My rubbish experience of trying to rent post BR

hall987

We had found a lovely 2 bed house to rent, it wasn't expensive so well within our income, but because of BR we knew we would need a guarantor. The agents said we needed one that earned over £21,500 a year and our parents are retired, we bit the bullet and asked a friend who earns 48k and they said he wasn't good enough!! Right, now I am so fed up, why can't agents see that we have no debts unlike most people, we are almost 3 years into our BR and owe nothing and we have glowing tenant refs going back 18 years!!!! We aren't criminals, but this situation has made me feel like we are the lowest of the low, past criminals. We were forced into BR because of my pregnancy and our creditors refusing reduced payments. Fingers crossed we get the 2nd property otherwise we will be homeless in 2 weeks. Sorry for ranting, but just wanted people to realise that BR is not the easy option. It was the right thing for us, but for people with small debts think of all options.

Maizy

Thanks for this post and I hope you get the second house, its a shame when you had your heart set on it.

Why was the guarantor no good? Im very curious as I have a family member who earns over the required amount but a lot less than your friend and Im more than likely to need a guarantor and it worries me as we need to move asap??

Good luck anyhow.

MTDancer

You poor thing. It does make you feel like a criminal, doesn't it? I dare not look for another place to rent as we have no guarantor and our parents are no longer alive. Why can't your references and ability to pay be enough? Shame on them. Hope everything works out.

confused76

i'm sorry you couldn't rent the place you wanted....i ended up finding a private landlord with no credit checks through Gumtree and i also looked at houses through the local paper

good luck

Worcsman

hall987 wrote: »

We had found a lovely 2 bed house to rent, it wasn't expensive so well within our income, but because of BR we knew we would need a guarantor. The agents said we needed one that earned over £21,500 a year and our parents are retired, we bit the bullet and asked a friend who earns 48k and they said he wasn't good enough!! Right, now I am so fed up, why can't agents see that we have no debts unlike most people, we are almost 3 years into our BR and owe nothing and we have glowing tenant refs going back 18 years!!!! We aren't criminals, but this situation has made me feel like we are the lowest of the low, past criminals. We were forced into BR because of my pregnancy and our creditors refusing reduced payments. Fingers crossed we get the 2nd property otherwise we will be homeless in 2 weeks. Sorry for ranting, but just wanted people to realise that BR is not the easy option. It was the right thing for us, but for people with small debts think of all options.

I couldn't agree with you more, renting whilst BR or whilst it is on your credit file is very difficult/a bloody nightmare. We had the same problems as you, parents couldnt be guarantor, we failed the credit checks. The only way for us was to make sure there was no credit agreement and pay the 6 month rent up front.

There are other ways though, private landlord is one although I have to say I found gum tree a pretty useless site, unless you live in a city or large town.

hall987

Thanks for your messages of support:) I forgot to say the letting agents also took our £235 admin fees and only from me going on at them have they agreed to refund half back! Maizy, my guarantor works for a company on a long term contract, to maximise his wages he pays himself through his limited company he set up. He has over a £1000 a week pouring into his bank account and the rent was £595 a month, but because anything that looks like self employment puts agents off it was a no no. We have though about private ads and when we lived in Worcester this was possible, but where we are now is a small village that everyone wants to live in to get their child into the very good primary school.