500dan

Letting fees haven't been banned yet. They announced that at least 2 years ago, in fact they've announced it a few times, and still no sign of it happening

I don't think the issue is having targets to get rid of people that shouldn't be here. The targets were just to increase deportations, and they tried to meet them by deporting people who have every right to be here, that's the problem. On the other hand, the cause of the problem is our completely useless border force, which I believe was decimated by May but obviously was already crap before her. Surely they should be either stopping people from coming in the first place, or deporting them very quickly, not trying to get rid of people who have been living in the country for 50 or 60 years to meet some targets which will make them look good.

Whatever happened to this? Has it been quietly dropped?

They've been going on about it for about 2 years. Don't hold your breath.

Somebody I know is trying to sell their 3 bed semi in Epsom. Not one viewing in several months. It's on for £600k - which I would think would be around 10 times a couple's joint salary for a very ordinary fairly small semi. Plenty of For Sale signs around the Epsom area. All asking stupid high prices though, so I'm not surprised things aren't selling. Saying that, I rent a 1 bed flat for £900 a month, and recently realised that even at current prices it would be significantly cheaper for me to buy. With just a 10% deposit, which I have sitting in the bank doing nothing, I could get a 5 year fixed rate which would be significantly less than my monthly rent. So I guess that's why house prices are as high as they are. Still, when everyone thinks you should buy is exactly the time you shouldn't, so I'll keep sitting it out

Hi, 2 questions from someone new here: 1. Has anyone got experience they could share of subletting? I'm thinking of renting a 3 bed house, then subletting a couple of rooms to help defray the rental cost. Not looking to profit, just reduce costs vs renting a 1 or 2 bed flat. I have a son, so renting myself then getting lodgers in is a better option than moving into a room in a shared house. 2. I live on the London / Surrey border - is there a good website/ newspaper round here for renting privately? (ie not through an agent) I've done it before in other areas and it's always been a good experience, but round here everything seems to be estate agents. Thanks very much!