I lived in London for free for two months by signing up to a website

A WOMAN  has revealed how she was able to live in London for two months rent free – and it wasn’t a scam.

Travel influencer Fole Fowowe, 25, simply signed up to a website and spent the time house and pet sitting.

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Fole documents her unusual lifestyle on TikTok as @fole.com as well as giving out advice to others who are curious to give it a go.

In a short video called ‘How to live in London for free’ she explained just how she did it.

Currently, many young people are struggling to get on the property ladder in London and across the country.

The latest figures indicate that tenants need a salary of £50,000 to be able to rent without sharing in many parts of London and the South East.

When Fole was recovering from surgery earlier this year, she was living in London and had a lot of spare time on her hands.

She signed up to the website Trusted House Sitters and soon enough got her first job which was a weekend staying in a town house in Putney, in the southeast of the capital.

While there she looked after two dogs, a cat and four guinea pigs in exchange for being able to stay there.

She has also stayed in a house in Devon, an “amazing” property in Richmond and a former Airbnb in East London.

She realised in July that she was paying £800 in rent and bills for a flat in Brixton but had only stayed there one night and so decided to take up house-sitting full time before going off to travel.

Fole told the MailOnline: “For the whole of July I spent one night at home. I did two house sits, which were a few weeks, and then 10 days, and in between them I went to Paris for three or four days.

“So I literally went home for a night for the whole of July, and I paid £800 of rent, and like another £100 of bills.

“I was so fuming. I’d spent close to a grand, and I haven’t even been in my house, and I think that was the moment where I was like, wait a second, I could do this full time and days where I need somewhere to stay, I could stay with a friend.”

She soon realised there was a big demand for house sitters and so had no problem getting work – and got to stay in much nicer homes that what she was able to afford in London.

In just a few months, Fole says she saved thousands of pounds, both in terms of rent and meals as the people she was housing sitting for would often provide food.

Usually, all she had to do was stay in people’s homes and look after their pets while the owners were away.

In a TikTok video she said: “It’s not too good to be true, it’s a real thing that you can do and I’m posting way more videos about it because honestly everybody should do it because the f**king rent in London is insane and you don’t have to pay it.”

However, she did say the lifestyle was not for everyone and added that she was only able to do it because she worked form home a lot and had family and friends to help her if needed.

Fole said: “Doing it full time is not gonna work for everybody and I just wanna make that really, really clear.

“It’s good for people in positions like mine that are maybe like graduating, especially with the rise of people working remotely.

“If you do, just wanna have a couple of months where you’re not paying rent and save a couple of thousand pounds,  I do think it’s a really good way to do that.

“Obviously it doesn’t come without down sides, the risk of cancellation and things falling through which can be stressful. 

|But if you’re flexible and you’re willing to work around those things I do think it’s a good option.”

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