What should I ask at a flat viewing?
Ask for numbers, documents and dates rather than impressions. The five that matter are the total due before you get the keys, the deposit and the holding deposit, the minimum term and notice period, what the rent includes, and who handles repairs. What is the total I pay before I get the keys?
Ask for numbers, documents and dates rather than impressions. The five that matter are the total due before you get the keys, the deposit and the holding deposit, the minimum term and notice period, what the rent includes, and who handles repairs. What is the total I pay before I get the keys? is the one question that forces the rest of the conversation to become specific.
Bring a second person and split the job: one keeps the agent talking while the other opens cupboards and photographs the boiler. Ask the agent to email the answers while you are still standing in the flat, because a reply written in the room is harder to soften later than one written the next day. If the flat is on an upper floor, also ask who carries the rubbish down and when the bins are collected; that never appears in a listing, and it decides a lot of mornings.