Vale of White Horse District Council
Abbey House, Abbey Close,
Abingdon, OX14 3JE
Email: comments@whitehorsedc.gov.uk
Telephone: 01235 520202

Vale of White Horse District Council

How to find private rented accommodation

There are many good local sources of privately advertised rented accommodation:

The Vale's Housing Advice Team

The team produces a weekly Private rented accommodation list and holds copies of weekly accommodation lists produced by West Oxfordshire and South Oxfordshire District Council. These are available from the Council Offices in Abingdon, Wantage and Faringdon, or by telephone, written or e-mail request.

Personal contacts

Ask your friends, family, colleagues or fellow students. If you are a member of a local club, sports team, or Church, then ask other members and participants.

Local newspapers/magazines

Property Weekly is a good source of accommodation. Oxfordshire wide papers, such as the Oxford Times and Oxford Mail, and free papers, such as the Courier, Journal and Star also have sections on rented accommodation and flat shares. Copies are available in local libraries in Abingdon, Wantage and Faringdon.

Newsagents and shop windows and noticeboards

Try notice boards in community centres, schools, clubs, libraries or bookshops as well as newsagents and supermarkets. If possible, check the date the advert was put up otherwise it may have already gone. 

Letting agents

You can get full details of local lettings agencies from advice centres, such as the Housing Advice Team, the Abingdon Citizen's Advice Bureau (01235 521894) and the Independent Advice Centre, Wantage (01235 765348), and also from the Yellow Pages.

Please note this is not a comprehensive list and the Vale of White Horse District Council does not endorse any particular letting agents.

Lettings agents may charge you for some services, such as finding a place, tenancy agreements/inventories, collecting the rent and renewing your tenancy agreement. You cannot get any help to pay for agency fees.

It is a good idea not to pay any agency fees before you have seen a property you like. However they cannot charge you for taking your details or giving you a list of addresses, and it is therefore always worth registering your details with them and picking up their property listings.

Advice Centres/Day Centres

These may keep a list of local private landlords or lettings agents, for example:

Internet

Many local papers and lettings agencies advertise property vacancies on the internet, which are likely to be updated most regularly such as Oxford website Daily Info.

You can get free access to the internet in libraries and some advice centres.

Advertise yourself

You can put an advert in a paper, a shop, on a noticeboard or the internet saying what type of place you want and how much you can afford to pay.

For advice about what to do once you have found a suitable place see How to follow up an advert, view a place and place a deposit.