Renting a house with bad credit

Happydayz_2 · 12 April 2008 at 3:13PM

Hi everyone, im not new to this site, infact ive set this up as i know family and work colleagues that use this site so i dont want them to know my problems lol.

To explain, me and my partner have a DMP with the CCCS and owe roughly £20k which at this rate will take us about 10 years to pay off.

We have had many discussions and this week had an idea to sell the house, pay off what we owe, and rent a house for a couple of years whilst we save hard for a big deposit towards our next house. The reason for doing this is that we want a baby (we have no children) we dont have the time to wait, im 30 and my partner is 34 so we want to have one in the next year or so, in our current mess we just couldnt afford to do this.

We plan to sell, move in with his parents for 3 to 4 months to save aswell. Im just very worried about actually getting an agency to take us on, when we sell up we wont owe anyone a penny, we will have about £10k left over from the sale of the house but would anyone take us seriously? I work full time and so does my partner BUT he is self employed which is another hassle, we also have a lovely cute little cavalier king charles who we love to bits and i wont rehome her!

Does anyone have any advise or any help with regards to the renting situation. I know we could go private and they wouldnt do a credit check but i think maybe i would prefer to go through a letting agency. I also couldnt lose my dog, shes our little baby :rotfl:

Im just soo worried that we are making ourselves homeless.

lil_me · 12 April 2008 at 4:11PM

Why would you prefer to go through an agency? So you have to pay more than necesary in fees? Some private also do a credit check. All estate agents/lettings agents in our area do a credit check. Getting a landlord to accept pets can also be an issue as we found.

Happydayz_2 · 12 April 2008 at 4:52PM

lil_me wrote: »

Why would you prefer to go through an agency? So you have to pay more than necesary in fees? Some private also do a credit check. All estate agents/lettings agents in our area do a credit check. Getting a landlord to accept pets can also be an issue as we found.

Well i thought that going through an agent might give you more protection! baring in mind this is new to me so i dont know everything!

As for pets i have known of people renting with pets, my next door neighbour now, is renting and has 2 cats ??

lil_me · 12 April 2008 at 4:58PM

Depends on the area and the landlords, some are ok with pets some are not, some just seem to have a thing against dogs as we found. I just looked on an agents site in my area, 4 out of over 20 properties accepted pets....so still the same as when we were looking. Those in better condition tend to refuse them immediately.

IMO Letting Agents give no additional protection, many don't know what they are doing, a lot just find tenants for properties and don't manage them so after the tenancy it's just you and the landlord. Loads of people have complained on here about how useless and how expensive agents are. The ones we moved in through here, well it cost me over £600 in fees, they had a blanket policy of no pets etc so I had to write to the landlord and ask offering a higher bond deposit, they messed up the tenancy agreement aswell.

Happydayz_2 · 12 April 2008 at 5:05PM

lil_me wrote: »

Depends on the area and the landlords, some are ok with pets some are not, some just seem to have a thing against dogs as we found. I just looked on an agents site in my area, 4 out of over 20 properties accepted pets....so still the same as when we were looking. Those in better condition tend to refuse them immediately.

IMO Letting Agents give no additional protection, many don't know what they are doing, a lot just find tenants for properties and don't manage them so after the tenancy it's just you and the landlord. Loads of people have complained on here about how useless and how expensive agents are. The ones we moved in through here, well it cost me over £600 in fees, they had a blanket policy of no pets etc so I had to write to the landlord and ask offering a higher bond deposit, they messed up the tenancy agreement aswell.

Thanks for the info, so did they allow your pet with an increased deposit?

Ive been looking but i havent actually really found any private ones, i figured that most landlords go through letting agencies these days. But again im not sure because im new to letting, i let years ago when i shared a house with friends but luckily we found a very good private landlord, shame i havent got his number

lil_me · 12 April 2008 at 5:21PM

I didn't want to part with my animals either way and yes this helped us get the pets allowed. Showing I am confident that my pets won't cause any damage and that if they did we were willing to pay for it.

Sammy85_2 · 13 April 2008 at 2:52AM

I know this is going to sound expensive but....

Offer double deposit to cover the pet issue and pay 6 months rent up front to show you're serious and your credit rating issues wont be a problem.

If you do go through an agent. Tell them straight away you have a dog, and explain you'll pay extra deposit and insist they at least put it to the LL. Its amazing the amount of LA's who just say no to pets without speaking to the LL.

As soon as the LA ask for details in order to credit check be upfront about your credit issues. Tell them you'll put the rent money up front if it helps. Our latest tenant is in a bit of a financial mess due to her divorce, but she was honest from the start and told us the report would be bad and paid 6 months up front.

My next suggestion is put a small ad in the local paper. My brother-in-law rented his house out immediately by answering an ad in the paper something like:

" Professional lady seeks house to rent in --- area. Tel: "

Good luck,
Sammy

Happydayz_2 · 13 April 2008 at 10:24AM

Sammy85 wrote: »

I know this is going to sound expensive but....

Offer double deposit to cover the pet issue and pay 6 months rent up front to show you're serious and your credit rating issues wont be a problem.

If you do go through an agent. Tell them straight away you have a dog, and explain you'll pay extra deposit and insist they at least put it to the LL. Its amazing the amount of LA's who just say no to pets without speaking to the LL.

As soon as the LA ask for details in order to credit check be upfront about your credit issues. Tell them you'll put the rent money up front if it helps. Our latest tenant is in a bit of a financial mess due to her divorce, but she was honest from the start and told us the report would be bad and paid 6 months up front.

My next suggestion is put a small ad in the local paper. My brother-in-law rented his house out immediately by answering an ad in the paper something like:

" Professional lady seeks house to rent in --- area. Tel: "

Good luck,
Sammy

Thank you sammy,

I took the time last night to get a credit report and spent most the night crying, our score is very poor 534! would they still consider with 6 months upfront? Ive never been so worried in my life.

This all happened because of my partner losing a job because he is self employed and things went really slow, we have never missed any priority bills, just credit payments! im really shocked at the credit report.

lil_me · 13 April 2008 at 11:37AM

Credit checks are done because they worry about being paid, if you pay enough up front they won't worry about it....so makes sense. We also did this when we moved as my credit score was pathetic after spending years digging myself out of a big debt filled hole, but we only paid 3 months up front. This would be the advantage of going privately also as you can negotiate all these things without having to go via the letting agent as a middle man (which just made the process even longer for us) Explain BEFORE you fill in any forms for a credit check what the situation is (selling the home to pay off the debts etc of course they may ask you to prove you have paid the debts off), stay honest, they'll respect you more for it I have found.

As for the credit report, it doesn't take missing much before your score drops through the floor, mine is much lower than that. Normal bills don't show on there unless you get into serious debt with them so always paying the gas/electric wouldn't show up.There are ways of trying to repair the damage yourself on this website that you may wish to look into.

Hestia · 13 April 2008 at 11:49AM

When I graduated 6 years ago, I had no credit and therefore a poor rating. I needed to rent as I was moving to a new area for work, and had no family to put up a bond. So I offered the LA my deposit plus 6 months rent in advance, and although they took a little persuading all worked out well in the end. Where there's a will, there's a way!

Happydayz_2 · 13 April 2008 at 1:10PM

Well i think we just need to do it, we wont become homeless, just means we will have to live with family for abit longer to find the right home, paying 6 months in advance and a higher deposit for my pooch wouldnt be a problem! id find more if it meant they took on my pooch because i wont loose her, no way.

Shes very good, she doesnt even bark! we have never heard a yap bark or anything, not sure if she was born without a voicebox lol she is very odd in that respect, very quiet like a cat lol.

Thanks everyone, i feel much better! getting out of this mess just make me happy and ive measures in place to make sure i NEVER get in this situation ever again.

Renting a house with bad credit

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