References - any problems?

shefftyke

I'm a 22 year old student, soon to be useful, employed citizen. I'm currently living in a shared house, with a part time job. I've been looking for places to rent in my area and as expected all letting agents have mentioned they would like references.

They have asked for credit references, employment references and landlord references. Now I'm more than happy to provide all of these but I'm worried about what would happen if I couldn't provide any one of them?

I will be working in a well paid job, so I can't imagine falling down on the employement and credit reference. However a friend of mine who has just begun renting after living with his parents failed his credit reference because apparently he had "no credit history". This was despite being employed full time for the past 4 years. I pay car insurance, phone bills etc...on a monthly basis. Does this count as a "credit history"?

Secondly after living in shared accomodation I can't imagine my landlord would be bothered to give me a reference. I'm sure he must be busy enough without being chased up on this. I'm sure he would give a good reference but what would happen if he didn't provide anything, would that count against me?

Finally, I've found one or two nice places and have enquired about starting the application process, however I wouldn't want to start the tenancy until July. I've found that almost all letting agents do not want to start the process now, and some won't even let me view the property. Is this short sighted on their behalf? I know they want to get the property let asap but surely having a guaranteed sale lined up (long term contract) for if it is still available is a good thing? Why not let me view it?

shefftyke

Sorry, I should have made clear in the title.

This thread is asking landlords what they think of references. I don't actually need legal info etc. Just wondering what weighting a landlord puts on a reference and whether you would take someone on who didn't match one of the criteria, especially in this economic climate!

katie1986

I don't know about the references, but it's odd they won't let you view houses now, as where I am in Leeds all the decent properties for July, albeit for students, are snapped up in Jan/Feb!

shefftyke

I'm no longer a student. I'm looking at renting somewhere nice after 4 years of living in student houses. I understand that landlords will be a lot fussier when it comes to renting nice accomodation, but I find it odd that they won't let me view.