Moving house is a significant event and can be an emotionally strenuous process, whether you’re leaving friends and family behind or making changes to your routine - not to mention the physical effort required to move your belongings from one place to another!
Taking time to get as organised as possible can help minimise the stress. Our useful guide provides some practical pointers about key aspects of the process to help make moving into your new home as pleasant as possible.
Packing and planning
Allow yourself plenty of time to pack your belongings and get ready to move. Moving is a great time to have a clear-out and get rid of things you don’t want or need anymore. It’s worth collecting boxes and other packaging material in advance to help protect your more fragile items.
Clear your schedule and pick a moving day (or days!) that suit you where possible. You’ll avoid unnecessary extra stress if moving house is the only thing you have to worry about.
Contents insurance
As you are renting, you will not be required to have buildings insurance, however, you will need to purchase insurance to cover your personal belongings to include any appliances that you bring with you. Your landlords insurance will only cover their own property and belongings.
You should ensure that the cover you purchase has Accidental Damage, as in the event that an accident happens i.e.you damage the Landlords items or property, you will be responsible for replacing these.
Utility providers and council tax
Utility and council tax departments will only speak with the bill payer, so don’t forget to call them and set up your account to ensure there is no delay with your bill. It is advisable to transfer accounts into your name in advance, this gives them a chance to re-connect any services that have been disconnected.
They may ask that you call back to supply them with an opening meter reading once you have moved in.
In order to assist you, the following numbers are provided:
- Gas - To find out current supplier details, please contact the National Grid on 0800 111 999.
- Electricity - To find out current supplier details, please contact UK power Networks on 0800 316 3105.
- Water - Thames Water 08459 200 800.
- Council tax – Epping Forest District Council 01992 564 000.
Lawlors cannot accept responsibility for services not connected at the commencement of your tenancy.
Inventory & schedule of condition
In most cases, your landlord will have paid to have an independent inventory and schedule of condition (commonly referred to as ‘Inventory’ only) made prior to you moving in, if this is the case, we will send a copy of the inventory to you once we receive it. This is an important document that will form the foundation of the deposit negotiation at the end of your tenancy, whenever that may be.
Therefore please ensure you make any amendments or adjustments that you feel are necessary, sign the Inventory, and return it to Property Management within 7 days. If you choose not to return the document within 7 days it will be deemed that you have accepted the contents.
Upon vacating the property an independent inventory company will return to compile a checkout report and they will use your amended version provided the above timescale is followed.
Smoke and Carbon Monoxide (CO) alarms
From the 1st October 2015, all rented properties must have smoke alarms fitted on each floor of the living accommodation and CO alarms in any room where there is a solid fuel burning appliance (wood, coal etc.) Either Lawlors, or our appointed contractor will have visited on the day you moved in, to check and test that these alarms are in working order. During your tenancy it is your responsibility to periodically test and replace any batteries within the Smoke or CO alarms. We recommend that you test your alarms on a monthly basis as a minimum to ensure that they are in working order. If you find an alarm is not working, and changing the batteries does not rectify this, you should notify us immediately so that we can arrange its replacement.
Payment of rent
Your tenancy agreement outlines all responsibilities with regard to paying rent, but we know this is a busy time for you so just in case you have forgotten to set it up- you are required to pay your rent in cleared funds by standing order each month.
To assist you, we have provided a standing order mandate when we sent out your Tenancy Agreement for signature, which you can complete and take into your bank. They will only take an instruction from you to pay your rent to us, we cannot set it up for you.
Alternatively you can also set this up online using the account details and the reference provided. Please do give us a call if you have trouble locating the payment reference to be given to the bank, so that your payment is allocated to your tenancy.
