Just sold my house, missed payments on mortagage and now need to rent!

luannestn82

Hi everyone, Im really hoping i can get some advice.
I am a single mum of two boys living on my own in my 3 bed house.
I have just sold my house as I really feel I need a fresh start, but when my partner left he carried on paying the mortgage as he had been advised to by his solicitor. 4 months ago now he stopped paying the mortgage without telling me, we then got into arrears with the mortgage and late payment fees started to be recorded on my credit file. If I would of known he was going to do this then I would of tried to continue paying the mortgage.
I now have a really bad credit score and I am desperate to rent as I will have no where to live once the sell of my house completes. I am panicking and worrying that i will fail credit checks and not be able to rent a house. what can I do? Does anyone know how the whole system works? and where I will stand? has anyone been in a similar situation or in this situation now??????
:eek:

Fire_Fox

You will either need to pay six months rent up front or find a guarantor if you have bad credit. Why didn't you know the mortgage wasn't being paid, sounds like you stayed in the house so didn't the bank write to you?

BitterAndTwisted

If the house was in both names then you would have needed your partner's consent to sell. If there was any equity in the property then you should have no problem coming up with six months rent in advance. Most letting agents carry out credit-checks on behalf of their landlords but some private landlords do not, so if you're really worried about failing a credit-check and don't have the six months rent in advance this could be an option

luannestn82

thx guys, the reason why I didnt know is because they didnt ring to make an issue of it and we only recieve a statement for the mortgage every 12 months so when I did get it i saw that it had been paid up to a certain point but then 2 payments they had tried to take out had been declined

Fire_Fox

I've never missed a mortgage payment so I don't know ... doesn't the lender normally write to you when a payment has failed? Most other 'debts' they would do.

G_M

Fire_Fox wrote: »

I've never missed a mortgage payment so I don't know ... doesn't the lender normally write to you when a payment has failed? Most other 'debts' they would do.

Obviously I can't speak for all lenders, but yes, normally a reminder letter comes out.

Re credit checks. Some LLs and agents just take a black and white view of the checks. Any negative results and they don't let.

Others are more flexible especially if you are upfront about the problem even before the check is done (this will also save you paying for them to do a check when they are of the first catagory).

Some LLs (and a very few agents) don't do credit checks at all.

<sebb>

Make sure you are honest about your situation, because as has already been said, most agents will perform credit checks and they will charge you for this check. If the landlord does take this "black and white" view, then you probably wont get your fee for the check refunded and you'll be out of pocket if you fail the check.