Source
r/UKPersonalFinance•
NotQuiteVanilla

[Budgeting] Moving to UK, planning rent/expenses help?

Budgeting

We are relocating from the US to UK. My husband is British. I'm dual Italian -American and my minor children are currently getting their stuff processed for their British citizenship.

We are moving to Cardiff which is cheaper than our very expensive area in the US, but still wrapping my brain around thing like council tax.

Husband will make 1400/wk. I won't be working. We do not want a car and we are picking a home accordingly. We are used to living frugally and will be saving a lot in daycare and healthcare costs.

We are going back and forth on what to spend for rent. We are looking to keep it low, but also want to be comfortable in the home (5 kids with us). My fear is I'm missing an expense that as an American I don't know about :) My husband left Cardiff as a single 20something guy in a house share so this is a new area!

Inlaws are being awesome and looking at places for us and offering to help with putting stuff in the house. We are moving with minimal stuff from here.

Thoughts on appropriate rent range?

Posted May 31, 2016, 1:31 AM UTC

1013
rssvitamins•

For council tax, its based on the house you rent. It will sit in a band from A to I and it was set to what the value of the house was worth back in April 2003 (for Wales). You could be looking at something between £700~ for band A and £2500~ for band I per year. This pays for stuff like rubbish collection, recycling, services (fire, police etc)

When you find a place to live, you can calculate the tax here: https://www.gov.uk/council-tax-bands

You'll need utilities next:

Gas and Electric, usually provided by 1 supplier. Your house will have an electric and gas meter, make sure you read the values and note them down immediately when you move in. Some meters are smart meters and have a little SIM card which tells your supplier the usage otherwise you need to tell the supplier the values every month/3 months via an app/website/phone. If you are not under contract, you can switch as much as you like to get the best offers. I used https://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/ to find the best deal, my supplier sorted everything else out (switching from the old supplier) and it took about 4 weeks. Depending on the insulation of the house, how much electricity + gas you use, you are looking at about ~£1100 to £1500 per year.

Water and sewerage, you will usually only have 1 choice of supplier but thanks to regulations the price is not set by the supplier. Water is either unmetered and is about £400 a year or you can request a water meter to be installed which means you only pay for the water you use but for a family of 5, it will be cheaper to go with unmetered. The houses sewerage is included in the cost usually.

Broadband, your home will have a copper connection to the cabinet on your street. You have a choice of suppliers which you can choose from http://www.uswitch.com/broadband/packages/, you'll need to pay line rental (£20~ a month and then a broadband charge on top (£0 - £20~), some suppliers are unlimited, some aren't, you'll need to check the small print. The line speeds will vary depending on a few factors, for "normal" broadband which you often get bundled with tv/phone packages, you get up to about 17Mbit per sec, if your cabinet is fibre to the exchange, you can get up to about 75 Mbit. If your home has fibre to the door, you can get Fibre from http://www.virginmedia.com/ which currently offers 200Mbit for about £40 a month

TV, if you want to watch live TV, you need a TV Licence which is £145 a year. This pays for BBC content and is mandatory. If you want more than the free channels there are TV suppliers available which will usually sell you a TV, broadband and landline phone package, you're looking at ~£25 to £80 a month depending on what package you want, this includes broadband and line rental

Other stuff

Sign up for a dentist and GP when you arrive. The NHS is funded from part of your taxes if you work otherwise there's no cost. Perscriptions are £8.40 if you need any. NHS dentistry is free for under 18s otherwise you are looking at about £20 per adult per checkup, £50 for root canals/fillings etc, £230 for crowns.

11
THParryWilliams•

Actually, in Wales, prescriptions are free! Even better! :)

3
lost_send_berries•

Also tax. https://www.incometaxcalculator.org.uk/content/listen-to-taxman/

1
takeawaylobster•

The current student areas in Cardiff include:

Cathay's (as in about 90%+ student)

Maindy

Talybont

The streets off city road are a mix of student and residential.

Cardiff Bay is lovely and a popular area for working professionals but more expensive.

Roath and roath lake is also a lovely area, a few students but mostly residential, I'd say cheaper than the bay but still fairly pricey.

Whitchurch is very residential, with buses running frequently to the centre of the city, not sure how expensive it is to live there.

AVOID:

Grangetown

Potentially Splott, I've heard mixed reviews.

3
lord_alphyn•

Cathays seems to have some kind of problem with this smelly kind of fog, it seems to settle in around 10pm each night, and pretty much after half an hour I see loads of pizza guys delivering stuff.

3
jimofwales•

I wish people would stop saying avoid Grangetown. Large parts are very nice quite residential areas and have the best location in the whole of Cardiff. If you're looking at the budget end you could do far worse. If you pick the wrong street in Roath/Canton for example, it will be way worse than large parts of Grange.

Source: Cardiff resident for 33 years. Grangetown for 6.

OP could get a big house here for half the cost of elsewhere in the city. Just a matter of picking the right part.

0
acrane55•

The biggest site is perhaps rightmove.co.uk so you can get some idea of what you get for your money from that.

After rent, the main housing costs would be utilities and council tax.

1
NotQuiteVanillaOP•

Is council tax based on the house or number of people in it?

I've been using right move and we've found places around 1100 that would be good. The problem with cardiff is trying to sort student housing g from family stuff!

2
acrane55•

It's essentially based on the house. (An exception: 25% discount for a single-occupancy property.)

2
acrane55•

Possibly there's a Cardiff subreddit where you can ask which areas are good for family housing. Are your inlaws local to Cardiff? If so, they might be able to advise.

You might have to double check that areas you're advised are good, are actually accessible by public transport. Habitual car drivers often have no real idea about what the bus and/or train services are like.

1
twistedpants•

https://www.cardiff.gov.uk/ENG/resident/Council-tax/How-much-is-my-Council-Tax/Pages/How%20much%20is%20my%20Council%20Tax.aspx

Here's a load of info on council tax. Basically the larger the house/ nicer the area the more it will cost you.

Most rental properties should notify you if they are band a ( cheapest) b, c, d etc

Don't forget over here it's rare to have a house on a well ( i kmow some.places in the usa thats common) so you'll be paying gas electric and water. Some places have water rates. Some have a meter and depending on your circumstances depends on what's cheaper. My mother has a large house with multiple bathrooms, her water rates were fairly expensive. However only two people live in the property. She went on a meter ( payment for what you use) and now pays less. Usually less bathrooms = lower rates. More occupants = higher bill on a water meter .

You'll also need contents insurance. Maybe internet/ phone too.

1
dog_not_god•

Is that wage before Income Tax, National Insurance and pension deductions or after?

If it's gross, his actual take-home pay will be significantly less.

1
salsa_yam•

Use the rightmove site/app for looking for houses to rent. Areas like Rhiwbina, Whitchurch, Birchgrove are more suburban, with good schools. Cyncoed is slightly richer and again good schools. Also across the river, Radyr is slightly more isolated and villagey. Closer to town you have Llandaff and pontcanna being swanky more urban in areas. Those would be my recommendations, there are a few others but with that level of income you could easily find a house in one of these areas.

1