Just had an email through from my Landlady giving us a months notice to vacate our flat… she lives in Sri Lanka (UK citizen) and is coming back to the UK in September to have her second child; she had accommodation arranged for the 4 months she's here, but apparently this has fallen through at the last minute (it was her friends flat that she'd arranged to rent but it's apparently just been sold and the owners want to move in straight away)…

She's arranged something for September, but wants to take her flat back for October/November (but then we can have it back when she goes 'home', hopefully anyway) So we (being my wife and I) need to find some affordable temporary accommodation for 2 months… don't suppose anyone knows of anything going? I'll be scouring Gumtree etc but thought I'd see if the STW hivemind can help out 🙂

cheers 8)

Edinburgh gets my vo-…whoops, sorry wrong thread.

I think you'll find she's breaking the law, I'm sure its 2 months minimum for an AST and then only if the current tenancy has expired.

Try here for serviced apartments in London, some very expensive (butlers available :D) but some cheap too (blatant plug, my business :-)):

London Serviced Apartments

we're on a month-by-month informal agreement… no lease so to speak of (she's kind of a friend, well, more an associate, through work). We get a great deal on the flat, £700pm in Islington for a proper 1 bedroom flat… we'd be happy to come back to it if we can 🙂

cheers for the link, I'll check it out.

hmmm… bit to expensive at £80 per night at least 🙁 cheers though 🙂

Edinburgh gets my vo-…whoops, sorry wrong thread.

ha ha 😆 🙄

:-). Wasn't meaning to be an arse, just having a laugh. I hope you get fixed up.
Actually, I've just had a thought. Up here, some of the people who live on the canal boats go away for the winter and rent out the houseboats while they're gone. It saves the costs of long term moorings and they get a few quid for the rental. Might be worth a try down in London?

hmmm… sounds interesting, wonder how I'd find out more about it? any ideas?

I think the normal tender for tenure rounds these parts (South Manchester) is to have a wander down the canal towpath and have a chat with some of the bargees. They all seem to know each others business.
There is also a pump out facility attached to a boat builders, signwriters and cafe where they put little cards up advertising rentals. There must be a pump out place somewhere near by wherever the nearest canal to you is. Even the guys working there will have an idea of who rents out for the winter, I suspect they'll be getting a bit itchy now it's getting colder so it should be the perfect time to go and have a look.
It could turn out pretty cool for you both. Best of luck with it mate.

cheers mate, I'll wander down to the canal tomorrow and have a chat with the boaties. fingers crossed there's an option for us 🙂

I've had another thought! If it came to it and you were struggling to get something down there, you could start looking ever further north until you found something and then you can sail it down to London and sail it back when you get your digs back.
It'd take some working out and I know that space on the canals down there is pretty hard to get so you'd probably have to park up in different places each night to keep away from the British Waterways guys. Also, we have some friends who live on one permanently and they went down to London form here and it took them something like two weeks to sail it down there.

now looking at a camper van as an option… wonder how much hassle we'd get parking up each night in London? Any experiences?

You could stick it in my road without worries. It'd be a fair ride to Islington (TW12 area, 10 mins from Twicks).