Question about renting

lauralla

Apologies if this question has been answered previously (I've had a look and couldn't see an answer, but I am tired...!)

Anyway, my partner and I have returned from the Middle East where he has been working for the last 18 months. He was made redundant at the end of the year and we decided to stay in the UK.
So, we are now in the position of looking for jobs and also finding a house (we have his 13 yr old son who lives with us permanently). We are currently living with his parents, but this is just a temporary solution.

My question is this: how do we go about renting a house, before we have job/s, in fact, is this even possible? We have both rented previously, but have never been in this situation before. I know that the agency/landlord will want a reference and pay slips from an employer, but if we don't have an employer, does this mean we can't go ahead and look for a house?

The other part of the question is how does the housing benefit work? We have started to claim jobseekers, but have been told (rather briefly) that we need to find somewhere to live, and then submit a claim for housing benefit - but how do we rent somewhere if we don't have a job and are not able to claim the housing benefit immediately?

Hope this makes sense, and thanks in advance for any advice/information, its much appreciated.

PS. Its so nice being back in this country and being able to browse the internet again!! Particularly this site, I could spend hours (and have done!) reading the OS Moneysaving tips!

G_M

Landlords vary. Many will only rent to tenants with a verifiable income, others are more flexible. How are you actually planning to pay the rent? Savings? Housing Benefit (though as you say there's a catch 22).

If you offer to pay 6 months rent in advance, many LLs will be happy with this.

If you have a guarantor (his parents?) willing to take on responsibility for any rent arears/damage, then many LLs will be happy. But they (the parents) need to understand they become legally liable for what you do (or don't do)!

Otherwise it may be a question of staying put till you get jobs which will then allow you to pay the rent AND allow you to show prospectice LLs that you can pay the rent.

clutton_2

suggest you read the first couple of "sticky" posts in this part of the forum.. you will learn a lot about renting from there - also look on the b enefits section for info on that

Fire_Fox

Local Housing Allowance is always paid in arrears, so you will need to use the redundancy money to pay the damage deposit and first couple of months rent. It's best to be honest with the landlord, will the in laws act as guarantor? You will only be able to get a fixed amount of LHA which will vary according to the size of your family, so you may need to downgrade your expectations of what size house you rent, or top up the LHA with the your savings.

Purpletopaz

Hi

Contact your local council Re housing Benefit first and find out how much the Local Housing Alowance is, for your needs ( or check website, you would be entitled to a 2 bed as long you receive the child benefit ) then you can look realisticlly at prices on rented properties.

lauralla

Thanks very much everyone for your replies. I shall have a look at the posts suggested and take it from there. I wasn't sure if there was an easy answer to my question but thought it worth a go!! Thanks again.