Renting query - do all tenant parties in the rented property need to be employed?

Londongirl09

We are a couple moving from a house share into a 2 bedroom house via a lettings agent. Through redundancy I am currently un-employed but my partner is employed. We are about to make an offer on a rental property and the letting agent has asked for details about 'our' employers etc.

If our offer is accepted we will also have to provide 1 1/2 months rent as dep, plus 1 months rent in advance. £95 admin and tenancy fee, reference charges per person at £40 each and inventory charge at £100.

The problem is that I am not employed and therefore we decided that it would be my partner that signs the contract so that we can secure the property. Even though both of us will be living there we wish for only him to sign the contract and therefore he will solely be contractually obligated to pay the full rent - will this prevent us from renting through letting agents as I wont be signing the contract even though I will be living there? Also will I need to be reference checked and what does this involve?

Despte my being unemployed I can provide excellent references from a previous landlord, have good banking history, have no criminal record of any kind etc.

Thanks in advance for your help and advice

GrammarGirl

I would say, based on my own experiences, you'd be fine even if both of you signed the agreement. As long as the EA can be assured that your partner earns enough to cover the rent and can see from your credit checks that you have no dubious history, I don't think it will be a problem that you're unemployed. Until a few months ago I lived in a house share with a student (no income) and this was absolutely fine with our regular (not student specific) EA.

You might be better just discussing it with your EA first - to put it in perspective, lots of couples with young children only have one parent working, an EA wouldn't discriminate because of that, as long as they knew the rent would be paid. I don't see it being any different just because you didn't choose your unemployment.

Jowo_2

As long as your partner's salary is sufficient to cover the rent, according to however the rent/salary ratio calculation is defined, you should be fine with your his name on the AST.


Another way to strengthen your chances is to offer a guarantor.

The degree of Tenant screening varies from landlord to landlord. It may involve taking up employer references, previous landlord references, checking the electoral register to verify previous addresses, checking whether you have any CCJs. Sometimes there are additional requirements - photo ID, copies of bank statements/payslips.

princessamy86

Your partner (as a general rule) needs to earn enough to cover 30 x the rent. So if rent is £500pcm, x 30 = £15000. Partner needs to earn over £15000 a year in order for you not to need a guarantor. Shouldn't be any problem with you not working, you will still have to be credit checked and put on the agreement though (I work in an EA)