite a lot in the way of references, but I had my landlady in Surbiton, all my work referneces down here in London, and I had been to see the Leamington branch of Select so I was all set to work as soon as I gave them a date when I would be up there. ll the reference checks cost a one time fee of £100 by the way. The man I was dealing with in the agency said repeatedly that there would be no problems; so I arranged to leave the flat in Surbiton and into the one in Leamington. So I had said all of my goodbyes at Kew Gardens, and was busy cleaning my old flat so as to get my bond back, when what happened the day before the move? The estate agents called and told me I couldn't have it after all!
They said it was a technicality with my work references; despite my excellent record of working and paying my rent on time they decided to view my going to work with Select in Leamington after finishing down here as not good enough. And supposedly why they left it to the day before I was meant to move was that the referencing company they outsourced that side of the job to were absolutely useless. When I went back to Select in Kingston to ask if they had any temporary work going while I tried to salvage the situation they mentioned that the referencing company had called and faxed them every day for a week about me despite the fact that they had sent all the relevant information the first time! The only way in the end that I could have got that flat was either to have a Guarantor, which I couldn't find anyone in time to do (most people were put off by the idea that they had to go through the same reference checks as I did) or pay the first 6 months rent in advance plus the bond, which came to £2662.50. Which I have, just, but would leave me with nothing at all. So I've had to give up on it and go up and find somewhere else!
This time I didn't go near lettings agents and just went through the private 'to let' ads, and found a place that was shared facilities (I decided not to be so picky as last time, plus all the bedsits and studio flats seemed to be controlled by lettings agents) and a bit smaller than the other one, but a lot nicer in some ways (it has a fireplace and is in an old Victorian house) and is much closer to the town centre. And even better I got on really well with the landlady, so with any luck I'll pay the bond and first rent on Thursday, and be up on the weekend! Still I had to spend a fairly horrible week or so. And on top of it all I had a dreadful cold that week. The only thing that got me through it was several hours of Top Gear and The Simpsons on TV every day to keep my mind off things...
Other than that not much has happened; as I've either been trying to organise things or sitting here trying not to spend any money. But all that ought to change soon, and I still plan on buying a car and driving all over the bits of England I haven't seen yet!