Has anyone ever failed a tenancy check?

gradel

Hi,

I'm concerned about the tenancy check that is done and if we will actually pass it. This is our 1st time renting. I have had a mortgage previously with an x partner that was all paid off and no outstanding bills are in that address. that is there on my credit file for people to see when they check.


when i moved out I got a bit stuck with stuff and had to contact CCCS before I got into trouble we agreed a debt management plan with my creditors and that was that.

All the payments to my 5 crediotrs are reduced and they were all in agreement with this at the start and I have never missed a payment.
However HSBC changed their minds about being happy. they make up 2 out of the 5 and as a result they have defaulted on one account and the other one is showing in arrears so my credit score is rubbish now.

My phone is contracted and has never been behind nor had my car payments or car insurance.

Every bill/payment/account (execpet these two current HSBC ones) are all either settled or up to date.

Me and my partner have no CCJ's/IVA's/Bankruptcy etc. against our names. On my own I earn enough of money to cover the rent and bill and will have some left over for food With my partners wage its more than enough.

My question is will the rubbish score make us fail the checks? I'm the head tenant (I earn the most) and he's a tenant. We've both been honest with the letting agency and explained the situation. They have say it'll be fine and we wont fail. So I've paid the money for the checks and we're waiting for it to clear to find out. I really hope it will.

Sorry its long winded. Thank you for reading though and any experience in this matter would be great!

Thanks in advance

grifferz

It depends what you mean by a "tenancy check". Do you mean the credit check and general check of ability to afford the rental that they do?

If so then yes, despite my perfect credit record with long history of sensible credit card use, my partner and I failed the credit check that our letting agent gave us for our current rental when we moved in, in 2009. They said it was because we were unable to prove our income, despite having come from a shared house where we were paying similar rent (wanting to move from sharing a house with others, to just us two in a flat) and having a good landlord reference from that.

This was fairly understandable because at the time I had just become self-employed and did not have three years of accounts yet. Additionally my partner had relatively recently started shift work with a very low amount of contracted hours per week, and they were unwilling to consider the much larger amount of shifts she was picking up per week which brought in more than her basic salary.

However, the LA/LL was amenable to seeing evidence of our ample savings and agreed to take us on regardless, if we paid 8 weeks of deposit instead of 6. So that's what we did.

So yes, it is possible to fail a test of ability to afford your rental even if you have an otherwise perfect credit record and know you can afford the rent. Equally that doesn't have to be the end of your chances, though it probably would be if they have prospective tenants lining up...

Good luck!

gradel

yes I mean the credit check. I'm more confused now I've started looking than before. Some people say defaults don't matter and some people say they do.

I was hoping because we have been honest this might help

They have no one else apparently as they want someone in before Christmas which is why everything is moving super fast.

I'm not going to hold my breath but I'm really hoping that if it fails they will offer us a deal like you suggested.

thank you

grifferz

If you have done a credit check on yourself, you know what someone else is going to see when they run a check on you as well. There's no sense in hiding any of that, because that would definitely go badly for you.

The bad items on your credit report may well be an issue and may cause them to reject you out of hand. They may still be willing to come up with a solution like I said.

Unfortunately you can't really trust what the LA tells you about your ability to pass their checks, because there isn't really much of a downside to them should you fail. Them coming up with one prospective tenant who fails a credit check is going to look better to their client, the LL, than zero prospective tenants after all.

IIRC credit and reference checks for us were £25 each and this was non-refundable.

Waino696969

As far as I am aware the Credit Checks performed by you letting agent will only search public information, such as Electoral Roll & Court information. I don't think any defaults would show up as they have no access to your credit account information.

Good luck and let us know how you get on!

Jafar1177

In the past, I have had a letting agent flag up the fact that I had Ccjs and defaults from years before when I applied for a rental property from them, I had to explain this in detail and promise I would keep to paying the rent on time etc and the letting agent went back to the landlord and asked them how they felt about it?... It was ultimately the landlords decision and I was lucky that he decided to take a chance on me (also I was going into a joint rental with my boyfriend) so this would've helped too.
Another time I used a letting agent, I decided to come clean straight away and explained my Ccjs and defaults and because of my honestly and assurance I was a good tenant and paid on time (as well as being able to provide the prev letting agents details for them to check this) they were ok and it all went through fine.
What I'm trying to say is basically, it depends on the Letting Agent and Landlord at the end of the day. I do know though that there are some Letting Agencies that 'say' they'll do credit checks but just charge you for one and don't actually do one, if you go with one of those and keep Schtum then I guess it won't matter in that scenario as no one will ever know! Good Luck!

ACG

I did, which i was very surprised about - considering ive worked in the financial services for nearly a decade im very much on top of my credit file.

I had just sold my house, so they asked for 6 months rent upfront which i did and then went on a rolling contract after.