Life Update: Living Abroad in London

Where can I hang my hat?

I hope this blog isn't making me sound like a negative-nancy about moving abroad. It's just been a bit of a challenge hitting the restart button on life.
Most recently, it's been flat-hunting here in London. People told me living in London would be expensive, but less costly than San Francisco. Yeah.. no. It's about the same.
Coming from a 2-bedroom apartment in Marin County, to a "2-double bedroom" in London was basically comparing a postage stamp to a 4th graders' diorama (do they still do those in school?) Basically, the cost for a flat in London is the same or slightly less to it's equivalent in San Francisco but you lose a lot of floorplan.
We decided to get a little more bang for our buck and search the neighborhoods on the outskirts of London - this really did the trick because we found a great place within our budget. The next step was applying for it..

Application Process

In the states, applying for an apartment is a quick credit check, a pay stub, and a handshake. I found that not to be the case here. The company the landlord had hired to do our 'reference check' should seriously consider being private eyes part-time.  Even though we had signed a lease, we could not move into the apartment until our references cleared. The references consisted of:

• A form my CEO had to complete
  • A phone call from my CEO confirming that what he put on the form was true
• A form my former landlord had to complete
  • A phone call from my landlord confirming what he already wrote on the form
• My old lease from the U.S.
• 6 months worth of bank statements
• Pay stubs
• My NHS number (why this I am not sure)
• My passport, British permit, and visa letter
• A utility bill in my name from my old apartment

Obviously, some of this is needed to verify you as a renter, but what really was astounding to me was the phone calls. The company hired to do the reference check was expecting someone from the west coast to call them back at 10:00 GMT. When I explained to them that it was unlikely someone from California was going to make phone calls at 2AM, they told me that was basically my problem.
Panic had really started to set it since we had paid a large deposit and part of the month's rent already.
Luckily, I have a very kind boss in the states who was definitely willing to go above and beyond helping me out and other rental fairy godmothers who swooped in with wands full of paperwork magic ◊
At last, we got our place!
But a word to the wise, especially those coming from the states, it was a stressful, hair-pulling process to get approved. There is a lot more paperwork here- and unless you have UK references, expect the reference checking to take at least two weeks.

∴ Sighs of relief  ∴