Flatshare Vs Living Alone

This is one of the first big decisions that you'll have to make when you move here.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both living situations.

Flatshare

Benefits

London is a large and expensive city. The rent is high and the bills are plentiful. It helps to live with other people so that you can split your living expenses. By dividing up these costs, you can also live much closer to central London and in a nicer neighbourhood.

Also because London is such a large city and it can be difficult to make friends, it might be ideal to live with a few other people when you first arrive. That way you have at least one person that you know in the city. You never know, you might even end up being good friends! Shocking but it can happen.


Drawbacks

The sharing of bills can become a real problem. Some people are able to forgo any billing issues by either having all the bills included in their rent or by paying their share of the bills directly to the landlord. Otherwise, all of the bills will have to be put in one flatmate's name and it will be their responsibility to ensure that the bills are paid and that the other flatmates pay their share. As you can imagine, this can get messy if someone doesn't have the cash to pay their share of the bills or if the person who has the bills in their name refuses to tell you how much you owe (true story!). So if you are thinking about moving into a flatshare, keep these billing issues in mind.

Also, the dividing up of chores can be problematic. Using the common sense adage of "clean up after yourself" works great in most places except for the bathroom. Unless you have a set cleaning schedule that is strictly followed, inevitably there will be one person who always ends up cleaning the fun areas - the toilet & the bathtub. So have a schedule in place and please stict to it. Alternatively, you could always just hire a cleaning lady to come by once a week and do it for you.

Lastly even if you have the chore and billing issues sorted, you just might not get along with your flatmates.  They might be too loud, cook smelly food, hog the television, act weird, the list goes on. Most try to test the house chemistry during the inital viewing.  But at this time, everyone is on their best behaviour.  You are either desperate to either find a place or to replace an old flatmate.  Or some people are really good at hiding the fact that they're completely insane. Either way, you always run the risk of potential personality clashes.

Going Solo

Benefits

Now of course, if you're living by yourself, then you don't have to worry about dividing up bills or chores or personality clashes. You can keep the place as messy or as clean as you want. Hell, you can either walk around the place naked. You don't have to worry about people accidentally eating your food or having their crap everywhere. The only person you have to worry about is yourself.

Drawbacks

You will be the person soley responsible for paying all the bills. This includes rent, council tax, water, electricity, gas, tv tax, cable & phone bills. You can get a discount on your council tax if you're living alone but it will only reduce your burden by 25%. Now if you have a great job, then you can probably afford to still live in a great neighbourhood and pay all of these bills. However, if you're job pays you pennies, then you may have to live in either an okay neighbourhood or further outside central London. You can get around this by trying to find a property that include all of your utilities. It's a bit tough but it can be done.

Being all alone can be difficult especially if you're sick or get injured.  Unlike a flatshare, there may be nobody to take pity on you and get your medication or pick up some food for you.  If you happen to make some friends, then they can help.  Otherwise, I would have the number of a few takeout places just in case.

Verdict

I personally am team "going solo".  I've lived in a flatshare and it just didn't work out for me at all.  However, I have some friends who live in amazing flatshares and would hate to live alone.  So at the end of the day, go with what you're gut and wallet says.