Street address confusion - will it affect credit rating?

TrixA

We live in a flat which is legally part of the landlord's house - we live on the ground floor which is self-contained with its own entrance (there's an internal connecting staircase which nobody uses) but not separately registered for council tax etc. To distinguish it from the landlord's residence we tend to use either 'garden flat' or 'lower ground flat', followed by the street address. However, these formats are not listed on the official address records which come up when you search by postcode. On the electoral roll we're simply listed as living at the main property address.

I'm wondering if this is likely to affect my credit rating in any way? For example, if the agency doing the credit check searched for 'Lower ground flat', would it also pull up records listed under 'Garden flat' or simply the street address?

Tixy

This could quite easily cause you issues in getting accepted for credit products.

You need to get copies of your credit reports from the 3 credit reference agencies and see what variants of the address appear on your report and if your credit accounts appear on them.

It would generally be preferable to not use several variants on the address. Ideally all your accounts would be the address in the same format as you are on the electoral roll.

zzzLazyDaisy

I know this is not what you asked but just to say - this arrangement is potentially a minefield, as it sounds like the LL has divided the house but has not notified the LA (if he has converted the house into two separate self contained flats, they should each be registered separately for council tax, and presumably he hasn't obtained planning permission for the conversion either).

This affects you for two reasons -

If you are officially living in his house and he has free access to your part of the house, then your part of the house is not 'self contained, and you are not tenants, but lodgers, which drastically reduces any rights you may have.

If you are in fact living in a separate self contained dwelling, with your own key, and he has no access to your part (which is not the same as him having access but respecting your privacy) then as the tenant you are responsible for the payment of council tax on the dwelling and this could come back and bite you at some future date.

You say there are internal stairs but no-one uses them. If the LL did come down the stairs from his upstairs 'flat' would this give him access to your living space, or is that accessed via a completely separate door?

EDIT - do you have your own separate gas/electricity/water meters or are you on the landlord's supply and pay him an agreed sum?

CKhalvashi

As above, it's something that would require both planning and CT registration (apt 1, 2 etc) to be officially subdivided.

It may be worth speaking to your local district/borough council to make enquiries.

CK

TrixA

Ummm, yeah, that's not what I asked. I know it's a slightly irregular situation, but it works for all concerned, and we've lived here for nearly five years without incident. We are now in the process of buying our own place, hence the question about the credit score.

TrixA

Tixy wrote: »

You need to get copies of your credit reports from the 3 credit reference agencies and see what variants of the address appear on your report and if your credit accounts appear on them.

This is actually what caused me to ask the question. I tried to get my report from Experian and to do that I had to select the address from the postcode finder, which only offered me the address of the main house, or [street number]A, which may be intended to refer to our flat, but is not an address we've ever used. I couldn't see an option to enter an address manually, which is what I normally do.

I have actually never had any problems getting credit before, but this is the first time I've applied for a mortgage so getting a bit paranoid.

CIS

The Valuation Office Agency (E & W) or the Scottish Assessors Office are responsible for banding a property and are the people to speak with regarding banding and whether a residence is a dwelling for council tax purposes.

TrixA

Please, I don't want to get into the Council Tax issues. To be clear, this is not a slum landlord situation, it's a four storey semi-detached house in a nice part of London where we live in the ground floor and the landlord and his wife (who are pensioners) live upstairs. There's a long story which I'd rather not go into, but we are hoping to move out shortly and certainly don't want to cause the LL any trouble with the Council.

Tixy

If you apply for your reports by post you can put on whatever address you like (you can get the forms from the agency sites and print them out).

Presumably you are going to check all 3 agencies if you are going to be applying for a mortgage?

The_Boss

TrixA wrote: »

Ummm, yeah, that's not what I asked. I know it's a slightly irregular situation, but it works for all concerned, and we've lived here for nearly five years without incident. We are now in the process of buying our own place, hence the question about the credit score.

You don't have a "credit rating" or a "credit score" so there's not much to answer on that.

zzzLazyDaisy

You don't have a separate address because the house is one dwelling.

There is only one address that you can use and that is the address that you are registered on the electoral roll at, since that will be one of the first things that is checked.