DMP and renting a property

lewpster

I am in the process of splitting with my partner and I need to move out of the family home. I have children and am looking to rent a property.

The referencing form says do you have any adverse credit - I am now stressing as I've been on a DMP since November and have 3 defaults I am having to have a guarantor as I don't earn enough but they want to check 3 month bank statements and will notice Stepchange on there. When I've googled it some searches say they are only looking for CCJ's, Bankruptcy etc but others say this will affect my application.

I need to move out, houses hardly come up and I just don't know what to do .......

Stepchange haven't replied to my email and I don't want to hand over £320 unnecessarily if I get rejected as that's a lot of money.

What should I do :(:(

Tixy

The credit searches they perform will only show CCJs, bankruptcy etc. It won't show that you have defaults.

But you are right that if you show them bank statements and they see stepchange this could cause you an issue.

I wonder if you could show the statements but with the name stepchange blacked out? I don't know if this is likely to raise further questions.

And_Dream_of_Sheep

What Tixy said - credit searches for rental properties can never ever show up anything other than publicly available information (CCJs and bankruptcy). I wish there was a sticky at the top of the forum or that Martin could do an article on this - it gets asked so many times!

With regards to showing the landlord or letting agent three months of bank statements - can you blank out anything which you consider to be personal financial information (including Stepchange) and just include previous mortgage/rent/bill payments? I would. All a letting agent needs to know is that you keep up to date with important bills, anything else is your private information and is not for them to be poking their greedy little faces into. :mad:

lewpster

I have a joint account which we use to pay the bills and mortgage and my salary goes in to my own current account.

I am totally stumped what to do. Be honest and risk losing the house or not say anything �� properties hardly come up near my children's school and I need to move on as it is hard being in a house with my ex

happy_bunny_2

Hmm, tricky one.

Credit check will be fine, as said, bar the low earnings.

You could leave it, and say you are dealing with your accounts and don't consider that adverse.

You could ring step change, or shelter, see what they recommend?

It's a lot to lose though.

Is it just you on the DMP?

Good luck

HB

And_Dream_of_Sheep

lewpster wrote: »

I have a joint account which we use to pay the bills and mortgage and my salary goes in to my own current account.

I am totally stumped what to do. Be honest and risk losing the house or not say anything �� properties hardly come up near my children's school and I need to move on as it is hard being in a house with my ex

So does a standing order come out of your current account into the joint account every month to cover your share of bills and mortgage? Just blank out everything but that and explain what it is. Ask your ex if he doesn't mind you showing your joint account statements to show your payment going in and then mortgage and bills being paid maybe?

In my opinion, I don't think being honest is a bad thing with letting agents. I've never been asked to show bank statements so I've never had to be honest with them but I used to work for Homelet (tenancy referencing agency) and whenever a prospective tenant failed the credit check (because they had CCJs or were bankrupt) the letting agents were never that bothered if they already knew about it. They just used to ask us to re-reference them with a guarantor. It was when it had been kept secret that they were a bit funny.

In this situation I vote for being honest (within reason - no need to tell them how much you owe or anything like that) - just explain that you are sorting your situation out and tell them that you have never missed a priority bill. You're already being asked for a guarantor so the letting agent shouldn't mind about a bit of debt being paid off.

Good luck - I really hope it works out for you

lewpster

Yes just me. I can easily afford the rent payments with my salary as will be entitled to tax credits to help when I move out.

Just so hard as I am not trying to be dishonest I just want to be given a chance. It's hard enough being in this situation let alone when I am being rejected from applying for properties for being a single mum. I only got this chance as no couples applied!

If Stepchange don't reply I will call them tomorrow

Tixy

If it were me I definitely wouldn't show them the statements with Stepchange visible on it.

So I'd either black out a few of the Payee details including the payments to stepchange, or wouldn't show them the bank statements.
If showing the statements I'd probably black out the account number etc as well.

lewpster

I said I was concerned as didn't want my finances analysed such as £4 on EBay, £10 in Asda etc and was told they only use them to check rent is being paid so as I'm in my own home it's not necessary

And_Dream_of_Sheep

lewpster wrote: »

I said I was concerned as didn't want my finances analysed such as £4 on EBay, £10 in Asda etc and was told they only use them to check rent is being paid so as I'm in my own home it's not necessary

Great news!

:j