Worried about a credit check (for renting)

kay0981

Hello all!

I'm looking into renting a lovely house with my partner. We are both recent graduates with secured, well-paid full-time jobs.

We are going to rent through an estate agency (private landlords are not really an option - we live in a small town and 99% of properties are managed through agencies). Now, I'm seriously worried because the administration fee is about £400 (ridiculous, I know); and even when you pay it, whether you get the property or not depends on 'successful references and credit checks'.

I'm not too worried about the references part, but I am about the credit checks. I'm only 22, and my partner's 23. We are both recent graduates (haven't started paying off the student loan yet though, - not required to just yet); and only started our jobs 1,5 month ago. We do not have any debts, we do not have anything that we pay in installments. The only thing we have is an interest-free overdraft that we dip into quite often. We will not have any trouble paying the required rent, but I'm just worried, does the fact that we've only started our jobs very recently, or that we are very young means that the credit check might fail? And what if it does? Would that mean that the £400 admin fee is just like flushing money down the toilet for a property we might not get? Is there a Plan B we can implement if the credit check goes wrong?

I am really worried about this, I am not sure whether I really just want to throw £400 away on something that may not even get anywhere.

Thanks in advance for your advice x

HappyMJ

I wouldn't worry about it. As long as the income you have covers the rental payments and you've got enough to pay the first months rent and deposit then you should have no problems getting it. As long as you can also prove who you are. Credit checks can fail if you've paid things late or gone into arrears for so long a CCJ may have been granted against you....but if you've never had credit (even a mobile contract) then you've never paid anything late and so far it's considered good as there is no adverse history.