Ex pat returning to U.K. needs advice

leethesign

Mornin' all, some advice here would be appreciated...........

My wife and I have been living abroad for 12 years and now want to return to the U.K. to live (the fishing's better). We'll be wanting to rent somewhere to live and I see that nowadays you have to be credit checked to get a rental agreement.
Obviously, I don't have any credit history for the past 12 years so I need to build up some quickly or else we'll have to find a large cardboard box somewhere!

Our joint pension and investment income is enough to live on and we both have active U.K. bank accounts that have credit balances.

I am on the Electoral Register in the U.K. as I have maintained a U.K. address for a couple of years as we were going to move back once before.

I don't want to start throwing dozens of fruitless credit card applications around as I believe that rejections go against you and both of our banks have told us we'll have to wait until we get back to the U.K. to apply for their credit cards. Obviously, this will be too late.

Another thing I noticed when I looked at an application form on line, when asked for previous addresses etc, there's no facility for putting a non-UK address. Should I ignore this and put our last U.K. address instead? Our last UK address was 12 years ago, but we had no debt problems when we left.

So, where do I go from here???? Any advice would be most gratefully received.

Sorry this is so long-winded:)

cos_2

It might be better to try for a private rental rather than through an agency. The agencies have to use procedures, e.g. CRA references, but individual landlords can do what they like!

You might think about offering a higher deposit than the norm as a gesture of good faith.

leethesign

Thanks Cos,

Yes, that's already on my mind, but it would be handy to have a credit card anyway.

Frugalsod

You could pay more of the rent upfront. If you did that you could go to letting agents and if the landlord is happy with the arrangement then you could live wherever you want.

Also you should be able to cope with a debit card until you have an address.

leethesign

Thanks Frugalsod....point taken, but I've already spoken to 3 letting agents and have offered up to 9 months rent in advance, but none of them would play ball, saying "·no credit history, no rental". Lucky old landlords, eh? - wish I could afford to turn away over 6 grand in advance money!

Voyager2002

leethesign wrote: »

Thanks Frugalsod....point taken, but I've already spoken to 3 letting agents and have offered up to 9 months rent in advance, but none of them would play ball, saying "·no credit history, no rental". Lucky old landlords, eh? - wish I could afford to turn away over 6 grand in advance money!

Yet another reason to avoid letting agents.

[Deleted User]

returning to this dump?<shakes head>

leethesign

The grass is always greener!!!!!!!