A landlord's flat always looks its best at the viewing. Your job is to look past the staging and check the things that'll actually affect your daily life — and your deposit.
Run every tap and switch
- Turn on every tap — check water pressure and how long hot water takes.
- Flush the toilet, test the shower.
- Flip every light switch and try a few power sockets.
- Open and close all windows and doors — look for damp, mould, and drafts.
- Check mobile signal in each room.
Ask the right questions
- What's included in rent — water, heating, internet, council tax?
- How is heating provided, and roughly what do bills run?
- Who handles repairs, and how fast?
- What's the deposit, and is it in a protection scheme?
- What's the notice period and break clause?
Protect your deposit
Photograph every existing mark, scratch and stain the day you move in, timestamped, and email them to the landlord. This is how you get your deposit back.
Before you sign
Checklist
Can you afford it?
Run the numbers first with the Rent Affordability Calculator.
Check the neighbourhood, not just the flat
A great flat in the wrong spot will grind you down. The place looks different once you actually live there, so do a bit of homework beyond the walls.
- Visit twice: once in daylight, once after dark on a weekend. Noise, parking pressure, and who's about all change.
- Stand at the window and listen. A flat above a pub, on a bus route, or near a takeaway kitchen extractor will test your patience.
- Check your actual commute at the actual time you'd travel, not the optimistic off-peak version.
- Look at the bins and communal areas. Overflowing bins and mystery smells tell you how the building is managed.
- Test your phone signal in every room. Thick walls and basements can kill it, and you won't spot that on a quick viewing.
Spot the damp and mould before it costs you
Damp is the problem that hides best and costs you most in ruined belongings and cold, expensive rooms. Landlords sometimes paint over it or air the place out just before you arrive, so look past the fresh smell.
- Sniff for that musty, earthy smell, strongest in wardrobes, behind furniture, and in corners.
- Check around window frames, ceiling corners, and the wall behind the bed for black speckled mould or dark tide marks.
- Look for fresh paint on one patch of wall only, or wallpaper peeling at the edges. That's often a cover-up.
- Ask where the extractor fans are in the bathroom and kitchen, and switch them on. No ventilation means condensation is coming.
Don't accept "just give it a wipe"
If a landlord waves off visible mould as something you can clean away yourself, treat it as a warning. Surface mould usually means a moisture problem behind it, and that becomes your cold, damp bedroom all winter.
Photograph everything on day one
The single cheapest thing you can do to protect your deposit takes twenty minutes and saves you a fight at the end. Before you move a single box in, document the exact state of the place.
- Walk every room filming a slow video, narrating the date out loud and pointing out every mark, scuff, stain, and chip.
- Take close-up photos of any existing damage, especially carpets, worktops, walls, and appliance interiors.
- Read the inventory the letting agent gives you line by line, and note anything they've missed in writing before you sign it.
- Email the photos and notes to the agent and to yourself, so there's a timestamped record neither side can argue with later.
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