Hey guys! My situtation is this: I'll be beginning my UCL studies in January this academic (I won't go into detail of my situation, since that is not very relevant) and will be needing accommodation in London for the 2nd and 3rd term of university (January 2015 - July 2015), and UCL will probably not be able to provide me with accommodation from its own houses (again, my situation is rather unique and not very relevant to the discussion). Since the privately owned student accommodations mostly only offer stays for the full academic year, I will be limited to renting a room in a privately owned flat/house.
Since I've never rented anything before (and my parents are of little help here - they got their student accommodation for free), I would like to ask for some tips from the more experienced people to make my life easier. Anything you think someone trying to find a place to live in London should know is good information for me, but if you want here are some topics that interest me most:
- I am an international student, so I will not really have the opportunity to visit the place before making the decision, so I am first of all interested in not getting ripped off, what is your advice in this case? How should I minimise the risk?
- Any websites that you would recommend for finding rooms? I only really know of spareroom.co.uk, but surely there's more?
- Any legal issues I should be aware of regarding contracts and stuff?
One more thing, I know that I got to doing this kind of late, and that I should've asked this like a year ago, but that's not the issue being discussed and besides better late than never.
Thank you in advance for the help!