What triggers a Credit Score Fail with an Estate Agent?

colinairey

Hi.

Can anyone tell me what triggers a Credit Score Fail with an Estate Agent? Myself and my wife have put in an offer on a rented property and are just about to have credit checks done.
We both have good well paid jobs but our Credit reports don't look the best.

My Experian score is 841 (fair) I have a default from 2009 which is marked as satisfied and also a CCJ from the same year which is also marked as a satisfied judgement. I have never been Bankrupt.

My wife's Experian score is 695 (poor) She has some defaults on her file from 4 years ago but is paying them off through a debt management company.
She has no CCJ's and has never been Bankrupt.

Will this fail us ???

stclair

Estate agents will only have access to public records.

Therefore they will only see information regarding CCJs, Bankruptcy etc.

BitterAndTwisted

It's not just the credit-checks that lettings agents, or the landlords they represent, go by. If you patently can easily afford the rent by providing copies of your banks statements, provide them. Having decently-paid jobs and can confirm this providing copies of your pay-slips, provide them. Plus a good reference from your current and previous landlords.

All of these things on their own don't necessarily tell the complete story, but altogether they might.

Experian_company_representative

Hi Colinairey,

You can find more about what information a letting agent can see when they perform a tenancy check here.

I hope your application goes well!

Regards
Neil

princeofpounds

The experian link is largely a piece of PR fluff about their somewhat dubious plan to credit-reference rental payments. Given how many private landlords are liars, I'm not sure how they are planning to implement it fairly, but that's a topic for another day.

At the moment, agents normally do two things in their credit check; they check for CCJs and they check for 'affordability' i.e. rent/income ratio.

There is no standard method of interpretation, some LLs will rent only with clean records, others are more willing to take the the time to understand individual situations.

I'm afraid i don't know what happens with satisfied CCJs... I believe if they are sorted quickly then they don't appear.

happy_bunny_2

princeofpounds wrote: »

The experian link is largely a piece of PR fluff about their somewhat dubious plan to credit-reference rental payments. Given how many private landlords are liars, I'm not sure how they are planning to implement it fairly, but that's a topic for another day.

At the moment, agents normally do two things in their credit check; they check for CCJs and they check for 'affordability' i.e. rent/income ratio.

There is no standard method of interpretation, some LLs will rent only with clean records, others are more willing to take the the time to understand individual situations.

I'm afraid i don't know what happens with satisfied CCJs... I believe if they are sorted quickly then they don't appear.

If paid within a month they don't show. As it shows, looks like it was settled after that so will show on a credit check.

jjlandlord

So overall the two of you have 5+ (I'm going to guess that 'some' means at least 3) defaults within the last 6 years... If you find a landlord who has a gambling addiction it might work.