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question for friends in Scotland
Dec. 26th, 2012 02:37 pmSo, the end of the calendar year is rapidly approaching, and I'm looking ahead to next year. I want to come to some sort of closure, one way or the other, about where I'm going to live for the next year or two.
One of the options that I was considering is postgraduate study, possibly in the UK. One of the things that keeps giving me pause, though, is the subject of my cats.
I'm not going to leave them behind, even with the kindest of friends or relatives. I've taken care of the rabies issue by having them chipped, vaccinated, and tested, so they should not need to go into quarantine.
But I'm [revised: more than] a bit apprehensive about the ease of finding a place to live. With no prospect of being able to stay for more than a year or two of study, there's no point in even considering buying property (as a nonresident with no UK credit record, there's also probably zero chance of getting a mortgage anyway). And every time I look for rental accommodations, almost all of them say "no pets" (a search today on ESPC.com turned up 7 properties that the search engine claimed were "pets considered", 4 of which clearly stated "no pets" in the listing text and only one of which said "pets MAY be considered"). A search on Gumtree found nothing. And you can't even search on the subject on sites like s1homes or citylets.
This is a major issue for me. "Just turn up and see what's available" is not going to be an issue. And--as much as I long to live in the UK--I'm already having trouble justifying to myself the expense of taking a year or more off from working and moving 3,000 miles when I've no real chance to settle there. Not begin able to take the cats would cast the deciding vote in that internal debate.
Is it really totally unheard of for renters to have pets? What do people who have pets do if they can't buy a place? Live in a cardboard box? Or is there some source of information that I'm missing?
ETA: Well, this seems to answer my question. :-( I've seen a number of message boards where people ask the same question, and the common replies seem to be (a) just don't have a pet, (b) have a pet and lie about it/don't tell the landlord (that's a nonstarter for me), and (c) just call all the people who say "no pets" anyway and ask them if they will change their mind (one poster actually tried that feeble-minded advice and said they gave up after asking six different landlords or agencies).
One of the options that I was considering is postgraduate study, possibly in the UK. One of the things that keeps giving me pause, though, is the subject of my cats.
I'm not going to leave them behind, even with the kindest of friends or relatives. I've taken care of the rabies issue by having them chipped, vaccinated, and tested, so they should not need to go into quarantine.
But I'm [revised: more than] a bit apprehensive about the ease of finding a place to live. With no prospect of being able to stay for more than a year or two of study, there's no point in even considering buying property (as a nonresident with no UK credit record, there's also probably zero chance of getting a mortgage anyway). And every time I look for rental accommodations, almost all of them say "no pets" (a search today on ESPC.com turned up 7 properties that the search engine claimed were "pets considered", 4 of which clearly stated "no pets" in the listing text and only one of which said "pets MAY be considered"). A search on Gumtree found nothing. And you can't even search on the subject on sites like s1homes or citylets.
This is a major issue for me. "Just turn up and see what's available" is not going to be an issue. And--as much as I long to live in the UK--I'm already having trouble justifying to myself the expense of taking a year or more off from working and moving 3,000 miles when I've no real chance to settle there. Not begin able to take the cats would cast the deciding vote in that internal debate.
Is it really totally unheard of for renters to have pets? What do people who have pets do if they can't buy a place? Live in a cardboard box? Or is there some source of information that I'm missing?
ETA: Well, this seems to answer my question. :-( I've seen a number of message boards where people ask the same question, and the common replies seem to be (a) just don't have a pet, (b) have a pet and lie about it/don't tell the landlord (that's a nonstarter for me), and (c) just call all the people who say "no pets" anyway and ask them if they will change their mind (one poster actually tried that feeble-minded advice and said they gave up after asking six different landlords or agencies).
