Flathunting in London is an adrenaline experience!

It was 10th September, when me and my girlfriend went for the first viewing. We had to wait around half an hour for the agent. He introduced himself as Amar. I was offered a cigarete on the way to the flat by him, rejecting politely, but apparently this gesture broken the ice and so we started to chat. He seemed to be very interested in the fact that I study Imperial. He noted that his former girlfriend went to King's College, but that she was not very streetwise and that in the end,she was not really worth it. He had been doing chemistry, which he failed after two years. He said he tried social sciences afterwards, which he failed in the second year as well. He shared a lot of experience from highly ranked posts he has been working on during his career. One has to be streetwise a great deal, he told me, so his employer beliefs in all claims about his hypothetical degrees. He crowned it overall, that it is a great to be a student and that he himself bought a house in Wembley for his student loan, which he sells for twenty-five times more. I started to think about what exactly can I believe him and what not.
We arrived to a cozy shelter located in the basement of a communal house at Queensway. Location perfect, studio perfect, floor broken and rotten. I happy, my girlfriend not. I asked Amar how much would the flat be. He tells me that the price is negotiable and so I offer 10 pounds less per week than the official offer was. On the way back to the estate agency, Amar tells me that we have to pay six months upfront or have a british guarantor. Thanks to the support of KFF, I am happy to accept the 6 months rent upfront, however my girlfriend cannot. He tells us that the guarantor has to be earning 5000 GBP a week (the sum is 3500 GBP in reality as we found later). So we rejectected Queensway.
After 14 days of searching, already 7th estate agent asked us for six months upfront. So we tried to find the flat on an internet portal - and got the answer in half an hour. Some guy from Manchester offered us a flat for mor than a reasonable price. He however wanted the money transfered over Western Union only, which we later, after consulting the agents at WU, found to be a great rip off based on the fact that they issue the money only for a name.
We had even a curious experience when viewing a cheap flat offered by an off-licence estate agent. After a confrontation over phone, we planned to meet at half past seven near a tube station. He arrived half an hour late, while we have managed to get totally soaked by rain. He just greeted us and off we went. Through the first subway, second... Finally we arrived to a yard, where a group of some weird guys loaded up goods container with fridges full of meat. While passing them by, our agent greeted them. They laughted somehow manically and one even started to cry „whop man, another guys for chop, chop, chop!“. He meant it just for fun apparently, but it really did not add to the athmosphere of the place. The communal house with the advertised flat was bared whole - windows, doors, every hole. The whole place was somehow weird and I immediatelly knew I do not live here. So I told the agent and left the chop, chop, chop neighbours for someone more streetwise. So how did it all end up? The neighbouring house will be left by tenant next Friday and his owner decided to rent it to us for a price for studio on Queensway. What a luck!