Finding somewhere to live, from the first list to the day the keys change hands.
We charge the tenant nothing. Our fee is one month of rent, paid by the landlord when a letting completes, which is the arrangement we prefer because it means we are not being paid twice to put one person in one flat.
What we need from you is narrow and it saves everybody a fortnight: the ward or wards you can live in, how many bedrooms, the month you need to move, and the ceiling on the rent including whatever the bills are likely to add. Tell us the ceiling honestly. An agent who is shown a budget of twelve thousand will show you flats at fifteen, and then everybody is disappointed on a Thursday evening.
Before you view anything we will tell you six things in writing. The ward and the exact floor. Whether the building has a lift, because a fourth floor with a lift and a fourth floor without one are not the same flat and should not be the same rent. How water and electricity are billed, which is the most expensive thing people forget: a flat on its own meters is predictable, a flat paying a share of a building meter is not. What furniture stays. The deposit and the number of months in advance the landlord is asking for. And whether there is anywhere to leave a motorcycle, which sounds minor until you have carried shopping up five flights past three of them.
Viewings are booked, not walked into. We go with you, we open the taps, and we look at the ceiling in the bathroom because that is where a leak from the floor above shows first.
When you decide, everything agreed goes into a written tenancy with an inventory and signed meter readings. We hand you a receipt for every rufiyaa you pay us and we tell the landlord the same numbers we told you.