Renting with Bankrupt, Self-Employed boyfriend

bigsmoke

Hi All

My boyfriend and I are about to rent our own flat for the first time - we're currently living in a room in a shared house together (so you can probably imagine how excited we are to be getting our own space!).

however, he is bankrupt and self-employed (and an actor at that, although he has a regular job) and i'm worried that people might not rent to us, especially agencies? Is anyone able to advise me?

here are the facts:

- He was made bankrupt 6 years ago, due to expire next spring I believe
- He is also still dealing with a dispute from his bankruptcy with his local council at the time (they keep popping up asking for money, he tells them he’s bankrupt, they say ‘we didn’t know that and can’t see you on the register’, he sends them the papers, they go quiet for a while, then pop back up asking for cash again, grrr)
- He is a self-employed actor, on a 0 hours contract at a tourist attraction, where he has worked full time for the last 3 years
- I am in permanent employment (6 years)
- We’ve both been renting in London for 6 years (me), 10 years (him) and can get references from our (private) landlords saying that we’ve been reliable in this time. Well, I can and I know he can since we got together just over a year ago – can’t promise it before that but his landlord seems very fond of him!


My question is, as a couple, is any agency going to touch us with a barge pole? Or even private landlords if we find somewhere on gumtree or something?

He takes home between 850-1050 a month (usually gets about 1000), although obviously has to pay some expenses out of that
I take home 2430

We will be looking to rent a property around the £1000/month mark

Any advice gratefully received, thankyou! We’ve been getting so excited about moving out, and this has only just really occurred to me (I haven’t mentioned it to him yet, thought I’d try and find out the impact first)

Thanks again, and sorry for long post

BS x

GAH

If you find a property via an agency they are going to more than likely use one of the credit referencing agencies out which will show your partners bankruptcy.

Once you find a property, I would be honest with the agent your dealing with and tell them about your partners bankruptcy. (as it will save you losing out on agency fees if the agency where to find out after references been done).

Ultimately, even if you find something through an agency, its the landlord who gets the final say who he wants as tenants anyway.

chewmylegoff

bigsmoke wrote: »

Hi All

My boyfriend and I are about to rent our own flat for the first time - we're currently living in a room in a shared house together (so you can probably imagine how excited we are to be getting our own space!).

however, he is bankrupt and self-employed (and an actor at that, although he has a regular job) and i'm worried that people might not rent to us, especially agencies? Is anyone able to advise me?

here are the facts:

- He was made bankrupt 6 years ago, due to expire next spring I believe
- He is also still dealing with a dispute from his bankruptcy with his local council at the time (they keep popping up asking for money, he tells them he’s bankrupt, they say ‘we didn’t know that and can’t see you on the register’, he sends them the papers, they go quiet for a while, then pop back up asking for cash again, grrr)
- He is a self-employed actor, on a 0 hours contract at a tourist attraction, where he has worked full time for the last 3 years
- I am in permanent employment (6 years)
- We’ve both been renting in London for 6 years (me), 10 years (him) and can get references from our (private) landlords saying that we’ve been reliable in this time. Well, I can and I know he can since we got together just over a year ago – can’t promise it before that but his landlord seems very fond of him!


My question is, as a couple, is any agency going to touch us with a barge pole? Or even private landlords if we find somewhere on gumtree or something?

He takes home between 850-1050 a month (usually gets about 1000), although obviously has to pay some expenses out of that
I take home 2430

We will be looking to rent a property around the £1000/month mark

Any advice gratefully received, thankyou! We’ve been getting so excited about moving out, and this has only just really occurred to me (I haven’t mentioned it to him yet, thought I’d try and find out the impact first)

Thanks again, and sorry for long post

BS x

normally agencies apply a basic rule that you can afford up to 40% of your gross salary as rent. if your take home is 2430, that means your gross is about 3600, so you can easily afford £1000pcm on your own.

so, an option for you is to have the contract in your name, so you are solely responsible for the rent, but he has the right to live there. obviously this comes with some risk to you personally, but it's an option worth considering.

if you do this, the agency will still want to credit check him, so it can charge a stupid fee for the privilege.

your other option is to find someone (e.g. his parents) to act as guarantor for him.

i would agree that you should be upfront with it though.

bigsmoke

thanks very much for your replies - a bit more positive than i was expecting actually

definitely right to be upfront about it.

i had wondered about renting it in my own name - if we did this, would it mean that our credit records would not become linked? I have quite a 'good' credit record (i.e. they seem to see me as a good candidate for credit cards, which is unfortunately, as i now have quite a bit of unsecured debt to pay off ). If we were to get a joint tenancy, would this link us financially? or is it only if we get a joint account or something?

thanks again

BS x

bigsmoke

ps - my gross is only actually 3237 but hopefully this is still ok, will mean we really have to limit ourselves to that £1000 limit but guess that's probably a good thing - just know we'll get carried away when we start looking!

chewmylegoff

bigsmoke wrote: »

ps - my gross is only actually 3237 but hopefully this is still ok, will mean we really have to limit ourselves to that £1000 limit but guess that's probably a good thing - just know we'll get carried away when we start looking!

with a gross of £3237 you could "afford" (according to the LA, if they are applying the 40% test) up to £1295pcm based on your salary alone, but obviously that's not a reason to go any higher than you want to pay.

i don't know much about the linking of credit records, but i can't imagine how a private tenancy agreement could possibly affect either of your credit ratings in any way, positive or negative, unless you fail to pay the rent due, of course. i don't see how it could lead to your credit histories being linked as it is not a document which the credit rating agencies have access to.

bigsmoke

Quck update, in case anyone else is worrying about the same thing:

we have found a flat (hurrah!), just inside the limit of which i can technically 'afford' to rent on my own. The agency were absolutely fine about the bankruptcy - told them as soon as we'd finished negotiating the rent and then gave us two options:
1) boyfriend could provide a guarantor (extra cost of £35 for processing this) or
2) i could be responsible for the whole rent, whilst still having both of our names on the lease. so when we filled in our 'applicant' forms, i put the whole rent amount in the 'contribution' box, and boyfriend put N/A

they really didn't seem too worried about it at all, so hope that reassures someone

BS x