Renting and CCJS

sbjb123

Hello

My partner and I rent our current home privately. We have been here 4 years and prior to that in another private rental for 4 years.

Last week our LL let us know he was selling his home and needed to move into the property we rent. He gave us notice and we need to be out for 30th of June. This was all very amicable as we get on well.

We have never missed a rent payment and will get an excellent reference from him, ditto the previous landlord if needed so I can get references for the last 8 years showing we have never been late or missed a rent payment.

I have been with my employer for 9 years and can get an excellent reference from them too. My salary is about 5.5 times higher than the rental of properties we are looking to rent. We are non-smokers and professional people.

However.....I have 3 CCJs. One from 2008, one from 2009 and a really recent one from about 2 months ago. They come to £1,900 between the 3. I am paying these off and they are my fault and just stupid, but I am really worried they will stop us renting through an agency. There is nothing about from private landlords in our area as obviously this would be a great solution.

My husband has no CCJs although he doesn't work currently as he is a full time dad to our 2 year old and my salary is plenty for the three of us to live off. If he worked I would be tempted to do a tenancy just in his name but as he doesn't this isn't an option.

My plan is to be upfront with any agents and tell them I have the 3 CCJs but point out I can get 8 years worth of landlords references showing we are never late with rent, have been in my job for 9 years and can get excellent references from them along with personal references if required.

Does anyone have any experience of how this is likely to fly with prospective letting agents or landlords?

I don't want to be asked to get a guarantor as the only person I could really ask is my sister and I just don't think it's a good thing to ask someone to do for you and she would no doubt be worried about how this would affect her ability to get future mortgages etc which I would understand.

I could pay a little extra deposit. Say a property was £750 a month and they wanted a months rent in advance, a months rent as a bond (so £1500) I could maybe increase the bond by a few hundred pounds as some added surety but I am not in a position to pay 6 months rent upfront or anything like that.

If anyone has any experience of how rigid estate agents are on this sort of thing, could they let me know? Or if you are a landlord, would you be likely to rent to us on the above information?

Thank you

anselld

You will need a better explanation than "just stupid", but it will depend entirely on the individual LL. If your explanation is convincing enough some will accept.

sbjb123

Anything other than just stupid would be a lie. Or the complete truth which is I suffer from depression which occasionally leads to things like this happening. And I worry that would put off a LL more than reassure them. I really have never been late with a rent payment in my life though and can get references to that effect which I hope will help.

Part of me wants to say something like I am disputing the recent one but it isn't true and I don't want to lie.

gaz141

Letting agent actually pays for credit check and does not just pocket the money, that would be a first

Manchee

So if you're looking at places for 750 a month and earn 5.5 times the rental, I don't quite understand why you haven't been able to pay the ccjs off if they total 1.9k? I think that's prob gonna be a question you get asked.

Usually with letting agents if you have a bad credit history you get given the option of either paying 6 months rent in advance or having a guarantor. Its understandable though, I mean the LL doesn't know you and doesn't know that you wont be racking up big bills and failing to meet the rent.