Tenant credit check

oceanscape

Hi,

We have sold our home and need to rent a property for 6-12 months whilst we renovate the house we have purchased (it's uninhabitable at present).

My husband and I have both made a few late credit card payments in the past few months (we've had financial problems and a couple of DDs have bounced). Will we likely fail the credit checking process for renting a property?

Thanks for any info.

CloudCuckooLand

"a few" ? For how much?

Different Letting agents and landlords will have different tolerances.

Ask yours.

G_M

Can't add anything to the post above!

oceanscape

Maybe 3 or 4 late payments in the past year. We have a huge amount of credit card debt (£50k) which will be paid off in full when our house sale completes.

You say different agents have different tolerances. I believe they use the MARAS system, so surely it's pretty universal, as this just gives a "yes" or "no"?

Pott5y

The credit check approval will depend on a series of things. Rent vs income, references and whether or not you are employed. I have a really damaged credit record and was on a DMP for 6 years but I have still managed to pass all the last 3 of my Credit Reference Checks (MARAS was one of them and Homelet was the last). I think you should be ok as long as you have no CCJs or haven't been bankrupt or on an IVa etc.

Good luck

ttd14

Bankruptcy, IVA or CCJ are the main causes of failing credit checks. Just because you've missed a 'few' payments, I wouldn't give that a massive amount of thought.

Apply for the check and find out. Or, check Experian to see what your rating is like?

princeofpounds

MARAS doesn't pass/fail. It gives a grading and a recommendation based, presumably, on how risk tolerant the landlord is (I don't know what the landlord part of the application looks like).

The decision rests with the landlord, so what you will need to do is explain your circumstances before the check so they can be provisionally accepted as long as that's all that comes up. You will find some landlords will not listen and some will be ok.

Experian_company_representative

Landlords can only see public information on credit reports - such as court judgments and bankruptcies - not details of your credit agreements. As a result, missed payments on cards etc can't affect tenancy applications.

James Jones

property.advert

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

Landlords can only see public information on credit reports - such as court judgments and bankruptcies - not details of your credit agreements. As a result, missed payments on cards etc can't affect tenancy applications.

James Jones

So are you saying that a credit search made by an agent is not as thorough as that for a lender wanting to see whether you could afford to repay the same amount as the rent, over the term ?

If so, can agents dig deeper or does some law prevent you disclosing the same level of information as you would to a prospective lender ?

ThinkingOfLinking

Experian_company_representative wrote: »

Landlords can only see public information on credit reports - such as court judgments and bankruptcies - not details of your credit agreements. As a result, missed payments on cards etc can't affect tenancy applications.

James Jones

I'd also like to know; I have no CCJs, IVAs or bankruptcies but am currently fighting some fraudulent defaults on my account and as such have failed a recent credit check with a landlord and could end up with nowhere to live at this rate....

Experian_company_representative

Credit history data is only provided to lenders who share their own data. You can think of it as a data-sharing club. You only get out what you put in. Landlords don't share repayment data so they can't access other lenders' repayment data. Simple as that. All they can see is public record information, such as bankruptcies, IVAs, DROs, court judgments etc.

James Jones