Moving again

The Job Applications (not me!)

I keep wondering how fast the time flies here. Few weeks ago we had to decide what to do with the current tenancy. The first contract was made for six months, so we had to consider whether stay in Basingstoke yet another 6 months, or move out somewhere else in the country (or even abroad).

Kayleigh applied recently for few open job positions, they were located in Cheadle (Staffordshire), Bilston (West Midlands) and surprisingly in Singapore! The applications must have been good, because she got a request for interview for all of those places. Anyway, that success clearly showed for us that it was time to consider moving out from Basingstoke.

Stoke-on-Trent and surroundings. Maybe this is the place to live for next 6 months?

Few Words about Real Estate Agents

I had forgotten what kind of ballache it was last time to get a flat to live. This time we started looking for the accommodation a bit earlier, bearing in mind that our holiday trip to Boracay, Philippines was about to start quite soon. So there I was then, calling again to real estate agents and trying to make them to do their job. The system how to rent a house is a bit different here compared to Finland: most places are dealt with professional real estate agencies and therefore the process is somewhat more bureaucratic than it really has to be. I have to say that it wouldn't be England, if something happened easily. I don't know if it is just real estate agents, but I have learned that no matter people say or promise, that doesn't mean anything in the end of the day. Before moving to England I was used to the culture where spoken agreement is as equal as written one. It is called honesty, and that's what I have really missed lately.

Here are some sentences and their true meaning for you to understand what I mean:

"I will ring you tomorrow" means "Forget this, I will never call you, you foreign tw**"
"Let's keep in touch" means "Let's not really keep in touch unless you call me again"
"I will look places to you based on your needs" means "I don't give a f*** what you want"
"I'll be there at 3pm" means "I will call you 3:30pm and say I will be late"
"I'm sorry there's nothing I can do" means "... and I wouldn't be less interested in your problems"
"How's your day" means "I don't really want an answer, I just want to fill an awkward silence"

These sentences are true examples from my previous experiences with real estate agents. More examples of British expressions you can find from here:

• https://twitter.com/SoVeryBritish?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor

Searching for a Place to Live in Stoke-on-Trent

After learning how to have a proper conversation and how to interpret different expressions I finally managed to get some viewing appointments for flats in Stoke-on-Trent. It is the closest big town near Cheadle, where Kayleigh's work will start on December. I was really surprised how much cheaper it will be to rent a flat in northern part of England. We currently pay £750 ppm for one bedroom flat with a kitchen, living room and bathroom. In Stoke-on-Trent you can rent 2 bedroom property with only £500 ppm, so we decided to upgrade our housing standards with less costs. Last Saturday we went to see four different lettings. After three hours of driving to the north and then several hours driving around the town we really didn't find any flat that felt perfect for us. There was always something wrong with each place: the location, price, general cleanness, smell or once even an angry neighbour who appeared into middle of our viewing to moan about the current tenant. We ended up going back home with sad feelings, because finding a nice place to live seemed to be harder than we originally thought.

Instead of giving up we came back to Stoke-on-Trent on Tuesday hoping that the places to look this time would be better. And they really did: we managed to view again four places and each of them were better than those we saw on Saturday! After finding a really nice two bedroom furnished flat, we finally decided to apply for it.

Application Process for Getting a Flat

To become a tenant, you need to fill up 5 page application form and attach following documents:

• at least 2 identity documents from this list: passport, driving licence, birth certificate
• at least 2 documents about your current address: water bill, gas bill, electricity bill, telephone bill
• at least 2 documents about your income info, this includes documents such as the employment contract, P60, Tax Report, Wage slip etc.

The application fee for two tenants is £150. It is non-refundable and allows the agent to process the application and complete the relevant references and credit checks. If your application is successful you will be required to pay one months’ rent in advance,  a deposit equal to one months’ rent and a signing fee of £35. So in our case to become a tenant after successful evaluation process costs £1185 before even moving in. And because they use the system called UK Tenantdata for collecting information about tenants, you have to pay extra £10 to get the full report about you, in case something occurs and you have to start solving further issues.

By the way: When I asked how to pay this application fee, I honestly thought that it would be just using your English bank account and pay it in their internet banking system and then after payment send a receipt to the agent. Yes, but no. This was the answer: "You can either pay in the office or over the phone". The office is in 3 hours drive from home, so I decided to pay over the phone. I had no idea what paying over the phone could be, but now I know it: You ring to the agent, they connect you to another person (which hopefully is a real accountant), you tell your credit card number to the accountant and also that three digit CVC code, which is written behind the card. To be honest, I felt really insecure for telling someone my credit card details. Finnish banks would never accept this kind of payments online.

So I paid the application fee over the phone and emailed all required documents. That took nearly 2 hours to accomplish, because the agent's mailbox didn't accept over 10 MB files and I needed to send all pages in separate emails. Anyway, application is now in and we will see what happens next.

Skimmed Credit Card

By the way, this happened two weeks ago. I was having a nice cup of coffee in the morning and reading a local newspaper at home. I heard my Finnish phone number ringing and noticed, that the call was coming from Danske Bank. That never means anything good, when your bank rings you. The reason why they called me this time was that they have just got another call from abroad and they were suspecting that my credit card information was in wrong hands. Possibly somewhere in Europe or in the United States. They found out that my credit card was being used in Des Moines, USA, purchases were also made in Zalando.com and Nikeshop.com web store. The fact was that I had just lost 644 € for someone, who's now wearing nice clothes, shoes and enjoying hotel services in USA. I had to make a written complaint and a police report for getting this money back. On top of that my credit card was declined immediately. I had to ask the bank to deliver a new card straight to my English address, because at the moment I have no plans to go to Finland until end of December.

I just wonder how my card got skimmed, because I haven't been using that for ages. Last time I used it was on my trip to Finland around a month ago. Maybe there is still a working scanner device located in Helsinki Airport Terminal 2, because that was the only place where I used that card on that trip. Anyway, I got my new card this week and surprisingly Danske Bank didn't charge for sending it to England.

Dreaming of a Holiday

You know what: After all these things what has happened lately I really feel like I need a holiday from being at holiday. Maybe this picture helps for all of us waiting to hear, what's going on in that side of the planet.

Sommoro! Cheers!

White Beach at Boracay Island.