Out of Pocket

Dydie

Just ranting (sorry)

I have just lost £300 which I was charged for tenant referencing fees which the agency knew I would not pass due to poor credit and now because (surprise surprise) I did not pass they have said they will not rent the house to me

How can they be allowed to get away with this sort of nonsense :eek:

I fully disclosed my credit and told them I have a guarantor but they have come back saying even with a guarantor I cannot pass Homelet referencing - goodbye £300

I have previously rented 3 properties each time being referenced by Homelet my current rent is £1250 and we were looking to downsize and pay £750 the fact that my hubby and I are both in full time work and have never missed a rent payment obviously counts for nothing yes we had a blip back in 2007 and suffer from 5 CCJ's. (long story)

I spoke to Homelet today who tell me that their criteria has not changed and that I would previously have been declined its just that those particular landlord's/letting agents obviously chose to ignore their recommendations.

Great - I had best go and find another human being who will accept us even though we will fail or find myself a nice comfy cardboard box to spend Christmas in

If anyone is interested I now know Homelet's referencing formula if your worried about whether or not you will pass a tenant check

vuvuzela

Dydie wrote: »

If anyone is interested I now know Homelet's referencing formula if your worried about whether or not you will pass a tenant check

Any chance you could post it then please ? Might help others.

BitterAndTwisted

Crikey, your credit-records must be terrible if the landlord won't accept you even with a guarantor. Are you absolutely certain that the agents understood that bit?

Still, as you have discovered, even if Homelet recommend not accepting you as a tenant, previous landlords have chosen to take a chance on you. There will be others.

G_M

The decision to accept/reject a tenant application is the landlord's (or agent's if he delegates it), not Homelet's. Homelet just make a recommendation which the LL can agree with or ignore.

If there's a guarantor, that's a good reason to ignore the Homelet recommendation.

The key to protecting your credit check fee is to get pre-agreement in writing from the LL/agent of the terms of its return or otherwise.

If you declare all your credit history up front, the LL can decide whether to rent to you or not subject to the vetting not turning up additional issues. If nothing new comes up, then either the LL rents to you or returns your fee. Of course if the vetting turns up further adverse history, then the fee would not be refunded.

But it's all down to the agreed terms of the credit fee payment. Unfortunately very few tenants even consider this in advance, or even understand what they are paying for, let alone negotiate the terms.

Dydie

Hi Everyone thanks for your replies.


The (very basic) method of scoring from Homelet is as follows, apparently there are other more complicated factors but this is an idiots guide so to speak

Everyone starts with +1000 points

They do not look at your credit file in the same way as you see it, they do not look for defaults or good credit they simply look for court details so CCJ's, IVA's and Bankruptcy.

Each CCJ is worth approx -300 points

So if you have one CCJ your score will be approx +700

To pass in your own right you need to score at least +710

If you score between +545 and +709 then they will pass you with a Guarantor

But if your score is below +544 then you fail even with a Guarantor

I have 4 old CCJ's from 2007 - Homelet do NOT take into consideration circumstances or the amount of the CCJ or whether you are paying it or not.

Their initial decision is based purely on your credit score, you will not gain points by getting positive references from your employer or current L/L if you fail the scoring they do not even continue with obtaining these references.

Personally I would have thought more weight should be given as to whether you have a stable job and have previously been a good tenant but this counts for nothing :mad:

As previously stated by another poster (G_M) it is NOT Homelet's decision as to whether a L/A or L/L rents you their property but make sure you declare your CCJ's and as I have learned get a written guarantee that the L/L will still rent you the property as long as all your checks come back with the same information you have already declared.

I feel very hard done by that I have lost this money despite full disclosure, I intend to fight the greedy L/A to the bitter end over this, I feel it should be a case of obtaining money by deception.

I have rented 3 properties previously always disclosed and always accepted with a guarantor, so I automatically assumed I had previously passed these credit checks (with guarantor) as it turns out I would always have been failed by Homelet, its just that my previous L/A & L/L obviously had far better morals and had already made the decision to accept me based on what I had told them and had just carried out these checks to make sure no other hidden surprises came up.

Homelet's criteria basically means you cannot have a single CCJ to pass and you can have a maximum of one possibly two to pass with a guarantor.

My score with 4 CCJ's came back at -144 :rotfl:

My total debt for these amounts to £7403. they all date back to 2007 and are not settled but I am paying these debts in monthly instalments to third party DCA's who have purchased the debts from the original lenders, this information is not recorded on my credit file and would not be taken into consideration by Homelet anyway - the total amount currently owed is £3203.

So you don't have to be in major debt to be refused!