Trouble finding somewhere new to rent

Trom

Thanks Next Verse, that sheds a lot of light on the 6 month upfront rent practice. If I'm not mistaken, this is only the case whilst BR, correct? N/A after discharge?

ALLMYFAULT

sorry i just posted this on another thread but it answers your last ?

im not bankrupt and when we were looking to rent a house it was impossible. my credit score was 322 and my hubbys was around 200 and we both had great references but agencies just laughed at us and private landlords were not much better. then i began offering 3 months rent up front to show i was genuine and we got accepted. our last two houses were paid like this...one with a major agent and the other with private. this is really the only way i know that you can get past a bad credit file.

and this was before i got defaults on my credit file

script

A quick question - hope you don't mind

@ The next verse

Did the Landlord say it was insurance for getting the rent paid - say by an insurance company who covers against tenants who don't pay.

Or insurance on the property itself?

The_Next_Verse

To be honest, I'm not sure which insurance it was.

Before we moved in, the property was empty and had been for 6 months. Knowing most insurance policies, they don't insure any properties that have been empty over a certain period of time.

So, it could have been either I suppose as he would have needed to get new insurances in total when we moved in.

However, I am under the impression that this practice is carried out for anyone with a bad credit record not just undischarged BR's which is why people with CCJs/bad credit also need to pay a certain amount upfront.

I'm only going by my own experiences here, so unfortunately can't be much help as didn't ask much that wasn't applicable to me... if you see what I mean!

xx

script

Thanks next.

I understand what you mean.

geordie_joe

script wrote: »

Did the Landlord say it was insurance for getting the rent paid - say by an insurance company who covers against tenants who don't pay.

I've just done a google search, and couldn't find any insurance company that offered that type of insurance. Plenty that offered "Loss of rent " insurance, but that just covered the building being uninhabitable through damage or building work etc.

Not one site offered insurance against a tenant not paying the rent.

To be honest, if I ran an insurance company I would not offer that sort of insurance. Just imagine it, a tenant thinking that if they don't pay the rent the landlord will just get it from the insurance company. How hard are some of them going to try to pay the rent.

How hard will a landlord try to get the rent if he can simply claim on his insurance, especially if the tenant is "a big bloke".

script

This landlord insurance thing is difficult to work out.

I can't see why a landlord would not be able to get building cover if he rented the property to a B/R.

And like you said it would be unlikely for an insurance company to "cover" loss of rent - if someone didn't pay.

I can see why a landlord would want 3 or 6 months rent upfront because of a tenants bad credit rating or the tenant being B/R.

I just don't get where the "insurance" bit comes into it.

geordie_joe

script wrote: »

This landlord insurance thing is difficult to work out.

I can't see why a landlord would not be able to get building cover if he rented the property to a B/R.

And like you said it would be unlikely for an insurance company to "cover" loss of rent - if someone didn't pay.

I can see why a landlord would want 3 or 6 months rent upfront because of a tenants bad credit rating or the tenant being B/R.

I just don't get where the "insurance" bit comes into it.

The insurance bit is just an excuse they use to not let you rent the property.

They don't want to rent to people who have "something wrong with them", because if it goes wrong they look stupid.

They end up with someone saying to them

"You rented your house to someone with a bad credit rating, and they didn't pay the rent.....Did you really not see that coming"?

"You rented your house to someone who was BR and they didn't pay the rent.....Did you really not see that coming"?

"You rented your house to a benefit scrounger and the wrecked it.....Did you really not see that coming"?

I don't mean to cause offence to anyone, but that's the way some people think. They don't want to be in a postion where someone can say/imply that it was their own fault for taking a chance on a certain type of person. So they won't take a chance.