Side Note
For a couple of weeks before we left for Denmark, as well as all during the 10 days in Denmark, we have been looking online for an apartment in Norwich. It is the policy of almost all estate agents in the U.K. to require an in-person visit to the property before they will rent it out. This has created a big problem for us because we can't really afford to take a trip to Norwich before we move there at the end of the month. (I don't want to tell the realtors that though, because they might assume that we don't have enough money to pay rent.) We finally found one agent who agreed to help us and he happens to own an old house that has been divided into two apartments, both of which were vacant. Since I first spoke with him, the 2nd floor apartment has been rented but the ground floor is still available. He emailed me some photos which arrived on the first Friday of our Denmark trip. The place looks fine for us to start our life in Norwich. It is very small but is in the old city center and within close walking distance of the castle, tons of shops and a whole slew of restaurants. I immediately emailed him back and said we would like to rent it...and then never heard back from him. Until yesterday. There was an email from him on Tuesday morning with apologies, explaining that he had gone on holiday and had no email access. He had attached the application form for us to fill out and fax back to him if we were still interested, which we did. There was a hefty application fee (about 220 euros) for the credit check and referencing, but this is common in the U.K. Now we are waiting to hear back from him. The decision could really go either way. There are several factors working against us: Rich will be a student with no income, I am self-employed, and we have no U.K. bank account or credit references. But the agent knew all this before he sent us the application plus he is the landlord and will be the one making the final decision. So - fingers crossed!
~K